AsiaLIFE

For more than a decade, critics have exerted influence over attempts to try the surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge and find some kind of justice for the atrocities committed under their rule. Yet despite the resistance, the main event—Case 002—is now underway at the Extraordinary Chambers for the Courts in Cambodia. Words and photos by Luke Hunt.

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Few could be more pleased to see Case 002 finally get underway than Mek Naing, who struggles to raise his children on a tiny farm in Omlaing, located on a dusty, remote road about 80 kilometres northeast of Phnom Penh.

The 37-year-old divides his spare time between making charcoal and ensuring that intrepid travellers who find their way to Omlaing understand what happened here more than three decades ago.

Mek Naing is the unofficial keeper of M-13, the death camp established by Pol Pot and Kang Guek Eav (known as Duch) in 1971. His dilapidated shacks are the nearest dwellings to the site, a three-kilometre hike into the scrub, through thickets, secondary forest and two crossings of the Trapaing Chrab River.

At first glance, the pits and ponds are visually much less dramatic than the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek on the outskirts of the capital or the evidence of torture on display at Tuol Sleng, the high school that was transformed into the S-21 death camp.

What makes this clump of dirt significant is that M-13 served as the prototype for S-21, established in the communist-held zone of Omlaing when Pol Pot's forces were still battling the US-backed Lon Nol government for control of the country.

About 300 people died in M-13. Another 190 such camps were constructed across the country once the Khmer Rouge seized power in April 1975 and maintained until the Vietnamese ousted Pol Pot and his henchmen in January 1979.

The existence of the previously unknown M-13 was revealed in last year’s Case 001, which resulted in a guilty verdict for Duch and the first successful prosecution for the Extraordinary Chambers for the Courts in Cambodia (ECCC). Duch’s sentenced 35-year jail term is currently before appeal.

Leaders On Trial

Of the surviving leaders now in the dock, former “Brother Number Two” Nuon Chea, one-time head of state Khieu Samphan, the former foreign minister Ieng Sary and his wife Ieng Thirith fight charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. These four are the surviving members of Khmer Rouge committees that wrote and deployed government policies that stripped Cambodia of its cultural heritage and a third of its population.

The importance of the ECCC was underscored by the US Ambassador at large for War Crime Issues, Stephen Rapp, who called the tribunal “the most important trial in the world” while legal experts say the war crimes trial is the most complex since Nuremberg in the aftermath of World War II.

The sheer number of crimes, victims and witnesses is immense. More than 3,800 civil parties, or victims seeking reparations, have been admitted to the court. There are more than 450,000 pages of evidence that will attempt to connect crimes with government policy.

Those crimes, however, happened more than 32 years ago, and the many crime sites scattered across the remote countryside are tainted by human intervention and decades of weathering. No pleas have been entered yet and the defendants have signalled they will plead not guilty.

Legal counsel for the former foreign minister Ieng Sary, his wife Ieng Thirith and the former head of state Khieu Samphan surprised observers and a consistently packed public gallery by saying that they would cooperate with the court.

However, counsel for Nuon Chea told a post-hearing media briefing that their client was not happy with the tribunal and that a lack of transparency in the initial hearing was a matter of concern.

Debating Due Process

Brother Number Two’s defence is headed by Dutchman Michiel Pestman who complained that the court had ignored his preliminary objections, which included a list of 300 witnesses that Nuon Chea wants to have testify in public about alleged war crimes.

“It’s like reading one page of a history book and tearing the rest out,” Pestman said on the lawns of the ECCC.

The lawyer said that former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger—who played a pivotal role during the Indochinese wars which preceded the Khmer Rouge’s rise to power—was on the list of 300 people that Nuon Chea wanted to call forward.

While Nuon Chea’s defence team is focused on the wider ramifications of Cold War power plays in Cambodia, Ieng Sary’s team honed in on a pardon granted by King Norodom Sihanouk in 1996 as part of a peace deal that eventually ended the civil war. They claim double jeopardy means their client should not be charged.

Khieu Samphan said his position within the Khmer Rouge as head of state was mainly ceremonial and he was never in a position to fully understand what was happening in the countryside. Ieng Thirith argued that she wielded no power within the regime.

“We saw them come into the tribunal and we thought they have a right to due process, not guilty until proven guilty,” said Leakhena Nou, Executive Director of the Applied Social Research Institute of Cambodia (ASRIC), which represents US-based survivors of the Khmer Rouge regime and has had 41 civil parties admitted to Case 002. “Revenge is not the answer… the truth will catchup with them,” she said.

Lately, the ECCC has been struck by recent allegations from non-governmental organizations of political interference in regards to investigations into lower-ranking officials in cases 003 and 004.

Widespread reports suggest Case 003 involves Sou Met, a former commander of the Khmer Rouge air force, and Meas Mut, commander of the navy. Prime Minister Hun Sen has indicated he does not want to see the tribunal expanded.

Recalling the Past

For now, Cambodians and a large contingent of international players and observers are focused on Case 002, which most expect will run for another two years. At Omlaing, Mek Naing is among them. He wants to visit the court after missing an opportunity during Case 001 to see Duch in the dock. For him, it’s personal.

When the Vietnamese invaded and the Khmer Rouge withdrew from Omlaing, villagers threw a feast and celebrated. It was then that the full scale of what had happened at M-13 hit home. “What people noticed was an abundance of fish, which they cooked, and the smell of rotting corpses,” Mek Naing said.

"Men and women [had been] handcuffed or tied to poles erected in large pits that filled up rapidly as the rainy season set in. They were drowned and fed to the fish. Their remains were left in the mass graves for decades, their bones still shackled to the poles.

“People then realised what they were dining on, and swore off fish for more than a decade,” Mek Naing said.

Two decades of conflict followed the Vietnamese invasion. Another decade of peacetime bickering with the United Nations ensued before the ECCC could be established.

Amid this the Khmer Rouge remained a cold war relic, escaping justice and denying their compatriots a chance to find closure on one of the darkest chapters of the 20th century. That has now changed .

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