USA TODAY
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — The chief of a notorious torture center goes before Cambodia's genocide tribunal Tuesday for its first trial over the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people at the hands of the Khmer Rouge regime more than three decades ago.
Kaing Guek Eav — better known as Duch, who headed the S-21 prison in Phnom Penh — is charged with crimes against humanity, and is this first of five defendants scheduled for long-delayed trials by the U.N.-assisted tribunal. The hearing opening Tuesday was for procedural matters, and testimony was expected to begin only in late March.
Duch, 66, is accused of committing or abetting a range of crimes including murder, torture and rape at S-21 prison — formerly a school — where up to 16,000 men, women and children were held and tortured, before being put to death.
When the communist Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975 after five years of bitter civil war, many of their countrymen thought peace was at hand. But in their effort to remake society, they instituted a reign of terror that lasted nearly 4 years, until ended by an invasion by neighboring Vietnam.
Many victims feared that all the Khmer Rouge leaders would die before ever facing justice, and getting even one of them on trial is seen as a breakthrough. But there are real concerns that the process is being politically manipulated and that thousands of killers will escape unpunished.
"It's going to be a very big day for the Cambodian people because the justice that they have been waiting for 30 years is starting to get closer and closer," tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath said.
Duch's hearing before the tribunal was expected to last two or three days and draw up to 1,000 people, Reach Sambath said.
The trial comes 30 years after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, 13 years after the tribunal was first proposed and nearly three years after the court was inaugurated.
The tribunal has been plagued by political interference from the Cambodian government, allegations of bias and corruption, lack of funding and bickering between Cambodian and international lawyers.
Some observers believe Prime Minister Hun Sen — a former Khmer Rouge officer himself — is controlling the tribunal's scope by directing the decisions of the Cambodian prosecutors and judges.
Others facing trial are Khieu Samphan, the group's former head of state; Ieng Sary, its foreign minister; his wife Ieng Thirith, who was minister for social affairs; and Nuon Chea, the movement's chief ideologue.
Heather Ryan of New York-based Open Justice Initiative, which monitors international judicial standards, said it was possible the tribunal would deliver justice, but that there were hurdles.
"Until the government of Cambodia and the United Nations demonstrates seriousness about getting over those hurdles I think there will be a serious doubt about the ultimate value of these trials," she said.
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — The chief of a notorious torture center goes before Cambodia's genocide tribunal Tuesday for its first trial over the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people at the hands of the Khmer Rouge regime more than three decades ago.
Kaing Guek Eav — better known as Duch, who headed the S-21 prison in Phnom Penh — is charged with crimes against humanity, and is this first of five defendants scheduled for long-delayed trials by the U.N.-assisted tribunal. The hearing opening Tuesday was for procedural matters, and testimony was expected to begin only in late March.
Duch, 66, is accused of committing or abetting a range of crimes including murder, torture and rape at S-21 prison — formerly a school — where up to 16,000 men, women and children were held and tortured, before being put to death.
When the communist Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975 after five years of bitter civil war, many of their countrymen thought peace was at hand. But in their effort to remake society, they instituted a reign of terror that lasted nearly 4 years, until ended by an invasion by neighboring Vietnam.
Many victims feared that all the Khmer Rouge leaders would die before ever facing justice, and getting even one of them on trial is seen as a breakthrough. But there are real concerns that the process is being politically manipulated and that thousands of killers will escape unpunished.
"It's going to be a very big day for the Cambodian people because the justice that they have been waiting for 30 years is starting to get closer and closer," tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath said.
Duch's hearing before the tribunal was expected to last two or three days and draw up to 1,000 people, Reach Sambath said.
The trial comes 30 years after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, 13 years after the tribunal was first proposed and nearly three years after the court was inaugurated.
The tribunal has been plagued by political interference from the Cambodian government, allegations of bias and corruption, lack of funding and bickering between Cambodian and international lawyers.
Some observers believe Prime Minister Hun Sen — a former Khmer Rouge officer himself — is controlling the tribunal's scope by directing the decisions of the Cambodian prosecutors and judges.
Others facing trial are Khieu Samphan, the group's former head of state; Ieng Sary, its foreign minister; his wife Ieng Thirith, who was minister for social affairs; and Nuon Chea, the movement's chief ideologue.
Heather Ryan of New York-based Open Justice Initiative, which monitors international judicial standards, said it was possible the tribunal would deliver justice, but that there were hurdles.
"Until the government of Cambodia and the United Nations demonstrates seriousness about getting over those hurdles I think there will be a serious doubt about the ultimate value of these trials," she said.
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