Wednesday, November 3, 2010

C is For Cambodia

I wish we could have a war crimes trial here.  

Sorry, world.


PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Cambodia’s UN-backed genocide tribunal yesterday formally indicted the four top surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime blamed for 1.7 million deaths in the 1970s, paving the way for the panel’s long-awaited second trial next year.  

So when do they get around to indicting Tony Bliar, George Bush, and a whole crop of Israeli officials?

The frail, elderly defendants, who have been in detention since 2007, deny any guilt for their roles in the radical communist rule during which about a quarter of Cambodia’s population was either executed or died of starvation or overwork....   

Have they killed millions in wars of occupations while running black site torture chambers all over the planet?  

I'm not excusing what they did; I just was hoping for some more recent things, you know?

The indictments follow the conviction in July of the regime’s chief jailer, Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture, and murder.  

 Let's see, how many Western leaders can we add to the list. 

 Nah, would take too long.

He was sentenced to 19 years in prison — a term criticized by many Cambodians as too lenient. Prosecutors are appealing for a longer sentence, while Duch has filed his own appeal seeking an acquittal.

Duch, 67, was the first defendant to be tried. He supervised the notorious S-21 prison where as many as 16,000 people were tortured before being executed. 

The wars based on lies are mass executions, and the torture continues.  

S-21 is Cambodian for Bagram?

Duch cooperated with prosecutors and the meticulous record-keeping at S-21 made his trial more straightforward. The upcoming trial of the senior leaders is likely to be more complicated and politically sensitive because some current Cambodian leaders were once lower-level Khmer Rouge cadres themselves.

Yeah, somehow the same crowd always seems to take over no matter where you live.

The devastation to Cambodia caused by the group’s radical policies during its 1975-79 rule is beyond doubt.  

When my newspaper says that.... sigh.

Towns and cities were depopulated in a disastrous agrarian experiment that shunned technology and persecuted the nation’s educated classes. Perceived opponents of the regime, even within its own ranks, were ruthlessly purged.  

Why did I just think of Palestine?

But the opaque nature of the regime’s workings may make it harder to establish complicity of the accused.... 

If that doesn't describe AmeriKan (and U.N) attitudes towards introspection.... can we start with the lying, war-promoting, agenda-pushing papers then?

--more--" 

Related: Cambodian War Crimes Conviction

Also see:  Cambodian Construction

Sometimes I don't even know why the Globe bothers because down the memory hole it goes.  I guess communists are yesterday's bad guys.