By MICHAEL FOX
The Dominion Post
Last updated 18/05/2011
Top left: CEREMONY: Rob Hamill at a Buddhist ceremony to remember the many victims of the Khmer Rouge among them his brother Kerry.
Top right: KERRY HAMILL: Executed in S-21 centre.
Trans-Atlantic rower Rob Hamill says political interference is hampering his quest to get justice for his murdered brother.
Kerry Hamill was captured, tortured and killed by the Khmer Rouge after the yacht he and two others were sailing on strayed into Cambodian waters in 1978.
Yesterday, Rob Hamill said his application to take part in a proposed third trial of top Khmer Rouge leaders had been declined in an "incomprehensible, schizophrenic decision".
"The arguments are childlike – they are, they're laughable. They are so weak that it just reinforces my belief that they are just doing it to try and get rid of the case."
He said the United-Nations-backed tribunal into crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge had ruled that he was ineligible to bring a civil case because he was not a victim.
The tribunal has been widely criticised as ineffective and hampered by political interference. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has already publicly said the second trial against four senior former Khmer Rouge leaders would be the last, claiming that any further trials would cause unrest.
Local media reports said tribunal investigators announced last week that they had concluded inquiries into a third case, though those being investigated had not been questioned. There had been no attempt to solicit civil party applications like Mr Hamill's, even though almost 4000 people applied to participate in the case.
Mr Hamill said only he and local human rights activist Theary Seng, who had also gone public with her concerns over the trial, were known to have lodged applications for the third trial.
Civil applications, which allowed victims to testify and seek redress, were not being accepted because doing so was an admission there was a case to prosecute.
He testified in the first Khmer Rouge trial, in 2009, of Tuol Sleng prison boss Kaing Guek Eav, who was found guilty of murder, torture and crimes against humanity for his role in the genocide which wiped out up to two million Cambodians. Kerry Hamill was imprisoned and is thought to have died in Tuol Sleng, along with about 12,000 others.
Mr Hamill is also a party to the second trial and said application criteria for each were "essentially the same".
The Dominion Post
Last updated 18/05/2011
Top left: CEREMONY: Rob Hamill at a Buddhist ceremony to remember the many victims of the Khmer Rouge among them his brother Kerry.
Top right: KERRY HAMILL: Executed in S-21 centre.
Trans-Atlantic rower Rob Hamill says political interference is hampering his quest to get justice for his murdered brother.
Kerry Hamill was captured, tortured and killed by the Khmer Rouge after the yacht he and two others were sailing on strayed into Cambodian waters in 1978.
Yesterday, Rob Hamill said his application to take part in a proposed third trial of top Khmer Rouge leaders had been declined in an "incomprehensible, schizophrenic decision".
"The arguments are childlike – they are, they're laughable. They are so weak that it just reinforces my belief that they are just doing it to try and get rid of the case."
He said the United-Nations-backed tribunal into crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge had ruled that he was ineligible to bring a civil case because he was not a victim.
The tribunal has been widely criticised as ineffective and hampered by political interference. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has already publicly said the second trial against four senior former Khmer Rouge leaders would be the last, claiming that any further trials would cause unrest.
Local media reports said tribunal investigators announced last week that they had concluded inquiries into a third case, though those being investigated had not been questioned. There had been no attempt to solicit civil party applications like Mr Hamill's, even though almost 4000 people applied to participate in the case.
Mr Hamill said only he and local human rights activist Theary Seng, who had also gone public with her concerns over the trial, were known to have lodged applications for the third trial.
Civil applications, which allowed victims to testify and seek redress, were not being accepted because doing so was an admission there was a case to prosecute.
He testified in the first Khmer Rouge trial, in 2009, of Tuol Sleng prison boss Kaing Guek Eav, who was found guilty of murder, torture and crimes against humanity for his role in the genocide which wiped out up to two million Cambodians. Kerry Hamill was imprisoned and is thought to have died in Tuol Sleng, along with about 12,000 others.
Mr Hamill is also a party to the second trial and said application criteria for each were "essentially the same".
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