# Khmer Rouge trials



## waltky (Jun 8, 2011)

Cambodia bringin' the Khmer Rouge to trial...

*Leaked document casts doubt on impartiality of Khmer Rouge judges*
_June 8, 2011 : As the UN-backed tribunal prepares to bring more former Khmer Rouge leaders to trial, a confidential document obtained by the Monitor raises questions about the judges' independence._


> As an international tribunal prepares to bring former Khmer Rouge leaders to trial beginning June 27, a confidential document obtained by The Christian Science Monitor raises questions about the UN-backed courts ability to independently prosecute members of the brutal regime.  The 2008 court document reveals when tribunal prosecutors laid out their case against two former military commanders, they requested that the investigating judges detain them.
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> The level of detail in the document builds a strong case against the commanders, but the judges ignored the request to detain them and didnt even summon the suspects for questioning during 20 months of investigation. The judges lack of response underscores concerns about their ability to carry out their duties. When they announced April 29 that they had concluded their investigation, many victims and observers were outraged, pointing out that investigators failed to question suspects and witnesses, or even inspect sites that could contain mass graves.
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## waltky (Jun 23, 2011)

Pol Pot's cohorts gettin' their just due...

*Key Trial of Khmer Rouge Leaders Starts in Cambodia*
_June 23, 2011 - On Monday the United Nations-backed tribunal in Phnom Penh will open its hearing into the four surviving leaders of Cambodias Khmer Rouge movement._


> Cambodians have waited three decades for this day: when the surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge movement appear in court charged with an array of crimes - genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, murder.  The list is long.  The four defendants are Nuon Chea, also known as Brother Number Two, who is considered the movements chief ideologue; Khieu Samphan, the head of state; Ieng Sary, the foreign minister  and, his wife, Ieng Thirith, the social action minister.  The defendants in this case, the courts second, deny all charges.  That marks a change from Case One, where former security chief Kaing Guek Eav, known as Comrade Duch, admitted his role and pledged to cooperate with the court.
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> Case One
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## Soaringdragon (Jul 14, 2011)

Thanks for highlighting this trial and its shortcomings. The trial is certainly long overdue and many of the Cambodian people have been waiting to see it occur. Hopefully, the world observers can ensure that it is meaningful.


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## waltky (Aug 24, 2011)

They're so old now, probably some will die by then...

*Genocide Trial of Khmer Rouge Leaders Likely Delayed Until 2012*
_August 24, 2011 - Court sources and observers in Cambodia say the genocide trial of four surviving Khmer Rouge is now likely to be delayed once again._


> That follows an acknowledgment by the Khmer Rouge tribunal that one of the defendants requires psychiatric tests to determine her fitness to stand trial.  The court is no stranger to delay, but recent events have revealed yet another possible suspension in the proceedings against four surviving Khmer Rouge leaders.  Late last year, court officials were predicting that the trial for Case 002 would begin by mid-2011. But the recent confirmation that former social affairs minister Ieng Thirith needs a psychiatric assessment means it is now unlikely to start before January.
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> Court spokesman Lars Olsen says next week, the court will discuss recent medical reports examining the physical abilities of three defendants to stand trial. But the doctor who carried out those examinations has also recommended that Ieng Thirith have a psychiatric assessment.  And this is what the Trial Chamber will in the very near future do, Olsen says. "They will appoint international and national psychiatric expertise to conduct a further assessment on Ieng Thiriths fitness to stand trial.
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## waltky (Sep 26, 2011)

The wheels of justice grind slowly in Cambodia...

*Cambodias Khmer Rouge Tribunal Draws New Criticisms*
_September 26, 2011 - In Cambodia, there is continuing controversy about the United Nations-backed court aimed at prosecuting members of the former Khmer Rouge government. The tribunal is the first of its kind to allow victims of specific crimes to participate._


> Prosecution of Khmer Rouge members
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> German Judge Siegfried Blunk -- who was appointed by the United Nations -- and his Cambodian counterpart, You Bunleng, first drew criticism in April for closing down the investigation into the courts third case against two senior Khmer Rouge military leaders suspected of thousands of deaths. Much of their international staff resigned after the case was shelved.  While Case Three is still under consideration by the court, judges are now determining which victims can participate as civil parties.
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## waltky (Sep 28, 2011)

Justice delayed is justice denied...

