Habrá que estar eternamente agradecidos al doctor Mu. De no ser por él, lo más probable es que hoy en día careceríamos de un testimonio excepcional para tratar de comprender, en toda su complejidad —esto es, en su bondad y en su maldad infinitas—, la condición humana. El doctor Mu hizo en su momento algo muy simple: le propuso a Denise Affonço que redactara sus propias memorias. Es más, le indicó que no intentara escribir una novela, que relatara tan sólo lo que ella había «visto y vivido, día a día, bajo el régimen de los jemeres rojos». Y Denise Affonço aceptó.… Seguir leyendo »
In frontier lands, religious conversion must be the domain of fiery preachers — purveyors of divine wrath who menace those of little faith with warnings of perdition — or of austere missionaries who embrace a punishing lifestyle to inspire the unenlightened. At least, so went the image in my mind.
But Sman Sleh, the province’s imam, was neither. He had soft features and an affable demeanor; he lived comfortably, though not conspicuously so. He moved to this dusty provincial capital several years ago from the country’s Muslim-minority heartland a couple of provinces over, in Kampong Cham. A successful meeting with him, I was told, would ensure me access to the region’s small, reclusive Muslim community.… Seguir leyendo »
Los cuatro líderes supervivientes del régimen comunista de los Jemeres Rojos (entre los que se encuentra el antiguo jefe del Estado, Jieu Samfan), en la cárcel en Phnom Penh desde 2007, van a ser llevados a los tribunales, en su propio país: el primer juicio del comunismo se va a celebrar finalmente ante un tribunal incuestionable. Este tribunal demostró su eficacia el pasado 26 de julio, al condenar a Duch a 35 años de cárcel: Duch, uno de los engranajes de la máquina exterminadora Jemer Roja, dirigió de 1975 a 1979 un centro de tortura que causó 15.000 víctimas. A diferencia del tribunal de Nuremberg que, en 1945, juzgó a los dignatarios nazis, el de Phnom Penh no está dirigido por potencias victoriosas: actúa dentro de la justicia camboyana, bajo el control de la opinión pública camboyana, pero financiado por Naciones Unidas.… Seguir leyendo »
Last week, a U.N.-backed tribunal convicted Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, for war crimes in what was the first trial of a major Khmer Rouge figure. Many media reports portrayed the verdict in a positive light, but for survivors, victims and their families, there was nothing positive in this outcome.
An editorial in the International Herald Tribune (“Forgotten victims?” July 29) stated that while the sentence handed down by the tribunal may be disappointing, at least Duch was held to account for his war crimes. Unfortunately, “at least” isn’t good enough for me and for those who suffered from the murderous actions of the Khmer Rouge, especially after waiting 30 years for this verdict.… Seguir leyendo »
Cambodia’s war crimes court, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, or ECCC, deserves credit for convicting Kaing Guek Eav, better known as “Duch,” for war crimes and sentencing him to 35 years in prison. But Duch was the legal equivalent of a “tomato can” in boxing — an unskilled opponent used to pad a win-loss record. His conviction was an easy knockout.
Now that that legal mismatch is over, the long delayed main event — the trial of the aging Khmer Rouge political leaders — Ieng Sary, Khieu Samphan, Nuon Chea and Ieng Thirith — can begin.
Unlike Duch, a functionary who admitted he was “responsible for the crimes committed” and expressed “deep regret and heartfelt sorrow,” the regime’s top leaders will mount aggressive defenses and maintain their innocence until the end.… Seguir leyendo »
Dans le procès hors du commun de l'ancien Khmer rouge Douch, qui se tient à Phnom Penh depuis février et qui s'achèvera fin novembre, il y a d'abord les victimes, les ex-prisonniers survivants de la prison de sécurité 21 ou "S21", et les familles de tous les suppliciés.
Disons tout de suite que le pardon des victimes, qui a été maladroitement sollicité lors de leurs poignantes dépositions à la barre en août, n'est pas et ne doit pas être l'enjeu de ce procès. Nul n'est autorisé à demander aux victimes de pardonner les crimes odieux subis par eux ou par leurs proches.… Seguir leyendo »
I was 15 in 1975, when Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge overtook Cambodia, enslaving my people and turning our farmland into what the world now calls the Killing Fields. During the next four years I lost my mother and father, my brothers, aunts, uncles and friends to the cruel oppression that claimed 1.7 million lives.
