The Gang of Four: (clockwise) Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Khieu Samphan and Mrs. Ieng Thirith.On the Net:
- Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC): http://www.eccc.gov.kh/en
By Michelle Fitzpatrick
PHNOM PENH (AFP)— Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes tribunal on Monday set June 27 as the start date for a highly-anticipated trial of four former Khmer Rouge leaders accused of genocide and other crimes in the 1970s.
The defendants are "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea, former foreign minister Ieng Sary, his wife and ex-social affairs minister Ieng Thirith, and former head of state Khieu Samphan.
The four face charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and related crimes under Cambodian law over the deaths of up to two million people from starvation, overwork and execution during the movement's 1975-79 rule.
The genocide charges relate specifically to the deaths of Vietnamese people and ethnic Cham Muslims under the totalitarian regime.
"The initial hearing will commence on Monday 27 June" and will focus on technical issues and discuss witness and experts lists, the court said in a document posted on its website.
The accused, who have been held in a purpose-built detention centre since their arrests in 2007, are expected to attend the hearing, tribunal spokesman Lars Olsen told AFP.
They are the most senior surviving members of the hardline communist movement.
Led by "Brother Number One" Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the Marxist regime emptied Cambodia's cities and abolished money and schools in a bid to create an agrarian utopia, wiping out nearly a quarter of the country's population before they were ousted from the capital by Vietnamese forces.
Khmer Rouge survivor Bou Meng, who was tortured in the notorious S-21 detention centre in Phnom Penh, said he supported the trial but feared the accused would not be sufficiently punished.
"I'm glad to hear that the date is set for the last four people, but I'm just not too hopeful for a satisfying outcome," the 70-year-old told AFP.
Aged between 79 and 85, the four suffer from varying ailments, fuelling concerns that not all of them might live to see a verdict that is not expected before 2013.
Their health problems are expected to add further difficulties to a case observers already say will be long and complex with all four denying the charges against them.
However, in the 2009 documentary "Enemies of the People", Nuon Chea -- the movement's chief ideologue -- admits the regime killed perceived traitors if they could not be "re-educated" or "corrected".
Their joint trial will be the court's second following the landmark conviction of former Khmer Rouge prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, who was sentenced to 30 years in jail last July. The case is now under appeal.
The court is still investigating whether to pursue two more cases against five other regime members, a move the government strongly opposes, stoking fears about the court's credibility and independence from political pressure.
The tribunal's Cambodian and international co-prosecutors last week openly disagreed about whether to continue investigations into a third case, to the dismay of observers who feel it would be inadequate to punish just five regime members for the horrors suffered on the Cambodian people.
The Cambodian government has repeatedly voiced its objection to further trials, saying they could destabilise the country.
3 comments:
Khmer rouge invaded Thailand more than 400 times really?
(Thai side coin of view 75-77)
The relation with Democratic Kampuchea by the Kukrit administration was affirmed by the so-called Mayaguez incident. On 12 May 1975, Khmer Rouge seized and charged an American cargo ship named the SS Mayaguez with trespassing in its waters. The Ford administration demanded the unconditional release of the ship and its crew of 39.Washington immediately ordered its Seventh Fleet to sail for the Gulf of Siam the next day.The Kukrit government had informed the U.S. chargé d’affaires in Bangkok that the Thai government would not permit the Americans to use the air bases in Thailand in the Mayaguez dispute. But the next day, Thailand saw 1,100 U.S.marines from Okinawa landing at the U-Tapao air base. The U.S. forces launched heavy attacks on the Cambodian port at Kampong Som and on Koh Tang Island. Finally, the Mayaguez was released at the end of 14 May. The Thai government sent a protest note to the U.S. Embassy, charging the Americans with violating Thailand’s sovereignty. The Thai ambassador to Washington was recalled. It is unlikely that the U.S. use of U-Tapao air base took place without the cooperation from the Thai military. Defense Minister Major General Pramarn Adireksarn even asserted that the U.S. operation did not violate Thailand’s sovereignty, but was only a breach of promise between the two countries.