*Why Some Khmer Rouge Suspects May Never Face Trial*
_Thursday, Sept. 22, 2011 - At first blush, it seems like a nourishing gift. The Phnom Srok reservoir in northwest Cambodia spreads nearly as far as the eye can see, providing water year-round for agriculture, fishing and swimming. But the human bones that, according to locals, still lie on the floor of the reservoir tell a different story. The reservoir's primitive, earthen dam was constructed in 1977 at a cost of an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 lives. Some collapsed and died from endless days of work; others were executed because they had become too weak to work effectively._


> As part of their vision to transform Cambodia into an agrarian utopia, Khmer Rouge leaders ordered starving villagers to build dams like this by hand. Len Chovvy remembers digging for 14 hours a day as a young girl, surviving only on rice porridge. "When my father was old and sick, they took him to the base of the dam and smashed his head from behind with a wooden bat until he died," says Len, who now runs a food stall along the reservoir. "His blood was stuck there for days." She recalls the names of the two cadres who oversaw the dam's construction. One of them, "Comrade Im," was feared in those days for her uncompromising rule, she says.
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> These days, the elderly Im Chaem cuts a far less imposing figure: she speaks softly and her smile is as wide as a jack-o'-lantern. Her tone hardens, though, when asked about the U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal confronting the atrocities of the Pol Pot-led Khmer Rouge, whose reign of terror from 1975 to 1979 left an estimated 1.7 million dead from execution, starvation and overwork. The court began proceedings in 2006 to try the "senior leaders" and "those most responsible" for the deaths, but, thus far, neither category has been well defined.
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## editec (Sep 28, 2011)

Better late than never.


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## waltky (Oct 3, 2011)

Two controversial judges need to be replaced...

*Human Rights Watch: Khmer Rouge Tribunal Needs New Judges for Justice to Be Served*
_October 03, 2011 - Human Rights Watch says the Cambodian people have no hope of seeing justice for crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge so long as two controversial judges are sitting on the court trying former leaders of the genocidal regime._


> The New York-based group said Monday that co-investigative judges You Bunleng of Cambodia and Siegfried Blunk of Germany have politicized the tribunal and should step down.  Brad Adams, the head of HRW's Asia division, said the judges have violated their legal and judicial duties by not investigating two Khmer Rouge officials in what is known as Case 003.  These two men, the head of the air force and the head of the navy, were never even interviewed or notified that they were under investigation," Adams said, referring to Khmer Rouge air force commander, Sou Met, and navy commander, Meas Muth.  "We know that [the investigators] didnt go to the crime scene. We know that they didnt interview the witnesses they should have interviewed. They simply closed this down and it will probably remain a mystery about why they closed it down.
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> Political pressure...or not
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## waltky (Nov 21, 2011)

Khmer Rouge leaders gettin' their day of reckoning...

*Cambodia genocide: Khmer Rouge trio go on trial*
_20 November 2011 - The UN-backed trial of the three most senior surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge, charged with crimes against humanity, has begun_


> The three most senior surviving leaders of Cambodia's genocidal Khmer Rouge regime have gone on trial.  They include Nuon Chea, also known as Brother Number Two. He was the right-hand man of the Maoist regime's supreme leader Pol Pot, who died in 1998.  The former leaders, now all in their eighties, face charges including genocide and crimes against humanity.  The Khmer Rouge regime fell in 1979, and the process of trying its senior figures has taken many years.
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> Cambodia originally asked the United Nations and the international community to help set up a tribunal into the genocide in the mid-1990s.  A joint tribunal was finally established in 2006 following long drawn-out negotiations between the Phnom Penh government and the UN - but to date, only one person has been convicted.
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## Unkotare (Nov 21, 2011)

Wil Chomsky be on hand to testify?


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## waltky (Nov 22, 2011)

Crocodile tears from Pol Pot's #2...

