"Khmer Rouge victims rip sentence; ‘Killing Fields’ jailer’s 19-year term draws howls" by Robin McDowell, Associated Press | July 27, 2010
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Victims and relatives yesterday criticized the sentence given to Khmer Rouge’s chief jailer, who was found guilty of overseeing the deaths of nearly 16,000 people.
What does millions off WMD lies get you?
A UN-backed tribunal sentenced Kaing Guek Eav — also known as Duch, pronounced Doik — to 35 years in prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity, but he will serve only 19 years, after taking into account time already served and other factors.
It was the first verdict involving a senior member of the “Killing Fields’’ regime that devastated a generation of Cambodians.
Many in the courtroom burst into tears after learning that Duch, 67, will serve only 19 years. That means he could one day walk free, a prospect that infuriated many who have been demanding justice for victims of the regime that killed an estimated 1.7 million people between 1975 and ’79....
More than three decades after the ultra-communist Khmer Rouge killed a quarter of Cambodia’s population while trying to turn the country into a vast agrarian collective, Duch is so far the only person to face justice.
The group’s top leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998 and four other senior Khmer Rouge leaders are awaiting trial for their part in the deaths from execution, starvation, medical neglect, and slavelike working conditions.
The tribunal — 10 years and $100 million in the making — said it took into consideration the historical context of the atrocities: The regime was the product of the troubled Cold War times.
The U.N. even EXCUSED the SLAUGHTER?
Are you effin' kidding?
And if that is the case, what is Israel's excuse for its current crop of war crimes?
It also recognized that Duch, who headed Tuol Sleng, a secret detention center for the worst enemies of the state, was not a member of the Khmer Rouge’s inner clique and that he had cooperated with the court, admitted responsibility, and showed limited expressions of remorse.
During the 77-day proceedings, Duch admitted to overseeing the deaths of up to 16,000 people who passed through the prison’s gates. Torture used to extract confessions included pulling out prisoners’ toenails, administering electric shocks, and waterboarding.
You know, the things AmeriKa has spent the last ten years doing in the name of a "war on terror."
One of the tribunal’s international judges, Silvia Cartwright, said she understood that those who lived through the Khmer Rouge’s reign of terror may be upset at the sentence.
“That’s one of the reasons that we have an objective tribunal . . . fixing as balanced a sentence as we can,’’ she said. “If left to the victims to decide how to punish a person, then it would be, possibly, mob rule.’’
“You have to bear in mind that victims are very deeply hurt and traumatized,’’ she said. “We can never give them what they lost . . . so a sentence can only ever be symbolic in a way.’’
I'm shocked by this blithe and cavalier attitude towards mass-murderers, aren't you?
This must be the reason we never see western war criminals before the bar.
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Unlike the other defendants, Duch has asked for forgiveness several times, even offering at one point to face a public stoning. But his surprise request on the final day of the trial to be acquitted and freed left many wondering if his contrition was sincere....
Yeah, VICTIMS of a Holocaust DO NOT MATTER unless they are JEWISH!
Chum Mey, 79, one of just a few survivors among people sent to Tuol Sleng prison [and a] key witness, wiped his eyes. “See . . . my tears drop down again. I feel like I was a victim during the Khmer Rouge, and now I’m a victim once again.’’
Duch said the court had rejected arguments that he was acting on orders from the top because he was under duress or feared for his own life....
That didn't work for Nazis so why should it work for him?
Next time order the things; you won't face any charges.
I mean, look at AmeriKa's leaders.
When we waterboard it's considered an amusement park ride.
Also see: Lowell's Little Cambodia
But they get more BG print?
