John 13th December 2011
This article is added it to the end of the Khmer Rouge section (check through the index on the right of screen). I think it is significant in that 80% of Cambodian live in villages and KNOW these men are guilty…and the villagers TALK to each other. We reprint it here in the Blog in its entirety. John.
The effects of the Khmer Rouge War Crimes Tribunal on our villages in Kamchay Mear.
The photo is of Ming (Auntie) who is around 90 years of age and has excellent mental faculties. The village and Auntie open up about the Khmer Rouge and the Vietnam War
I first arrived in Cambodia as a tourist in 2004 and visited Chuor Ph’av village in early 2005. Since that time no one has ever mentioned either the US bombing of much of Eastern Cambodia during the Vietnam War or even the Khmer Rouge until one week ago. (I am publishing this on December 13 2011) Indeed I was initially told a half truth – “You are the first white man anyone has met in this village in anyones memory.” said to me by Auntie in 2004. Auntie is around 90 years old now and blind (referred to frequently through this website.).. She now tells me – she doesn’t count angry soldiers with guns as people she has ‘met’.
The people of the villages listen to the news on radios. I now know that they have been fully aware of all the preparations and arguments and now the Khmer Rouge trials themselves –
Khmer Rouge Tribunal
First of all there was Comrade Duch the beaurocratic psychopath who ran the S21 torture and interroagtion prison from which, nightly, inmates were taken to the Killing Fields. In all Duch oversaw the murder of some 16,000 people during the KR four year reign. He admitted guilt but he repeatedly claimed that he was following strict orders from the leaders on pain of death if he refused. He was found guilty and is in prison…… SO, then everyone waited for the trial of the ‘leaders’ – the obviously guilty ones.
Over the years many ‘leaders’ have of course died of old age – effectively leaving four of the most senior to stand trial. Recently the ‘First Lady’ of the regime, Ieng Thirith has been found to have what is probably Alzheimer’s disease and has been released.
NB: EDITED TODAY BY ADMIN. DECEMBER 14
PLEASE SEE THE BLOG DATED 14 DECEMBER.
IN A SURPRISE BUT WELCOME DECISION IENG THIRITH WILL NOT BE RELEASED BUT HELD IN CUSTODY TO SEE IF HER MENTAL STATE IMPROVES
(She is probably as guilty as the others and was Minister of Social Action in the Government of ‘Democratic Kampuchea’) EDIT DEC 14: MANY ARE RELIEVED THAT SHE REMAINS IN CUSTODY>
That leaves the three men.
Nuon Chea – Brother number two (Pol Pot was number one). He was regarded as Pol Pot’s deputy.
Kheu Samphan – President (although Pol Pot was above him)
Iieng Sery – Foreign Minister with the government of Democratic Kampuchea.
Our villagers and people across the country have listened intently as the three men have been accused. Brother number two first – accused of everything imaginable. and that he oversaw and demanded all the crimes we know of. Many are ready to testify that it was all done on the orders of the regime leaders.
So everyone waited for the initial defence responses from these three….. One by one the three old men simply angrily accused everyone else of committing the crimes they are accused of. They demanded apologies and asked to be released.
Brother number 2, Nuon Chea, claims he is COMPLETELY innocent and that it was ‘the Vietnamese and a few rogue elements in the Khmer Rouge who committed atrocities.’ He went on to claim that he loved Cambodia and that in fact he was a hero… As if to ‘ice the cake’ he added that monks would be his witness that he loved Cambodia…….
….. {several international commentators pointed out that it would be difficult to find any monks who survived the Khmer Rouge since most of them were murdered on the orders of these very men!!}
All three are saying the same sorts of things and saying that they new nothing of torture, rapes and forced marriages to soldiers, not to mention 2 million deaths.
Soon the forced evacuation of all cities will be addressed and surely they can’t deny that they ordered this (it was right at the beginning). Some of the worst things happened on these marches to the rural areas.. All hospitals had been emptied so of course, a great many died en route. It is probable that 1000s died in those first days and then as crops failed and the regime got harsher and harsher, 1000s died of starvation.
There have now been three weeks of initial statements from both prosecution and defence – leaving the nation, first in shock at their claims of innocence but now there is anger and some confusion.
