Thirty years on, Khmer Rouge torturer faces justice

Reuters ^ | Mon Feb 16, 2009 | Ek Madra

[nickcarraway]

Thirty years after the fall of Cambodia's "Killing Fields" regime, 78-year-old Chum Manh will finally see his torturer stand trial.

Nearly every Cambodian family lost loved ones during the 1975-79 period of Khmer Rouge rule that claimed an estimated 1.7 million lives.

Despite their role in one of the darkest chapters of the 20th century, none of Pol Pot's surviving henchmen ever faced justice. Until now.

The U.N.-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal opens its first trial on Tuesday when 66-year-old Duch, also known as Kaing Guek Eav, faces charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture and homicide while he ran the S-21 torture center.

"I want to ask him why he killed his own people, and why did his men torture me?" Chum Manh told Reuters during a visit to the Phnom Penh high school that was turned into the notorious S-21 prison during Pol Pot's regime.

Chum Manh was among only 14 survivors from the jail, where an estimated 16,000 prisoners were tortured before being clubbed to death in the Cheoung Ek "Killing Fields" outside the capital.

"What motivated them to commit such heinous crimes?" Chum Manh asked as he surveyed his old cell in the former prison. Now the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, the building is largely preserved as it was when the Khmer Rouge jailers were driven out in 1979.

"YEAR ZERO"

When the black-clad Khmer Rouge overran Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975, the besieged city's residents welcomed them with open arms, hoping it meant the end of Cambodia's civil war, a tragic sideshow to the U.S. anti-communist war in neighbouring Vietnam.

Little did they know, the real nightmare was about to begin.

Within hours of occupying the sleepy capital, nestled on the banks of the Mekong and dripping in French colonial grandeur, PolPot started 'Year Zero',

[allmost]

Bump.

[ClearCase_guy]

This is what the hippies marched in the streets for — get the US out of SE Asia and let the communists build a paradise. It’s all groovy, man!

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

We can certainly lay this at the feet of liberals.It was held at bay until funding the south vietnamese was pulled along with all tactical support plunging the whole region into hell.

[Syncro]

They can thank Kerry and Fonda for that massacre, plus thousands of our own fighting forces.

This is around the time that the Viet Nam war ended which gave ‘permission’ for despot regimes to kill up into the millions.

Thanks SENATOR Kerry.

[Tribune7]

Bob Edgar insisted there were no killing fields.

[dfwgator]

Amen, all those dope-smoking FM type hippie protesters have blood on their hands.

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

They are now the ones running the country with bambo as the figurehead.Scary times await us.

[vladimir998]

“When the black-clad Khmer Rouge overran Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975, the besieged city’s residents welcomed them with open arms, hoping it meant the end of Cambodia’s civil war, a tragic sideshow to the U.S. anti-communist war in neighbouring Vietnam.”

Please don’t get me wrong...I know the people of Cambodia suffered terribly, but it has always bothered me that they welcomed the Khmer Rouge scum into their own capital city like that. They suffered under the Khmer Rouge for only one reason - THEY LOST THE WILL TO FIGHT.

Will we conservatives lose our will to fight under Obama? Will we lose our will to fight Obama?

[Texas Fossil]

Evil Commie B__tards.

They will eventually die, and have to answer to God for their actions.

Not soon enough.

[Eagles6]

"Within hours of occupying the sleepy capital, nestled on the banks of the Mekong and dripping in French colonial grandeur, Pol Pot started 'Year Zero', one of the most violent social experiments in human history."

Our "Year zero" started 11/4/2008. It is the greatest social experiment America has experienced, yet to be seen if it will be violent.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

THe people who greeted the Khmer Rouge were tired of war, with them being on the receiving end of horrible rocket and artillery attacks. They thought that changing governments might mean an end to the war. And they were right, but it didn’t mean an end to the killing, only the beginning of genocide.

As the only journalist to testify before Congress about the impending Khmer Rouge/NVA genocide in Cambodia, I can only hope that the truth of this horror is printed in every American paper, and shown on every TV station in the country.

The Left has so much blood on their hands that they can never wash it all off.

[BobL]

But one has to marvel how the left can just walk away from that bloodbath like it didn’t matter...and then get on with trying to effect the same in Central America (to the point where even Carter had to fight the Congress at times).