The Malaysian Insider :: Features
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| As Khmer Rouge cadres face trial, truth eludes Cambodia Posted: 18 Nov 2011 07:22 AM PST  Former Khmer Rouge soldier Lim Sambath, told Reuters that "he was just following orders" during year zero. — Reuters pic "We had to follow orders," he said of his role in the bloody "year zero" revolution that wiped out 1.7 million Cambodians — a quarter of the population — from 1975-1979, marking one of the darkest chapters of the 20th century.  Battle-hardened Lim Sambath said for anyone who defied the rules, their fate was death. — Reuters pic As a UN-backed court prepares for the trial of three senior leaders on Monday, the truth about the "killing fields" could be lost forever in the rugged mountains and impenetrable jungles of this former Khmer Rouge stronghold. Like "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea, ex-President Khieu Samphan and former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary, Lim Sambath, 58, distances himself from the killings and says his recollection of the harrowing era is vague. He tells stories of his battlefield heroics to repel Vietnamese invaders but denies responsibility for any of the hundreds of thousands of men, women and children who died of torture, starvation, disease and execution in the rice fields and makeshift jails run by Pol Pot's black-clad disciples. "I don't know how many people were killed," Lim Sambath, a former guerrilla commander, now a community leader, told Reuters at his home in Boyakha village on the western border with Thailand. "We had to follow orders. We had little knowledge. We saw no light. It was like living on another planet. But that was the only planet we knew." Almost every Cambodian alive lost a family member under the Khmer Rouge and many fear the multi-million dollar Extraordinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia (ECCC), established by the United Nations in 2005 to try those "most responsible" for the killings, will fail to bring justice. Almost every Cambodian alive lost a family member under the Khmer Rouge. — Reuters pic Pol Pot, the French-educated architect of the revolution, died in 1998 and the defendants facing trial next week in what is known as "Case 002" not only appear unwilling to cooperate but face widespread criticism for stalling the proceedings. Ieng Sary, for instance, tried to have his case thrown out and last month issued a statement saying he would refuse to answer questions, or speak at all, during the trial. Another blow to the proceedings took place yesterday when a fourth defendant, French-educated former Social Affairs Minister Ieng Thirith, was declared mentally ill, unfit for trial. She will be released if no appeal is lodged. The defendants are charged with committing crimes against humanity and genocide, and accused of crimes ranging from murder to enslavement, religious and political persecution, inhumane treatment and unlawful imprisonment. They are all in their 80s and in poor health. Given the slow pace at which the joint UN-Cambodian tribunal moves, many fear they won't live to see the verdict delivered. The court has handed down just one sentence so far, a 35-year jail term, commuted to 19 years, for former prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, alias "Duch", over the deaths of more than 14,000 people. His appeal is set for February 3 next year. He has repeatedly said he was "just following orders". Cambodians who saw Duch sentenced reacted with anger and tears and complained it was too lenient. Many just want the top commanders to come clean and explain the motivation and ideology that fuelled the Khmer Rouge's unrelenting killing spree. "They're all guilty," said Kim Sokhon, a street vendor who lost his mother, sister and two nieces. "They know what happened — they were the ones who enforced Pol Pot's policies." The closest any of the former cadres have come to disclosure is seen in the documentary film "Enemies of the People", in which Nuon Chea, during six years of interviews with journalist Thet Sambath, admitted threats to the party line were "destroyed" if they could not be "corrected or re-educated". For tens of thousands of Cambodians, being "destroyed" meant being blindfolded, then bludgeoned to death and thrown into one of the hundreds of mass graves across the country.  Chum Mey, a survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime, greets students during a presentation of information leading up to Monday's trial in Phnom Penh. — Reuters pic Chhang Youk, director of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, which has compiled evidence to use during the trial, said it was unlikely defendants would confess but he was confident justice would eventually prevail. "Everyone wants a final judgement of what happened," he said. "We've seen the Khmer Rouge hasn't changed its attitude. They won't admit anything, so the tribunal is really important." Credibility crisis The ECCC itself is in crisis. Despite its big budget, expected to reach US$150 million (RM474.8 million) by year-end, it is beset by resignations and public acrimony over its reluctance to pursue cases beyond 002. It also faces allegations of UN apathy and political interference by members of the Cambodian government, some of whom are former Khmer Rouge cadres. Theary Seng, a prominent survivor of the Khmer Rouge era and the first plaintiff to register in case 002, withdrew her complaint against Nuon Chea on Tuesday because of what she called "toxic shenanigans" in the court. Her letter to the ECCC, typed in a large, bold font, said simply: "ENOUGH!"  