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State of Authority: The State in Society in Indonesia
Gerry van Klinken and Joshua Barker, eds. 

At the Edge of the Forest: Essays on Cambodia, History, and Narrative in Honor of David Chandler
Anne Ruth Hansen and Judy Ledgerwood, eds. 

Conflict, Violence, and Displacement in Indonesia
Eva-Lotta E. Hedman, ed. 

Anger in Cambodia After Sentencing of Khmer Rouge Jailer Duch

NYTimes.com
July 26, 2010
By SETH MYDANS

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Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

Khmer Rouge survivors watched the courtroom proceedings as Kaing Guek Eav, also known as “Duch”, was sentenced in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

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A Living Ghost of the Khmer Rouge

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  The Lede Blog: Video of First Khmer Rouge Trial (July 26, 2010)

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  Times Topics: Cambodia | Kaing Guek Eav

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A Cambodian woman cried after Kaing Guek Eav, a Khmer Rouge leader responsible for more than 14,000 deaths, was sentenced to 35 years Monday.

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Chor Sokunthea/Reuters

Journalists watched in Phnom Penh as Kaing Guek Eav, awaited his sentence. It was Cambodia’s first conviction of a major Khmer Rouge figure.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — For 30 years since the brutal Khmer Rouge regime was driven from power, Cambodians have lived with unresolved trauma, with skulls and bones from killing fields still lying in the open and with parents hiding the pain of their past from their children.

On Monday, Cambodia took a significant step toward addressing its harsh past with the first conviction of a major Khmer Rouge figure in connection with the deaths of 1.7 million people from 1975 to 1979.

But some survivors were distraught over what they saw as a lenient sentence, one that could possibly allow the defendant, Kaing Guek Eav, 67, commonly known as Duch, to walk free one day.

A United Nations-backed court found Duch (pronounced DOIK), the commandant of the central Khmer Rouge prison, Tuol Sleng, guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity and sentenced him to 35 years in prison for overseeing the torture and killing of more than 14,000 people. The court reduced that term to 19 years because of time already served and in compensation for a period of illegal military detention.

“I am not satisfied!” cried one of the few survivors, Chum Mey, 79, who had testified in excruciating detail about his 12 days of torture. “We are victims two times, once in the Khmer Rouge time and now once again.”

He was shouting in agitation in the muddy courtyard outside the tribunal building.

“His prison is comfortable, with air-conditioning, food three times a day, fans and everything,” he said. “I sat on the floor with filth and excrement all around.”

It was the first time in Cambodia’s modern history that a senior government official had been made accountable for serious human rights violations and the first time such a trial had been held that met international standards of justice.

The verdict took into account mitigating circumstances that a court spokesman, Lars Olsen, said included Duch’s cooperation, his admission of responsibility and limited expressions of remorse, the coercive environment of the Khmer Rouge period and the possibility of his rehabilitation.

There is no death penalty in Cambodia and prosecutors had sought a 40-year sentence, but many people said they would accept nothing less than a term of life in prison.

“People lost their relatives — their wives, their husbands, their sons and daughters — and they won’t be able to spend any time with any of them because they are dead now,” said Nina You, 40, who works for a private development agency. “So why should he be able to get out in 19 years and spend time with his grandchildren?”

Bou Meng, 69, another survivor who testified at the trial about his torture and humiliation, said he had waited for this day to quiet the ghosts he said continued to torment him. “I felt it was like a slap in the face,” he said of the verdict.

But Huy Vannak, a television news director, said it was enough simply to have justice in a court, 30 years after the killing stopped.

No sentence could measure up to the atrocities Duch committed, he added.

“Even if we chop him up into two million pieces it will not bring our family members back,” he said. “We have to move on now.”

Others still needed more time. “Actually I’m kind of shaking inside at the moment,” said Sopheap Pich, 39, a sculptor. “I’m not sure how I should feel. I’m not happy, not sad, just kind of numb.”

For its symbolism, he said, a life sentence would seem most appropriate. “To come up with a number doesn’t seem to make sense,” he said. “I’m not sure how you come up with a number.”

Mr. Olsen said the prosecution had 30 days to file an appeal. For now, Duch was returned to the special detention house he shares with four other defendants who are awaiting trial in what is known as Case 2.

In that case, four surviving members of the top Khmer Rouge leadership are accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes. In addition to those tortured to death and executed in killing fields, many people died of starvation, disease or overwork or in the forced evacuation of Phnom Penh, in which the entire population of the city was driven out to the countryside.

The defendants include Ieng Sary, 84, who was foreign minister; his wife, Ieng Thirith, 78, who was minister of social welfare; Nuon Chea, 84, known as Brother No. 2; and Khieu Samphan, 78, who was head of state. Several other major figures have died, including the Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot, in 1998.

The judicial investigation in this case is expected to conclude in September with formal indictments, and the trial itself is not expected before sometime next year.

Unlike Duch, these defendants have denied guilt, and their lawyers have been active in raising legal challenges.

In their most interesting challenge, they failed in an attempt this year to exclude evidence obtained through torture — in other words, the Tuol Sleng archives of prisoner confessions that contain some of the potentially most damaging testimony about the chain of command.

