Khmer Rouge tribunal finally underway
Updated
The first defendant has gone on trial in Cambodia's UN-backed special court on Khmer Rouge war crimes and genocide.
Kaing Guek Eav, widely known as Duch, is the man who ran Phnom Penh's Tuol Sleng prison during the Khmer Rouge reign of terror between 1975 and 1979. The trial's opening was broadcast across Cambodia. Five people will be tried on war crimes and crimes against humanity -- with the hope that six more might be charged later. But with so many accused and still living in the community -- there are questions about whether justice is really being served.
Presenter: Karen Percy
Speakers: Nil Nonn, President of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia; Chum Mey, S21 survivor; Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia
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NIL NONN (translated): Hearing on case file 001...
KAREN PERCY: It's taken a generation but today the historic hearing got under way against Kaing Guek Eav, alias Comrade Duch.
NIL NONN (translated): Who has been charged with crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 and violations of the 1956 Cambodian Penal Code.
KAREN PERCY: As the president of the court, Cambodian Nil Nonn opened the proceedings. The public gallery was packed with victims, dignitaries and those with a passing interest.
They watched the proceedings through a full length glass wall installed to provide a security barrier between the public and the trial chamber. The extraordinary chambers in the courts of Cambodia was set up with the support of the United Nations to bring justice in the wake of the Khmer Rouge genocide.
Comrade Duch took in the events around him, occasionally taking notes. But during the hour the media was able to tune in he showed no emotion.
From 1975 to 1979 Comrade Duch ran the S-21 facility at Tuol Sleng prison. It was where the Khmer Rouge interrogated and tortured people. Fifteen-thousand people went through the prison before being dumped in the killing fields on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.
Chum Mey was one of the few to get out of the prison alive.
(Chum Mey speaking)
He tells us that pliers were used to pull out his toenails and that electrical cables were put in his ears. He tells us he was arrested with his wife and two children, including his two-month-old baby, all of them accused of being CIA agents.
He's one of the 100 civil parties who will be taking part in the trial. He wants to ask Comrade Duch why he was arrested, how his children could possibly have been spies.
This process has been welcomed by many but still has a lot to prove.
YOUK CHHANG: A sense of relief that finally that the process is, you know, is taking off the ground.
KAREN PERCY: Youk Chhang is with the Documentation Centre of Cambodia. It's played a pivotal role in providing evidence for the tribunal.
YOUK CHHANG: It's a relief that it is happening, but still you know it's a very small but important step. It's a long way to go. So I think that perhaps shared by many people around here that it's sort of wait and see.
KAREN PERCY: It has sorted through a veritable mountain of documents and photographs as well as film material.
YOUK CHHANG: Hundreds and thousand people help us. We're not the only one who doing this and especially the victims, you know, in the village give us information, testimonies, document.
And I think that basically we fulfil our obligation as a victim. The centre cannot do this without support from other, the government, international agency and thousands of victims around the world.
And there should be continue to preserve such atrocities so that we can help the victim to move on and also can learn and can understand.
KAREN PERCY: When the Khmer Rouge reign ended Comrade Duch, like so many of the Khmer Rouge, headed to the borders and the hills. He spent time in a Thai border camp and converted to Christianity. He has confessed his sins and asked for forgiveness. Now the time has come for the victims to see just how genuine or otherwise he is.