Buddhist monks wait for morning alms in the former Khmer Rouge stronghold of Pailin near the Thai border November 14, 2011. — Reuters pic Tribunal monitor Clair Duffy said the ECCC now had a "credibility crisis" and it was crucial more indictments were made so the real story of the Khmer Rogue was not left untold. "We know these institutions cannot prosecute everyone ... but we also know that 1.7 million people were not tortured, starved, enslaved and executed by one torture centre commander and up to a handful of people at the top," she said. Independent experts say a big problem is the politicisation of cases and stonewalling by Cambodia's government to limit the scope of investigations. Many former Khmer Rouge members hold top positions in the bureaucracy, legislature and the government, including parliament president Heng Samrin, Finance Minister Keat Chhon, and long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen. Hun Sen last year told UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that more indictments were "not allowed" and has previously said he would be happy if the court packed up and left, warning of a return to civil war if more cases were pursued. Ven Dara, a provincial councillor in Palin and niece of a late Khmer Rouge military chief, Ta Mok, admitted she was horrified by the killings and said indictments should go to the very top. "If the Khmer Rouge leaders are accused of being the killers, then what about our current leaders? They didn't even dare to show up to testify," she told Reuters. — Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
| Pakistan’s Imran Khan — playboy cricketer to PM? Posted: 18 Nov 2011 05:02 AM PST  Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician, Imran Khan. — Reuters pic Alone in the beginning but now surrounded by smaller buildings, the house itself is cool and pleasant, with Mughal-era swords arrayed on a coffee table and two playful dogs — one a German shepherd named Sheru — romping about the carefully manicured lawn. "I built this house," Khan said as he sat on the shaded veranda eying the sweeping vista overlooking the city. "There was nothing here. It was scrub jungle all around. There was only a dirt track here." For Khan, creating something from nothing could be the slogan for a much-chequered life. A graduate from Oxford and very much a man-about-town in London in the late 1970s, he became one of the world's most admired cricketers. He was captain of Pakistan's team of talented but wayward stars and, with many whispers of autocracy, led them to win cricket's World Cup for the first and only time in 1992.  In the last 15 years, Khan's party has only briefly held one seat in parliament — his. — Reuters pic He is a conservative Muslim but was married to a Jewish heiress and then divorced, joined politics and for years been somewhat of a joke in Pakistan's unruly democracy. But in the past 15 years, through sheer force of will and a reputation for personal integrity, he has gone from political punch line to a superstar now attracting heavy-hitting politicians to his party, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (Pakistan's Movement for Justice). He — and a lot of other people — believe he could very well be Pakistan's next prime minister. Khan's confidence stems from what he sees is a tsunami of support for the PTI in Pakistan as traditional parties falter amid charges and counter-charges of corruption and petty jealousies. On Oct 30, he staged a gigantic rally in Lahore that observers said pulled between 100,000 and 200,000 people, one of the largest political rallies ever in Pakistan. But Khan remains relatively untested. In the last 15 years, his party has only briefly held one seat in parliament — his. He has had tumultuous relationships with the established political parties as well as the military, the real decision maker in the nuclear-armed nation of 180 million people. He does not openly criticise the military but in a book on Pakistani politics published in September, he walks the line, saying: "Only a credible government can save and strengthen the Pakistan army by making sure it stays within its constitutional role. We have no other choice: in order to survive, we have to make Pakistan a genuine democracy." Khan also has a touchy relationship with the United States, Pakistan's ally in the war on militancy and its biggest aid donor. He says that if he's elected prime minister, he would end Pakistan's cooperation in the fight against militants based in its tribal areas, end the American drone campaign and refuse all US aid, which totals some US$20 billion (RM63.3 billion) since 2001. Khan is a conservative Muslim but was married to Jewish heiress, Jemima Khan. — Reuters file pic It may be all pie-in-the-sky, but Khan, 58, is nothing if not charismatic. Still athletic and craggily handsome with darting eyes and an intense demeanour, he can rarely sit still for long. He