Posts Tagged ‘Democratic Kampuchea’
Cambodian PM urges citizens to stop protests against opposition leader
PHNOM PENH, June 13 (Xinhua) — Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday urged protesters to suspend demonstrations against Kem Sokha, vice-president of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), for his alleged denial of crimes during the Democratic Kampuchea, or Khmer Rouge regime.
“I’d like to appeal to protesters to suspend demonstrations against him at least until the general election (on July 28) in order to ensure the smooth atmosphere during the one-month election campaigns,” the premier said during the inauguration of the new headquarters of the National Olympic Committee of Cambodia in Phnom Penh.
Ex Khmer Rouge Hun Sen
He also advised local authorities not to give permission to anyone who asked to protest against Kem Sokha before the election.
Last Sunday, a nationwide protest, organized by the association of Khmer Rouge survivors, was held to demand Kem Sokha to apologize for his alleged denial of crimes committed at the notorious Tuol Sleng prison during the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979.
The ex-prison was the main torture center during the regime, and around 14,000 people were killed at that detention center.
In February last year, the Supreme Court Chamber of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia sentenced former chief of Tuol Sleng prison Kaing Guek Eav to life in prison for overseeing the deaths.
However, Kem Sokha said that he would not apologize upon the protestors’demand because he had not denied the existence of the atrocities committed during the regime.
He said his audio-recorded remarks had been edited in a misleading fashion to cause turmoil ahead of the election.
Kem Sokha’s alleged remarks prompted the National Assembly of Cambodia to pass a Law on the Denial of Crimes Committed during the Period of the Democratic Kampuchea on Friday.
Under the law, individuals who deny the existence of crimes committed during the regime will be jailed from six months to two years and fined between 250 U.S. dollars and 1,000 U.S. dollars.
Supreme Court Chamber Orders To Declassify Over 1,700 Confidential Documents
AKP Phnom Penh, September 07, 2012 –
The Supreme Court Chamber of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) has ordered to declassify 1,749 documents after completing its review of the classification of the 12,000 plus confidential and strictly confidential documents in the case file of Case 001, according to an ECCC press release dated Thursday.
These records include Democratic Kampuchea-era documents of victims’ “confessions” and biographies, witness statements, transcripts of in camera hearings and rogatory letters, it pointed out.
The reclassification process has been conducted in accordance with the general guidelines the Chamber previously specified and in broad consultation with ECCC offices, with particular input from the Trial and Pre-Trial Chambers, Office of the Co-Prosecutors, Victims Support Section, Witness/Expert Support Unit and Court Management Section, it said.
The Supreme Court Chamber sought to strike a reasonable balance between the demand for transparency deriving from the fundamental principles that govern the procedure before the ECCC and the needs for confidentiality dictated by the protection of privacy for victims and witnesses and the preservation of the integrity of on-going proceedings, said the press release.
In this regard, it has considered that wide dissemination of material concerning the Court’s proceedings would support the ECCC’s mandate to contribute to national reconciliation and provide documentary support to the progressive quest for historical truth. The Chamber hopes that wide access to documentation in the case file for the general public, researchers and journalists will promote a genuine public discussion of Cambodia’s tragic past based on firm evidence.
The remaining three quarters of the 12,000 documents are concurrently placed in case files in Cases 002, 003 and 004. Consequently, such documents will be reviewed for reclassification at the end of the proceedings to which they concurrently pertain.
The Records and Archive Unit has been requested to implement today’s Order and place a public list of the reclassified documents in the case file.
For more information on the reclasification guidelines, read (link) “Decision on Guidelines for Reclassification of Documents on Case File”, 26 July 2012, F30/2, concluded the press release.
By SOKMOM Nimul
Cambodia’s ruling party marks 61st anniversary, hailing remarkably national development
PHNOM PENH, June 28 (Xinhua) — The ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) on Thursday commemorated the 61st anniversary of its birth, highlighting its significant roles in maintaining peace and political stability and in bringing remarkable development to the country since the fall of the Democratic Kampuchea regime in 1979.
The celebration was presided over by the party’s honorary president Heng Samrin, who is also the president of the National Assembly, and Prime Minister Hun Sen, the party’s vice-president.
The party’s president and head of the Senate, Chea Sim, failed to attend the event due to health problems.
“Under the leadership of the CPP, Cambodia is making a swift and energetic step on the path of development,” Heng Samrin told the gathering of about 13,000 supporters at the party’s headquarters in Phnom Penh’s Chamkarmon district.
