Cambodia, July 2004
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Seeking Justice in Cambodia Realism
Seeking Justice in Cambodia By Gregory H. Stanton When the Khmer Rouge regime took power in Cambodia in 1975, its leaders hoped to establish a utopian rural communist society without cities, private property or money. They declared a new beginning of history, Year Zero, and a new nation, Democratic Kampuchea. Although they modeled their revolution on the Soviet Union under Stalin and China under Mao Tse-Tung, they believed those regimes had not gone far enough, fast enough in killing class enemies. The Khmer Rouge also eschewed the cults of personality established by Stalin and Mao. Instead the secretive Khmer Rouge power elite named themselves the Angkar, the organization, and claimed absolute obedience from every Kampuchean. Religion and worship were abolished. Buddhist monks were disrobed and often killed. Muslim Chams and the few Christians were murdered at a rate much higher than ordinary Kampucheans. Vietnamese Cambodians were forced to flee to Vietnam until 1977, when the border was closed and the remaining Vietnamese were murdered. Minority ethnic groups were forced to live in Khmer-speaking communes, and forbidden to speak their languages and practice their customs. The Khmer Rouge systematically stripped rural communes of the rice they produced in order to trade it to China for weapons and machines. They substituted traditional herbal treatments for scientific “foreign” medicine and neither manufactured nor imported modern antibiotics. “New people” originally from the cities were declared to be class enemies and were literally worked to death. By 1977, the failures of the Kampuchean economy were blamed on enemies within the Communist party, and purges began all over the country. -
In the Shadows: Women, Power and Politics in Cambodia
In the Shadows: Women, Power and Politics in Cambodia Kate Frieson CAPI Associate and United N ations Regional Spokesperson, UNMIBH (UN mission in Bosnia Hercegovina) Occasional Paper No. 26 June 2001 Copyright © 2001 Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives Box 1700, STN CSC Victoria, BC Canada V8W 2Y2 Tel. : (250) 721-7020 Fax : (250) 721-3107 E-mail: [email protected] National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data Frieson, Kate G. (Kate Grace), 1958- In the Shadows: Women, Power and Politics in Cambodia (CAPI occasional paper series ; 26) ISBN 1-55058-230-5 1. Cambodia–Social conditions. 2. Cambodia–Politics and government. 3. Women in politics–Cambodia. I. UVic Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives. II. Title. III. Series: Occasional papers (UVic Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives) ; #26. DS554.8.F74 2001 305.42'09596 C2001-910945-8 Printed in Canada Table of Contents Theoretical Approaches to Gender and Politics ......................................1 Women and the Politics of Socialization ............................................2 Women and the State: Regeneration and the Reproduction of the Nation ..................4 Women and the Defense of the State during War-Time ................................8 Women as Defenders of the Nation ...............................................12 Women in Post-UNTAC Cambodia ..............................................14 Conclusion ..................................................................16 Notes ......................................................................16 In the Shadows: Women, Power and Politics in Cambodia Kate Frieson, University of Victoria "Behind almost all politicians there are women in the shadows" Anonymous writer, Modern Khmer News, 1954 Although largely unscribed in historical writings, women have played important roles in the Cambodian body politic as lance-carrying warriors and defenders of the Angkorean kingdom, influential consorts of kings, deviant divas, revolutionary heroines, spiritual protectors of Buddhist temples, and agents of peace. -
To Keep You Is No Gain, to Kill You Is No Loss* – Securing Justice Through the International Criminal Court
TO KEEP YOU IS NO GAIN, TO KILL YOU IS NO LOSS* – SECURING JUSTICE THROUGH THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT Talitha Gray** I. INTRODUCTION “We who have witnessed in the twentieth century, the worst crimes against humanity, have an opportunity to bequeath to the new century a powerful instrument of justice. So let us rise to this challenge.”1 An incomprehensible number of people have died as a result of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity in the last century. After World War II and the Holocaust, nations and their citizenry proclaimed that never again would something so horrendous happen. “We must make sure that their deaths have posthumous meaning. We must make sure that from now until the end of days all humankind stares this evil in the face . and only then can we be sure it will never arise again.”2 Despite this vow, from 1950 to 1990, there were seventeen genocides, with two that resulted in the death of over a million people.3 In 1994, 800,000 Tutsis died during a three-month genocide in Rwanda.4 Genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity are not only something that occurred in the distant past; sadly, they remain a vivid reality. If there is ever hope to end such crimes, they must be addressed by the law on an international scale. “We stand poised at the edge of invention: a rare occasion to build a new institution to serve a global need. An International Criminal Court is within our * This phrase is identified as the motto of the Khmer Rouge regime who murdered in excess of two million Cambodians during their three year reign. -
