The killers of my maternal grandmother’s cousin are still alive and kicking, living just a walk away from most of grandma’s relatives. On November 16, 2018, 39 years after the Vietnamese forced them out of power, two Khmer Rouge senior leaders, Nuon Chea, aka Brother Number 2, and Khieu Samphan, its head of state, were sentenced to life imprisonment by the UN-backed tribunal for genocide against the Cham and Vietnamese minorities during their reign of terror.
Chea, who is already 92, and Samphan, 87, pleaded not guilty and are already serving life sentences for crimes against humanity from previous verdicts. The new verdict for Nuon Chea also includes crimes committed at S-21, the Khmer Rouge’s notorious prison where more than 20,000 people were tortured and killed; among them were two of my maternal great-uncles.
Prosecuting the surviving Khmer Rouge leaders was never even talked about until Prime Minister Hun Sen forced it. The Khmer Rouge were never mentioned in the Paris Peace Accords, which gave the UN authority over Cambodia. Furthermore, the regime still retained Cambodia’s seat at the UN until 1982 even when it became clear that it had committed mass atrocities. During its occupation, the UN had never attempted to capture a single Khmer Rouge leader and end the civil war. Even by 1997, there were still parts of Cambodia that were not safe to travel because of Khmer Rouge guerrillas.
After a lengthy negotiation which started at the request of the Cambodian government in 1997, on June 6, 2003, the UN and the Cambodian government signed an agreement to set up trial proceedings against the Khmer Rouge senior leaders.
To start, the tribunal, formally called the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, was problematic. It was set up as a mixed UN-Cambodian court, where every international judge and prosecutor was paired with a Khmer counterpart. Once again, the court was set up to try the Khmer Rouge senior leaders, those responsible for the worst crimes committed. In that sense, the killers of grandma’s cousin are nonentities, not even worth mentioning. But then there is Im Chaem, who oversaw the killing of tens of thousands of people as a Khmer Rouge mid-level official in the northwestern zone from 1977 to 1978. In 2015, the tribunal charged her with crimes against humanity, including mass murder, extermination, and enslavement. But in February of 2017, the tribunal’s judges dropped the charges against her.
The Cambodian government has always fought any efforts to prosecute anyone beyond the Khmer Rouge senior leaders. Hun Sen, himself a former Khmer Rouge cadet, often warned that more trials would potentially lead to civil war and chaos. The case of Im Chaem is not an isolated one. Meas Muth, the Khmer Rouge naval chief, was charged with genocide of the Vietnamese minority, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and homicide. The charges against him are likely to be dropped as well.
After the sentencing of Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan, the Cambodian government declared that there are no more Khmer Rouge leaders left to stand trial and that the process has ended. Fifteen years and nearly $300 million later, the tribunal convicted three men, the third one being Kaing Guek Eav, aka Duch, who ran S-21. Two other defendants, Pol Pot’s sister-in-law, Ieng Thirith, and her husband, Ieng Sary, died of old age during the trial.
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I find it hard to comment in any meaningful way other than to observe the heartbreaking disparity between the enormity of the crimes and the pitiful response to them. Â
This is, indeed, a burden to carry, LC…Justice delayed and justice denied. Infuriating and saddening, all at once. Thanks for helping us stay aware of life beyond our borders!
I can’t add anything, but thanks for the report – as sad and infuriating as it is.
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LC,
I am not an expert on the trials that you have presented to me. I read the article Disagreements and design flaws at Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge Tribunal. This reminded me of Debra Lipstadt’s recent book The Eichmann Trial. Lipstadt’s contention was that the original Nuremberg Trials had been conducted by the Allied victors of WWII just after that end of the war. They were ultimately more interested in putting a proper political end to the situation than giving the Jewish survivors a true sense of Justice. The Eichmann Trial, on the other hand, was conducted by the State of Israel 15 years after the end of WWII. Lipstadt suggests that this was a much truer recognition of the suffering of the survivors and their need for Justice. Strangely, the roles are reversed here. The Cambodian Government is the one rushing to end the trials and get out from under bringing anyone to Justice. The UN people are the ones pushing for the trials and the convictions.
I read the article The Bucolic Life of a Cambodian Grandmother Accused of Mass Killings. This suggests that real Justice will be completely impossible and has already been largely subverted.
We are living in a stupid country that spends an endless amount of journalistic energy on the tearing down of statues. Meanwhile, the perpetrators of one of the major genocides of the century are allowed to slide quietly out of the hands of Justice. Where are the protestors? SJWs only take on pronouns and statues. Mass murderers are out of their league.
Justice for All. Justice for Nobody. Sorry LC, I’m not much help here.
Regards,
Jim
If you want meaningless gestures too far after the fact to have meaning, call on the UN.
I’m sorry, LC.