Tuol Sleng survivors: Chum Mey, Ruy Neakong, Im Chan, Vann Nath, Phan Than Chan and Ung Pech.A Montreal Gazette editorial:
Out of the more than 14,000 people who were sent to Tuol Sleng, a notorious Khmer Rouge prison, barely a dozen survived. Only six lived long enough to see "Comrade Duch," who ran the centre, stand trial this year before the grandly named Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.
This is the joint United Nations-Cambodia tribunal whose credibility has been questioned, its ability to render justice undermined by allegations of political interference. Critics of the tribunal question its usefulness as an instrument of justice.
But however flawed, it was the only forum available to VanNath, a 63-year-old artist, to tell his fellow Cambodians what happened.
Van Nath testified in June at the trial of Comrade Duch, the first of five top Khmer Rouge to face charges in connection with the death by starvation, disease, overwork and murder of 1.7 million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979. Van Nath told of being beaten and electrocuted. His fingernails were pulled out and he underwent a form of waterboarding, the Independent reported him saying. He lived on insects and six teaspoons of rice porridge a day.
Van Nath told the court that testifying "is my privilege; this is my honour. I do not want anything more than justice."
When Comrade Duch's trial started in February, 85 per cent of Cambodians knew nothing about it. Ten months later, the country is rivetted. For younger Cambodians, the trial is a history lesson. For older Cambodians, it is an acknowledgment that crimes were committed on a massive scale. But the trial is also a lesson in the need for the international community to ensure that its tribunals are not compromised by political interference, sometimes a danger in still fragile democracies.
This week, a report from the international monitor Open Society Justice Initiative warned that the Cambodian tribunal is being hurt by allegations of interference by Prime Minister Hun Sen's administration. Hun Sen has refused to authorize the arrest of five additional Khmer Rouge suspects, saying the arrests could lead to renewed civil war.
Thirty years after the Khmer Rouge regime fell, as many as 20,000 former Khmer Rouge are reported to be living openly in Cambodia. One-time Khmer Rouge cadres are also said to be part of Hun Sen's government.
But for the sake of the victims and those who have come after them, the tribunal must keep going, resisting political interference to the best of its ability.
Awakened to their past, Cambodians want justice. These trials are the way forward.
Out of the more than 14,000 people who were sent to Tuol Sleng, a notorious Khmer Rouge prison, barely a dozen survived. Only six lived long enough to see "Comrade Duch," who ran the centre, stand trial this year before the grandly named Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.
This is the joint United Nations-Cambodia tribunal whose credibility has been questioned, its ability to render justice undermined by allegations of political interference. Critics of the tribunal question its usefulness as an instrument of justice.
But however flawed, it was the only forum available to VanNath, a 63-year-old artist, to tell his fellow Cambodians what happened.
Van Nath testified in June at the trial of Comrade Duch, the first of five top Khmer Rouge to face charges in connection with the death by starvation, disease, overwork and murder of 1.7 million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979. Van Nath told of being beaten and electrocuted. His fingernails were pulled out and he underwent a form of waterboarding, the Independent reported him saying. He lived on insects and six teaspoons of rice porridge a day.
Van Nath told the court that testifying "is my privilege; this is my honour. I do not want anything more than justice."
When Comrade Duch's trial started in February, 85 per cent of Cambodians knew nothing about it. Ten months later, the country is rivetted. For younger Cambodians, the trial is a history lesson. For older Cambodians, it is an acknowledgment that crimes were committed on a massive scale. But the trial is also a lesson in the need for the international community to ensure that its tribunals are not compromised by political interference, sometimes a danger in still fragile democracies.
This week, a report from the international monitor Open Society Justice Initiative warned that the Cambodian tribunal is being hurt by allegations of interference by Prime Minister Hun Sen's administration. Hun Sen has refused to authorize the arrest of five additional Khmer Rouge suspects, saying the arrests could lead to renewed civil war.
Thirty years after the Khmer Rouge regime fell, as many as 20,000 former Khmer Rouge are reported to be living openly in Cambodia. One-time Khmer Rouge cadres are also said to be part of Hun Sen's government.
But for the sake of the victims and those who have come after them, the tribunal must keep going, resisting political interference to the best of its ability.
Awakened to their past, Cambodians want justice. These trials are the way forward.
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