Cambodia: Human Rights Before and After the Elections
May 1993 Vol.5 No.10 CAMBODIA: HUMAN RIGHTS BEFORE AND AFTER THE ELECTIONS I. INTRODUCTION Cambodians will go to the polls on May 23 in an atmosphere of political and ethnic violence and renewed civil war. The elections are the culmination of a 17-month United Nations presence, the largest, most ambitious and most expensive peace-keeping effort ever, which was supposed to bring about an end to the conflict. Instead, Cambodia is faced with as much fighting as when the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) entered the country in March 1992, and a spiralling level of serious human rights abuses. The "neutral political environment" that was supposed to be the precondition for elections is entirely absent. The five permanent members of the Security Council and other drafters of the 1991 Paris peace accords, formally known as the Agreements on a Comprehensive Political Settlement of the Cambodia Conflict, are determined to go ahead with the elections regardless. But what happens on May 23 is almost less important than what happens in the days after the results are announced. Asia Watch believes that an analysis of the missteps that led to the current human rights situation is critically important to determining how, or perhaps whether, human rights of Cambodians can be protected under whatever government comes to power then. The reasons for the deterioration in the human rights situation in late 1992 and early 1993 are complex. None of the parties to the conflict has a history of respect for human rights and one, Democratic Kampuchea, better known as the Khmer Rouge, has one of the worst human rights records in modern history. -
The Khmer Rouge Tribunal: an Ambiguous Good News Story
perspectives The Khmer Rouge Tribunal: An Ambiguous Good News Story Milton Osborne A u g u s t 2 0 0 7 The Lowy Institute for International Policy is an independent international policy think tank based in Sydney, Australia. Its mandate ranges across all the dimensions of international policy debate in Australia – economic, political and strategic – and it is not limited to a particular geographic region. Its two core tasks are to: • produce distinctive research and fresh policy options for Australia’s international policy and to contribute to the wider international debate. • promote discussion of Australia’s role in the world by providing an accessible and high quality forum for discussion of Australian international relations through debates, seminars, lectures, dialogues and conferences. Lowy Institute Perspectives are occasional papers and speeches on international events and policy. The views expressed in this paper are the author’s own and not those of the Lowy Institute for International Policy. The Khmer Rouge Tribunal: an ambiguous good news story Milton Osborne It’s [the Khmer Rouge Tribunal] heavily symbolic and won’t have much to do with justice . It will produce verdicts which delineate the KR leadership as having been a small group and nothing to do with the present regime. Philip Short, author of Pol Pot: anatomy of a nightmare, London, 2004, quoted in Phnom Penh Post, 26 January8 February 2007. Some ten months after it was finally inaugurated in July 2006, and more than twentyeight years after the overthrow of the Democratic Kampuchean (DK) regime led by Pol Pot, the Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), more familiarly known as the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, has at last handed down its first indictment. -
Perspectives
perspectives The Khmer Rouge Tribunal: An Ambiguous Good News Story Milton Osborne A u g u s t 2 0 0 7 The Lowy Institute for International Policy is an independent international policy think tank based in Sydney, Australia. Its mandate ranges across all the dimensions of international policy debate in Australia – economic, political and strategic – and it is not limited to a particular geographic region. Its two core tasks are to: • produce distinctive research and fresh policy options for Australia’s international policy and to contribute to the wider international debate. • promote discussion of Australia’s role in the world by providing an accessible and high quality forum for discussion of Australian international relations through debates, seminars, lectures, dialogues and conferences. Lowy Institute Perspectives are occasional papers and speeches on international events and policy. The views expressed in this paper are the author’s own and not those of the Lowy Institute for International Policy. The Khmer Rouge Tribunal: an ambiguous good news story Milton Osborne It’s [the Khmer Rouge Tribunal] heavily symbolic and won’t have much to do with justice . It will produce verdicts which delineate the KR leadership as having been a small group and nothing to do with the present regime. Philip Short, author of Pol Pot: anatomy of a nightmare, London, 2004, quoted in Phnom Penh Post, 26 January8 February 2007. Some ten months after it was finally inaugurated in July 2006, and more than twentyeight years after the overthrow of the Democratic Kampuchean (DK) regime led by Pol Pot, the Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), more familiarly known as the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, has at last handed down its first indictment. -
