There has been quite a lot of press on the very first verdict decision of the Khmer Rouge trials. Especially working a newsroom within Cambodia, this past week has been crazy! Duch, the prison chief of one of the top torture prisons during the Khmer Rouge era, was sentences to 35 years in jail. Because he has already spent time in jail for pre-trial detention, this sentence whittles down to 19 years left to serve. The guy is 67 years old, so there is a slight possibility that he could walk after finishing this sentence. But he's spending the time in Cambodian prison, not the Hague, so it's possible that prison conditions will wear on his health and he'll die in jail. From what I gather, that's what everyone is hoping for.
Opinions are all across the board as to whether or not this sentence was too light. The argument is that Duch was only following orders that were coming from above. So therefore he is not 'as' responsible as others... On the way other hand is "screw this guy". He ordered the deaths and torture of almost 13,000 people (that's the figure he admitted to during court proceedings), let him rot in jail and burn in hell.
As an outsider, it's hard to say. I think the most important thing here is that it happened at all. They have been waiting for over 30 years to have an official statement that what the Khmer Rouge did was wrong. Those reverberations will perhaps be felt in Cambodian culture more that the number of years he will serve.
This soundbite is a case in point. This man is one of the press coordinators for the court that handled this case. I got this bit while shooting at the verdict announcement for a local english-language paper.
No comments:
Post a Comment