UN appeals to Cambodia to respect free speech obligations

Aug 5, 2009
DPA

Phnom Penh - The UN's human rights office in Cambodia Wednesday appealed to the judiciary to respect the country's national and international obligations on freedom of speech, saying that a recent spate of lawsuits risks stifling public debate.

Cambodia's courts have found against three defendants in recent weeks, and fined or jailed them for disinformation or defamation.

Human rights groups have complained that the cases, which were brought by the government against perceived critics, are politically motivated.

'Under international law, freedom of expression is to be restricted only in exceptional cases, where clearly necessary and proportionate to the value that the restriction seeks to protect,' the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement.

Opposition parliamentarian Mu Sochua was found guilty Tuesday of defaming Prime Minister Hun Sen and fined 16.5 million riel (4,124 dollars).

In June, the editor of an opposition-aligned newspaper was fined and jailed for a year for articles alleging corruption within the government.

And last month, the director of a local cultural organization was fined and sentenced to two years in prison, in absentia, for suggesting that new lighting at Cambodia's Angkor Wat temple could damage the stonework.

The government has consistently denied the charges are politically motivated, saying it is acting only to maintain social order.

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Cambodian Students Debate with EU on Co-op Relations

Dignified and senior representatives of the European Union and European Commission on Tuesday led a debate with some 300 Cambodian students on relations between the EU and Cambodia.
In a statement released Tuesday by the European Union, it said the debate was led by British Ambassador Andrew Mace, representing the European Union Presidency, and Mrs. Michelle Labeeu, the Charge d'Affaires of the European Commission's Delegation to Cambodia.

The debate, which took place at the University of Cambodia, one of the leading private universities in the country, touches on topics like development cooperation, political and commercial relations and the regional context provided by the ASEAN.

The debate also marks the launch of the fifth edition of the EU 'Blue Book', the annual report detailing the EU development cooperation activities in Cambodia. This edition shows the EU provided an estimated 214 million U.S. dollars of Official Development Assistance (ODA) in 2008, making the EU the largest grant donor of ODA in Cambodia.

The EU 'Blue Book' provides comprehensive information on EU support to help Cambodia achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

According to the statement, EU development partners are providing support for education, health, human rights and democracy, rural development, natural resource management, decentralization and de-concentration, legal and judicial reform, public financial management, as well as trade and private sector development.

"The Blue Book aims to put information about what the EU is doing into a more accessible form. I welcome the opportunity of its launch to discuss with young Cambodians the contribution of the EU to Cambodia's development and to hear their views on our work here," said Ambassador Andrew Mace.

Mrs. Michelle Labeeu, who also emphasized the importance of open discussion with students, said that "these young people will play an important role in Cambodia's future. It is very important to provide them an opportunity to debate the multi-faceted relations that their country has with the European Union," she added.

From: http://english.cri.cn/

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Critics decry demonstration law

Police question protestors from Phnom Penh’s Boeung Kak community at a demonstration last year. (Photo by: HENG CHIVOAN)

Thursday, 18 June 2009
Written by Vong Sokheng
The Phnom Penh Post

"Broadcast and print media, and public forums can exercise their freedom of expression - demonstrations, too. The organisers just need permission." - Phay Siphan, Hun Sen's parrot

The draft legislation, which could be approved next week, will limit freedom of expression, they say

A DRAFT law regulating peaceful demonstrations that opposition lawmakers and civil society groups say will infringe on people's freedom of expression could be adopted as early as next week, according to Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker Son Chhay.

The draft law would require demonstrations to take place between 6am and 6pm, and to be held in a designated zone or so-called "freedom park" if they have over 200 participants.

In addition, the law would make the organisers of demonstrations responsible for any damage of violence done by participants, Son Chhay said.

The president of the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights, Ou Virak, added that the draft law goes against the spirit of the Cambodia's Constitution and will heighten political repression and control.

"That version of the new law on demonstrations will allow the government to take legal action to control every demonstration and restrict the freedom of expression in order to keep the hot issue of land grabbing silent," he said.

"If people have the freedom to express their opinion about land grabbing it will bring trouble to the government," he added.

Rong Chhun, the president of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions, which was prevented from staging a demonstration during the visit of Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, said that new law would move Cambodia closer to a single-party dictatorship.

"If the draft law is not revised, we will lose our freedom of expression," he said.

But Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan said that the government has never restricted freedom of expression so long as it does not affect national security, safety and public order.

"Freedom of expression is not as wonderful as in the United States, but it is acceptable for this society," he said. "Broadcast and print media, and public forums can exercise their freedom of expression - demonstrations, too. The organisers just need permission."

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[Royal Thai Army] Plane hitch delays Thai PM's return from Cambodia

Royal Thai Army plane used by Abhisit to visit Cambodia

2009-06-13
Associated Press

The return of Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva from a one-day official trip to Cambodia was delayed Friday by problems with his plane.

The chief of police at Phnom Penh's international airport, Chay Bunna, said late Friday night that that a new plane was being sent from Thailand to pick up the prime minister and his delegation, after their 9:20 p.m. departure was delayed.

"The technicians at the airport said that his plane has a very minor technical problem, so we insisted that he delay his flight schedule," said Cambodian Foreign Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong.

Chay Bunna identified the aircraft, on which repairs were being made, as an Embraer 145. He said that Abhisit's party first waited at the airport for the aircraft to be fixed, but drove back to the city to wait further after it was decided to fly in a replacement plane.

It was not immediately known when the new flight would depart.

Abhisit met with Prime Minister Hun Sen and King Norodom Sihamoni during his visit, his first to the neighboring country since he became prime minister in December. He also held talks with Thai businessmen and visited a hospital.
refer to: http://ki-media.blogspot.com/2009/06/royal-thai-army-plane-hitch-delays-thai.html

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Cambodia trials begin amide controversy

As trials begin, question shadow Khmer Rouge war crimes tribunal.

March 29, 2009
By Brendan Brady
Special to GlobalPost

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Thirty years after the fall of the ultra-Maoist regime known as the Khmer Rouge that ruled Cambodia in the late 1970s, trials are set to begin to hold a handful of its leaders accountable. Under their fanatical regime, an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died from overwork, starvation and murder.

After years of delays, testimonies begin Monday in the trial of Kaing Khev Iev, the chief of the Khmer Rouge’s notorious torture center, codenamed S-21.

Iev, better know by his nom de guerre, Duch, is one of five detained senior Khmer Rouge leaders believed to be the architects of the regime's reign of terror who are still living. They face a UN-backed war crimes tribunal and could receive a maximum of life imprisonment.