Sihanouk Is W
THE NEW YORK TIMES, THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 1975 Sihanouk Is W ling to Pass Up Cambodian Rule NYTimes AP-K-2-4 19 Dispatch of The Times, London in Cambodia because the leader on the Communist death Khmer Rouge victorCIN,consti- list has fled to Thailand, leav- PEKING, April 23—Prince tuted "the only valid popular ing only two of the seven Norodom Sihanouk has said unaccounted for. that he will not be upset if the verdict." victorious Khmer Rouge did It -was the leaders of the Thai officials said that for- Khmer Rouge themselves who mer Premier In Tam fled across not abide by their offer to let asked me to remain as chief him return to Cambodia as' the border Saturday with three of state of Cambodia until my other persons as they were chief of state. death," Prince Sihanouk said. being fired on by Communist In a statement circulated "If one day these leaders here, the Prince said that he soldiers. The officials said that change their minds about me I the four men were in police did not want to return to shalj not be upset in the least custody in Prachin Burl Prov- Phnom Penh, which had "bad since the only goal of my life memories" for him and would ince, near the border. has been already achieved: the Mr. In Tam headed the gov- instead ask the Khmer Rouge total and irreversible liberation to restore the airport near the ernment in Phnom Penh in of Cambodia and the restoration 1973 while. President Lop Nol ancient capital of Angkor. -
Ethnicity, Violence, and Khmer-Vietnamese Relations: the Signicance of the Lower Mekong Delta, 1757–1954
The Journal of Asian Studies http://journals.cambridge.org/JAS Additional services for The Journal of Asian Studies: Email alerts: Click here Subscriptions: Click here Commercial reprints: Click here Terms of use : Click here Ethnicity, Violence, and Khmer-Vietnamese Relations: The Signicance of the Lower Mekong Delta, 1757–1954 Shawn McHale The Journal of Asian Studies / Volume 72 / Issue 02 / May 2013, pp 367 - 390 DOI: 10.1017/S0021911813000016, Published online: 19 March 2013 Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0021911813000016 How to cite this article: Shawn McHale (2013). Ethnicity, Violence, and Khmer-Vietnamese Relations: The Signicance of the Lower Mekong Delta, 1757–1954. The Journal of Asian Studies, 72, pp 367-390 doi:10.1017/S0021911813000016 Request Permissions : Click here Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/JAS, IP address: 128.164.150.96 on 16 Sep 2013 The Journal of Asian Studies Vol. 72, No. 2 (May) 2013: 367–390. © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc., 2013 doi:10.1017/S0021911813000016 Ethnicity, Violence, and Khmer-Vietnamese Relations: The Significance of the Lower Mekong Delta, 1757–1954 SHAWN MCHALE This essay argues that to understand twentieth-century Khmer-Vietnamese ethnic antag- onism, the contest for the lower Mekong Delta (in today’s Vietnam) since the mid- eighteenth century has been key. It argues, however, that while this pre-1945 background can explain antagonism, it cannot sufficiently explain the violence between Khmer and Vietnamese that occurred after 1945. For that, the First Indochina War (1945–54) and decolonization marked a turning point. This period saw the creation of a dynamic of vio- lence between Khmer and Vietnamese that hardened ethnic antagonisms, shaped the character of the war, and affected arguments over sovereignty. -
Witness Describes Later Stages of Khmer Rouge Rule by Mary Kozlovski
Prosecutor Tarik Abdulhak completed his questioning of witness Norng Sophang at the ECCC on Tuesday. “Everyone Was Insecure”: Witness Describes Later Stages of Khmer Rouge Rule By Mary Kozlovski On Tuesday, September 4, 2012, trial proceedings in Case 002 involving the accused Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, and Khieu Samphan, resumed at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). The prosecution and civil party lawyers concluded their questioning of witness Norng Sophang, whose testimony focused on communication under the Khmer Rouge regime. The hearing was adjourned at midday. Ieng Sary monitored proceedings from a holding cell, while Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan were in court for the morning session. Prosecution Continues Examination of Witness Norng Sophang International Senior Assistant Co-Prosecutor Tarik Abdulhak resumed the prosecution’s examination by continuing to present the witness with Democratic Kampuchea (DK) era telegrams, beginning with: • Telegram – April 10, 1978; No. 324; copied to Grand Uncle; Grand Uncle Nuon; Grand Uncle Van; Grand Uncle Vorn; Office; Archive; date of receipt April 11, 1978; signed by “Se”; “respectfully sent to beloved Committee 870.” In response to Mr. Abdulhak, Mr. Sophang said he did not know Se, and he saw the annotation in the top left-hand corner that read “Uncle Nuon.”1 Mr. Abdulhak quoted from the telegram about the situation along the Thai and Lao borders: The base of these traitors is on the Dangrek Mountain. We have a plan to search and destroy it. Ah In Tam group previously used the traitors in Sector 103 whose leader was Ah Hang. 2 He was their supporter. -
