Ieng Thirith’s Detention Order
After the pre-trial hearing, Ieng Thirith, a former first lady, will still be detained and be awaiting the trial at the ECCC when one of the judges, Prak Kimsan, announced that she lost her appeal and that the detention order is still effective and necessary.
Her Cambodian lawyer, Phat Pouv Seang, lamented that the pre-trial decision wasn’t fair because the conditions raised in the case were not considered at all and should be at least addressed more clearly. He tried to claim that she was in very bad shape in terms of physical and mental illness.
Dressed attractively in a white blouse with a traditionally-patterned skirt and a Cambodian traditional scarf around her neck, she really wanted to talk to the judge in response to his decision, Phat Pouv Seang said.
Uprooting Ethnic minorities During KR Regime
The Khmer Rouge attempted not only to enslave and kill many people they viewed as their enemies (KGB and CIA) but also to eliminate the minorities like Vietnamese and Chams in Cambodia. Many Chams were very poor victims from the regime because they faced a serious racial discrimination. Anyone with a strange accent of Cham or Vietnamese could be very likely to be executed on the spot. There were many inhuman or cruel acts toward those minorities. Those were very hard to imagine. Even animals were treated better than that. It was actually war against the humanity!