The four defendants have been in custody since late 2007 and some of them hate each other, according to people familiar with the conditions of their detention.

In particular, these people say, Mr. Nuon Chea refuses to speak to Duch, who implicated him during his trial. According to testimony in pretrial hearings, Ms. Ieng Thirith, who has shouted angrily during court hearings, has been abusive to her fellow detainees on at least 70 occasions.

For his part, Duch is said to be fascinated by the court’s actions and follows reports and analyses closely on television.

Verdict Due in the Trial of a Khmer Rouge Figure

NYTimes.com

Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, via Associated Press

Kaing Guek Eav, commonly known as Duch. 

By SETH MYDANS

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — A United Nations-backed tribunal on Monday found a 67-year-old former prison warden of the Khmer Rouge guilty of crimes against humanity and war crimes for overseeing the torture and killing of more than 14,000 prisoners. He was the first major figure to be tried in the murderous regime since it was toppled 30 years ago.

But in a sentence that was likely to be considered shockingly lenient here, the court sentenced him to serve 19 years in prison — 35 years minus 16 years for time already served. Prosecutors had sought 40 years. There is no death penalty in Cambodia.

The defendant, Kaing Guek Eav, commonly known as Duch, had admitted in an eight-month trial to many of the accusations against him. He oversaw a system that came to symbolize a regime responsible for the deaths of 1.7 million people from 1975 to 1979.

Dressed in a blue button-down shirt, sipping sometimes from a glass of water and carrying what appeared to be a Bible, he listened impassively as a judge read out the charges and verdict against him. The packed courtroom included some survivors of the prison he ran — three of whom had testified about the torture inflicted upon them.

The tribunal, which began work in 2006, now moves to “Case Two,” for which four high-ranking Khmer Rouge officials are in custody awaiting trial sometime next year. The Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998.

Duch’s own plea was unclear. On the final day of the trial, in November, he unexpectedly asked to be set free, seeming to contradict a carefully constructed defense in which his lawyers sought to minimize his sentence through admissions of guilt mixed with assertions that he was just one link in a hierarchy of killing.

“I am accountable to the entire Cambodian population for the souls that perished,” he said at one point. “I am deeply remorseful and regret such a mind-boggling scale of death.”

But he added: “I ended up serving a criminal organization. I could not withdraw from it. I was like a cog in a machine. I regret and humbly apologize to the dead souls.”

Many of his victims, along with outside observers, questioned the sincerity of his remorse, particularly as it was coupled with a sometimes aggressive and arrogant demeanor in the courtroom and evasiveness regarding many specific allegations.

Despite those doubts, David Chandler, a historian of Cambodia, noted that Duch was the only one of the five defendants to have admitted guilt.

“He’s a guy who’s thought about it, faced up to some stuff,” said Mr. Chandler, the author of “Voices From S-21,” a book about the prison, known as S-21 or Tuol Sleng. “Duch is the only human on trial. The others are monsters.”

A former schoolteacher, Duch took obvious pride in the efficiency of his operation, where confessions — some of them running to hundreds of typed pages — were extracted by torture before the prisoners were sent in trucks to the killing fields.

He disappeared after the Khmer Rouge was driven from power by a Vietnamese invasion and was discovered in 1999 by an Irish journalist, Nic Dunlop, living quietly in a small Cambodian town, where he said he had converted to Christianity.

At one point in his testimony, in an extravagant display of contrition, Duch appeared to compare himself with Christ.

“The tears that run from my eyes are the tears of those innocent people,” he said. “It matters little if they condemn me, even to the heaviest sentence. As for Christ’s death, Cambodians can inflict that fate on me. I will accept it.”

It is more common among Cambodians — most of whom are Buddhists — to believe in spirits. Tuol Sleng is now a museum, and when part of its roof collapsed last week during a storm, some people said the ghosts of the dead were crying out for justice.

Running parallel with courtroom testimony, the tribunal has faced criticism as it tries to apply international standards of justice within a flawed Cambodian court system.

“The court has struggled to deal with allegations of kickbacks involving national staff, heavy-handed political interference from the Cambodian government, bureaucratic inefficiency and incompetence, and disturbing levels of conflict between international and national staff,” said John A. Hall, a professor at the Chapman University School of Law in Orange, Calif., who has been monitoring the trials.

“Indeed, perhaps one of the most surprising things so far is that the tribunal has not collapsed,” he said.

In an innovation, the trial made room for about 90 “civil parties,” who registered to apply for reparations and were represented in court by lawyers who acted as additional prosecutors.

“For 30 years, the victims of the Khmer Rouge waited while a civil war raged, international actors bickered and the leaders of the Khmer Rouge walked free,” said Alex Hinton, director of the Center for the Study of Genocide, Conflict Resolution and Human Rights at Rutgers University in New Jersey. “Now, for the first time, one of them has been held accountable. The importance of this moment can’t be underestimated.”

But over the years, Cambodia has moved on, with new generations, new concerns and new horizons. Many young people know little about the Khmer Rouge era, and many older people have chosen to forget.

“I go around the country and not a lot of people ask about the trial,” said Ou Virak, president of the independent Cambodian Center for Human Rights, which holds forums on issues of concern to the public. “Not even my mom — and my dad was killed by the Khmer Rouge.”