Court officials went to great lengths to frame last month’s procedural hearings for Duch as an historic moment of progress for the court and for the impoverished country’s healing.

But even as some degree of official accountability is materializing, a storm of criticism and controversy surrounds the war crimes court — a hybrid structure with both international and national judges, lawyers and administrators presiding.

The Cambodian side is struggling to keep financially afloat following a funding halt after allegations arose last July that national staff, in order to secure their jobs, were forced to pay sizable portions of their salaries to their bosses.

Donor countries have provided the bulk of funds to run the tribunal, and the bitter pill of backing a court associated with corruption has become more difficult to swallow as the court’s budget, originally set at $53 million for three years, has ballooned to $170 million for five years just one-and-a-half years into the process.

Cambodian court officials have denied the allegations. A review last September by a UN oversight body has yet to be made public.

However, a report from a German parliamentary delegation, written last November after its members met with the tribunal's deputy director of administration, Knut Rosandhaug, presents a bleak picture: Referring to “grave corruption” problems, Rosandhaug said that if “the national government continues to object to following up on the corruption allegations … the United Nations should withdraw from the tribunal” or else it will risk tainting its image.

But UN officials have yet to voice such stern words.

“The only real pressure can come from the donor countries and the UN — with one voice — but they have never done that,” said Brad Adams, head of the London-based Human Rights Watch in Asia, and an early member of the negotiations with the government to establish a war crimes court.

By failing to throw down the gauntlet, the UN has undermined the court’s entire mandate, he said.

“We thought we should have an international standard court,” Adams said. Instead, he continued, in this case "the government considers the UN an intruder.”

Indeed, Canadian co-prosecutor Robert Petit is being made to feel he overstepped his mandate.

Petit’s move to add more suspects to the docket — a handful of figures he describes as having been key to implementing the policies set by the regime’s top leaders — was blocked by his Cambodian colleague, Chea Leang, a niece of the current deputy prime minister.

She argued that additional prosecutions could prove destabilizing, overstretch the tribunal’s limited resources, and would run against the spirit of the 2003 U.N. treaty establishing the court, which called only for “senior leaders” of the regime and “those who were most responsible” to be tried.

Many senior government posts are currently held by former Khmer Rouge cadre, and experts say the government fears a wider roundup could expose them to scrutiny. For his part, Prime Minister Hun Sen made his position clear in 1998 when he recommended Cambodians “should dig a hole and bury the past.”

But Petit says casting a wider net would play a key role in validating the court’s work. “It would allow the court to achieve as much justice as possible even within its limited confines.”

For Adams, the move is more essential: “Unless there are more cases, it will not have done the minimum necessary for all of this to have even been worthwhile.”

The country is divided over whether additional high level cadre should be tried — with 57 percent in favor and 41 percent opposed, according to a recent poll. It is safe to say, however, that the decision will come down to politics between Cambodian and international officials, and have little to do with local public input.

As the court makes slow progress, old wounds fester.

“Thirty years later, the memories are still excruciating,” said Van Nath, who witnessed prisoners being waterboarded, doused with battery acid or simply bludgeoned to force them to admit to trumped-up crimes against the regime.

Nath, 63, is one of S-21’s few surviving victims. While he was electrocuted and faced constant threat of execution, he survived only by dint of his artistic skills, which he was forced to use to paint propaganda portraits of Pol Pot.

Unlike the other figures in detention, Nath’s former keeper, Duch, now a born-again Christian, has acknowledged his crimes and asked for forgiveness. He is, however, expected to argue in court that he was following orders from his superiors and would have been killed had he not obeyed.

Even if the rail-thin, seemingly benign former schoolteacher cuts a sympathetic figure on the stand, to Nath he remains “a man who gave orders with authority” while presiding over a prison where more than 12,000 men, women and children were brutally tortured before being executed in the “killing fields” outside the city.

Making more Cambodians with blood on their hands face trial would help the country’s healing, he said.

But, he added, “with the limited movement we have so far, that doesn’t seem possible … and I’m still waiting every day for judgment on these five.

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Duch's lawyer declares he is ready to describe events at interrogation centre

Mon, 30 Mar 2009
APTN
3 News (New Zealand)

On the eve of the resumption of the trial of the first suspect to face a court for crimes allegedly committed during Cambodia's bloody Khmer Rouge regime, Gaing Kuek Eav's lawyer says his client is ready to describe what happened at the interrogation centre he ran in Phnom Penh.

Gaing Kuek Eav - better known as Duch - has been charged with crimes against humanity, murder, torture and war crimes.

Francois Roux says the answers Duch gives will go some way to helping victims of the regime understand what happened to them and their country in the 1970s.

As Duch prepares to face a court on Monday hundreds of students from outside Phnom Penh have been taken on a tour of the prison - S21, which is now a museum, to educate them in their own history.

Many young Cambodians know very little of what their parents suffered, as it is not taught in schools. The visit was an initiative of volunteers from the US Peace Corps.

Unlike four others who are awaiting trial, Duch, as he's better known, is admitting his guilt and apparently intends to tell all.

Lawyer Francois Roux says he believes Duch's testimony will go some way to helping victims understand what happened and why, during those bleak and brutal years.

But as older Cambodians await answers to long-festering tragedies and sorrows, some Cambodians - born after the collapse of the regime - are only just discovering that anything evil happened at all at that time.

The history of the Khmer Rouge period is not taught in schools so many people grow up knowing very little about it, or even dismissing it as mere stories or exaggerations.

It was to shake that belief that around 200 young Khmer students were brought on Sunday to witness for themselves the evidence of the crimes committed on Duch's orders at S21 prison.

The students looked at the torture implements used on his victims, and at the faces of the victims themselves; hundreds of photographs of the doomed inmates line the walls of the former prison in Phnom Penh, now a museum.

There are also displays of the victims' skulls.

"Sometimes before when my father told me I never believed him. I just said that he just made a story to tell me. But now I believe because I saw the evidence, a lot of evidence, and I feel sorry," said Oeng Kim Heak, one student visitor to the museum.

S21 - also known as Tuol Sleng - was a top secret facility mainly used to interrogate cadres suspected of treachery.

Prisoners were tortured until they confessed to working for foreign powers, then they were executed, as were their families who were often arrested with them.

Many, if not most, of the confessions were wild fantasies, made up under extreme torture in the hope of pleasing and pacifying their tormentors.

