Original report from Washington
03 September 2009
Gathering at a Buddhist temple in the US state of Maryland over the weekend, a group of Khmer Rouge survivors sobbed as they tried to recall their suffering under the regime and expressed doubts over whether a UN-backed court could deliver enough justice for them.
There were survivors like 67-year-old Ty Kasem, who wore sunglasses to conceal his tears as he recalled leaving his home in Phnom Penh with a wife who had just given birth, to his fifth child, a week earlier. He pretended to be a fool, he said, to avoid suspicion from the guerrillas who had overrun the capital.
And like Keo Veasna, 63, whose name means Lucky, and who successfully hid his background as a soldier from the rebels. He was fortunate enough to escape a Khmer Rouge detention center, after a brief internment, and to escape, on several occasions, death from the regime, who suspected him of Lon Nol loyalties.
Sunday’s meeting, at Buddhikaram pagoda, brought around 30 people and was organized by Applied Social Research Institute of Cambodia in collaboration with Cambodian-American Association for Democracy and Human Rights.
Corruption, scandal and restriction of prosecution, to only five suspects so far, have made participants doubt the UN-backed tribunal will bring a satisfying justice to the regime that saw the death of as many as 2 million Cambodians and destroyed the fabric of the country.
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