A Short-changed Justice

Dear Editors:

The Khmer Rouge hybrid court has come to the conclusion on Case 002/02, convicting and sentencing Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea to life in prison based on what the Hanoi-backed Hun Sen government wants the result to be at the end. The outcome is a foregone conclusion.

This Khmer Rouge tribunal took off to an unfair start: first, it's set up in a country where numerous accomplices to the alleged crime of genocide and crime against humanity took place. Second, it was overseen by a deputy prime minister, the late Sok An, who himself was a former Khmer Rouge official at the ministry of industry and transport under Vorn Veth. Third, none of the ruling elite who were former Khmer Rouge civilian and military officials with ties to the "Killing Fields" has been called to testify or answer questions in the tribunal. Fourth, most if not all Cambodian judges and prosecutors owed their allegiance to Hanoi and to the Hun Sen regime for sending them to study in former East Germany and other countries in Eastern Europe. Fifth, witnesses live in an environment where former Khmer Rouge cadres run the country. Fears of reprisal and concerns for loss of benefit pre-occupy their minds. The suspects were presumed guilty or convicted by the public from media publicity; hence, no fair trial.

Between 1976-1977 Sok An aided and abetted Vorn Veth in a plot to topple the DK government by bringing in 108 Vietnamese commandos to free then Prince Norodom Sihanouk and his wife from the royal palace. All but 4 Vietnamese commandos were killed by the Khmer Rouge forces. Sok An managed successfully to hide 4 Vietnamese commandos under his sleeping bed until Hanoi established an invasion staging area on December 2, 1978.

Nowhere during the decade-long trial was there any mention of KR army division 09 based at Chhlong forest, Kratie province, that was aided by Vietnamese army to sabotage and prepare to launch a coup against Pol Pot faction. A pro-Hanoi Khmer Vietminh So Phim, leader of the Eastern Zone, and some others long died, but his underlings are still free today. The Division 09 was commanded by Comrade Kim, aka Chakri. Those who survived the Pol Pot purge and fled to Vietnam include Generals Hun Sen, Meas Sophea, Heng Samrin, Chea Mon, etc.

This KR trial may be ended with some form of conviction of some Khmer Rouge leaders, but it's never seen as a fair trial. It's an incomplete, short-changed justice for the Cambodian victims. As one of the victims and former inmates in a KR correctional center, I lost as many family members as anyone else. I personally see this tribunal just an attempt by those involved in the commission of a crime to wash their bloody hands.

Hassan A. Kasem