The visit to S21 was organised by volunteers from the US Government's Peace Corps, and the Documentation Centre of Cambodia which works to collect evidence of the former regime's atrocities.

The aim, they said, was to teach Cambodians their own history and give them a greater awareness of their past and present so they can rebuild its future. Some of the students will attend Duch's trial next week.

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Pssstt, wanna buy some Viet goods? Hun Sen could even throw in a free coffin with the purchase

Vietnam goods exhibition to open in Cambodia

Sunday, 29/03/2009
VNA (Hanoi)

As many as 170 export and production businesses have registered to participate in a trade fair that will open in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh on April 1.

The five-day fair will feature 330 booths displaying household appliances, foods, textile and leather products, construction materials, chemicals, production tools, and stationary.

The fair, co-organised by the HCM City Investment and Trade Promotion Centre (ITPC), the High-Quality Vietnamese Goods Businesses Club, and the Vietnam Goods Trade and Services Corp. (Vietgoods), is the eighth of its kind to be held in Cambodia since 2002.

There will also be seminars on product quality, and contract signings between Vietnamese partners and Cambodian businesses.

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"...his sins are serious, and I don’t know how God can forgive him": Pastor San Thy Matathe

K Rouge chief seeks forgiveness

Sunday 29/3/2009
Gulf Times

In this remote part of Cambodia he was once known as a teacher who converted many to Christianity—now Duch is hoping for forgiveness when his trial resumes at a UN-backed Khmer Rouge court.

Duch was the brutal regime’s torturer-in-chief, allegedly overseeing the torture and extermination of more than 15,000 men, women and children at the communist movement’s Tuol Sleng prison during the Khmer Rouge’s 1975-1979 rule.

Some who know 66-year-old Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, say there is only one reason he is ready to own up to his past.

“In my opinion, if he had not believed in God he would not have confessed his crimes,” said San Thy Matathe, a pastor who witnessed Duch’s mid-1990s baptism in a western Cambodia river.

He recalls a meeting of evangelical Christians when Duch was particularly interested in the concept of forgiveness. In predominantly Buddhist Cambodia, most believe that killers are condemned to hell.

“He asked, ‘Will God forgive us even if we have committed the worst and most brutal sins?’” said San Thy Matathe.

“He was told, ‘Of course God will offer absolution, because God says he forgives.’”
Duch’s eldest daughter, Ky Sievkim, who still lives in the western town of Samlot where Duch hid out for years, says he converted many in the area to Christianity, including her.

“When he baptised me, he brought me to a pond and told me to raise my hands in prayer. He lightly touched my forehead with his palm and pushed me backwards into the water, then brought me back to my feet,” she said.

Back in the mid-1990s, Duch was living under an assumed name in western Cambodia. His wife had been murdered in an apparent robbery.

None who knew him then would say whether the promise of salvation influenced his religious conversion.

Their descriptions of Duch as a gentle teacher, however, are far different from those given by people who worked under him at the prison in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, where he was feared by nearly everyone.

At Tuol Sleng, the ever-meticulous Duch built up a huge archive of photos, confessions and other documents with which the final horrible months of thousands of inmates’ lives can be traced—and used to convict him.

Photojournalist Nic Dunlop, who uncovered Duch in 1999, wrote that he had set about spreading his new faith with the same zeal with which he had once embraced communism.

Of the five former Khmer Rouge leaders currently imprisoned by the war crimes court, Duch is the only one who admits guilt for atrocities committed by the regime which killed up to 2mn people.

The trial of former Khmer Rouge ideologue Nuon Chea, head of state Khieu Samphan, foreign minister Ieng Sary and his wife, minister of social affairs Ieng Thirith, is scheduled to begin later this year.

But as Duch awaits his public confession in court, he has been preaching the word of Christ to the other detainees, says Pastor Bun San In, a church organiser in Battambang, the main city near Samlot.

“He wants all the detainees there to experience God,” says Bun San In, who took holy communion with Duch twice last year at the Khmer Rouge court jail.

“Duch reads the Bible and tries to pass it to the others and get them to believe in Christ... that’s what he told us,” the pastor adds.

In the 1990s, he was just as pious.

Local restaurant owner Sok Lan, who briefly rented a plot of land from Duch, says he planned to build a church on his property in the months before his 1999 arrest by the Cambodian government.

Bun San In, the pastor from Battambang, says Duch’s faith has not wavered during his decade behind bars.

“Among the detainees, Duch looks happier than the others and doesn’t care when he will die,” he says.

Duch’s defence team appears to hope that his confession will bring a lighter sentence, so he does not spend the rest of his life in prison.

But even if the former prison chief is set free one day, San Thy Matathe is not so sure religion will save him.

“The Bible says God will forgive all past sins. But his sins are serious, and I don’t know how God can forgive him,” the pastor says. “In the Bible, it says God will forgive all past sins. But there’s a limit.”

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Tough job ahead for NZ judge

Dame Silvia Cartwright (NZPA)

Sunday March 29, 2009
Source: NZPA (New Zealand)

As many as 1.7 million Cambodians perished in the Khmer Rouge reign of terror, 14,000 of them "class enemies" of the Communist regime executed at Tuol Sleng, the S21 torture centre and prison.

New Zealand judge and former Governor-General Dame Silvia Cartwright is one of five trial judges who must now decide if the man who ran the prison, Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, is guilty of crimes against humanity.

It will be the first case heard by the United Nations-backed Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC).

It has been a long road to the first case, after the hybrid local-international court was set up three years ago - a decade after Cambodia sought United Nations help to try those most responsible for the 1975-79 Khmer Rough genocide.

Khmer leader Pol Pot died in 1998.

Dame Silvia, who has been living in Phnom Penh since last July, has been preparing for her role by reading a mountain of evidence.

"I don't think I have read everything by any stretch of the imagination but, by heaven, I've read a fair bit. It's huge," she says.

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The ECCC is based on the local Cambodian law, with international law and expertise, and uses the Civil Law system.

Under a civil law system, a complaint is made to prosecutors who gather information which goes to investigating judges. After they investigate, a summary of the evidence and charges to be answered is prepared.

That process in the Duch case took a year and was in private. Last month a hearing decided what witnesses would be heard.

The trial judges - one French, three Cambodians and Dame Silvia - now have the case file and are preparing to go through it in the public hearing.

"Effectively it's our job to test the evidence in public and to allow the witnesses to say what they need to say in public and we then decide whether there is sufficient evidence to convict."

Dame Silvia has been wading through evidence on her computer in her ECCC office.

