The court has drawn criticism for the high cost of operation and the low number of indictments.
#The khmer rouge regime a personal nightmare enotes trial
Its proceedings are open to the public victims can register as “civil parties” to question defendants during trial sessions and seek various types of reparations. The court functions not only to return verdicts but also to try to give some measure of peace and resolution to victims and to Cambodian society as a whole. Survivor Sophany Bay, testifying before the Khmer Rouge tribunal, holds up a photo of one of her three children, all of whom died during the regime’s rule.
So far it has convicted three defendants and sentenced them to lengthy prison terms. In 2006, the United Nations and the Cambodian government inaugurated a joint tribunal known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). But a new civil war began and almost three decades passed before any Khmer Rouge leaders were brought to justice. In time, gross mismanagement of the economy led to shortages of food and medicine, and untold numbers of Cambodians succumbed to disease and starvation.Īn invasion by neighboring Vietnam finally toppled the regime. The movement killed thousands of its own as suspected traitors and spies for foreign powers. Not even members of the Khmer Rouge were safe. Ethnic minorities faced particular persecution. Families were split apart, with children forced into mobile labor brigades.Īnyone who questioned the new order risked torture and death by a blow to the head. Religion, popular culture, and all forms of self-expression were forbidden. Black-clad soldiers marched millions of people into the countryside and put them to work as slaves digging canals and tending crops.
The Khmer Rouge began their reign with the murder of surrendering officials of the former government and the brutal emptying of the capital and other cities. The result was an ancient society’s wholesale destruction and a horrifying new term for the world to confront: “the killing fields.” The purported goal was to transform the Southeast Asian country into a classless agrarian utopia. Nearly two million people died under the rule of the fanatical Communist movement, which imposed a ruthless agenda of forced labor, thought control, and mass execution on Cambodia. From April 17, 1975, to January 7, 1979, the Khmer Rouge perpetrated one of the greatest crimes of the 20th century.
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