*Khmer Rouge No. 2 gives insight to his role in Cambodia's 'killing fields'*
_November 22, 2011 - Nuon Chea, the deputy leader of the Khmer Rouge regime blamed for 1.7 million deaths in Cambodia's 'killing fields' told the tribunal today that he carried out its policies to protect the country._


> The second-in-command of Cambodias brutal Khmer Rouge regime told a war crimes tribunal today that he was a patriot who fought to free his country from colonialism and foreign invasion, giving insight to his role in the death of 1.7 million people in the 1970s.  In Nuon Chea's first public comments since his trial opened at the UN-backed court on Monday, the regimes chief ideologue pinned most of the countrys problems on neighboring Vietnam.  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 wipe Cambodia off the face of the earth, Nuon Chea told the court.  We wanted to free Cambodia from being a servant of other countries and we wanted to build Cambodia as a society that is clean and independent without any killing of people or genocide.
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> The frail octogenarian, who is accused of involvement in the deaths of at least 1.7 million people during the Khmer Rouges 1975-79 rule, addressed his hour-long speech to my beloved Cambodian people.  Nuon Chea is being tried alongside Khieu Samphan, the former Khmer Rouge head of state, and ex-foreign minister Ieng Sary. The three octogenarians face a raft of charges, including genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. A fourth defendant, Ieng Thirith, the former minister of social affairs, has been ruled unfit to stand trial.  Nuon Cheas address came after prosecutors gave a grisly and vividly detailed summary of Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, describing it as a massive slave camp. In his opening statements today, international co-prosecutor Andrew Cayley told the court not be tempted by feelings of sympathy for the old men who had murdered, tortured, and terrorized their own people.
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## waltky (Nov 23, 2011)

Gettin' crochety in their old age...

*Ieng Sary and Khieu Samphan slam Khmer Rouge court*
_23 November 2011 - The defendants in the trial are all in their 80s_


> Two Khmer Rouge leaders on trial for genocide have told the UN-backed court it has no authority to prosecute them.  The regime's head of state Khieu Samphan said the prosecution case was "monumentally biased" and relied on accounts from newspapers.  Ex-Foreign Minister Ieng Sary reiterated that he had received a royal pardon so should not be on trial.  They are accused of leading a campaign of mass murder in Cambodia from 1975-1979 in which up to 2.2 million died.  The Khmer Rouge regime tried to establish a Maoist utopia by forcing everyone to live as peasants, and exterminating everyone they regarded as enemies.  The policies plunged the country into a humanitarian catastrophe - the regime was eventually swept from power by invading Vietnamese forces.
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> The long-awaited trial of three defendants began on Monday.  The third defendant is Nuon Chea, known as Brother Number Two, who was the right-hand man to supreme leader Pol Pot.  All three, who are in their 80s, deny the charges they face.  Khieu Samphan dismissed the evidence against him as "fairytales" and launched a lengthy attack on the trial process and the prosecutor.  He said the prosecution "wants my head on the block".  He told the court that the Khmer Rouge had launched a successful resistance movement against an unpopular government and US forces, and was backed by the Cambodian people.  He also said he was not responsible for every decision made by the regime, and could not have known about every death.  Nuon Chea made similar arguments in his statement to the court in Tuesday's session.
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## High_Gravity (Nov 23, 2011)

Its a shame Pol Pot checked out early and died a peaceful death in his sleep, he really deserved to be here for this.


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## waltky (Feb 3, 2012)

Granny says, "Dat's right - an' feed him scant fare o' bread an' water...