Once the trial gets under way she will be allocated certain areas to focus on.

"I might be asked to focus on how S21 or Tuol Sleng was actually established, or I might be asked to focus on methods of torture or focus on how many people died or something like that, and it will be my job to be totally on top of the evidence. The evidence goes to hundreds of thousands of pages."

The evidence can also be indirect - for example there are at least 50 films in the file.

"Unlike our system in the common law world it includes everything that anyone ever said on the subject that's been put in this case file, whether its got any evidentiary value or not."

As soon as one of the judges refers to any item in the file it becomes part of trial evidence, and the judges then decide what weight to give it.

"People are still putting material into the case file."

Another challenge for the judges was managing the civil parties.

There are 95 in this case but there are thought to be already 3000 applications for the next investigation of senior Khmer Rouge figures and that figure could go as high as 10,000.

Dame Silvia says each civil party the judges approve is allowed to call and question witnesses.

There are more than a dozen civil party lawyers in the court.

Hearing the witnesses proposed by the prosecution is expected to take about three months.

There will be other witnesses and the judges will also be presented with personal information about the defendant.

If there is a guilty verdict sentencing will form part of the judgement.

A former teacher who is now a Christian, Duch, 66, has admitted his guilt, but the legal system as practised in Cambodia has no mechanism for a plea of guilty.

The judges decide his guilt or innocence after considering all the evidence.

It is alleged most victims at the prison were tortured and forced to confess to a variety of crimes - mainly of being CIA spies - before being bludgeoned to death in a field on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.

Women and children and babies were also killed. Few inmates survived.

New Zealander Kerry Hamill, 28, brother of rower Rob Hamill, died at the prison in 1978, where he was taken after his yacht was blown off course.

Apart from the judgement and sentencing, the judges will also have to resolve difficult legal issues around the charges.

They will make decisions on whether civil parties have proved they suffered damage, and whether they are entitled to reparations.

The tribunal has no money to pay financial reparation and no power to order the government to act.

"All we can really do is to say that these civil parties qualify because they have satisfied us they have suffered damages. That's the extent of our jurisdiction."

The ECCC has been beset with allegations of corruption within the administration, and of being politically influenced.

Its budget, originally $53 million for three years, has increased to $170m for five years.

The Cambodian branch of the ECCC is running out of money after a UN report highlighted problems with salaries and over staffing.

A hold has been put on donor money until problems are resolved.

Other accusations included that staff had to pay kickbacks of up to 30 per cent of their salary in order to get the job.

Corruption is rife generally in Cambodia, but Dame Silvia says the ECCC is quite separate from the rest of the justice system.

Whatever may happen in the administration of the Cambodian arm of the body, Dame Silvia does not think there is a problem with the judiciary.

"I have no hint of any corruption of any description amongst my Cambodian judge colleagues."

One commentator has said the court's viability is in question.

"I don't believe the court is compromised to that extent," Dame Silvia said.

"If it were, a number of the judges would pack our bags and go away."

Any issues of corruption would have to dealt with in local courts.

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The trials of pursuing the Khmer Rouge

Sunday, 29 March 2009
By Guy De Launey
BBC News, Phnom Penh

There are fears that Comrade Duch might be the only one to stand trial

Robert Petit is taking a pause for thought.

A considered approach from the international co-prosecutor at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal is, perhaps, only to be expected.

But this veteran of several international criminal courts usually has a way with a snappy answer which can leave the journalist on the receiving end feeling they should have followed a different line of inquiry.

This time, however, the Canadian official seems momentarily flummoxed. He has just been asked whether, bearing in mind the difficulties the Khmer Rouge Tribunal has faced over the past three years, he is optimistic that other defendants will follow the former prison chief known as Comrade Duch into the trial chamber at the special courts.

A long, drawn-out exhalation follows a sharp intake of breath and a grimace. The prosecutor's fingers rub at his forehead. Ten seconds pass. When Mr Petit finally speaks, his words are punctuated by an occasional half-laugh.

Obstacles

"I'm still hopeful. I assume those hopes are reasonable," he begins.

Robert Petit is a veteran of international criminal courts

"In the second case the accused are old and have health issues. Since their detention, the investigation has taken almost two years. I'm hoping that the investigation will be finished by the end of the year and there could be a trial, but I'm not sure how realistic that is.

"And for the third trial, it's still up to the pre-trial chamber to decide whether it goes ahead."

Mr Petit is not alone in his reservations. Five former members of the Khmer Rouge are currently in detention, facing charges of crimes against humanity.

But other international officials at the tribunal have expressed concern privately that Comrade Duch might ultimately be the only former Khmer Rouge member to stand trial for crimes against humanity.

Time, money and political will are cited as the main obstacles. Under the original plan drawn up by the United Nations and the Cambodian government, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), as the tribunal is officially known, would operate for three years and cost $56m.

This is a bargain compared with previous international criminal tribunals, and was held up as a model for others to follow.

The theory was that a low-cost, locally-based process with UN-appointed judges working alongside Cambodian counterparts would deliver justice and help to develop the legal system in the host country.

Political will

In reality, the budget has tripled, local and international officials have frequently been at loggerheads, and the three-year time frame has been dismissed as unrealistic.

"The Khmer Rouge Tribunal is circumscribed by politics - everyone knows this" - Theary Seng

The Cambodian side of the ECCC's administration says it is almost out of funds, even as a series of financial corruption allegations remains unresolved.

The turnover of staff on the UN side has undoubtedly made it harder to provide effective oversight.

Finding people to question the political will of the government to see the process through is not hard. Theary Seng, whose book Daughter Of The Killing Fields describes how the Khmer Rouge killed both her parents, believes those in power feel they have too much to lose.

"The Khmer Rouge Tribunal is circumscribed by politics. Everyone knows this," she says.

"There are individuals within the current government who are very, very scared that information about their past may surface in the process of arguing the crimes under discussion.

"These individuals have influence, power and means. They hold high position. I believe that some of them cannot sleep at night because this Khmer Rouge Tribunal exists."

One dispute in particular is cited as evidence by those who believe the government is trying to restrict the scope of the tribunal, and Mr Petit is one of the protagonists.

Stability

Chea Leang refutes accusations of political pressure

The international co-prosecutor wanted to send a list of six more suspects to the investigating judges, but his Cambodian counterpart, Chea Leang, objected on the grounds that the stability of the country might be affected.

She resents suggestions that she was acting under political pressure.

"I have read and heard the media reports about political interference," she tells the BBC.