Khmer Rouge Tribunal vs. Karmic Justice

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By SOPHAL EAR

When my mother — who saved me and four siblings from starvation under the Khmer Rouge in 1976 — passed away in October 2009 at the age of 73, I realized that for her justice delayed had become justice denied. (I’m embarrassed to admit it, but the words “justice delayed is justice denied” had never really sunk in until my mother’s passing.)

As an observant Buddhist, however, my mother probably had the last word. She always said that no matter what happened to the Khmer Rouge leadership in their current lifetime, Karmic justice would prevail in the next: They would be reborn as cockroaches.

I am certain that this belief has helped millions of survivors cope with the reality that, after more than three decades since the fall of the Khmer Rouge, not a single leader has been held to account.

Indeed, Cambodians will largely be yawning when the Khmer Rouge tribunal, known formally as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia and jointly organized with the United Nations, issues its first verdict, on the guilt or innocence of Kaing Guek Eav, widely known as Comrade Duch.

The man who headed S-21, a torture center to which an estimated 16,000 people were sent and where less than a dozen survived, confessed his crimes seven years before the tribunal started, saying: “My confession is rather like Saint Paul’s. I’m the chief of sinners.”

Even during the tribunal itself, Duch declared: “To the survivors, I stand by my acknowledgment of all crimes inflicted on you at S-21. I acknowledge them in both the moral and legal context.”

After nine months of testimony and millions of dollars spent, what verdict but guilty can there be when the defendant has made such statements under oath? What purpose has going through the motions served?

Whether the issue is degree of guilt (no one claims Duch was in charge of policy and he has testified that “even though I knew these orders were criminal ... it was a life and death problem for me and my family”) or plain punishment (the maximum sentence is life in prison), each day that has passed is itself an injustice.

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If, after four years and $13 million in contributions to the Cambodian government from Japan, the Europe Commission and others, and $76 million in contributions to the United Nations by more than 21 donors, one guilty verdict is all the tribunal has to show, survivors of the Khmer Rouge may just as well consider justice denied.

Plagued by corruption, the tribunal was essentially hijacked to advance domestic and international agendas. For domestic politicians, the goal was to control the process by placing it in a heavily secured military base some 20 kilometers from Phnom Penh and to reduce its scope by limiting the number of individuals it could indict (five) while currying international favor for addressing, superficially at least, crimes against humanity.

The Cambodian government has even sought to limit the witnesses the tribunal could call to testify under the oft-repeated claim of the threat of another civil war. “If the court wants to charge more former senior Khmer Rouge cadres, [it] must show the reasons to Prime Minister Hun Sen,” the prime minister said, referring to himself in the third person. In any case, the tribunal has no independent means of enforcing its subpoenas without government cooperation.

For many of the foreigners involved, Cambodia served as yet another venue for pushing hybrid models of transitional justice while creating jobs for international civil servants and a stage for foreign lawyers whose careers depend on adding another tribunal to their curriculum vitae. If nothing else, they can pat themselves on the back for showing the Cambodians how justice is done.

But what has happened is the reverse. The tribunal was plagued by corruption, lack of judicial independence and shattered integrity. The appointment of a devout Marxist-Leninist as head of the Victims Unit in May 2009, fully endorsed by the U.N. head of the tribunal, sealed the tribunal’s fate as an international and domestic farce.

Thus, the euphemistically “streamlined” participation of about 4,000 “Civil Parties” (tribunal-recognized victims, including me) who shall be represented in court by only two “civil party lead co-lawyers” (with as yet undefined internal procedures of accountability and selection) imposed by the tribunal on Feb. 9, 2010, came as no surprise.

When I filed my civil complaint in 2008, I was required to outline what compensation I wanted. When I said I didn’t want any compensation and that this isn’t about money, it’s about justice for the past and accountability for the future, you could have heard a pin drop. I should have said that I would like my father and brother back; no amount of compensation can do that.

Justice in that sense is meaningless, but my hope was that in the not-too-distant future the next Pol Pot might have to think twice about genocide.

A truth commission would have been a marked contrast to the combative style of the current tribunal, which has seen denials by anyone potentially indictable and even those ready to confess. Indeed, as South Africa’s experience has shown, truth commissions can work under the right circumstances.

But I doubt the circumstances were ever right in Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge had a sense of irony when they created a Ministry of Truth. Ever since then, the first casualty of Cambodian politics has been truth.

Lost in all this are those very Cambodians for whom the tribunal was supposed to enact international standards of justice and be a cathartic experience. Instead, the tribunal has been corrosive. Jaded from a failed 1993 U.N. exercise in democracy that led inexorably toward authoritarianism, Cambodians have learned their lesson: Don’t believe in international promises; they are not kept.

Sophal Ear is an assistant professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. He is writing a book on the unintended consequences of foreign aid in Cambodia.

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New List Aims to Stem Tide of Cambodian Stolen Antiquities

Cambodia recently released a publication that it hopes will help reduce the number of artifacts being stolen from sites and temples and sold on the international market.

One thousand years ago, Cambodia's Angkorean empire was at its peak, ruling areas that are now part of Thailand, Vietnam and Laos.

