KRT-Khmer Rouge Trial Portal

Duch sentenced to 30 years

KRTrial — 2010-07-27T01:11:47+01:00

Cambodia’s war crimes tribunal today handed down its first guilty verdict against a senior Khmer Rouge figure, Tuol Sleng prison director Duch, for crimes committed under the regime more than 30 years ago. Judges at the United Nations-backed court sentenced Duch to 35 years in prison. However, they reduced his sentence by five years after ruling that he had been illegally detained by a military court following his arrest in 1999. Duch's prison term was reduced by a further 11 years for...

Day of reckoning

KRTrial — 2010-07-27T00:50:58+01:00

TO the right is the face of a survivor, photographed yesterday, one of the few who made it out of Tuol Sleng, or S-21, alive. In July of last year, Bou Meng described for the Khmer Rouge tribunal the months he spent at the secret torture facility – how he was subjected to beatings and electric shocks during interrogation sessions, and how he was spared because of his ability to paint 3-metre-high portraits of Pol Pot, a task he carried out under the watchful eye of commandant Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch...

KRT on track for Case 002 indictments

KRTrial — 2010-07-17T00:47:20+01:00

THE Khmer Rouge tribunal has announced a formal end to its investigations in Case 002, which involves former regime figures Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirith and Nuon Chea, after the conclusion of all appeals related to the investigatory stage of the proceedings...

All Windows and Doors Were Closed

KRTrial — 2010-04-10T00:49:57+01:00

The annual May 20 ceremony, called Anger Day or Remembrance Day, marks the day in 1976 when the Khmer Rouge leaders decided to transform Cambodia into a completely agrarian society that led to the death of nearly two million Cambodians. It is usually celebrated in places where there were mass killings during the Khmer Rouge regime. Kampong Tralach pagoda was used as prison or detention center by the Khmer Rouge during its rule of Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. All windows and doors were closed...

A Narration of Carvings

KRTrial — 2010-04-09T17:43:30+01:00

The hunger, loss, hardship and atrocity in the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 until 1979 ended 30 years ago. However, the cruel activities and the sufferings resulting from this regime still exist in the minds of the survivors whenever they think of the Khmer Rouge regime. Similar to some other pagoda in Cambodia. Wat Samroung Khnong in Battambang province, about one kilometer north of the town, was used as a prison and killing place...

Music Blared from loudspeakers

KRTrial — 2010-04-07T16:36:30+01:00

A 62-year-old Buddhist layman, Yim Smoa is talking loudly against the sound of the loudspeaker blaring 1960s-love songs nearby. He is talking about what happened at Wat Batheay pagoda in Kampong Cham province during the Khmer Rouge regime. “During the killings, the Khmer Rouge played music from the loudspeaker so that the sound of the speakers overwhelmed the screams of the victims,” said the Buddhist layman. During the Pol Pot regime Yin Smoa worked and lived with 20 other families...

The Tangible Khmer Rouge Aftermaths

KRTrial — 2010-04-07T01:00:42+01:00

You see? What has been left from the Khmer Rouge regime are those,” Oem Thoy, 58, Ampe Phnom villager said, pointing his finger to a well-constructed concrete stupa. The stupa is full of skulls and bones of Khmer Rouge victims at Ampe Phnom Memorial in Kampong Speu province, “It is so vital that we keep those remains to show the next generations who have no experience of the Khmer Rouge regime”, he added. Apart from the memorial, Ampe Phnom resort is well-known for tourism in Kampong Speu province. Visitors can have a rest in the thatched-roof huts, get fresh air and eat delicious roasted chicken...

The Excavated Bones Went Back Into the Ground

KRTrial — 2010-04-06T19:21:36+01:00

The remains of the Khmer Rouge regime victims in Daun Dei village have all gone back into the ground after thirty years, during which they had been kept and stored in a stupa. In the early 1980s hundreds of Khmer Rouge victims’ remains had been taken out from dozens of small and big pits. The villagers and the local authority wanted to keep those remains as evidence of the Khmer Rouge regime...

Every Family Had to Collect Five Skulls

KRTrial — 2010-03-29T20:38:19+01:00

Many bones were found in rice fields and inside Wat Koh Keo pagoda known as Wat Ta Loas Chass, which was used as a hospital during the Pol Pot regime. After the collapse of the regime the villagers needed the land for farming so they tried to remove all the bones from their rice paddies. A 54-year-old resident in Ta Loas Chass commune, Mrs. Chum Va said that in 1979 the bones were scattered over the rice fields and the small hills behind the pagoda...

Where Most Chinese were Killed

KRTrial — 2010-03-23T19:29:49+01:00

China was the alleged supported of Pol Pot’s government between 1975 and 1979. However, its close ally, the Khmer Rouge, killed a lot of Chinese in Cambodia, especially at Tuol Ang in Takeo province during its Democratiic Kampuchea. This is according to Taing Muoy Kear, 61, Prey Khla villager and...

