In mid-November, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia convicted two former Khmer Rouge leaders of genocide and crimes against humanity committed more than 40 years ago. The slow motion justice of the hybrid Cambodian-International court adds to the guilty verdicts and life sentences already imposed on ageing former Khmer Rouge leaders Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan. Testimony before the court gave detail and depth to the brutal consequences of Khmer Rouge rule that Yuangrat detailed in her article “Cambodia: Marxism or Sadism?” published in 1979 or the numerous articles on conditions in Cambodia that I wrote for UPI from 1977 to 1980.
The verdict may give some closure to the victims of the Khmer Rouge’s bizarre and brutal Maoist rule, but most had to move on with their lives long ago. The decision puts a final stamp of global disapproval on the radical Communist dictatorship of the Khmer Rouge. However, it does little to help the present day victims of the more pragmatic, but occasionally brutal elected dictatorship of Prime Minister Hun Sen. The question is whether the long-delayed trial will have any warning effect on the Hun Sen government or any of the other regimes that abuse human rights. It seems sadly unlikely.
The latest court proceedings concerned a broad range of crimes that led to the suffering and deaths of millions of Cambodians from 1975 to 1979. The earlier conviction focused on the tragedy of the forced evacuation of major Cambodian cities in 1975 and the murder of members of the previous government. The charges covered crimes stemming from the harsh treatment of people in vast labor camps, the torture and murder of suspects at government jails, the mistreatment of Vietnamese, Moslem Chams, and Buddhists and the forced marriages that were often accompanied by rape. These crimes were identified in a 2008 survey in which Cambodian survivors of the regime were asked which of the Khmer Rouge crimes were the most significant. Some 80% of the respondents listed the extra-judicial killings that occurred through much of the country. Another 63% listed the starvation due to rice exports and collectivization, 56% noted the forced labor at work sites and 33% listed torture of people suspected of opposition to the regime.
Numerous witnesses testified to the court that they were forced into unwanted and often brutally abusive marriages. Some of the witnesses said that those who resisted the marriages or refused to have sex with their new husbands were sometimes raped by local Khmer Rouge leaders. It is significant that forced marriage carried out on a national scale was recognized by the court as a crime against humanity.
The convictions on the charges of genocide, however, have attracted more attention even though the actions of genocide affected far fewer people than the Khmer Rouge crimes against their own people. Both leaders were found guilty of genocide against the ethnic Vietnamese in Cambodia while Nuon Chea was also convicted of genocide against the minority Cham community. Since the definition of genocide cites efforts to destroy an ethnic or religious group, the murders and abuses of the native Cambodians were not included in the genocide charges.
Former Khmer Rouge leaders Khieu Samphan (l) and Nuon Chea at their trial.
Picture: Christian Science Monitor
The two leaders have insisted that they were unaware of the abuses carried out during their rule. "I was president of the National Assembly and had nothing to do with the operation of the government,” said Nuon Chea, 92, leading ideologue and right-hand man of the top Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot. “Sometimes I didn't know what they were doing because I was in the assembly." Khieu Samphan, the 87-year-old former president of ‘Democratic Kampuchea,’ insisted that the harsh conditions in the collectives and work sites were necessary to urgently provide food for a nation emerging from a long and destructive civil war. "In order to rebuild and defend our country, the only force we had was the strength of the people. The wish of the Communist Party of Kampuchea at the time was not to subject the population to slavery for the sole benefit of Pol Pot," he told the court. In her article, Yuangrat shows that many of the most disastrous Khmer Rouge policies had their roots in Khieu Samphan’s doctoral thesis, which called for withdrawal from global trade, total self-reliance and a return to basic agriculture in a collective system.
The defense teams of the two Khmer Rouge leaders have already announced that they will file appeals once the full judgments are announced. Appeals on the earlier convictions took more than two years to conclude. So, it appears unlikely the latest decisions will be final until late in 2020.
So far, after some $300 million in costs and more than a decade of work, the court has delivered very few convictions. Two of those on trial, former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary and his powerful wife Ieng Thirith, died before sentencing. Three others, including the two leaders found guilty last month, are already serving life sentences in prison.
Trials against lower ranking Khmer Rouge officials seem unlikely to go forward. Charges against a regional Khmer Rouge military commander were dropped last year. Some of those initially charged have transformed themselves into supporters of the current government. The Hun Sen government has pushed back against widespread investigations against mid-level Khmer Rouge soldiers and officials. Hun Sen himself, along with other senior government officials, previously served in the Khmer Rouge army. The powerful prime minister, who I interviewed three times for UPI, has held office for nearly 4 decades. Hun Sen has backed limiting and winding up the tribunal, saying Cambodia should “dig a hole and bury the past.”
Four international judges have resigned in frustration at the slow pace of the proceedings, trial irregularities and government pressure to limit the investigations. Interior Minister Sar Kheng, also a former Khmer Rouge cadre, has already announced that since there are no more top Khmer Rouge leaders left, the trial process should be brought to a close. The impact of the deaths and suffering imposed by the Khmer Rouge on their own people continues, however, in the nightmares, physical disability and mental trauma of millions of Cambodians.
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