Today, its achievements are admired by two-million foreign tourists who visit Cambodia each year. Many come to visit the crowning achievement of Angkor Wat, the famed temple-city in the Cambodia's northwest.

But, in recent years, Cambodia's rich cultural heritage has been plundered, with many temples and ancient sites ransacked for statues. Those trying to preserve the heritage sometimes struggle to do so.

Hab Touch is the outgoing director of the National Museum in Phnom Penh.

He says one method recently adopted to combat the theft of antiquities is the publication of a glossy eight-page brochure. The booklet lists the different categories of Khmer artifacts at risk of being stolen and smuggled abroad.

The publication, which is called the Red List, was drawn up in conjunction with the International Council of Museums.

The Red List will be distributed to Cambodian border and customs officials, as well as to museums and auction houses overseas, as part of a strategy to combat the illicit trade.

"I hope that the Red List will also play an important [role] in protecting Cambodian cultural artifacts and I strongly believe that the Red List, in the future, will build more capacity for the protection of Cambodian heritage," he said.

The items on the Red List range from jewelry and weapons to stone heads and bronze statues. The brochure lists beads from more than 2,000 years back and wooden items from just a century ago.

It is, in short, a comprehensive time capsule of Cambodian artistic achievement.

Douglad O'Reilly is the director of Heritage Watch, an organization set up to combat the plunder of Cambodia's cultural heritage. O'Reilly says the problem of looting is widespread.

"I think that the problem is fairly substantial. We are finding that in rural areas there is quite a lot of activity. There has been, since about 2000, a significant amount of heritage destruction at archaeological sites that date especially to the period from 500 BC to 500 AD," he said. "So people are excavating illegally a lot of cemetery sites in the search for carnellian and agate beads and glass beads and other artifacts."

O'Reilly applauds the idea behind the Red List, saying it has the potential to reduce dramatically the number of items being smuggled across the border -- as long as the brochures printed in Khmer and Thai actually reach the officials at the border posts.

O'Reilly explains that many Cambodians and Thais want looted Khmer antiquities for their talismanic properties - their perceived ability to bring good luck.

He says the problem of looting of prehistoric sites started ten years ago and peaked five years later. So is it getting better or worse?

"It is very difficult to say. It appears that there is a slight slowdown in the looting of these sites and the Cambodian government can be credited with making good efforts to crack down on a lot of the looting," added O'Reilly. "So there seems to be a tide for good, but I do think there is still an issue with the destruction of heritage in Cambodia."

For his part, Hab Touch at the National Museum believes matters are improving. He says other methods are also being used, such as teaching Cambodians in rural areas about the cultural value of antiquities.

"Of course we work also to educate local people and also to get the local people to participate in the protection. Because I think it is very important that, if they don't understand, they do not protect their own culture," said Hab.

But it is not hard to find stolen antiquities. Even a brief visit to Phnom Penh's Russian Market reveals trays of ancient beads, and Khmer artifacts continue to turn up for sale in the region.

As those working to protect them know well, if the demand for Khmer antiquities continues there will always be those prepared to supply - until the day comes when there is nothing left to take.

Fewer Casualties From Mines in Cambodia, but Reduced Funding Means Risk Remains

Robert Carmichael | Phnom Penh 23 February 2010

Photo: VOA - R. Carmichael

Children sit near a minefield outside their home in the northwestern Cambodian province of Battambang, one of the most heavily-mined in the country

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The number of Cambodian casualties from land mines and explosives left from decades of conflict has been steadily declining. But cuts in donor funding for demining could see this trend reversed.

Cambodia has an unenviable reputation as one of the most heavily-mined countries on earth, along with countries such as Angola and Afghanistan.

So the news that the number of people killed or injured by land mines and leftover explosives dropped 10 percent last year is welcome.

Chhiv Lim heads the office that compiles the statistics on Cambodian mine casualties. He says more than 63,000 people have been killed or injured by mines and explosives since the Khmer Rouge government was driven out of power in 1979.

"From 1979 up to the year 2000 the number of casualties was still high because during that time Cambodia had the civil war, but since year 2000 until the year 2005 the number of casualties [was] still 800 per year," he said. "But since the year 2006 until now the number of casualties has dropped down - this is good news for Cambodia."

Chhiv Lim says that last year 243 people were killed or injured by land mines and leftover explosives in Cambodia, down from 271 the year before.

Chhiv Lim says the decline is due to Cambodia's demining program, which uses clearance teams from the government as well as from private groups such as Halo Trust and Mines Advisory Group, or MAG.

Efforts to educate people about the dangers of mines and explosives have also helped.

Jamie Franklin, the country head of MAG, says better coordination and improved clearance methods devised over the past two decades contributed to lower victim numbers too.

"And I think ongoing clearance and the increasing clearance that has been achieved over the last 10 years along with the risk-reduction and mine-risk education and the high level of awareness of the dangers of mines and UXO [unexploded ordnance] and the risks that they pose have helped contribute toward the ongoing reduction in annual casualty rates," said Franklin.

Franklin says the peace and stability that Cambodia has enjoyed since the civil war ended has also helped.

