ASIA / PACIFIC
August 18, 2014
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 5
Cambodia tribunal convicts Khmer Rouge leaders
By Todd Pitman and Sopheng Cheang
The Associated Press
HNOM PENH, Cambodia — They were leaders of
Cambodia’s infamous Khmer Rouge, the fanatical
communist movement behind a 1970s reign of
terror that transformed the entire Southeast Asian nation
into a ruthless slave state — a place where cities were
emptied of their inhabitants, religion and schools were
banned, and anyone deemed a threat was executed.
When the nightmare ended, in 1979, close to 2 million
people were dead — a quarter of Cambodia’s population at
the time.
A U.N.-backed tribunal this month convicted two of the
once all-powerful men who ruled during that era of crimes
against humanity in possibly the last verdict to be issued
against the group’s aging, top members.
Although survivors welcomed the decision to impose life
sentences against Khieu Samphan, an 83-year-old former
head of state, and Nuon Chea, the movement’s 88-year-old
chief ideologue, they also say justice has come far too late
and is simply not adequate.
“Nothing can compare to the immense suffering they
imposed, no sentence can be enough. They belong in hell,
not an air-conditioned jail cell,” said Youk Chhang, who
heads the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which has
collected more than a million documents related to the
Khmer Rouge terror.
“But this gives us hope that we can learn from the past
... that we can try to prevent this from ever happening
again.”
There was no visible reaction from either of the accused
when the decisions were announced. Nuon Chea, wearing
dark sunglasses, was too weak to even to stand from his
wheelchair. Defense lawyers insisted the case was not
over and vowed to appeal within 30 days.
Summarizing the verdict, chief judge Nil Nonn said the
defendants were part of “a joint criminal enterprise” that
launched “a widespread and systematic attack against the
civilian population” after Khmer Rouge guerrillas seized
Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975.
The attack took many forms, Nil Nonn said, including
“murder, extermination, enforced disappearances,
attacks against human dignity, and political persecution.”
The case, which lasted about two years, focused on just
one of many mass killing sites and the forced exodus of
millions of people from Cambodia’s cities and towns,
where even hospitals were emptied of patients.
Top Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot had reset the clock to
“Year Zero.” Society was to be “purified.” Money was
abolished. Communal kitchens were introduced nation-
wide. The failed aim: to create an agrarian “utopia.”
Most of those who died succumbed to starvation,
medical neglect, and overwork. Marked for death were the
educated, religious or ethnic minorities, Buddhist monks,
and anyone suspected of ties with the former government
or who questioned the new rulers.
Khieu Samphan acknowledged mass killings took
P
place. But during the trial he claimed he was just a
figurehead with no real authority. He called allegations
that he ordered executions a “fairy tale.”
Nuon Chea, known as Brother No. 2 because he was Pol
Pot’s trusted deputy, also denied responsibility, saying
that Vietnamese forces — not the Khmer Rouge — had
killed Cambodians en masse.
The hybrid tribunal, comprised of Cambodian and
international jurists, began operations in 2006. It has
been heavily criticized for spending too much — more
than $200 million so far — and doing too little.
The court has convicted only one other defendant —
prison director Kaing Guek Eav, who was sentenced to life
imprisonment in 2011.
The current trial began in 2011 with four senior Khmer
Rouge leaders; only two remain. Former Foreign Minister
Ieng Sary died in 2013, while his wife, Social Affairs
Minister Ieng Thirith, was deemed unfit to stand trial due
to dementia in 2012.
The group’s leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998 at the age of 73,
evading a trial altogether.
Chea Leang, a co-prosecutor, said judgement “will not
turn back time, it won’t give back life to those who were
executed, or those who died of heat and exhaustion or lack
of food or water or medical assistance.
“Yet I believe it will give some justice .... denied to them
for so long,” she said.
Survivors of the regime travelled from across the
country to witness the historic day, filling several
hundred seats available to the public at the tribunal. After
the verdict was read, several former prisoners wept and
hugged. Many said they felt mixed reactions.
“The crimes are huge, and just sentencing them to life in
OVERDUE JUSTICE. In this 1955 photo, Poch Younly, top right,
his wife Som Seng Eath, center, holding her son Sonimith, two other
sons, Sanity, right, and Tyvanna, left, pose for family photo in Phnom
Penh, Cambodia. Nearly 40 years ago, hunched on the floor of the wood
and leaf hut he was forced to live in away from his children, Cambodian
school inspector Poch Younly kept a secret diary vividly recounting the
horrors of life under the Khmer Rouge, the radical communist regime
whose extreme experiment in social engineering took the lives of 1.7
million Cambodians who died of overwork, medical neglect, starvation,
and execution. (AP Photo/Courtesy of the Documentation Center of
Cambodia)
jail is not fair,” said 54-year-old Chea Sophon, who spent
years in hard labor camps building dams and working in
rice fields. His brother was killed during the Khmer Rouge
era.
