By ROBIN McDOWELL
** FILE ** In this July 26, 2010 file photo released by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, who ran the notorious Toul Sleng, looks on during his sentencing at the U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
The Khmer Rouge prison chief who oversaw crimes of unique savagery a generation ago is told he will spend the next 19 years in jail: That's the same sentence given to many low-level drug dealers, women who shoot their husbands after a lifetime of abuse, and political scapegoats. For many Cambodians, the word justice has little meaning. (AP Photo/ Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, File) ** EDITORIAL USE ONLY **(Photo:AP).
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — A Khmer Rouge prison chief who oversaw crimes of savagery a generation ago is told he will spend the next 19 years in jail: That's the same sentence that many low-level drug dealers, women who shoot their husbands after a lifetime of abuse and political scapegoats receive.
Far from providing closure from the trauma of the "killing fields" regime that scarred a generation of Cambodians, the sentence given to Kaing Guek Eav, or Duch, seen by many as too lenient, has become another example of the failings of the country's criminal justice system.
For decades, the rich and powerful have enjoyed near impunity, while those who have neither money to pay off corrupt police and judges, nor political or military ties, end up in jail, sometimes for years.
For many Cambodians, the word justice has little meaning.
Many hoped the creation of a U.N.-backed tribunal — set up to try leaders of the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge regime blamed for the deaths of up to 1.7 million people — would serve as a model for judicial reform in the young democracy.
But critics are quick to point out the process was flawed from the start, its problems mirroring many of the weaknesses in Cambodia's rule of law.
Duch was convicted last month of war crimes and crimes against humanity. He was the first major Khmer Rouge figure to face trial more than three decades after the regime's brutal rule.
The Khmer Rouge prison chief who oversaw crimes of unique savagery a generation ago is told he will spend the next 19 years in jail: That's the same sentence given to many low-level drug dealers, women who shoot their husbands after a lifetime of abuse, and political scapegoats. For many Cambodians, the word justice has little meaning. (AP Photo/ Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, File) ** EDITORIAL USE ONLY **(Photo:AP).
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — A Khmer Rouge prison chief who oversaw crimes of savagery a generation ago is told he will spend the next 19 years in jail: That's the same sentence that many low-level drug dealers, women who shoot their husbands after a lifetime of abuse and political scapegoats receive.
Far from providing closure from the trauma of the "killing fields" regime that scarred a generation of Cambodians, the sentence given to Kaing Guek Eav, or Duch, seen by many as too lenient, has become another example of the failings of the country's criminal justice system.
For decades, the rich and powerful have enjoyed near impunity, while those who have neither money to pay off corrupt police and judges, nor political or military ties, end up in jail, sometimes for years.
For many Cambodians, the word justice has little meaning.
Many hoped the creation of a U.N.-backed tribunal — set up to try leaders of the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge regime blamed for the deaths of up to 1.7 million people — would serve as a model for judicial reform in the young democracy.
But critics are quick to point out the process was flawed from the start, its problems mirroring many of the weaknesses in Cambodia's rule of law.
Duch was convicted last month of war crimes and crimes against humanity. He was the first major Khmer Rouge figure to face trial more than three decades after the regime's brutal rule.
No comments:
Post a Comment