"They're within their rights to say this, but it's very unfair on me. I think that if I follow what [my critics] want, they'll say I'm independent. But if I don't do what they want, they'll say I'm not independent."

Officials on the Cambodian side of the court insist that the government is committed to seeing the process through, regardless of what it reveals.

They point out that Prime Minister Hun Sen personally requested UN assistance to set up what eventually became the ECCC more than a decade ago.

But some members of the governing party have stated publicly that they believe the tribunal should not pursue more suspects.

"I don't think it's a very positive approach for people with public responsibilities to comment on what courts should or should not do," says Mr Petit.

"I think an impartial, free and fair legal system is the only foundation you can have if you want to build any kind of democratic society."

Comrade Duch's trial will be the first test for the ECCC. It would be a bitter blow for those who survived the horrors of the Pol Pot era if more senior Khmer Rouge figures were not to follow him into the dock.

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RandomKid Opens School in Cambodia

RandomKid marks the opening of a school in Cambodia that the kids named FOR EACH OTHER. Attending the event are 5 children from the USA representing 70 children from 19 countries around the world who participated in this project. In order of appearance: Talia Leman (IA), Robbye Raisher (NM) and Maddie Lawry (TN). In Part 2, you will see Allison Sant (OH) and Stevie Peacock (FL). The video has multiple cuts, because we edited out the Cambodian translator. This project was made possible by American Assistance to Cambodia, through Bernard Krisher. from... http://ki-media.blogspot.com/2009/03/randomkid-opens-school-in-cambodia.html

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KPNLF commemoration

Prince Norodom Ranariddh inspects a monument to KPNLF resistance fighters Thursday in Kandal province. (Photo by: BRENDAN BRADY)
Son Soubert (left), son of the Front's founder, prays as Ranariddh lays a wreath on a monument to the movement's fallen soldiers. (Photo by: Brendan Brady)

Friday, 06 March 2009
Written by Brendan Brady and Kouth Sophak Chakrya
The Phnom Penh Post

"Vietnamese troops did not invade Cambodia ... They came to help Cambodia from the Pol Pot regime - we should be thankful to the Vietnamese." - CPP MP "Chom Chea Yap" aka "Cheam Yeap"

Former border resistance leaders stand by antagonism towards Vietnamese.

A WHO'S who of anti-Vietnamese leaders of the 1980s gathered at a stupa in Kandal province Thursday to commemorate resistance fighters who had died as part of the movement's effort to expel the foreign power.

The Khmer National Liberation Front (KPNLF) was one of the main resistance groups to emerge along the Thai border following the fall of the
Khmer Rouge by Vietnamese forces and their subsequent administrative takeover of Cambodia.

Former KPNLF army and political leaders inaugurated a monument with inscriptions of the names of resistance fighters who died between 1979 and 1991 at a ceremony in Kien Svay district.

Chuor Kim Meng, who had been a lieutenant general for the movement's military wing, said the resistance helped push the Vietnamese out and forced the local officials it had installed to accept multiparty democracy. Read MOre

"If not for these fighters, Vietnam may have continued to occupy Cambodia," he said.

Dien Del, former chief of staff of the group's army, said the event "preserve the memory of those who died expelling the Vietnamese occupiers".

Prince Norodom Ranariddh, the guest of honour, praised the resistance. "I have never forgotten its fighters who died," he said. He, too, described the Vietnamese troops in Cambodia at that time as "invaders" and "occupiers".

While there was no official condemnation from the government, the commemoration should have proved controversial as the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) evolved from the People's Revolutionary Party of Kampuchea (PRPK), the regime that governed Cambodia under the control of Vietnamese forces.

KR alliance necessary

Son Soubert, son of Son Sann, founder and former president of the KPNLF and himself a participant in the movement's administration, said he had sent a letter of invitation to Prime Minister Hun Sen, Senate President Chea Sim and Deputy Prime Minister Sok An. Only Chea Sim responded, saying he had other obligations.

Cheam Yeap, a senior CPP lawmaker, criticised the KPNLF for characterizing the Vietnamese as enemies.

"Vietnamese troops did not invade Cambodia," he told the Post by phone. "They came to help Cambodia from the Pol Pot regime - we should be thankful to the Vietnamese."

The exit of Vietnamese forces in 1989 came about not from resistance pressure from the border but because the PRPK was ready to rule on its own, he contended.

Opposition party representatives present at the ceremony, however, insisted the Front's cause was righteous and attributed the exit of Vietnam to its efforts.

"They fought for our freedom and sovereignty - that represents Khmer nationalism at its purest," said Human Rights Party President Kem Sokha.

Sam Rainsy Party spokesman Son Chhay had been the KPNLF's representative in southern Australia, where he was based then. "Without the resistance from the border, we would not have had the Paris Peace Accords," he said.

Nationalism first

The KPNLF started in 1979, recruiting some of the hundreds of thousands of Cambodian refugees seeking sanctuary along the border with Thailand.

Its key figures had held prominent positions in the administrations of Sihanouk and right-wing general Lon Nol, and were unified in their opposition to communism and to the presence of Vietnamese forces in the country.

The Front was seen by the US and other Western allies as the most reliably anti-communist and pro-Western group in Cambodia.

In its effort to drive out the Vietnamese, the Front struck an awkward alliance with remnants of the Khmer Rouge. In 1982 the KPNLF entered the tripartite Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea.

The new coalition included the Party of Democratic Kampuchea, a splinter group of the defeated Khmer Rouge led by Khieu Samphan, and the royalist resistance movement known as Funcinpec, and represented Cambodia at the United Nations.

For the former leaders of the Front, the alliance with their ideological counterparts was a necessary evil.

"Son Sann always said the country is more important than the party or faction," said Pol Ham, who had been the Front's Information Minister.

"We hated the Khmer Rouge, but at that time we had to prioritise - and the foreign occupiers were the first enemy. We formed a coalition but kept our own identity."

Son Soubert was adamant the Front had never "joined" the Khmer Rouge.

"We were forced to enter a temporary coalition to achieve our goals," he said.

Funcinpec Senator Sabu Bacha, a former general of the Front's army, said the dire circumstances required divisions among Cambodians be put aside "so first we could expel foreign troops from our soil".