Soon after Thailand offered the Khmer Rouge regime recognition, contacts between the two sides began. Full diplomatic ties between the two countries were established following Cambodian Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Ieng Sary’s five-day visit to Thailand in late October 1975. The Cambodian delegates also expressed their need to begin official trade with Thailand as Cambodia was facing a shortage of food. However, diplomatic relations between Thailand and Democratic Kampuchea were built up in parallel with tension along the Thai-Cambodian border. In April, the Khmer Rouge troops stationed opposite Pong Nam Ron District of Chanthaburi Province threatened to attack Thailand, after Thai authorities refused to hand over six armored personnel carriers brought to Thailand by fleeing Lon Nol military officers. Another 60 Khmer Rouge troops contacted Thai authorities on the border at Trat Province for permission to cross into Thailand to suppress the Lon Nol troops. But the request was turned down. A Thai navy patrol boat was sent to reinforce the coastal border of Trat. The first territorial dispute began on 12 May 1975, when the Khmer Rouge forces opposite Trat Province claimed that Cambodia had lost a large amount of land to Thailand during the Lon Nol regime. They gave Thailand seven days ultimatum to withdraw to a demarcation line one kilometer from the existing line. Otherwise they threatened to do it by force. The Khmer Rouge also held four Thai fishermen, charged with violating Cambodia’s maritime border. At the end of May, another Thai fishing boat on the Trat coast was attacked and set ablaze by Khmer Rouge soldiers.
(1)
(2)
Two weeks ater, Thai marine police engaged in an hour-long fight with Cambodian forces off the Trat coastal district of Ko Kut. At least seven Thai officers were wounded. At the same time, another clash between the Thai and Cambodian forces took place on the Aranyaprathet-Poipet border.Thai border security forces in Surin Province also faced a series of border attacks by the Khmer Rouge forces. A Thai security officer summed up: from the day the Thai- Cambodian border was closed on 18 April to the end of June, Khmer Rouge troops had purposely intruded across the Thai border in Surin Province more than 30 times. The intruders, the Thai officers added, had planted mines along the border inside Thai territory, abducted villagers and stolen their food. In November 1975, fighting between Thai and Khmer Rouge forces on the Aranyaprathet-Poipet border area intensified.Part of the border conflict was due to the overlapping claims over territory by Thailand unilateral map.
Again, the relationship between Thailand and Cambodia was challenged by
a strange incident on 25 February, when the Cambodian town of Siem Reap was bombed by unidentified jet fighters flying from the direction of Thailand. Thai officials denied any involvement in the incident.Border clashes between the Thai and Cambodian forces resumed quickly in early November 1976 and subsequently got much worse Thanin claimed that between January and August 1977 Cambodian forces invaded Thailand more than four hundred times.The worst two incidents took place in late January 1977 and early August 1977. According to the White Paper issued by the Thai Foreign Ministry, during the night of 28 January 1977, around 300 Khmer Rouge soldiers launched a threepronged attack on three villages in Aranyaprathet. The Cambodian troopers killed 21 Thai villagers, including children, babies and a pregnant woman.Thai government sent a protest note(instead of mobilize troop to retaliate) to Cambodia, demanding the latter take responsibility and pay compensation to the victims. The Khmer Rouge, however, replied that the three attacked villages were inside Cambodian territory, implying that they could do whatever they pleased there.
(3)
The August massacre of Thai villagers took place in Ban Sanlo Cha-ngan,
Ban Sa-ngae and Ban Kasang in Taphraya District of Prachinburi. The Khmer Rouge forces killed 29 Thais. According to one Thai unreliable eyewitness, the Khmer Rouge soldiers ransacked houses and killed every living thing(?), including women,children and even cattle(?). In order to put pressure on Phnom Penh, in February the Thanin government decided to cut off the pipeline of essential goods to Cambodia. An embargo was imposed on the border trade.
The Thai foreign ministry made several attempts to hold high-level talks
with Cambodia. However, the contacts were unable to reach beyond Poipet. The lack of dialogue between the two sides thus intensified the use of force to solve the border conflicts. Thai villagers in the border areas received weapons and military training from the armed forces to protect themselves. The border security officers were authorized to retaliate against Khmer Rouge intrusions, while more patrols and armed reinforcement units were established. By the time the high-level negotiations between the two sides were held, the Thanin administration was about to be gone. Obviously with the Chinese influence, Pol Pot for the first time publicly referred to the border conflict with Thailand. He told the New China News agency while in Beijing that the border disputes with Thailand would soon be “problems of the past.” On 12 October 1977, Uppadit finally met DK Foreign Minister Ieng Sary at United Nations headquarters in New York. The two agreed to end confrontations.
[some events may be fabricated thanks from L.C]
References
Alagappa,Muthiah, The National Security of Developing States: Lessons from
Thailand, Massachusetts, Auburn House Publishing Company, 1987.
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