One-third of the casualties are children, and almost all of those are boys. Chhiv Lim says studies show men and boys tend to be more willing to play with or examine explosives than women are. "But some boys they're clever, [they say] 'I cannot play with this one, I must go home.' But there are still some boys whose behavior has not changed," he said.

That makes education a key part of the country's effort to reduce mine casualties.

Removing mines remains the primary task, and that is slow, dangerous and expensive work. Franklin says it took MAG's 15 de-mining teams the whole of last year to clear just three square kilometers, at a cost $3 million.

The Cambodian government says more than 600 square kilometers of land remains contaminated with land mines. Cambodia has signed the international treaty to ban land mines, and was supposed to clear all land mines by the end of last year.

Given the scale of the problem, that was impossible, and the country was recently granted a 10-year extension to rid itself of mines. But there is a risk that even the 2019 deadline could be missed.

MAG's Franklin says funding for demining worldwide is decreasing as donors switch spending priorities to other areas. If there is less money for removing mines, at a time when Cambodia's growing population needs more land, that could mean more casualties.

"And so there is a risk that if the support to clearance and the clearance reduces that we could see either a slowdown in the reduction of annual casualty rates or a reversal of the trend that we have been seeing for the last 15 to 17 years," he said.

Demining experts say if donors cut funding, Cambodia can not meet the 2019 deadline to make its people safe from land mines.

Cambodia: Close Compulsory Drug Detention Centers

Respect Rights and Expand Voluntary, Community-Based Treatment

January 25, 2010

© 2002

Downloadable Resources:

Download press release in Khmer (PDF)

Related Materials:

“Skin on the Cable”

“Where Darkness Knows No Limits”

An Unbreakable Cycle

Drug Policy and Human Rights

Individuals in these centers are not being treated or rehabilitated, they are being illegally detained and often tortured. These centers do not need to be revamped or modified; they need to be shut down.

Joseph Amon, director of the Health and Human Rights division at Human Rights Watch

People who use drugs in Cambodia are at risk of arbitrary detention in centers where they suffer torture, physical and sexual violence, and other forms of cruel punishment, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Detention centers, mandated to treat and ‘rehabilitate' drug users, instead subject them to electric shocks, beatings with electrical wire, forced labor, and harsh military drills.

In the 93-page report, "Skin on the Cable," Human Rights Watch documents detainees being beaten, raped, forced to donate blood, and subjected to painful physical punishments such as "rolling like a barrel" and being chained while standing in the sun. Human Rights Watch also reported that a large number of detainees told of receiving rotten or insect-ridden food and symptoms of diseases consistent with nutritional deficiencies.

"Individuals in these centers are not being treated or rehabilitated, they are being illegally detained and often tortured," said Joseph Amon, director of the Health and Human Rights division at Human Rights Watch. "These centers do not need to be revamped or modified; they need to be shut down." According to the report, people are frequently arbitrarily arrested without a warrant or without reasonable cause, often on the request of a relative or as part of periodic police round-ups of people considered "undesirable." They are often lied to - or simply not informed - about the reasons of their arrest. They have no access to a lawyer during their period in police custody or during the subsequent period of detention in the centers. Military drills, sweating while exercising, and laboring are the most common means used to "cure" drug dependence in these centers, which are operated by various government entities, including military police and civilian police forces. "Vocational training" activities which take place in some centers appear motivated by benefits to the center staff as opposed to detainees. The report highlighted the large number of children and individuals with mental illnesses also detained within the centers. Both groups, according to the report, were subject to similar physical abuses.

Human Rights Watch called on the Royal Cambodian Government to permanently close its drug detention centers and conduct a thorough investigation of acts of torture, ill treatment, arbitrary detention, and other abuses occurring in them. Torture and inhuman treatment are prohibited by both the government's international human rights obligations and the Constitution of Cambodia.

"The government of Cambodia must stop the torture occurring in these centers" said Amon. "Drug dependency can be addressed through expanded voluntary, community-based, outpatient treatment that respects human rights and is consistent with international standards."

Selected accounts from individuals interviewed for "Skin on the Cable":

"I think this is not a rehab center but a torturing center." - Kakada, former detainee

"[A staff member] would use the cable to beat people...On each whip the person's skin would come off and stick on the cable..." - M'noh, age 16, describing whippings he witnessed in the Social Affairs "Youth Rehabilitation Center" in Choam Chao

"[After arrest] the police search my body, they take my money, they also keep my drugs...They say, ‘If you don't have money, why don't you go for a walk with me?...[The police] drove me to a guest house.... How can you refuse to give him sex? You must do it. There were two officers. [I had sex with] each one time. After that they let me go home." - Minea, a woman in her mid 20's who uses drugs, explaining how she was raped by two police officers

"[Shortly after arrival] I was knocked out. Other inmates beat me....They just covered me with a blanket and beat me...They beat me in the face, my chest, my side. I don't know how long it lasted...The staff had ordered the inmates to beat me. The staff said, ‘The new chicken has arrived, let's pluck its feathers and eat it!'" - Duongchem, former detainee

This press release also available in: Khmer

The Cambodia-Thailand Conflict: A Test for ASEAN

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by Sokbunthoeun So

Asia Pacific Bulletin, No. 44

Publisher: Washington, D.C.: East-West Center in Washington
Publication Date: December 10, 2009
Binding: electronic
Pages: 2
Free Download: PDF

Abstract

The current conflict between Cambodia and Thailand, both members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), provides a test case for ASEAN to act as a key player in resolving disputes among its members. A failure by ASEAN to do so would reduce its credibility and impede the realization of an ASEAN community by 2015. Sokbunthoeun So discusses the Cambodian-Thai conflict and the implications for ASEAN.