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WWF to make Indochina rattan more competitive

A woman walks past a motor cycle and a motor scooter made of rattan on a street in Berlin's Kreuzberg district. The WWF on Thursday launched in Vietnam a three-year project to make Indochina's rattan industry more competitive while also maintaining the fast-developing region's resource-rich forests. (AFP/DDP/File/Sascha Schuermann)

Thu Mar 5, 2009

HANOI (AFP) – The WWF on Thursday launched in Vietnam a three-year project to make Indochina's rattan industry more competitive while also maintaining the fast-developing region's resource-rich forests.

The initiative, Establishing a Sustainable Production System for Rattan Products in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, "can create a win-win situation for communities, business and the environment," said WWF's Tran Minh Hien.

Hien, Vietnam Country Director, said the region's rattan stocks were being depleted "at an unsustainable rate and degrading the forests".

More than 90 percent of rattan processed in the three countries comes from natural forests.

Rattans are climbing palms that have tough stems which can be used for a variety of wicker or cane products, including furniture.

The 2.4-million-euro (three-million-dollar) project aims to have half of rattan processing in the region environmentally cleaner, more competitive and producing better economic returns by 2015, said WWF's Thibault Ledecq.

WWF would provide training and support along the supply chain as part of the initiative, which is partly funded by the European Commission, said Ledecq, the project manager.

The global rattan trade is worth four billion dollars, the WWF said, adding that Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam are "playing an increasingly significant role" in that.

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One Thai soldier arrested for illegally entering Cambodian territories

Thai de-miners clearing land-mines inside Cambodian territories near Preah Vihear temple after Thai soldiers had occupied the areas on 15th July, 2008.

Deum Ampil News
1st March, 2009
Reported in English by Khmerization

A Cambodian military source said that one Thai soldier was arrested on 27th February near the Khmer-Thai border in Anlong Veng for illegally entering Cambodian territories, reported Deum Ampil News.

Deum Ampil News reported that the lone soldier has explosives wrapped around his body and he also carried a map.

The source said that the lone soldier was arrested at a Cambodian military camp near the O'Kra-Nhoung frontline about 1 kilometre from Choam Sra-Ngam Checkpoint on the top of Dangrek Mountain.
The Deum Ampil News reported that, while the Cambodian soldiers were quietly guarding the border frontline, they suddenly saw a lone Thai soldier carrying a backpack walking through the bush towards the Cambodian frontline which make them very suspicious. Immediately, the Cambodian guards went to question him on the spot. But upon seeing the Cambodian guards, the lone Thai soldiers tried to run into the bush but was chased and arrested by the Cambodian soldiers at 5:30 in the afternoon.

After he was arrested, the Cambodian soldiers body-searched him and found many explosives in his backpack. Among the explosives found were eleven 69-type land mines, one bomb trigger and a pistol.

After questioning him, the Cambodia soldiers assumed that this lone Thai soldier brought the mines into Cambodian territories with the intention of laying them on Cambodian soil to cause injuries to the Cambodian soldiers. By 28th February, this Thai soldier has not been released yet as they were waiting to question him further and waiting for an intervention from the Thai side.

The arrest of this lone Thai soldier happened two days after 4 Thai soldiers were arrersted by the Cambodian soldiers for illegally entering Cambodian territories. The four Thai soldiers were subsequently released after the Thai side made a request.

A few months ago, Thailand had lodged a formal complaint to the Ottawa Anti-Mine Convention against Cambodia, accusing it of continuing to lay land-mines which have injured a few Thai soldiers when they crossed into Khmer territories. But the Cambodian side had always maintained that "the land-mines that the Thai soldiers stepped on were old land-mines left behind by the civil war between the Khmer Rouge faction and the Phnom Penh government during the 1980s." They added that those land-mines were not newly-planted.

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Health is the most important for your life

Health is the most important for your life, no one can share you, you are the one earn here is the lesson for you to practise

1. Brush twice a day!
2. Dress right for the weather.
3. Visit the dentist regularly.
4. Get plenty of rest.
5. Make sure your hair is dry before going outside.
6. Eat right.
7. Get outside in the sun every once in a while.
8. Always wear a seatbelt.
9. Control your drinking of alcoholic beverages.
10. Smile! It will make you feel better.
11. Don’t over indulge yourself.
12. Bathe regularly.
13. Read to exercise the brain.
14. Surround yourself with friends.
15. Stay away from too much caffeine.
16. Use the bathroom regularly.
17. Get plenty of exercise.
18. Have your eyes checked regularly.
19. Eat plenty of vegetables.
20. Believe that people will like you for who you are.
21. Forgive and forget.
22. Take plenty of vacations.
23. Celebrate all special occasions.
24. Pick up a hobby.
25. Love thy neighbor as thyself.

Do all these things and you will be a happier, healthier person.

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Who is the real khmer genercide

"Yes, I did kill people ... But Duch ordered me to do all of that": Him Huy

Him Huy, a former guard at the Khmer Rouge prison Tuol Sleng, in Anlong San, Cambodia, on Tuesday, participated in thousands of executions from 1975 to 1979. (Seth Mydans/International Herald Tribune)

For Khmer Rouge guard, it was kill or be killed

Sunday, March 1, 2009
By SETH MYDANS
International Herald Tribune

ANLONG SAN, Cambodia:

"We were victims, too," said Him Huy, the head of the guard detail at the Tuol Sleng torture house, who took part in the executions of thousands of people at a Khmer Rouge killing field.

As the prisoners knelt at the edges of mass graves, with their hands tied behind them, executioners swung iron bars at the backs of their heads - two times, if necessary - before they toppled forward into the pits."I had no choice," said Him Huy, 53. "If I hadn't killed them, I would have been killed myself."

In the severe and paranoid world of the Khmer Rouge prison, guards and torturers themselves worked under threat of death, and Him Huy saw a number of his colleagues kneel at the edges of their graves for that blow to the back of the neck.

"I used an iron bar about that long," he said, spreading his hands wide as he sat in a dry rice field to tell his story late last month, "and about as thick as my big toe."

Him Huy, guard and executioner at the most prominent Cambodian torture house, personifies the horror of the Khmer Rouge years, from 1975 to 1979, when at least 1.7 million people died of starvation and overwork as well as torture and execution.

As the trials of five senior Khmer Rouge figures get under way in Phnom Penh, they raise questions about the guilt - or victimhood - of lower-ranking cadre, the people who carried out the arrests, killings and torture, and who are unlikely to face trial.

Late at night, sometimes two or three times a week, Him Huy said, he drove trucks full of prisoners to the Choeung Ek killing field, where he logged them in - 20 or 30 or 80 at a time - and then confirmed that they had been killed.

He asserted that he had personally killed only five people, as demonstrations of loyalty to his superiors.