Tuol Sleng torture survivor starts group for Khmer Rouge victims

KRTrial — 2010-02-05T02:41:20+01:00

CHUM Mey, a 79-year-old who is among the few known living survivors of Tuol Sleng prison, has established a new organisation to support victims of the Khmer Rouge. The former mechanic testified in June as a civil party in the Khmer Rouge tribunal’s first case, that of Tuol Sleng prison chief Kaing Guek Eav. On Wednesday, he received official permission from the Ministry of Interior to establish his group ...

Civil party reforms at KRT

KRTrial — 2010-02-02T20:02:09+01:00

THE Khmer Rouge tribunal will convene a plenary session next week to discuss reforms to civil party participation, including the consolidation of their courtroom representation under a single set of co-lawyers. “Due to the high numbers of Civil Party applications received in relation to Case 002 and the complexity of the case, there is a need to streamline and consolidate Civil Party participation,” the court said in a statement on Thursday ...

The ECCC Should Address Starvation to Fulfill its Mandate

KRTrial — 2010-01-20T19:25:51+01:00

Constant hunger was perhaps the most universal form of suffering endured by Cambodians during the period of Democratic Kampuchea (DK) from 1975-1979. The Khmer Rouge (KR) regime forced all Cambodians to eat communally and outlawed eating privately or raising private crops. These actions effectively stripped the population of the ability to feed itself and made Cambodians wholly reliant on communal rations for sustenance. These rations however, were woefully insufficient, typically consisting of two small ladles...

KR Tribunal: Civil party increase for Case No 2

KRTrial — 2010-01-11T18:41:21+01:00

The Khmer Rouge tribunal has so far approved 246 civil party applications for its second case, up from 93 for the case against Tuol Sleng prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, UN court spokesman Lars Olsen said Thursday. The tribunal had received 3,533 civil party applications along with 3,598 complaints as of the end of December. All applications are to be processed by the time co-investigating judges issue their closing order against Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Khieu Samphan and Ieng Thirith ...

Chea Sim warns KRT against 'ill intentions'

KRTrial — 2010-01-11T18:36:13+01:00

A SENIOR government official has again warned the Khmer Rouge tribunal not to threaten national reconciliation and development, echoing earlier government concerns about additional prosecutions of former regime figures. “We oppose any attempts to use the chamber for ill-intentions that would have an impact on peace, national reconciliation and development, which are our hard-won achievements,” said Chea Sim, president of the Cambodian People’s Party ...

Govt marks liberation from KR

KRTrial — 2010-01-11T18:29:17+01:00

THOUSANDS turned out on Thursday morning for celebrations marking the 31st anniversary of the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge regime, reigniting an annual debate about the meaning and legacy of the event. During an official ceremony at the headquarters of the Cambodian People’s Party, party chairman Chea Sim paid tribute to the Vietnamese offensive that led the overthrew of Pol Pot in 1979 ...

A Hospital, a place to Die

KRTrial — 2009-12-30T18:25:42+01:00

If we feel sick, we go to the hospital and know the doctor will treat us. However, some people who went to a hospital located on the Wat Sokuntharam ground during the Pol Pot regime tried to find a way to leave the hospital after they were inside for a couple of days. During the Pol Pot regime, Wat Sokuntharam, also known as Wat Skun in Kampong Cham province, was one of the former hospitals. Mr. Pat Choy, 52, who presently is the Pana Village Chief, recalled what he experience while going for treatment with his family in the Khmer Rouge time ...

Khmer Rouge: Japan funds KRT records storehouse

KRTrial — 2009-12-30T02:18:52+01:00

Japan has pledged US$2 million for a storehouse of Khmer Rouge tribunal documents and a legal centre for the “socially vulnerable”, according to a press release issued Friday by the Japanese embassy in Phnom Penh. The storehouse will “enable Cambodian and foreign nationals who have interests in the tribunal, such as researchers, lawyers and students”, to access public court records, the release states. It will be housed next to the Bar Association building ...

New KRT co-prosecutor checks in

KRTrial — 2009-12-24T20:13:27+01:00

OF the cases he has tried, Andrew Cayley, the newly appointed international co-prosecutor at the Khmer Rouge tribunal, can identify only one that bears a strong resemblance to those at the Khmer Rouge tribunal: the case against Radislav Krstic, a Bosnian Serb Army commander who was charged in connection with the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, in which more than 8,000 men and boys were killed ...

Ieng Thirith charged with genocide at KRT

KRTrial — 2009-12-24T20:04:10+01:00

THE Khmer Rouge tribunal on Monday charged former social action minister Ieng Thirith with genocide, a court spokeswoman said, making her the fourth suspect to face the charge. Yuko Maeda said the case against Ieng Thirith had been expanded to include genocide and war crimes, as well as homicide, torture and persecution under the 1956 Cambodian penal code, which was in effect during the regime. Ieng Thirith had previously been charged with crimes against humanity ...