JULY 27, 2010
By DAVID J. SCHEFFER
The Wall Street Journal
The first Khmer Rouge genocide conviction lays the legal groundwork for bringing other offenders to justice.
One might think that the conviction Monday of Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, for crimes against humanity was a foregone conclusion. During his 72-day trial before a U.N.-backed tribunal in Phnom Penh, Duch confessed his role as head of the notorious Tuol Sleng Prison in the torture and killing of at least 12,272 individuals between 1975 and '79. But in fact many observers in the courtroom and around the world were eagerly waiting to read the verdict. That's because the legal reasoning behind Duch's conviction will shape the tribunal's upcoming effort to bring senior Khmer Rouge leaders to justice.
The co-prosecutors largely won the legal battle over Duch's criminal liability, and set the stage for vigorous prosecution of the four senior-most Khmer Rouge leaders who next stand trial. The trial chamber discovered the big idea behind the Khmer Rouge atrocities: The criminal persecution of an unprecedented proportion of a nation's citizens because leaders had the specific intent to discriminate against them on political grounds. During the regime of Pol Pot, under which an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians perished, or one-quarter of the population, anyone could be accused of being an "enemy" of the Khmer Rouge.
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