At least 14,000 people were arrested and interrogated at Tuol Sleng prison, which was known officially as S-21 and is now maintained as a museum. Only a handful survived.

Him Huy is back home now in this village 80 kilometers, or 50 miles, south of Phnom Penh - a farmer and father of nine, optimistic, hard-working and quick to smile, seemingly comfortable to be who he is and at ease with his memories. His neighbors seem to like him.

"Even the young people, when they have a party they always invite him," said his wife, Put Peng Aun. "If there's a party, he's got to be there."

Asked to describe himself, Him Huy said, "I'm not a bad person. I'm a good man. I never argue with anyone. I never fight with anyone. I have good intentions as a human being."

But some of those who knew him at the prison remember him harshly. One survivor, Bou Meng, says Him Huy beat and tortured him, poking at his wounds with a stick. "His face was so mean," he told interviewers at the Documentation Center of Cambodia, a private research center. "Today he looks gentle."

Two of Him Huy's co-workers at Tuol Sleng, quoted by the historian David Chandler in his book on the prison, "Voices from S-21," remembered him as "a seasoned killer, an important figure at the prison and a key participant in the execution process."

One prison document that bears his signature, from July 23, 1977, reports the execution of 18 prisoners. Scribbled at the bottom is a note reading: "Also killed 160 children today for a total of 178 enemies killed."

Him Huy is evasive about the extent of his duties at the prison. But whatever he did there, he said, he performed on pain of death.

"I am a victim of the Khmer Rouge," he said without hesitation.

"I did not volunteer to work at S-21." "We were all prisoners, those who killed and those who were killed," he said. "And in fact, for a lot of the staff there, the day came when they were killed, too. In the daytime we'd be eating together, and in the evening some were arrested and killed."

In a book about the prison staff called "Victims and Perpetrators?" the Documentation Center calculates that at least 563 members of the staff of Tuol Sleng - about one-third of the total - were executed while working there.

In a distilled and horrific way, Tuol Sleng was a microcosm of the nation, where half-starved and overworked people lived in constant fear of being arrested and killed, often for reasons they never learned.

The first defendant in the United Nations-backed tribunal is Him Huy's former boss, the commandant of Tuol Sleng prison, a tough, sharp-eyed man named Kaing Guek Eav and generally known as Duch. His trial began two weeks ago.

It was Duch who signed execution orders for both prisoners and errant staff. Indeed, Him Huy rose to become fifth or sixth in the chain of command after his superiors were pulled from their jobs and killed.

"Yes, I did kill people," Him Huy said. "I did transport people to Choeung Ek. I did verify lists of people at Choeung Ek. But Duch ordered me to do all of that."

Many Cambodians appear to accept this common defense among former Khmer Rouge cadre: that they had no choice but to be cruel, fearing for their own lives. It is a defense Duch himself has made in the past.

Visiting the prison recently, Chum Mey, another survivor of Tuol Sleng, described 12 days and nights of torture and terror, but without bitterness toward his abusers.

"My thought is not to put the blame on Him Huy because I don't know what I would have done in his place," he said. "I don't think I would have been able to disobey."

Thirty years have passed since the Khmer Rouge were ousted by a Vietnamese invasion. Him Huy is no different from his neighbors, raising a big family and tending to his beans and corn and rice.

At the end of a long interview, he headed back to his bean field, filling a cannister with pesticide and marching down the rows of long yellow beans, swinging a hose from left to right.

He made sure, he said, to walk with the wind behind him so that none of the pesticide would blow back in his face.

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The History Boys

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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 |

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Closure to cost millions

Written by CHUN SOPHAL AND HOR HAB

Wednesday, 25 February 2009

Prime Minister’s decision to call time on Cambodia’s only legal football gambling chain will be costly in terms of lost tax revenue and compensation

Photo by: Heng Chivoan

A Cambo Six branch in Phnom Penh. Prime Minister Hun Sen said the Kingdom’s sole legal bookmaker would close in 2011.PRIME Minister Hun Sen's decision to close the Kingdom's only chain of legal bookmakers, Cambo Six, will cost the state millions of dollars in compensation and lost tax revenue, officials said.

Announcing the decision at the National Institute of Education on Tuesday, the prime minister acknowledged the likely financial fallout, saying the company would be closed no matter the extent of compensation offered. A figure has not been given yet as to how much Cambo Six will receive once its operating licence expires in 2011.

Hun Sen said that in the long term the decision would not affect the overall wealth of the nation: "The country cannot become rich because of gaming tax revenue," he said.

The prime minister said he has instructed Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema to meet Finance Minister Keat Chhon to discuss details of the termination of Cambo Six's licence.

The country cannot become rich because of gaming tax revenue.


"I think that Cambo Six's manager would understand and appreciate Cambodia's social problems, which have led to the company's closure," Hun Sen said.

Cambo Six could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.

Chea Peng Chheang, secretary of state at the Ministry of Finance, said Tuesday he had not yet received any information on ending Cambo Six's operating licence.

In 2008, tax revenue from the gaming industry - including Cambo Six and about 30 casinos along the Kingdom's borders - reached more than US$20 million. The government makes between $500,000 and $1 million in tax revenue each year from Cambo Six, the Ministry of Finance has said previously, although an exact figure for last year was not immediately available, said Mey Vann, director of the Department of Finance Industry.

The prime minister's decision has also affected other areas of Cambodia's lucrative gaming industry - Hun Sen on Tuesday repeated orders for slot machine gaming entities open to Cambodians to close voluntarily or face forced closure.

Further potential economic fallout was acknowledged by the prime minister and opposition parties. Hun Sen attempted to reassure business leaders by saying that the law would be respected so as not to "destroy" the investment climate.

Calling the decision long overdue, opposition Sam Rainsy Party parliamentarian Son Chhay warned, however, that the Cambo Six affair could develop into a drawnout, expensive legal dispute.

"I think the company could sue the government if the licence is terminated," he said.

"But it may be possible to terminate if the government can find mistakes such as inaccurate tax records."
The company's closure would be "strongly supported" by the public, he added. The move is another blow to Cambodia's gaming industry after a difficult six months that has seen revenues plummet as the effects of the global financial crisis have been increasingly felt, a situation further compounded by tensions on the Thai border, where many of the Kingdom's casinos are situated.

Casino tycoon Phu Kok An said he has seen the number of gamers - mostly Thais - drop from about 1,000 a day in September to about 20 a day this month.

