Duch's Verdict is a Complete Sham

How do you prosecute a war crime general whose detention center unmercifully tortured, maimed and killed its prisoners in the tens of thousands? What kind of verdict can the court system conclude to appease those anxiously waiting for served justice? Chances are, any punishment handed out within a Tribunal court system would always seem too passive for the victims.

These victims have to go through their entire lives without their relatives, brothers, sisters, fathers, or mothers. Their memories forever seared by pain and void. How do you justify the killing of 14,000 Cambodians, the physical torture of countless more and the rippling effect of psychological torture that lingers with its victims 35 years later? It sure can’t be justified with a 35 year life prison sentence for Kaing Guev Eav or “Duch” as he is commonly known.

"Thirty-five years. You can't return the lives of the people that were lost. But it's a start," said Collin Sam, 22, a Cambodian-American from Long Beach, California. No amount of life sentence, it seems, is enough.

If your parents were both killed by the Khmer Rouge, how would you feel about Duch’s verdict? "Scandalous. It's becoming a sham. It's an insult to the survivors. Effectively, he should have been receiving many life sentences. It makes light of the crime and suffering," said Theary Seng, chairwoman of the Center for Justice and Reconciliation and whose parents were both killed by the Khmer Rouge.

With anything serious that goes on in Cambodia, the result many times has become a joke. The joke seems to always be at the expense of the Cambodian people. Here’s a chance for Cambodia to demonstrate its intellect and capabilities of its judicial system, but what it manages to do is reaffirm their incompetence.

Thirty Five years in prison. That is all the court can muster to sentence Duch. When least needed, Cambodia suddenly found its “fair” and democratic ways? Would it have harmed their already embattled image, to give Duch a 150 year prison sentence? Frankly, Cambodia’s public relations official needs to be fired.  Even in the face of scrutiny, Cambodia’s politics and political leaders have the gall to spit in everyone’s face. That’s how it has always been under Hun Sen’s rule, to ignore domestic and international pressure and show who’s really in control.

"Today is a historic, important day for the people of Cambodia," said Reach Sambath, the spokesman for the court. The only thing historic, Mr. Sambath, is the new incompetency level reached by Cambodia’s judicial system.  Close to $100 million in Tribunal fees since its inception and we get a verdict that’s less severe than a double murder trial.

The people are not asking for an “eye for an eye” type punishment (although that would have been embraced), however, what they wanted to see was some sense of justified punishment; some sense of understanding from the Government and the courts of the nightmares and anguish that this man has caused. What the verdict did was, as Theary Seng puts it, “makes light of the crime and suffering”.

Poll: Kaing Guek Eav (Duch) Prison sentence. Was it enough?

By: Phanna J. Kloth

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