After Expelling Uighurs, Cambodia Approves Chinese Investments

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By SETH MYDANS

BANGKOK — China signed 14 deals with Cambodia on Monday worth approximately $1 billion, two days after Cambodia deported 20 ethnic Uighur asylum seekers under strong pressure from Beijing.

The deportation, in defiance of protests by the United States, the United Nations and human rights groups, came on the day before a visit to Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, by Vice President Xi Jinping of China.

The package of grants and loans was signed at the end of Mr. Xi’s visit. The Cambodian Foreign Ministry quoted Mr. Xi as saying: “It can be said that Sino-Cambodia relations are a model of friendly cooperation.”

The exact value of the agreements was not announced, but the chief government spokesman, Khieu Kanharith, said they were worth $1.2 billion. “China has thanked the government of Cambodia for assisting in sending back these people,” he said. “According to Chinese law, these people are criminals.”

Members of a Turkic-speaking ethnic minority living mostly in western China, the 20 Uighurs said they were fleeing persecution in a crackdown that followed riots in which the Chinese government said at least 197 people were killed.

Hundreds of Uighurs have been detained since then and several people have been executed for involvement in the rioting. At least 43 Uighur men have disappeared, according to Human Rights Watch.

Image by Stuck in Customs via Flickr

Twenty-two Uighurs entered Cambodia about a month ago, aided by a Christian group that has helped North Koreans fleeing their country. Two of the Uighurs have disappeared, the Cambodian government said.

Before being deported, several of the asylum seekers told the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Cambodia that they feared long jail terms or even the death penalty, according to statements reported by The Associated Press. In the statements, which had been provided to the United Nations in support of asylum applications, the Uighurs described chaotic and bloody scenes during the rioting.

“If I am returned to China, I am sure that I will be sentenced to life imprisonment or the death penalty for my involvement in the Urumqi riots,” said a 29-year-old man.

Another man, a 27-year-old teacher, said: “I can tell the world what is happening to Uighur people, and the Chinese authorities do not want this. If returned, I am certain I would be sent to prison.”

China is Cambodia’s leading investor, committing hundreds of millions of dollars for projects including dams, roads and a headquarters for the government Council of Ministers in Phnom Penh. In October, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China met Cambodia’s prime minister, Hun Sen, in Sichuan, China, and concluded a deal worth $853 million.

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Genocide charge for Khmer Rouge leader Khieu Samphan

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A UN-backed tribunal in Cambodia has charged Khieu Samphan, formerly the head of state for the Khmer Rouge, with genocide.

The move came after genocide charges were filed against two other Khmer Rouge leaders, Ieng Sary and Nuon Chea.

All the genocide charges relate to the men's treatment of Cambodia's Vietnamese and Muslim minorities.

All three men had already been charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Those charged are already in pre-trial detention although the trial is not expected to begin before 2011.

Denial

Up to two million people are thought to have died under the Khmer Rouge's rule.

Khieu Samphan, 78, has never denied these deaths, but both he and his lawyers insist that, as head of state, he was never directly responsible.

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One member of his defence team is the infamous French lawyer Jacques Verges, whose previous clients have included Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie and Venezuelan hijacker Carlos the Jackal.

Mr Verges, 83, has known Khieu Samphan since they were both involved in left-wing student activities in France in the 1950s.

WHO WERE THE KHMER ROUGE?

Maoist regime that ruled Cambodia from 1975-1979

Founded and led by Pol Pot, who died in 1998

Abolished religion, schools and currency in a bid to create agrarian utopia

Up to two million people thought to have died from starvation, overwork or execution

He says he has lived a life of poverty since the Khmer Rouge regime was toppled.

A court official confirmed that the allegations related to the treatment of two minority groups: Cham Muslims and ethnic Vietnamese people.

Image by Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia via Flickr

Researchers believe that the Khmer Rouge killed hundreds of thousands of Chams because of their religious beliefs.

The accusation of genocide carries enormous symbolic weight, says the BBC's Guy De Launey in Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh.

Final arguments were heard last month in the trial of Khmer Rouge prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, known as Comrade Duch, who has admitted being responsible for overseeing the deaths of 15,000 people.

Judges at the tribunal are expected to rule on his verdict early next year.

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• Tribunal charges 3rd ex-Khmer Rouge with genocide (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Khieu Samphan, the Khmer Rouge's 'naive' head of state (telegraph.co.uk)
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• Nazi defence is model for Khmer Rouge's main jailer (telegraph.co.uk)
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• Cambodia Khmer Rouge trial: Duch 'should serve 40 years' (telegraph.co.uk)
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Thai national arrested for espionage - The Phnom Penh Post

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Friday, 13 November 2009 16:52 Chhay Channyda and James O'Toole

A Thai national has been arrested and accused of espionage for allegedly stealing the flight schedule of fugitive former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, amid an ongoing row between Thailand and Cambodia over Thaksin’s appointment as government economics adviser, Phnom Penh police and court officials said.

