Hamill confronts his brother's killer in Cambodia

Otago Daily Times
http://www.odt.co.nz

Tue, 18 Aug 2009

Rob Hamill, brother of the New Zealander tortured and slain by the Communist regime in Cambodia 31 years ago, had his day in court today.

An emotional Hamill testified before the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Phnom Penh about the "incredible" impact the horrific death of his brother Kerry, 27, had on his family here -- a "massive and unquantifiable impact".

Hamill, former Olympic and long-distance rower, told NZPA he had waited a long time to confront his brother's killer and to tell the story about the impact on his parents and siblings.

Hamill's mother is now dead and his father is in a nursing home.

The New Zealander's wife Rachel and their two-year-old son were in the packed public gallery as Hamill spoke for a full hour.

Kaing Guek Eav, or Duch as he is known, the man responsible for Kerry Hamill's death, was in court and listened impassively to Hamill's testimony as it was translated.

Duch, 66, has pleaded guilty to murder but the five judges - New Zealander Dame Silvia Cartwright, a French national and three Cambodians - will decide Duch's innocence or guilt after hearing all the evidence.

Dame Silvia was in court today to hear Hamill who was accepted as a civil party.

Kerry Hamill was captured by the Khmer Rouge when the yacht on which he and friends were sailing strayed into Cambodian waters in August 1978.

Crewman Stuart Glass, a Canadian was shot while Hamill and Briton John Dewhirst were interrogated and tortured for two months before being killed in Phnom Penh's notorious Tuol Sleng Prison run by Duch.

Thousands of Cambodians were killed at the prison.

Duch has pleaded the same defence as some of the Nazis at the Nuremberg trials after World War 2, maintaining he was simply carrying out orders and would have been shot had he not done so.

Hamill said his parents were hugely affected by their son's appalling death.

"It changed them. They were never the same after it all happened," Hamill told the court. "They were terribly affected, as any parents would have been."

Hamill, 14 at the time of his brother's death, added: "The death of their first-born was the worst possible news for our family. He had not just been killed, he had been tortured."

He noted that Duch used the phrase "smash them", words meaning prisoners were to be tortured and then killed.

"I've wanted to smash Duch," he told NZPA.

Hamill said there was no provision for execution but he hoped that Duch would be given a life sentence "a real life sentence so he would spend the rest of his days in a cell.

"I'd be happy with that."