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Witness testifies about execution at ex-Khmer Rouge leader 'Duch' trial

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] A witness in the trial of former Khmer Rogue leader Kaing Guek Eav, also known as "Duch," testified Monday about his uncle's execution by Kaing and other crimes committed at the prison camp M-13. The witness, Chan Veoun, testified before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) that while he worked at the prison he observed not only his uncle's execution but also saw Kaing once burn a woman's breasts and said that shackled prisoners would be left to drown in pits during the monsoon season. Kaing, who admitted responsibility for the deaths of prisoners at the S-21 prison, denies everything revealed in Chan's testimony. The M-13 camp is outside the court's jurisdiction, but testimony about events there has been admitted to establish Kaing's role in the Khmer Rouge regime. In the coming week, the ECCC will hear testimony from former S-21 staff and survivors. Kaing recently requested release to 'safe house' during Cambodia genocide trial, though he lost a similar appeal of his pre-trial detention in 2007. His trial is the first of eight that the ECCC hopes to hear against former members of the Khmer Rouge, which has been accused of murdering 1.7 million Cambodians during its nearly four-year reign. The ECCC has long been plagued with accusations of corruption and inadequate funding, with greater problems in recent years. In March, the ECCC reported that it would be unable to pay its Cambodian employees for that month, one year after the court had requested $114 million dollars from the UN. In February, Human Rights Watch warned that the ECCC trials were in danger of being tainted for their failure to follow fair trial standards, and in January a Cambodian court agreed to hear a corruption case involving two ECCC judges.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on April 20, 2009 (boomark / email).