Khmer Rouge prison chief gets 35 years for war crimes (first verdict for the U.N.-backed tribunal)

[Turborama]

Source: CNN International

The Cambodian war crimes tribunal found the man who ran a notorious torture prison guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity, murder and torture Monday in a historic first verdict for the U.N.-backed tribunal.

Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, was sentenced to 35 years in prison. He was the head of the S-21 prison, where at least 14,000 people died.

Few people brought to the prison made it out alive; only about a dozen were found by the Vietnamese who invaded Cambodia in 1979.

Duch has acknowledged his role overseeing the prison but has sought release after 10 years in detention, angering survivors.

Outside the court on Monday, hundreds of Cambodians, including the Muslim minority known as Cham, watched previous court sessions on large television screens.

Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/07/25/cambodia.khmer.rouge.verdict/index.html?hpt=T1#fbid=5tFS21of5oJ

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Khmer Rouge prison chief convicted

Source: Al Jazeera English

Cambodia's UN-backed court has found Kaing Guek Eav, the chief of the Khmer Rouge's S-21 prison, guilty of crimes against humanity.

=snip=

First verdict

The verdict was the first by the court, established in 2006 after nearly a decade of negotiations between the government and the UN.

Duch is the only senior Khmer Rouge figure to have acknowledged responsibility to the tribunal.

During nine months of hearings last year, he repeatedly begged forgiveness for overseeing the murders of around 14,000 people at the Tuol Sleng torture centre over three decades ago.

Full article: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2010/07/2010726352170386.html

IN DEPTH

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2009/02/200921365749771141.html">Profile: Duch
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2007/06/2008525185718763604.html">The legacy of Year Zero
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2007/06/2008525184714372176.html">Cambodia's long wait for justice
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2007/06/200852519356875751.html">Surviving the Khmer Rouge
http://aljazeera.net/english/news/asia-pacific/2009/02/200921742520426424.html">Timeline: The Khmer Rouge

VIDEOS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj1EKXg3Duo">Surviving Tuol Sleng
I knew Pol Pot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKVx2exYazQ">Part 1 | http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9Lo1uZ5EZg">Part 2

Survivors' stories:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQBbYE8CvRk&feature=channel_page">The artist
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43l4r_FySQA&feature=channel_page">The prince

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfFcQ33TUak">Al Jazeera English's Harry Fawcett visits the former Tuol Sleng prison, which was run by Duch

http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/interactive/2010/07/world/explainer.cambodia.genocide/multi.tab.explainer.swf?hpt=C1">CNN International's interactive guide on the trials

[Warpy]

1. It might take over 30 years to get human monsters to justice

but those of us who care never stop trying.

Are you watching this, Bushco?

You will have to spend the rest of your rotten lives wondering when that knock at the door will come.

[Turborama]

3. My thoughts exactly

Now the precedent has been set, maybe the next big one we're all hoping for will take less than 30 years?

[madokie]

14. Thats my thoughts too Warpy

as long as I'm still alive I'll be pushing,or pulling whichever the case may be for justice.

[superconnected]

16. +1

[rpannier]

2. More than he gave to his victims

Glad he's going to jail

[Bitwit1234]

4. Why don't they indicte Bush and Cheney and their Regime

since our own congress saw fit to let them go. I wish someone would hold them accountable for their war crimes.

[Ross K]

5. Almost makes we wish Dick a long life

Almost! :evilgrin:

[madokie]

15. I do wish the dick a long life and for that very reason

death is or would be too easy for the likes of him

[Solly Mack]

6. K&R

"The gruesome litany of torture included pulling out prisoners' toenails, administering electric shocks, waterboarding — a form of simulated drowning — and medical experiments that ended in death."

[gratuitous]

9. So waterboarding is torture again

Yeah, I'd say Bush administration officials might be a little nervous about this. Of course, since we're all Exceptional Americans, we're beyond the reach of international tribunals. For now. I wonder if there aren't a couple of Obama administration officials reconsidering their set-in-concrete stance not to investigate U.S. policy and prosecution of two illegal invasions and occupations?

[Solly Mack]

10. In another article, waterboarding is downplayed as a harsh interrogation tactic

and not called the torture that it is....but then the article was about the CIA/U.S. governments use of waterboarding/torture and not some other country.


Still....maybe.

[Jefferson23]

7. Great news! n/t

[Ichingcarpenter]

8. The 'War Crimes' included 'Waterboarding'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/25/AR2010072503235.html

Khmer Rouge's chief jailer guilty of war crimes, which tells us that "67-year-old Kaing Guek Eav - also known as Duch..." was "convicted in Monday's verdict of war crimes and crimes against humanity." - for crimes that included "Torture used to extract confessions included pulling out prisoners' toenails, administering electric shocks and waterboarding."

The above article clearly says that waterboarding is torture. "Torture used...included...waterboarding" which was a WAR CRIME


Hello?........... General Hayden........ did you hear or read that?

[BakedAtAMileHigh]

11. The KR Was Well Supported by the US

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/Support_PolPot_RS.html

Thus it was that an American policy took root-to provide the Khmer Rouge with food, financial aid and military aid beginning soon after their ouster. The aim, in conjunction with China and long-time American client state, Thailand, was to restore Pol Pot's troops to military capability as the only force which could make the Vietnamese withdraw their army, leading to the overthrow of the Cambodian government.

President Carter's National Security Adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, has stated that in the spring of 1979: "I encouraged the Chinese to support Pol Pot. I encouraged the Thai to help the . The question was how to help the Cambodian people. Pol Pot was an abomination. We could never support him. But China could."

(...)

In the 1979-81 period, the World Food Program, which was strongly under US influence, gave almost $12 million in food to the Thai Army to distribute to predominantly Khmer Rouge camps by the border.

In 1982, trying to remove the smell from the Khmer Rouge, the United States put together a coalition composed of the Khmer Rouge and two "non-communist" groups also opposed to the Cambodian government, one headed by former Cambodian ruler, Prince Sihanouk.
The coalition became the recipient of much aid from the US and China, mainly funneled through Thailand. The American aid, by the late 1980s, reached $5 million officially, with the CIA providing between $20 and $24 million behind Congress's back. The aid was usually referred to as "non-lethal" or "humanitarian", but any aid freed up other money to purchase military equipment in the world's arms markets. Officially, Washington was not providing any of this aid to the Khmer Rouge, but it knew full well that Pol Pot's forces were likely to be the ultimate beneficiaries. As one US official put it: "Of course, if the coalition wins, the Khmer Rouge will eat the others alive". In any event, the CIA and the Chinese were supplying arms directly as well to the Khmer Rouge.

[mike r]

12. Give him to the families of his victims

[LostinVA]

13. Literally less than ten people made it out alive

Even white Westerners were tortured and murdered. When people were finally killed, they were taken to a field and basically beaten to death, painfully and rather slowly, with chains or clubs. Horrible.

Duch was also a HUGE fan of waterboarding by the way.

Wikipedia has a good article on S-21.

[derby378]

17. Uh, guys? It's only 19 years in prison for Duch

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2010/0726/Khmer-Rouge-executioner-found-guilty-but-Cambodians-say-sentence-too-light

[superconnected]

18. bump.