The feeling of Khmer people seems to be, ‘how can they obviously believe that they are innocent?’
In Chuor Ph’av village–
In the Kamchay Mear District of Prey Veng in South Eastern Cambodia, the older men and women – people over 40 – are TALKING for the first time since 1979.
Three weeks ago in our villages it was rice cutting time (harvesting) – hard work – all the daylight hours -. In the evening, people gathered and ate and drank rice wine – and talked and talked and talked.
The Khmer Rouge was supposedly all about an ‘Agrarian Revolution’ – a return to absolute farming basics… basically the Stone Age….. SO you might expect that dirt poor rice farmers in Prey Veng would be spared or even applauded… remember the Khmer Rouge were evacuating everyone to rural areas and were killing ALL ‘educated’ people.- but no – the villages suffered too. Firstly the soldiers AND the leaders took everything they needed and wanted. Rape was the norm and forced marriage to KR soldiers, universal.
The house in which I stay was built in 1980 and is a poor replacemnt for the family home that the KR dimantled, stole and took away along with ALL the family’s possessions. the soldiers ordered AUNTIE (photo) and Chanthou’s mother and 5 brothers and sisters of Chanthou (she was born in 1979) outside. Chanthou’s father (died in 2000) protested about now having no home, so the Khmer Rouge punished him by burying him up to his neck where his house once stood.
His wife and children were not allowed to approach him. Luckily that brigade was called away after one week and the family dug him out alive.
The brigade returned and were on their usual food hunt…. this meant they took ALL food and stock – all animals – leaving the village with nothing.. Chanthou’s mother hid three eggs in the mouths of three children. The soldiers were looking everywhere – the boy, Mao (now a policeman) started to choke and coughed up an egg. His mother (still alive today) was very lucky – she was taken away to prison but only for one week. People throughout Cambodia were routinely killed for similar offences.
BUT for the villages, particularly of Eastern Cambodia, this hadn’t been the beginning of their problems:
Vietnam War
In a straight line (by plane) the Vietnam border is 18 kilometres away; it’s rough terrain and at the time, jungle; no one normally crossed over.
During the Vietnam War (immediately prior to the KR years) the US government denied it ever made incursions into Cambodia and certainly strongly denied the US was dropping any bombs on Cambodian soil. Cambodia was not an enemy. Cambodia was a FRIEND.
HOWEVER, US action in Cambodia soon became known as Kissenger and Nixon’s ‘Secret War’.
The USA was to drop more bombs on Cambodia than they had dropped on Japan during the whole of World War 2.
Being so close to the border and fairly close to Saigon, Kamchay Mear suffered badly.
The people of Chuor Ph’av, led by Auntie, told me, ‘The American soldiers came often and were looking for Vitnamese. Soon we had to hide pale skinned Cambodians because the Americans killed people with pale skin in our villages incase they were Vietnamese.” Auntie didn’t know how many were killed “because we had to keep moving but it must have been many’.
If that’s not bad enough, US bombs alone killed 500,000 innocent Cambodian civillians. Mao, the poliemen in the egg incident (above) showed me three places in two fields right by the house – one minute walk away – where bombs were dropped. (there is a map showing bomb sites in the Khmer Rouge section of the website).
Future of the Khmer Rouge TribunalThere is much concern in local and international media that more people should be tried for the Khmer Rouge atrocities – but it is looking unlikely.
So far, the effect of the tribunal, especially the opening salvos with the three leaders, is I think of great value already. People are talking and sharing and SOME justice will be done. As legal observers have suggested, Cambodia cannot help but learn something of good law and justice. The Cambodian justice system is well used to political influence in some legal decisions – there may be some element of that, but without doubt these three men are guilty and the fact that they are denying it is leading to very healthy discussions.
I’ve said it before, but it can be repeated -The Khmer Rouge methods resulted in the most successful selctive mass murder in the world’s history by selecting educated people to kill. You see, it had occurred to these leaders of the Khmer Rouge, quite rightly, that the greatest enemy of their political system was ‘opposition’ – and since they also wanted to return the nation to what was in essence, The Stone Age, killing educated people would solve all problems. The tribunal continues.