“But what can I do?” he said. “Even if they die many
times over, it would not be enough.”
Another survivor, 58-year-old Khuth Vouern, said she
felt a sense of relief that justice was finally served, even if
it came generations late.
“I have been waiting for this day for many years,” said
the woman, whose husband and several other family
members were killed during the Khmer Rouge’s rule.
“Now, for the first time, my mind feels at least some
degree of peace.”
Both Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea will be tried by
the same tribunal later this year again on separate
charges of genocide. Because of the advanced age and poor
health of the defendants, the case against them was
divided into separate trials in an effort to render justice
before they die.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the verdict was
a “milestone for the Cambodian people who have suffered
some of the worst horrors of the 20th century” and said the
U.S. would continue to support the tribunal.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon took note of the
judgement, “which marks a momentous day for the people
of Cambodia and for international criminal justice,”
deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.
Amnesty International called the verdict “a crucial
step.” But it also noted several “troubling” obstacles the
tribunal has faced along the way — including the refusal
of senior Cambodian government officials to give evidence
and allegations of political interference.
It called for the remaining cases to be completed “in a
timely and fair manner without political interference.”
Investigators are looking into issuing indictments
against mid-level Khmer Rouge officials — something the
government has opposed.
Authoritarian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government is
full of former Khmer Rouge higher-ups — himself
included — and has little to gain from the trials.
Associated Press writers Jocelyn Gecker and Grant
Peck in Bangkok, Thailand contributed to this report.
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Asbestos pushed in Asia as product for the poor
By Katy Daigle
AP Environment Writer
AISHALI, India — The
executives mingled over tea
and sugar cookies, and the
chatter was upbeat. Their industry,
they said at a conference in the
Indian capital, saves lives and brings
roofs, walls, and pipes to some of the
world’s poorest people.
Their product? Asbestos. Outlawed
in much of the developed world, it is
still going strong in the developing
one. In India alone, the world’s big-
gest asbestos importer, it’s a $2 bil-
lion industry providing 300,000 jobs.
The International Labor Organiza-
tion (ILO), World Health Organi-
zation (WHO), medical researchers,
and more than 50 countries say the
mineral should be banned; asbestos
fibers lodge in the lungs and cause
disease. The ILO estimates 100,000
people die from workplace exposure
every year.
But the industry executives at the
asbestos conference, held in a luxury
New Delhi hotel, said the risks are
overblown.
Instead, they described their busi-
ness as a form of social welfare for
V
hundreds of thousands of impover-
ished Indians still living in flimsy,
mud-and-thatch huts.
“We’re here not only to run our
businesses, but to also serve the
nation,” said Abhaya Shankar, a
director of India’s Asbestos Cement
Products Manufacturers Association.
Yet there are some poor Indians
trying to keep asbestos out of their
communities.
Vaishali
In the farming village of Vaishali,
in the eastern state of Bihar,
residents became outraged by the
construction of an asbestos factory in
their backyard.
They had learned about the
dangers of asbestos from a school
boy’s science textbooks, and were
worried asbestos fibers would blow
into their tiny thatch homes. Their
children, they said, could contract
lung diseases most Indian doctors
would never test for, let alone treat.
They petitioned for the factory to be
halted. But in December 2012, its
permit was renewed, inciting thou-
sands to rally on a main road for 11
hours. Amid the chaos, a few dozen
villagers demolished the partially
built factory.
“It was a moment of desperation,” a
teacher said on condition of anonym-
ity for fear of retribution from the
company. “There was no other way
for us to express our outrage.” The
company later filed lawsuits, still
pending, accusing several villagers of
vandalism and theft.
Asbestos bans
Durable and heat-resistant, asbes-
tos was long a favorite insulation
material in the west.
Medical experts say inhaling any
form of asbestos can lead to deadly
diseases 20 to 40 years later,
including lung cancer, mesothelioma,
and asbestosis, or the scarring of the
lungs.
Dozens of countries — including
Japan, Argentina, and all European
Union nations — have banned it
entirely. Others like the U.S. have
severely curtailed its use.
The asbestos lobby says the
mineral has been unfairly maligned
by western nations that used it
irresponsibly. It also says one of the
six forms of asbestos is safe:
chrysotile, or white asbestos, which
accounts for more than 95 percent of
all asbestos used since 1900.
Continued on page 8
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