fidgets and twists, almost as if he were about to leap to his feet and launch into his fearsome pace bowling. "For a lot of people who don't have hope in their political system, in a democratic system, he's the one person they seem to have hope in," said a senior Western diplomat, who requested anonymity to speak about internal Pakistani politics. "I think he's an important phenomenon because he articulates the very real frustration of the country at a time when they need articulation." And articulate he does. In an interview, Khan quickly lists Pakistan's very serious economic problems: electricity shortages, crumbling railways, a crisis in education, massive unemployment and endemic corruption. "We've hit rock bottom," he said. "It doesn't get worse than this, where to qualify for any position of important public office, you have to have committed a crime." For Khan, the current government headed by Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of Khan's old Oxford classmate Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in 2007 after returning to Pakistan from self-imposed exile, is the most corrupt government Pakistan has ever seen. Transparency International, which listed Pakistan as the 143rd most corrupt country in its 2010 corruption index, might agree. As such, Khan believes in a fresh start for Pakistan, a country that, like his home above Islamabad, is a jungle ready to be cleared out and made anew. He believes Pakistan should wipe out the past and rebuild from a clean slate, with he as architect-in-chief.  Khan says the idealised Islamic state he would build in Pakistan would focus on justice, fairness and equality for all its citizens before the law. — Reuters pic He is calling not only for a new government, but a new political order, one based on what he says are the real ideals of Pakistan's founding father, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who worked to forge a homeland for South Asia's Muslims before the bloody partition in 1947 that created India and Pakistan. Instead of fighting the Taliban militants, Khan said, Pakistan should enter into dialogue with them. He says if he were in power, he could end militancy in 90 days. A senior Taliban commander and spokesman contacted by Reuters laughed off this idea and said they would continue the fight. "He is, in fact, living in a fool's paradise," the commander said. And yet, Khan is no fundamentalist. The idealised Islamic state he says he would build in Pakistan would focus on justice, fairness and equality for all its citizens before the law. It would, above all, be "humane." Khan often veers between shrewd political calculations — "as a political party, you can't rule out alliances" — and what seems to be naive idealism. His plan to raise revenue for Pakistan is to "inspire" people to pay their taxes through his personal example and somehow rooting out all corruption, boosting the country's pitiful tax-to-GDP ratio of about 10 per cent, one of the lowest in the world. Some of the parties he has associated himself with in the past are notably lacking in democratic and liberal bona fides, such as the conservative Jamaat-e-Islami, which has cheered the murder of blasphemers and campaigned against laws that would grant women and religious minorities equal status to Muslims. A supporter of political party Pakistan Tehreek-e- Insaf (PTI) waves the national flag during an anti-government rally in Lahore October 30, 2011. — Reuters pic But how might Khan do in the election? Given the current flux in Pakistani politics, few analysts would hazard a guess. Many think he could split the right-leaning, nationalist vote currently dominated by the former Prime Minister Nawaz Shari's Pakistan Muslim League and keep Zardari's Pakistan People's Party in power. "He seems to have inspired more people to join the political process," said Brian Katulis, a senior fellow at the Centre for American Progress in Washington. "But to date, his political organisation has seemed weak and not well managed, particularly in contrast to his charity." Khan himself believes his time has come. "I have this very clear vision, as I say in the book," he said. "This has been a 15-year struggle which no one has conducted in Pakistan before. And now I feel I'm closer to my destiny." But all that's really clear right now is that Khan reflects the yearnings of a deeply disillusioned and frustrated country that has seen 63 years of military and civilian governments repeatedly fail it — all in the service of a national ideology looking for a nation. It is this ideology — a home for South Asia's Muslims and a shining beacon of Islamic democracy — voiced by Allama Iqbal, considered the spiritual founder of Pakistan and the man who coined the name of the country, that motivates Khan. "He says your vision or your destiny for your dream, it should be so great, it should be so noble and selfless that rather than you asking God that God grant you this destiny, that God would be so impressed by your dream, that he asks you: What do you want?" He paused to consider this. "In other words, our destiny is in our hands. We have to dream; the bigger the dream, the bigger the man." — Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
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