*Former Khmer Rouge jailer's appeal rejected, given life term*
_ Friday 3rd February, 2012 - Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes tribunal has rejected an appeal by a Khmer Rouge jailer Kaing Guek Eav alias Duch, and increased his sentence to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity, torture and the premeditated murder of more than 15,000 people._


> Duch, the first senior Khmer Rouge official to be charged by the court, was convicted in July 2010 for his role in running the infamous Tuol Sleng Prison in Phnom Penh under the Khmer Rouge's 1975-1979 rule.  The 69-year-old former commander appealed his sentence of 19 years in March last year, saying he was a low-ranking official who merely followed orders while fearing for his life.  The prosecution, meanwhile, had appealed for a longer sentence with surviving Tuol Sleng inmates expressing anger over his initial 35-year term being reduced to 19 years. The prosecutors noted that Duch had "frequently acknowledged his responsibility for crimes committed" at the prison.
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> The judges hearing the appeals ruled that the original prison term did not "reflect the gravity of the crimes".  "The crimes by Kaing Guek Eav were undoubtedly among the worst in recorded human history. They deserve the highest penalty available," said Kong Srim, president of the court's highest appeal body.  The milestone final judgment was broadcast live on television.  "This is hopefully the beginning to an end for the Cambodian people in dealing with this dark past," said court spokesman Lars Olsen.  At least 15,000 inmates were tortured and executed in the country's "killing fields" outside the capital.  Wearing a white shirt and a beige jacket, the former maths teacher sat impassively in the dock as the verdict was read out.
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## waltky (Mar 19, 2012)

Khmer Rouge trials unraveling...

*Judge quits Cambodian UN-backed Khmer Rouge trial*
_19 March 2012 - A second judge has resigned from the troubled UN-backed international war crimes trial in Cambodia._


> Swiss Judge Laurent Kasper-Ansermet said he was leaving because his Cambodian counterpart, You Bunleng, had thwarted attempts to investigate former members of the 1970s regime.
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> Mr Kasper-Ansermet said the dispute had left him unable to work properly.
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See also:

*Cambodia's Khmer Rouge tribunal in disarray*
_26 JUNE 2011, Around two million people died in the late 1970s after Pol Pot and his comrades took over the country_


> This should have been a time of quiet satisfaction for the Khmer Rouge Tribunal.  The four most senior surviving leaders of Pol Pot's murderous government have been charged with genocide.  This week's initial hearing will deal with various technicalities and legal arguments - with the trial proper to follow within a few months.  Even critics of the process agree that this is the "heart" of the tribunal, opening the possibility that Cambodians may finally discover the reasons behind the brutal policies of the Khmer Rouge.
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> It follows the court's first case, in which former Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to 35 years in jail.  Around two million people died in the late 1970s after Pol Pot and his comrades took over the country. They evacuated the cities and forced those who survived to make the long trek into the countryside to work in the rice paddies. Many died of malnutrition, others were summarily executed as "enemies of the revolution".
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## waltky (Mar 20, 2012)

UN do-nothin's wringin' their hands like they always do...

*UN concerned after judge quits war crimes court*
_Wed, Mar 21, 2012 - The UN expressed serious concern after a second judge quit Cambodias war crimes court over a rift about whether to pursue more former members of the Khmer Rouge regime._


> Swiss co-investigating judge Laurent Kasper-Ansermet resigned on Monday, saying his efforts to probe possible third and fourth cases had been constantly blocked by his Cambodian counterpart at the UN-backed tribunal.  The situation at the [court] continues to be of serious concern and the United Nations is examining it closely, Eri Kaneko, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said in an e-mail late on Monday.
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> Kasper-Ansermets resignation came after German judge Siegfried Blunk quit the court in October, citing government interference in the controversial cases.  The UN named reserve judge Kasper-Ansermet as his replacement, but Cambodia refused to recognize the appointment, sparking an unprecedented row and forcing the Swiss to work without the support of his Cambodian counterpart.
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## waltky (Mar 26, 2012)

Trials 'a monumental mistake'???...

