Monday, Jul. 26, 2010
By Douglas Gillison / Phnom Penh
Time Magazine (USA)
Cambodians hoping for a punishment to match their suffering expected more. In its first verdict, the U.N.-backed tribunal established in 2006 to try the leaders and decision makers of the Pol Pot regime convicted the regime's secret police chief of war crimes and crimes against humanity, sentencing him on Monday to 35 years in prison for the murders of as many of 14,000 people.
But in an irony few victims will appreciate, the court allowed the accused, Kaing Guek Eav, 67, who is best known by his revolutionary name "Duch," a five-year reduction for violations of his human rights due to his excessive pretrial detention by Cambodian authorities, which lasted eight years. In addition, Duch — a Christian convert who, during his nine-month trial admitted to ordering the executions of 160 children in a single day in June 1977 — was credited for the 11 years he has served since his arrest in 1999. Only 19 years of his sentence remain, and if Cambodian law is applied, he could, in theory, be eligible for parole in just years 12 years. (See photos of the rise and fall of the Khmer Rouge.)
In the 500-seat public gallery, which was filled to capacity, the largest of any courtroom in the world, there was uncomprehending silence as Judge Nil Nonn, the Trial Chamber's president, read out the judgment and the arithmetic of the sentence's reductions.
Later, outside the courthouse, Chum Mey, 79, one of the handful who survived internment at S-21 and who lost his family to the regime, said he was outraged. "I will never accept such a decision," he said. "I am not happy with this court. My tears have dropped twice already because it's not what I wished."
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