12 October 2012 – Cambodia’s efforts to deal with genocide and war
crimes and its current efforts towards reconciliation were highlighted
at a United Nations-backed panel discussion examining the issues that
led to mass murder during its Khmer Rouge regime era.
“It can be argued that the development of individual criminal
responsibility, like we saw in the case of Duch [Kaing Guek Eav], for
perpetrators of genocide and war crimes and crimes against humanity has
been one of the major legal developments of the last 60 years which
began with the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals,” the UN Assistant
Secretary-General for Legal Affairs, Stephen Mathias, told the event,
referring to the former head of a notorious Khmer Rouge detention camp
who was sentenced to life in prison following convictions on war crimes
and crimes against humanity.
Held on Thursday evening at Rutgers University in the US state of New
Jersey, the event – centred on the panel discussion and a documentary
film screening – was organized by the Holocaust and the United Nations
Outreach Programme, part of the UN Department of Public Information, and
the Rutgers University Center for the Study of Genocide, Conflict
Resolution, and Human Rights and the Documentation Center of Cambodia.
In addition to the broader genocide and war crimes issues, the panel
also explored the role of the United Nations in Cambodia and the impact
of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) – the
first tribunal ever held in the country where the atrocities where
committed. Audience members also heard of the efforts of the
Documentation Center to preserve memories and seek justice.
The panel discussion involved Mr. Mathias; Benny Widyono, a former
representative of the UN Secretary-General in Cambodia; Professor Alex
Hinton, the Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Genocide,
Conflict Resolution, and Human Rights; Samphoas Huy, a representative of
the Documentation Center of Cambodia; and Andi Gitow, a UN television
producer who co-produced ‘Cambodia: A Quest for Justice,’ a documentary
film on Mr. Kaing.
Mr. Kaing headed the Toul Seng security prison, also known as S-21, in
Phnom Penh, where numerous Cambodians were unlawfully detained,
subjected to inhumane conditions and forced labour, tortured and
executed in the late 1970s. A minimum of 12,272 people died at S-21 over
a period of three years.
As many as two million people – one-quarter of Cambodia’s
then-population – are thought to have died during the rule of the Khmer
Rouge between 1975 and 1979, which was then followed by a protracted
period of civil war in the South-East Asian country.
Through the UN Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials (UNAKRT), the world
body has been assisting the ECCC – a hybrid court set up after a 2003
agreement between the UN and the Cambodian Government – try cases of
mass murder and other crimes committed under the Khmer Rouge regime.
“One of the principal tasks of the Office of Legal Affairs at the UN is
to insist that accountability follows serious international crimes like
those that were committed in Cambodia,” Mr. Mathias told the gathering.
“And the Secretary-General of the United Nations is at the forefront of
the efforts of the United Nations to ensure that impunity is not
tolerated.”
In describing her approach to making ‘Cambodia: A Quest for Justice,’
Ms. Gitow said that it was important to report on the facts and provide
many perspectives, while always remaining sensitive to the impact it has
on the survivors who appear in the film and others who have experienced
the trauma.
In her remarks to the event, the manager of the Holocaust and the United
Nations Outreach Programme, Kimberly Mann, emphasised the importance of
prosecuting the perpetrators of genocide and war crimes in furthering
reconciliation efforts in the country.
The Outreach Programme’s activities include producing online and print
educational materials, holding seminars and exhibitions, screening films
and the holding the annual worldwide observance of the International
Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust on 27
January each year.
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