Visit the Khmer Rouge Tribunal

24/04/2015

Yesterday at the Khmer Rouge tribunal, former Khmer Rouge official Pech Chim told the court that at a cooperative in Takeo province, people were allowed to eat as much rice as they wanted one day per month. "Some ate ten bowls of rice, they'd go to their house and collapse," he said.

24/04/2015

A visit to the Khmer Rouge tribunal yesterday

12/03/2015

At the Khmer Rouge Tribunal today, the defense suggested that the court take a field trip to the Krang Ta Chan (spelling?) crime site, in order to count the number of skulls in the stupa and to examine the mass graves. Noun Chea's defense lawyer suggested that the area is too small for 15,000 (or did he say 50,000?) people to have been killed there. "It's like buying a house," Noun Chea's defense lawyer said. "You wouldn't buy it just from the map. You'd have to see it." The prosecutors disagreed, saying that if the court starts taking field trips around the country, then they'd also have to visit the airport the Khmer Rouge built (in Kampong Chnang?) and other crime sites. There'd be no end to traveling. All of this brought back the story I wrote a few years ago about the debate over what to do with the skulls of the Khmer Rouge victims. Some suggested that the skulls should be cremated in accordance with Buddhist customs. Others argued that they should be preserved as evidence of the crimes of the Pol Pot regime. Today for the first time I saw an attempt to use the skulls during the trials...http://www.straitstimes.com/the-big-story/asia-report/cambodia/story/cambodian-skulls-bone-contention-20130106

Hundreds of human skulls sit stacked on dusty shelves inside a former Khmer Rouge prison in Cambodia's capital, in what is now known as the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.

05/03/2015

yesterday at the tribunal, they talked about r**e. a former khmer rouge soldier testified about the difference between light and heavy offenses. the punishment for heavy offenses was death. light offenses included stealing potatoes or chickens or being r**ed. Serious offenses included fornication and ra**ng someone.
Was the r**ed person also punished?
Yes, the former soldier answered, but they were released.

04/03/2015

Khmer Rouge tribunal tour today

19/02/2015

What we learned when we visited the Tribunal on Tuesday: children were threatened with ex*****on for stealing coconuts. A teacher at a Khmer Rouge school was responsible for teaching 100 male children, who had 100 cows. There was one cow per child, and female children were taken care by a woman at some other school. (Or maybe they didn't go to school at all?) The boys (between the ages of 8 and 12) were taught literacy and math, but there were no exams and the teacher had no training. After three hours in class they had to go to take care of the cows. The teacher said some of his students can still read today, but their math skills are not so good: I.e. They can do addition and subtraction, but not multiplication and division. The school had no bathroom. The children relieved themselves when they went out with their cows, the teacher said.

18/02/2015

Does anyone know what is the statue at the tribunal that witnesses have to swear in front of, before testifying? Is it that statue holding a club that looks like a Khmer Rouge soldier? What is it supposed to be?

18/02/2015

First monk testifies at the Khmer Rouge tribunal.

https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/monk-tells-of-persecution-of-buddhists-under-khmer-rouge-78104/

17/02/2015

06/02/2015

story about the testimony at the tribunal in Time magazine:

http://time.com/3693242/cambodia-khmer-rouge-genocide-un-trial/

“About 10 prisoners who were ordered to sit and watch the torture"

21/01/2015

Other observations from the Khmer Rouge tribunal yesterday: the courtroom was full of Cambodian Muslims. Apparently hundreds of them have come in tour buses to observe the trials. I wonder why.

21/01/2015

Yesterday at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, a survivor named Meas Sokha (spelling?) described how during Pol Pot's time he saw people drinking gallbladders mixed with wine to make themselves brave. "Where did the gall bladders come from?" he asked.

I remember reading that in ancient Champa, there used to exist the practice of human sacrifice for the sake of taking the victim's gallbladder, for it was believed that drinking gallbladder increased bravery. Also apparently they believed that the gallbladder contains within itself a person's courage, and by drinking the gallbladder of their enemies a worrier would become more brave.

Didn't know the Khmer Rouge practiced this scary tradition.
Does it still exist in Cambodia??