Sok Phal, director of the Ministry of Interior’s Central Security Department, said 31-year-old Siwarak Chotipong, an employee at Cambodia Air Traffic Services Co., was arrested by officers from the Central Security Department at his office on Wednesday.

“He stole the special flight schedule of Mr. Thaksin and handed it to the first secretary of Thai Embassy,” Sok Phal said. “It is not his duty to do so. What he did was beyond his responsibility. He must face legal action.”

On Thursday, the Cambodian government expelled the first secretary at the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh, with Thailand responding in kind.

Cambodia Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Koy Kuong would not confirm whether the expulsion was related to the airport case.

“It’s a case of the court. It’s the court’s affair,” he said, adding that the Thai first secretary had “performed his role contrary to his position.”

Sok Phal, however, said the first secretary was directly involved and had been expelled as a result.

"He ordered the man to copy the schedule of Thaksin's return flight, and that's why he was expelled," Sok Phal said.

In Bangkok, Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya forcefully rejected the espionage accusations.

"It's not true. It is a malicious and false claim," Kasit said. "Thaksin feels he must destroy Thailand and collaborate with Hun Sen."

Thaksin was deposed in a 2006 coup and self-exiled last year to avoid a jail term for corruption charges. Last week, Cambodia announced Thaksin’s official appointment as government economics adviser, prompting Thailand to withdraw its ambassador to Phnom Penh and Cambodia to reciprocate.

Phnom Penh court deputy prosecutor Sok Roeun said Sivarak is now in pre-trial detention at Prey Sar prison and is being charged under article 19 of the 2005 Law on Archives, which covers offenses related to matters of national defence, security or public order. If convicted, Sivarak faces a jail term of between seven and 15 years and a fine of between 5 and 25 million riels (US$1198-5990).

Police are now investigating whether more people were involved with the plot, Sok Phal said.

Cambodia Stirs Tensions With Embrace of Former Thai Leader Thaksin - NYTimes.com

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By SETH MYDANS

BANGKOK — In one of his most provocative moves since being ousted in a coup three years ago, Thailand’s fugitive former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, is visiting neighboring Cambodia this week, stirring tensions between the nations and invigorating his political supporters at home.

Speaking in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, on Thursday, he accused the Thai government of “false patriotism” in long-running frictions that include an armed standoff at a disputed 11th-century temple on the nations’ common border.

But the provocation was not his words so much as his presence and his warm welcome in Cambodia, the closest he has come to his homeland as he has circled the world, from Hong Kong to London to Nicaragua to Montenegro and now to a refuge in Dubai. While he insists he wants to go home, Mr. Thaksin has been on the run as the Thai government seeks his extradition on a conviction for corruption while he was in office.

In Phnom Penh, he will be looking over the shoulders of regional heads of state, including those of Cambodia and Thailand, as they gather Friday in Singapore, just a short flight away, for a regional meeting.

“Thaksin is up to no good,” said Pavin Chachavalpongpun, an expert on Thailand at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. “I would say Thaksin is on a new offensive.

“I think both of them, their moves, have been perfectly calculated,” he added. He was referring to Mr. Thaksin and to his host, Prime Minister Hun Sen of Cambodia, who appeared to be using the visit to tweak his counterparts across the border.

On Wednesday, Cambodia rejected Thailand’s demand for Mr. Thaksin’s extradition.

Mr. Pavin said that if Mr. Thaksin could show the public that the Thai government “is incapable and unable to solve this crisis, then this will be a slap in the face of the government and will raise questions about the legitimacy of the government.”

Mr. Thaksin’s visit has escalated a confrontation between the nations that began with a dispute in 2008 over sovereignty at the Preah Vihear temple, where the two armies have fought several bloody skirmishes and remain on alert.

The two nations recalled their ambassadors last week after Mr. Hun Sen announced the appointment of Mr. Thaksin as an “economic adviser,” and Thailand said it would scrap an agreement governing negotiations over disputed offshore oil and gas deposits.

In its diplomatic note rejecting the demand for Mr. Thaksin’s extradition on Wednesday, the Cambodian government noted, in capital letters, that he had been forced from office although he had been “OVERWHELMINGLY and DEMOCRATICALLY elected by the Thai people.”

On Thursday both nations expelled an additional diplomat in a tit-for tat escalation of the diplomatic row.

Mr. Hun Sen may be looking to his own long-term interests and placing a bet on Mr. Thaksin as the future leader of Thailand, Mr. Pavin said.

In Thailand, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and his Democrat Party remain politically weak, and many analysts believe that supporters of Mr. Thaksin would be likely to win any new election.

Mr. Hun Sen, who greeted Mr. Thaksin on Monday with an embrace and a vow of “eternal friendship,” seemed to taunt Mr. Abhisit, who took office in a parliamentary vote last December, with the backing of the military and without a popular vote. He was an indirect beneficiary of the coup that ousted Mr. Thaksin.