*Priest who exposed Khmer Rouge horrors slams trial*
_Mon, Mar 26, 2012 - Cambodias landmark trial against former Khmer Rouge leaders is a monumental mistake, says the French priest who 35 years ago became the first person to expose the horrors of the regime._


> I deny the United Nations the right to judge the Khmer Rouge, said 73-year-old Francois Ponchaud, who was forced to leave Phnom Penh when the hardline communists took power in 1975.  The UN backed the Khmer Rouge for 14 years for geo-political reasons during the Cold War. I dont see why the UN would now give itself the right to judge those it supported, he said in an interview.  In what is considered an embarrassing chapter in UN history, the Khmer Rouge was allowed to retain its seat in the UN General Assembly even after the regime was ousted by Vietnamese troops in 1979 and its blood-stained revolution was exposed to the world.  In 2006, the Cambodian government and the UN set up a tribunal in Phnom Penh to try to find justice for up to 2 million people who died under the regimes 1975-1979 reign.
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> Late last year, it began trying former Cambodian deputy leader Nuon Chea, former Cambodian foreign minister Ieng Sary and former Cambodian head of state Khieu Samphan, all of whom deny charges of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.  The trial has been hailed as a milestone event in the still--traumatized nation, but the Roman Catholic priest is one of its few vocal detractors.  Ponchaud, who returned to his beloved Cambodia in 1993, says the legal process betrays a lack of cultural sensitivity because it imposes a Western idea of justice on a staunchly Buddhist nation.  Its a monumental mistake. The Cambodians dont need this trial, invented by Westerners, that causes more pain than it heals. It just rehashes all this suffering that the Khmer people have begun to forget, he said.
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## sparky (Mar 26, 2012)

*war crimes*
should be the gold standard for all oxymorons imho......

~S~


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## DCJ (Mar 27, 2012)

waltky said:


> Trials 'a monumental mistake'???...
> 
> *Priest who exposed Khmer Rouge horrors slams trial*
> _Mon, Mar 26, 2012 - Cambodias landmark trial against former Khmer Rouge leaders is a monumental mistake, says the French priest who 35 years ago became the first person to expose the horrors of the regime._
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Very good article............

Although I would hope to have some justice for these crimes, the ppl there do seem to just wanna move on & forget about it...........  

Perhaps the role of the UN & the USA should be put on trial............??


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## waltky (May 4, 2012)

A day in the Killing Fields...

*Forces ordered to 'clear' Phnom Penh*
_May 3,`12 (UPI) -- During the U.N.-led trial of former Cambodian regime leaders, a witness testified military forces were ordered to "clear" Phnom Penh of "enemies."_


> Pean Khean, 62, a former minister of commerce for the Khmer Rouge, testified Wednesday at the trial of Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan and Ieng Sary, three Khmer Rouge leaders who are facing charges of atrocity crimes, including genocide, for acts committed by the Pol Pot regime, Voice of America reported.  "Those who were considered enemies would be destroyed when they were arrested," he said. "They were all to be cleared, and after them, the CIA from Phnom Penh had to be cleared too."
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> Pean Khean said he had joined the Communist Party of Kampuchea in 1966, when he was 16, "to liberate" Cambodia.  On Monday, attorneys for Nuon Chea attempted to implicate Finance Minister Keat Chhon and Foreign Affairs Minister Hor Namhong for their alleged roles during the reign of the Khmer Rouge, The Phnom Penh Post reported.
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## The Infidel (May 4, 2012)

I watched this documentary a while back and it is truly sad what the young kids were forced to do for The Khmer Rouge.

You can see that they are deeply disturbed now as grown adults. In this movie they are forced to face what they did, and its ugly.

The old men are all dying off and its a shame they wont face justice for their crimes. Maybe in the after life they will pay.

Its on netflix.

S21:The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine - YouTube


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## waltky (Jun 25, 2012)

Time and money not working in trial's favor...

*Fears grow over Khmer Rouge trial*
_Mon, Jun 25, 2012 - Health and funding woes are threatening a flagship Khmer Rouge trial, experts say, kindling fears that the elderly defendants may never answer for the worst of Cambodias Killing Fields era._


