Exposing our World: The Khmer Rogue Tribunal
- Critical Lawyers at Warwick
- Oct 31, 2018
- 4 min read
Updated: Nov 28, 2018
Amrita Takk, 3rd year in Law `
The Khmer Rouge regime was one of the worst massacres of the 20th century that led to the death of approximately 1.7 million Cambodians through mass executions, starvation and brutal labour camps. The term ‘Khur Rouge’ was adopted to label the followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea and the regime through which the Party ruled in Cambodia in 1975 – 1979. It was led by Marxist leader, Pol Pot and marks an inhuman era in history that is still under the spotlight today. Notably, the two most senior Khmer Rouge leaders: Nuon Chea, aged 92, and Khieu Samphan, aged 87, were sentenced this month to life imprisonment for genocide and crimes against humanity carried out under the administration. Both were already serving life sentences for crimes against humanity since 2014.
In November 2018, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) brought further charges against them. Nuon Chea served as second in command to Pol Pot. He was found guilty of all charges of genocide of the Vietnamese, former Khmer republic officials and the Cham Muslim minority. Khieu Samphan, served as Head of State. The court declared him guilty of the genocide of the Vietnamese, but unlike Chea, Samphan was cleared of charges involving the genocide extermination of the Cham Muslims.
The regime saw Pol Pot insist that the nation would restart time at ‘year zero’ in an attempt to isolate the country from the rest of the world. Cities were emptied and money, private property and religion were all outlawed. The Cambodia Tribunal therefore aims to seek justice to those who were victims of such an extreme segment of Cambodian history.
Judge Nil Nonn delivered the verdict, which entailed vivid accounts of the sickening regime. The judge exploited the disturbing details of the S-21 security prison and execution site, where tens of thousands of people were slaughtered. The S-21 jail in the capital was just one of the many infamous centres that tormented and killed middle class citizens. Nil Nonn read ‘prisoners were brought to interrogation rooms, handcuffed and blindfolded, their legs chained during questioning.’ During the interrogation process, horrifying methods were used such as ‘beating with sticks, rocks, electrical wire, whips, electric shocks and suffocation and the extraction of toenails and fingernails.’ Whilst this was read aloud in Court, Nuon Chea was not even present, as he had asked to be excused from the court due to ill health.
The judgment went further, revealing Khieu Samphan ‘legitimised’ such criminal policies that caused death to a mass of civilians. Millions were forced into labour camps that made them build dams and bridges, which ultimately doomed the fate of the Vietnamese as it led to a mass extermination. In addition to this, the regime stole the dignity of Buddhists by targeting monks, forcibly defrocking them. To increase to the distress that they inflicted upon religious people, the Khmer Rouge disparaged Muslims by forcing them to eat pork.
After the judgment and outcome was heard, the lawyers of both defendants were not impressed with the verdict. Nuon Chea’s lawyer, Victor Koppe, and Anta Guisee, lawyer for Kheieu Samphan, said that the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) had been conducted unfairly and that the defendants were not given a fair trial. Both lawyers have subsequently stated that their clients would be appealing the conviction.
The trials for the Khmer Rogue regime have been subjected to critique since the ECCC was first formed in 1997. The ECCC was established through the efforts from both the UN and the Cambodian courts, with its aim to try the ‘most senior’ members of the Khmer Rouge. The Cambodian Tribunals have been extremely exhausting and costly, which may lead one to even question: what has actually been achieved? For example, 12 years after the ECCC was set up, the trial had already cost $320 million and large donors included Japan, the United States and Australia. Another hindrance to the Tribunals effectiveness is that most of the men responsible under the Khmer Rogue regime actually passed away before they were even tried at court. Therefore, at present, shockingly only three men have been convicted. Hence, due to the sheer tragedy and mass scale of the regime it would have been expected that more people had actually been prosecuted. Pol Pat died before the people were able to see him brought to justice. Nonetheless, Alexander Hinton, director of the Centre for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, stated that ‘Justice is not perfect…it’s better than no justice.’ However, for such an intense and tragic regime, surely more needs to be done to condemn those involved in the deaths of those 1.7 million people.
Three more commanders are due to be tried; however, the future of the ECCC is not stable. There has been significant resistance from Hun Sen, the current Prime Minister of Cambodia, who has not supported the trials because they risk pushing Cambodia into a civil war. Interestingly, it has been revealed that the Deputy Prime Minister of Cambodia, Sar Kheng, has stated that there were no more leaders left to try and that the Khmer Rogue court proceedings will come to an end after Chea’s and Samphan’s appeals are concluded. This is upsetting, as the three commanders have not been brought to justice through trial. The reason why they are not being tried arguably lays with the fact that the purpose of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal is aimed towards ‘senior leaders’ and those ‘most responsible’ for the crimes committed in this era. Thus, their responsibility and title of ‘senior’ is highly contested, which brings to light Hun Sen’s power over the Cambodian judiciary. Tribunal spokesman Neth Pheaktra has declared that it was ultimately up to the judiciary whether the proceedings would come to an end. Hence, it seems like the future of the Khmer Rouge trials is highly uncertain.
This article gives credit to BBC news and ABC news for its findings:
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