As a boy I prayed every day for someone to stop the slavery and the killings. No one did. I saw soldiers force people to dig the holes in which they would be buried alive. We ate mice, rats, lizards. My 8-year-old niece starved before my eyes.… Seguir leyendo »
At my hotel in Phnom Penh, the women and children sat on one side of the room, palais-style, the men on the other. It was a disco night and a lot of fun; then suddenly people walked to the windows and wept. The DJ had played a song by the much-loved Khmer singer Sin Sisamouth, who had been forced to dig his own grave and to sing the Khmer Rouge anthem before he was beaten to death. I experienced many such reminders.
There was another kind of reminder. In the village of Neak Long I walked with a distraught man through a necklace of bomb craters.… Seguir leyendo »
After 10 years of detention, Kaing Guek Eav, alias Comrade Duch, is to appear today before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. He was arrested in 1999, after 20 years of living incognito, for crimes committed on his orders as commander of the Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh from 1975 to 1979, when the Khmer Rouge controlled Cambodia and were responsible for the deaths of more than a million people.
I was his prisoner for three months in 1971, in a camp known as M13 hidden in the forest of the Cardamom mountains.… Seguir leyendo »
Cambodians and other Theravada Buddhists celebrate their New Year in mid-April. They were not always able to do so. Under Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese rule, those ancient traditions were forbidden, impossible. But now Cambodia is free again and the festivities are in the open. As I wander the country of my youth, I see people spending the long holiday praying at temples and visiting relatives.
And I remember. My family used to hold a reunion on April 13 to mark both the New Year and my mother’s birthday. In 1975, we had no idea that it would be our last. We were all apprehensive about the future, and my mother was distraught because I had missed the American evacuation.… Seguir leyendo »
Camboya es el enigma de Asia. Según su pasado reciente, debería ser una sociedad herida, sacudida por los odios, asolada por los conflictos y empobrecida por años de guerra. Sin embargo, nada de eso parece caracterizar al país hoy. Por tanto, la pregunta a la que se enfrenta el visitante es cómo ha logrado ese país renacer de una de las experiencias más espantosas de los tiempos modernos.
Tal como define un informe oficial del Gobierno el mandato de los jemeres rojos, "Kampuchea Democrática fue una de las peores tragedias del siglo XX". "El régimen acabó con casi dos millones de vidas y dejó tras de sí a decenas de miles de viudas y huérfanos", indica.… Seguir leyendo »
Angka. Duch. Monosyllables that, 30 years on, Cambodians can barely be induced to utter, even within the family, so unbearable is the pain, the abiding fear, and also the eerily generalised guilt those words invoke.
Angka, “the collective”: the murderous Khmer Rouge forbade people to attach names or faces to the regime that was bent on crushing all traces of identity out of them.
Duch, the Year Zero sobriquet of Kaing Khek Ieu: now a born-again Christian, but between 1975 and 1979 the Angka’s methodical torture master. This week, a full decade after it was agreed that Khmer Rouge leaders should face trial, he became the first of Pol Pot’s henchmen to be indicted for crimes against humanity.… Seguir leyendo »
By Alex Hinton, an associate professor of anthropology at Rutgers University at Newark and is the author of "Why Did They Kill? Cambodia in the Shadow of Genocide." (THE WASHINGTON POST, 04/08/06):
Ta Mok, the notorious former Khmer Rouge military commander and central committee member nicknamed "The Butcher," died two weeks ago today. His death, like that of Pol Pot in 1998, deprives Cambodians of yet another chance to see a key architect of the Cambodian genocide held accountable for the campaign of mass murder unleashed from 1975 to 1979.
Ta Mok's passing was filled with ironies. Most immediate was the incongruous sight of his being given an elaborate Buddhist funeral, replete with 72 chanting monks, and being laid to rest in a concrete monument on the grounds of a temple.… Seguir leyendo »
By Nathaniel Myers, former adviser to a coalition of Cambodian nongovernmental organizations on issues concerning the Khmer Rouge tribunal (THE WASHINGTON POST, 24/12/05):
Speaking to a Senate subcommittee two years ago, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said that, given the level of "lawlessness and impunity" in the country under discussion, it made "no sense" to even consider convening a human rights tribunal to conduct trials on the heinous crimes of the ousted regime. The country he was referring to was not Iraq -- though it certainly could have been -- but Cambodia, where the United Nations had just finished negotiations with the government to establish a joint tribunal to prosecute surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge.… Seguir leyendo »
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