He said since the collapse of the Democratic Kampuchea regime in 1979, the CPP has led efforts to restore and reconstruct the country from scratch. To date, the party has scored various major achievements for the nation.
“Now, the country is full of peace, stability and sound economic development,” he said.
Meanwhile, Heng Samrin, on behalf of the CPP, reaffirmed that the party would continue to support the candidacy of Hun Sen for the post of Prime Minister for the fifth term, in which the general elections will be held in July next year.
Prime Minister Hun Sen has been in power for 27 years.
The CPP, formerly known as the Khmer People’s Revolutionary Party, was founded on June 28, 1951, aimed at leading the struggle to win independence from the French colonialism at that time.
Credibility of Nuon Chea bodyguard attacked
By Kristin Lynch, 20 April 2012, the PhnomPenh Post
The credibility of a witness who served as the former bodyguard of Brother No 2 Nuon Chea came under withering attack yesterday at the Khmer Rouge tribunal, as lawyers from all sides attempted to poke holes in his statements.
“I want to give you an opportunity to explain … why when you were first interviewed that you denied being the bodyguard of Nuon Chea. Can you explain why you did that?” Lysak asked.
“I was traumatised by the regime, and I didn’t want to face this event again,” Saut Toeung responded.
However, during cross-examination, Andrew Ianuzzi, legal consultant for the Nuon Chea defence team, revealed that Saut Toeung’s “change in testimony” had occurred after the co-investigating judges had told the former bodyguard he would not be incriminated by answers he gave.
Reading from the transcript of Saut Toeung’s testimony in December 2009, Ianuzzi recited: “‘The co-prosecutors wish to impress upon [Saut Toeung] that we have no intention of prosecuting him for anything he may have done during the Khmer Rouge era’.”
“The next bit is a statement by the co-investigating judge You Bunleng,” Ianuzzi continued, reading from the document. “‘We are explaining to you that you will not be prosecuted for events that occurred during Democratic Kampuchea.”
In each instance, however, Saut Toeung said he did not know about such statements or did not remember them.
Saut Toeung’s credibility was damaged during questioning earlier in the day by assistant prosecutor Dale Lysak and civil party lead co-lawyer Elisabeth Simonneau Fort, when he redacted statements he had previously made under oath to the co-investigating judges.
To contact the reporter on this story: Kristin Lynch at kristin.lynch@phnompenhpost.com
Prosecution defends documents at court
the PP Post,18 January 2012
Prosecutors at the Khmer Rouge tribunal yesterday refuted suggestions of bias levelled by defence teams at the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, which has provided thousands of documents used by parties at the court.
International deputy co-prosecutor William Smith said in court that simply because one of DC-Cam’s goals was to “search for the truth” during the Democratic Kampuchea period, that did not mean that the organisation was “biased”.
“The question of admissibility relates to the documents but not to the organisation itself,” he said.
Smith said that a DC-Cam representative who had worked at the organisation for 15 years had been called to provide further information about the documents.
Defence teams on Monday requested that Youk Chhang appear in court regarding documents to be put before the chamber that were obtained through DC-Cam – an independent NGO that has collected documentation relating to the Khmer Rouge period since 1997.
Lawyers for former Khmer Rouge Brother Number Two Nuon Chea said in court on Monday that the DC-Cam director was a “partisan researcher”, a claim Youk Chhang described to the Post as “pitiful”.
Nuon Chea’s lawyers yesterday reiterated their request that Youk Chhang appear in court.
Meanwhile, following defence objections to certain “statements” from the accused included in the prosecution’s document list, international senior assistant co-prosecutor Dale Lysak said that it was “legally incorrect” and “not necessary” for original authors of certain documents to appear in court.
“We have … statements that were made at press conferences and interviews by Ieng Sary, for example, as the representative of the Democratic Kampuchea government where he made the same statements over and over again to reporters,” he said.
“We can look at multiple reports to see the consistency of the statements.”
Co-accused Nuon Chea and former Khmer Rouge foreign affairs minister Ieng Sary are observing the week’s proceedings from the court’s holding cells.
DC-Cam wanted on stand…hear me but judge me,not?
by Mary Kozlovski,The PP Post,17 January 2012
Defence teams at the Khmer Rouge tribunal requested yesterday that the director of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia appear in court to testify about documents obtained through the organisation that were put before the Trial Chamber in the court’s second case.
Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, gestures while giving a tour of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum to a US delegation in November 2010 Will Baxter/Phnom Penhpost
During a hearing addressing the admissibility of documents supporting the indictment, co-defence counsel for former Brother Number Two Nuon Chea, Jasper Pauw, said in court that it was “imperative” the court hear the testimony of DC-Cam director Youk Chhang.
“If Youk Chhang is not heard by your Trial Chamber, then our position is that all evidence stemming from DC-Cam cannot be considered to be authentic and reliable, and must therefore be called inadmissible,” he said.
The DC-Cam has been collecting documents and information relating to the Democratic Kampuchea period since its establishment as in independent NGO in 1997, 500,000 of which have been provided to parties to the Khmer Rouge tribunal.
Pauw said that while another representative had been called to testify on issues relating to the authenticity of documents provided by DC-Cam, Youk Chhang was the “most informed” person respecting the organisation’s activities, adding that the defence was not criticising Youk Chhang’s approach.
“Youk Chhang is not a neutral observer in the search for the truth, he is a partisan researcher that has been working with a goal of having, among others, Nuon Chea prosecuted,” Pauw said in court.
In response to questions concerning allegations of bias, Youk Chhang said in an email yesterday that “it is pitiful” and, in response to a question about the appearance of a DC-Cam representative in court, said that “we have to listen to the judge”.
He added that DC-Cam had provided 500,000 documents to the ECCC, and that the documentation was available to defence teams at the tribunal.
Deputy international co-prosecutor William Smith said that it was not especially necessary for the representative of DC-Cam appearing in court to be Youk Chhang.
“We disagree with the defence position in that, although part of DC-Cam’s role is to search for the truth of … the Democratic Kampuchea period, we’re of the view that the organisation doesn’t demonstrate any significant bias in the work they do,” he said.
“The fact that DC-Cam are looking at crimes…that occurred during the Democratic Kampuchea period doesn’t … make them an unreliable or a biased organisation,” he added.
Defence teams for co-accused former Khmer Rouge foreign minister Ieng Sary and former nominal head of state Khieu Samphan echoed the request for Youk Chhang to appear in court.
Khmer Rouge No. 2 says regime acted for Cambodians
This combination of three photos released by Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts
By Sopheng Cheang,AP
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — The Khmer Rouge carried out its policies for the sake of the Cambodian people and to protect the country from invaders, the notorious regime’s second-highest leader said Tuesday at a tribunal considering charges of crimes against humanity against three top leaders.
Nuon Chea told the U.N.-backed tribunal it was failing to consider the complete story behind the Khmer Rouge, who are accused of being responsible for the deaths of 1.7 million people when they held power in 1975-79.
He blamed neighboring Vietnam for much of the trouble that befell his country — the same belief held by the Khmer Rouge three decades ago, as its experiment in utopian socialism fell apart.
Nuon Chea, chief ideologist for the communist movement and its No. 2 behind Pol Pot, and two former comrades — 80-year-old Khieu Samphan, the ex-head of state; and 86-year-old Ieng Sary, the former foreign minister — all avow their innocence.
The charges against these surviving members of the once-mighty inner circle of the communist movement include crimes against humanity, genocide, religious persecution, homicide and torture.
The prosecution earlier Tuesday told the court Pol Pot’s close confederates cannot blame their late leader alone for the atrocities that took place. Pol Pot died in 1998 in the jungle while a prisoner of his own comrades.
Prosecutor Andrew Cayley said that like Pol Pot, the three aging former members of the regime now on trial exercised life-and-death authority over Cambodia while in power in 1975-79.
“The accused cannot credibly claim they did not know and had no control over the crimes that occurred” when the group ruled what they called Democratic Kampuchea, he said.
In opening statements delivered Monday and early Tuesday, the prosecutors described a litany of horrors, recalling how the Khmer Rouge sought to crush not just all its enemies, but seemingly the human spirit.
Most of the population were forced to work on giant rural communes and deprived of any sort of private life. Forced marriages took the place of love, and dissenters were dispatched to the so-called ‘killing fields.’
Nuon Chea, who spoke in time alloted for defense rebuttals of the prosectors’ statements, did little to directly address the allegations of atrocities.
He instead gave a political history of the Khmer Rouge and Cambodia, insisting that his role was always a patriotic one.
“I had to leave my family behind to liberate my motherland from colonialism and aggression and oppression by the thieves who wish to steal our land and whip Cambodia off the face of the earth,” he said.
He accused Vietnam of repeatedly seeking to occupy Cambodia, a charge familiar from when the fraternal socialist neighbors first fell out in the 1970s.
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