“If Abhisit is so capable, why not dissolve the Parliament and call for a new election?” Mr. Hun Sen asked Wednesday. “What is he afraid of? I am the prime minister of Cambodia who received two-thirds of the vote, and how many votes did Abhisit receive? Or did he steal his seat from other people?”

Mr. Hun Sen, 58, and Mr. Abhisit, 45, come from different worlds, the first of them raised as a barefoot temple boy who took up arms for the Khmer Rouge, the other an Eton and Oxford man, fluent in English and in Western ways.

If Mr. Thaksin’s intention was to discomfit the Thai government and keep himself on the front pages of newspapers at home, he seems to have succeeded.

“Rejected!” read a banner headline, in red type, in The Nation, a daily newspaper, on Thursday, referring to Cambodia’s refusal to extradite Mr. Thaksin.

Filling most of the front page under the headline was a facsimile of Cambodia’s diplomatic note, with its capitalized reference to the “ABSOLUTE REALITIES” of Thai politics and an implication of Mr. Thaksin’s legitimacy as prime minister.

The newspaper also printed Mr. Thaksin’s schedule in Cambodia for the next few days: a visit to the ancient temples at Angkor, a round of golf with Mr. Hun Sen and a possible meeting with supporters bused in from Thailand.

After that, it said, renewing the mystery that Mr. Thaksin has cultivated, the schedule simply noted, “Depart Cambodia for an unknown destination.”

BBC - Thai envoy recalled from Cambodia

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Thailand has recalled its ambassador from Cambodia over its appointment of ousted Thai leader Thaksin Shinawatra as a government economic adviser.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said the step was "the first diplomatic retaliation measure" to express the concern of the Thai people.

Mr Thaksin was ousted by the military in 2006. A court convicted him in absentia of corruption last year.

Recent border skirmishes have also strained Thai-Cambodian relations.

Divisive figure

Phnom Penh announced on Wednesday that Mr Thaksin would serve as a special adviser both to the government and to Prime Minister Hun Sen.

State television said Cambodia would refuse to extradite the tycoon because it considered him a victim of political persecution.

A government spokesman told the BBC that Cambodia valued Mr Thaksin's leadership qualities and business experience and that he would be an asset to the country.

Mr Abhisit accused Cambodia of interfering in Thailand's internal affairs, and a foreign ministry official said bilateral co-operation agreements would be reviewed.

"Last night's announcement by the Cambodian government harmed the Thai justice system and really affected Thai public sentiment," Mr Abhisit said.

Mr Thaksin - who has lived mostly overseas since he was ousted - remains a divisive figure in Thailand.

Since the coup, both supporters and opponents of the former telecommunications mogul have repeatedly taken to the streets of Bangkok in large protests, some of which have turned violent.

Thailand's relationship with Cambodia has also become more volatile in recent months.

Troops have clashed sporadically around the border temple of Preah Vihear, which both claim as their territory.

MPs pass juvenile abuse statutes - The Phnom Penh Post

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PARLIAMENTARIANS voted unanimously Wednesday to approve articles of the Kingdom’s draft Penal Code that would criminalise negligence and abuse of children, breaking from several days of heated partisan debate over other aspects of the proposed legislation.

Articles 337 and 338 in Chapter 5 of the new code state that parents or guardians who damage the health of their children aged under 15 years could face prison sentences of two to five years and fines of 4 million to 10 million riels (US$958 to $2,395).

In more serious cases, when juveniles die of starvation or other causes, prison sentences may stretch to 15 years.

Hy Sophea, a secretary of state at the Ministry of Justice who addressed the National Assembly on the Penal Code on behalf of the government, explained that the penalty for death due to starvation will only apply in the case of parents who have the ability to provide for their children but do not.

“If a person is simply too poor to provide for their children, that is not a violation of the law,” he said.

Cheam Yeap, a lawmaker from the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, said that an important aspect of implementing the new Penal Code will be educating Cambodian citizens about the new provisions relating to child abuse and other offenses.

“Cambodia is still a developing country, but raising awareness about the criminal code needs to be a high priority for government institutions, parliamentarians and civil-society groups,” he said.

Mu Sochua, a lawmaker from the opposition Sam Rainsy Party, said that she supported the articles passed Wednesday because they will bolster the rights of vulnerable children, though she added that dire levels of poverty remain a threat to child welfare in Cambodia.

“We are happy to pass a law that pressures parents to take responsibility for their children, but children in Cambodia still face many other problems,” she said.

“Many are victims of child labour, trafficking, exploitation and poverty, and we estimate that 50 percent of juveniles quit school before they reach grade nine.”

Samleang Seila, the executive director of Action Pour Les Enfants, a child-rights group, said that he had not yet seen the newly passed articles, but he said that he worried about the lack of protections for civil-society groups who work on behalf of abused children.

“So far, there has not been any law that has authorised shelters and legal guardians to represent children,” he said, noting that shelters currently have no power to keep abused children when families ask for their return.

Thun Saray, president of the local rights group Adhoc, was more optimistic about the newly approved articles, though he emphasised the need for local authorities to follow through on the law’s provisions.

“I think it’s a good idea to imprison people who abuse young children, but we remain concerned about the ability of law enforcement to enforce these provisions,” he said.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JAMES O’TOOLE