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Kampot Cement to cut output in phases

Written by MAY KUNMAKARA AND NGUON SOVAN

Wednesday, 25 February 2009

Kingdom's largest cement company cites property downturn as demand and prices fall Photo by: Heng Chivoan A Kampot Cement factory in Phnom Penh. The company said it would cut productiuon. CAMBODIA'S largest cement producer is set to cut production in two phases on falling demand from the construction industry, the company said. Khaou Phallaboth, president of the firm's Cambodian minority stakeholder, told the Post on Tuesday that Kampot Cement has already cut production by 10 percent since January and plans another 10 percent cut for the year. "It is dependent on the market - now the market has dropped due to the economic downturn, the credit crunch, falling land prices and lower property investment," he said.

"We are reducing our production to avoid oversupply, and we hope that by year's end the economy, will be recovering," he said adding that no layoffs were planned at the plant.

"We employ around 300 workers, and we do not plan to cut the workforce because we believe the crisis is temporary."
Kampot Cement launched in January 2008 under a US$127 million joint venture with Thailand's largest industrial conglomerate, Siam Cement Group (SCG). SCG controls a 90 percent share, and Cambodia's Khaou Chuly Group holds the remainder. The plant produces one million tonnes of cement, he said.

We employ around 300 workers and we do not plan to cut the workforce.


Stock Exchange of Thailand-listed SCG reported a 2008 fourth-quarter loss of nearly $100 million in January, its first quarterly loss in 11 years.

Chhean Dara, manager of the $50-million Happiness City development in Phnom Penh, said cement consumption at his project has fallen.

"Early last year, we were using about 900 tonnes of cement per month but now, we have cut that to 200 to 300 tonnes a month," said Chhean Dara.

The managing director of building materials supplier Lay Mong Leng Construction said that lower cement prices have failed to stimulate demand.

"Now a 50-kilogram sack of cement is only $4, but early last year, it was up to $5," she said. "It is not only cement sales that have dropped - it is all construction materials."

Falling demand for real estate has taken a toll on new building startups, according to the CEO of Bonna Realty, adding that sales were down 90 percent.

"We forecast that the real estate market will return to normal in 2010 or later. But even then, it will not rise to the level it was at during its peak," said Sung Bonna.

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'I am not a murderer,' pleads KR's first lady

Written by Georgia Wilkins and Cheang Sokha from...http://www.phnompenhpost.com

Wednesday, 25 February 2009

The KR's first lady launches into an impromtu, emotionally charged speech at the tribunal, which her lawyers later play down, claiming she is just ‘impatient'. Photo by: ECCC POOL / HENG SINITH Former Khmer Rouge minister of social affairs Ieng Thirith, sits in the courtroom Tuesday during a hearing at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) in Phnom Penh.

Photo by: eccc pool/john vink

Ieng Thirith, the former Khmer Rouge social affairs minister, in the dock at the Khmer Rouge tribunal Tuesday. IN an angry courtroom outburst, the former Khmer Rouge so-called "first lady" Ieng Thirith told the Khmer Rouge tribunal Tuesday that she had nothing to do with killings under the murderous 1975-79 regime, and that these were the sole responsibility of detained former chief ideologist Nuon Chea and prison head Kaing Guek Eav.

"I am not a murderer," she told judges at a hearing to appeal her prolonged detention.

"Everything was done by Nuon Chea. Don't implicate Nuon Chea with me because they did those things," she said.

The emotional 76-year-old, who originally told the court she was "too weak" to talk, launched into a 15-minute oration when called on by judges before the conclusion of the hearing, threatening prosecutors who had earlier suggested she was linked to killings at the regime's notorios Tuol Sleng prison camp.
"Don't accuse me of murder, or you will be cursed to the seventh level of hell,"she said.

"The real murderer, the guy who killed everybody then detained, I had nothing to do with Kaing Guek Eav," she said, seeming to temporarily forget Kaing Guek Eav's name.

Ieng Thirith, who served as social affairs minister during the regime's three-year rule, was arrested by the court in 2007 on charges of crimes against humanity.

According to prosecutors Tuesday, hundreds of members of her ministry were detained, tortured and executed under the regime.

But lawyers argued that judges had found "no evidence linking her to crimes" since investigations began in 2007 and were merely detaining her based on the fact that she was a minister under the regime.

‘I want justice to be done'
Though asked by her lawyer to respect her right to silence, the irate former leader said it was now time to tell the truth.

"I have to tell the truth, and I want justice to be done, and I don't want you to prosecute anyone but you have to make a decision based on your digression," she said.

"Kaing Guek Eav and Nuon Chea are the same people. Nuon Chea sent the orders, and Kaing Guek Eav carried them out.... I had nothing to do with Nuon Chea, but I knew what he had done and I knew that he killed people.... I had no involvement with Kaing Guek Eav.... I never knew where S-21 was," she added.

Switching between English and Khmer, she cited her well-to-do upbringing and education as cause for her innocence and recited a situation in which students of hers helping her to rebuild a hospital had been killed by Nuon Chea.

Don't accuse me of murder, or you will be cursed to the seventh level of hell


"I know who ordered Kaing Guek Eav to kill people, [and] I would like to say that is Nuon Chea who ordered the arrest of my students into a truck and then killed them," she said.

"I do not know why a good person is being accused of such crimes. I have suffered a great deal, and I can't be patient because I have been wrongly accused.... I come from a well-bred family.... I am well-educated and never committed any wrongdoing, and I have never been a murderer," she added.The former minister is the sister-in-law of the regime's leader Pol Pot, and is married to detained former foreign affairs minister Ieng Sary, who is currently in hospital after doctors found blood in his urine.

After the hearing, Ieng Thirith's Cambodian co-lawyer, Phat Pouv Seang, played down his client's accusations.

"She was angry and could not be patient," he told reporters. "These proceedings are more about pretrial detention."

Though lawyers have called on her deteriorating health as reason to release her, Phat Pouv Seang said Tuesday that she had not seen a doctor since July 2008.

Lawyers also argued Tuesday that co-investigating judges had concentrated their efforts on investigations into Kaing Guek Eav's case, which began its first trial hearing last week.

Nuon Chea's Cambodian co-lawyer, Son Arun, told the Post Tuesday that Ieng Thirith's comments were emotional and unfounded.

"She is always like that, angry all the time, mainly at Nuon Chea," he said, suggesting it may be a result of her deteriorating health.

"Every day at the detention centre she gets mad at Nuon Chea, I think because she blames him for a relative's death," he said.

Judges said a decision on the appeal would be released soon.

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