> The three most senior surviving leaders of the brutal regime stand accused of some of the gravest crimes in modern history for their roles in up to 2 million deaths in the late 1970s.  Worried the octogenarians would not live to see a verdict, judges at a UN-backed court in Phnom Penh split their complex case into smaller trials, saving the most serious atrocities for later proceedings.  However, seven months into their slow-moving first mini trial, concern is mounting that the court  faced with a worsening funding crunch and fresh fears over the accuseds health  will be unable to finish the entire case.  This is it, this is the trial. Nobody believes theres going to be a second phase, said Anne Heindel, a legal advisor to the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which researches Khmer Rouge atrocities.
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> Led by Brother Number One Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the communist movement dismantled modern society, abolished money and religion and forced the population to work in huge labor camps in a bid to forge an agrarian utopia.  Brother Number Two Nuon Chea, ex-Cambodian foreign minister Ieng Sary and former Cambodian head of state Khieu Samphan deny charges including war crimes and genocide.  The first trial segment focuses mainly on the forced evacuation of city people to rural work sites, listed as a crime against humanity.  Yet for most Cambodians, far greater horrors than that took place under the 1975 to 1979 regime, including torture, mass purges and forced marriages  events the court may never shed light on.  Im not happy. The truth is not being revealed, prominent Khmer Rouge survivor, Chum Mey, 82, said.
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## waltky (Sep 16, 2012)

Fakin' it to get out of trial...

*Cambodia genocide defendant freed due to illness*
_Sep 16,`12 -- Cambodia's war crimes tribunal set free a former leader of the Khmer Rouge on Sunday, upholding a decision that has outraged survivors seeking an explanation of the mass killings committed more than 30 years ago._


> Eighty-year-old Ieng Thirith, who has been declared mentally unfit for trial, was driven out of the U.N.-backed tribunal's compound by family members. She made no comment to reporters.  The Sorbonne-educated Shakespeare scholar served as social affairs minister during the Khmer Rouge's 1975-79 rule, during which an estimated 1.7 million people died of execution, medical neglect, overwork and starvation.  The tribunal initially announced its decision to free Ieng Thirith on Thursday, saying medical experts had determined there was no prospect for her to be tried due to a degenerative mental illness that was probably Alzheimer's disease.  Prosecutors then delayed her release by filing an appeal demanding that conditions be set to restrict her freedom.
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> On Sunday, the tribunal's supreme court said it had accepted the appeal, which is expected to be heard later this month. In the meantime, it set three provisional conditions on her movement.  The tribunal said Ieng Thirith must inform the court of her address, must turn in her passport and cannot leave the country, and must report to the court whenever it summons her.  Ieng Thirith was the Khmer Rouge's highest-ranking woman and also a sister-in-law of the group's top leader, Pol Pot, who died in 1998.  She is accused of involvement in the "planning, direction, coordination and ordering of widespread purges," and was charged with crimes against humanity, genocide, homicide and torture.
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## waltky (Oct 10, 2012)

3,000 killed in one field alone...

*Court: 3,000 Cambodians killed at one site*
_Oct. 10 (UPI) -- Some 3,000 Cambodian provincial officials were shot to death and buried in mass graves in 1975 as the Khmer Rouge came to power, court documents reveal._


> A court official read the documents Tuesday in the trial of three former top leaders of the Khmer Rouge, the Phnom Pehn Post reported.  Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan and Ieng Sary are on trial for their roles in the deaths of former Lon Nol civil servants, police and soldiers in a bid to create a homogeneous society.
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> The document said the provincial officials were summoned to an assembly in April 1975 where members of the Khmer Rouge told them they would be integrated into the new government. However, the officials were later taken into the countryside in groups of 30 and 40, their hands tied behind their backs, shot and buried in their uniforms in mass graves.
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## waltky (Oct 11, 2012)

Khmer Rouge rape victims tell their stories at trial hearing...

*Women testify about Khmer Rouge crimes*
_Oct. 11,`12 (UPI) -- Women who had been raped, forced into marriage and beaten under the Khmer Rouge told their stories at a hearing in Cambodia._


> About 400 people were in the audience Wednesday for the second Asia-Pacific Regional Women's Hearing, The Phnom Penh Post reported.
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> Chum Ly Ly, 62, described being beaten by her village unit chief until she was forced into a marriage. When that husband left her, she was once more at the mercy of the unit chief. She was also raped by guards, something she never talked about until recently.
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## daveman (Oct 12, 2012)

Unkotare said:


> Wil Chomsky be on hand to testify?


Character witness for the defense.


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