Ethnic Minorities, Government Policies, and Foreign Relations 1
Ethnic Minorities, Government Policies, and Foreign Relations 1 Ethnic Minorities, Government Policies, and Foreign Relations The Ethnic Chinese in Vietnam and Ethnic Vietnamese in Cambodia Ramses Amer ASIA PAPER June 2014 Ethnic Minorities, Government Policies, and Foreign Relations: The Ethnic Chinese in Vietnam and Ethnic Vietnamese in Cambodia Ramses Amer Institute for Security and Development Policy Västra Finnbodavägen 2, 131 30 Stockholm-Nacka, Sweden www.isdp.eu Ethnic Minorities, Government Policies, and Foreign Relations: The Ethnic Chinese in Vietnam and the Ethnic Vietnamese in Cambodia is an Asia Paper published by the Institute for Security and Development Policy. The Asia Papers Series is the Occasional Paper series of the Institute’s Asia Program, and addresses topical and timely subjects. The Institute is based in Stockholm, Sweden, and cooperates closely with research cent- ers worldwide. Through its Silk Road Studies Program, the Institute runs a joint Trans- atlantic Research and Policy Center with the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute of Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. The Institute is firmly established as a leading research and policy center, serving a large and diverse com- munity of analysts, scholars, policy-watchers, business leaders, and journalists. It is at the forefront of research on issues of conflict, security, and development. Through its applied research, publications, research cooperation, public lectures, and seminars, it functions as a focal point for academic, policy, and public discussion. The opinions and conclusions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Institute for Security and Development Policy or its sponsors. -
ANNEX 4: KHIEU SAMPHAN CHRONOLOGY [With Evidentiary Sources]
00948464 E295/6/1.4 ANNEX 4: KHIEU SAMPHAN CHRONOLOGY [With Evidentiary Sources] Date Fact Source 27 July 1931 Khieu Samphan was born at Commune of Rom (1) E3/557, Khieu Samphan OCIJ Statement, 19 November 2007, at ENG 00153266, KHM 00153228, FRE 00153296; Chek, District of Rom Duol, Srok Rumduol, Svay (2) E1!21.1, Transcript, 13 December 2012, Khieu Samphan, 13.58.25; Rieng Province to his parents Khieu Long and Ly (3) E3/110, Sasha Sher, The Biography 0/ Khieu Samphan, at ENG 00280537, KHM Kong. 00702682, FRE 00087511; (4) E3/27, Khieu Samphan OCIJ Statement, 13 December 2007, at ENG 00156741. 1944 -1947 Khieu Samphan attended Preah Sihanouk College (1) E3/9, Philip Short, Pol Pot: The History 0/ a Nightmare, at ENG 00396223-26, FRE 00639487-91; in Kampong Cham one year behind Saloth Sar. (2) E3/713, Khieu Samphan Interview, January 2004, at ENG 00177979, KHM Khieu Samphan and Saloth Sar alias Pol Pot 00792436-37, FRE 00812131; organized for a theatre troupe to tour the provinces to (3) El!189.1, Transcript, 6 May 2013, Philip Short 09.24.24 to 09.26.54; (4) E1!21.1, Transcript, 13 December 2012, Khieu Samphan,14.03.34 to 14.05.20; raise money for them to visit the temples of Angkor (5) E3/2357R, Video Entitled "Pol Pot: The Journey to the Killing Fields," 2005, 06:04 to Wat. 06: II. 1946 Khieu Samphan, since 1946, had been actively E3/111, Ieng Sary Interview, 31 January 1972, at ENG 00762419, KHM 00711435-36, FRE 00738627. -
The Life Course of Pol Pot: How His Early Life Influenced the Crimes He Committed
Scientific THE LIFE COURSE OF POL POT: HOW HIS EARLY LIFE INFLUENCED THE CRIMES HE COMMITTED Myra de Vries1* Maartje Weerdesteijn** ABSTRACT International criminology focuses mostly on the lower level perpetrators even though it finds the leader is crucial for orchestrating the circumstances in which these people kill. While numerous theories from ordinary criminology have been usefully applied to these lower level perpetrators, the applicability of these theories to the leaders has remained underexplored. In order to fill this gap, the life course theory of Sampson and Laub will be applied to Pol Pot whose brutal communist regime cost the lives of approximately 1.7 million people. A unusual childhood, the influence of peers while he studied in Paris, and his marriage to a woman who shared his revolutionary mind-set, were all negative turning-points for Pol Pot. I. Introduction Mass violence is constructed as something extraordinary that violates cosmopolitan, and perhaps even universal, norms.2 The extraordinary nature of these crimes lies in the fact that these are very often a state-directed effort to harm or kill marginalised groups. These crimes are also referred to as “crimes of obedience,”3 since lower level perpetrators often obey high level orders unquestioningly without taking personal responsibility for the ethical repercussions.4 *Myra de Vries graduated her BSc Criminologie at Leiden University in 2012, and is currently a student in the MSc International Crimes and Criminology programme. **Maartje Weerdesteijn is an assistant professor at the department of criminology at VU University Amsterdam and researcher at the Center for International Criminal Justice.