Tuesday, July 27, 2010. They were not the most senior apologists for the genocidal regime: the academic jacquerie led by such peddlers of delusion as Malcolm Caldwell at SOAS, Edward Herman, Laura Summers, Gareth Porter, George C Hildebrand and, above all, Noam Chomsky made a massive and largely effective effort to disguise the fate of Cambodia from the West.
Adulation of “Democratic Kampuchea” was de rigueur in academic circles: had not the regime’s leaders been educated at the Sorbonne? Porter and Hildebrand described Western criticism of the Khmer Rouge’s enforced evacuation of the cities of Cambodia as “an inexcusable distortion of reality”. Chomsky, writing in collaboration with Edward Herman as late as 1979, claimed that “the evacuation of Phnom Penh, widely denounced at the time and since for its undoubted brutality, may actually have saved many lives”. Saving lives, as we know, was what the Khmer Rouge was all about. Chomsky, the progressive establishment’s leading comic singer and millionaire socialist, and his co-author claimed: “allegations of genocide are being used to whitewash Western imperialism…” George Orwell would have relished them. Meanwhile, the word continues to go out to the world’s totalitarian torturers and killers that they may pursue their crimes without fear of any future retribution. It will be different, of course, when we are under Sharia law Derisory sentence for Khmer Rouge killer highlights the impotence of liberalism Noam Chomsky July 27th, 2010 By Gerald Warner The Telegraph (UK) The derisory sentence imposed upon a monster testifies to the institutionalised impotence of liberal-controlled societies confronted by evil. Former Cambodian prison governor Comrade Duch (real name Kaing Guek Eav), who under the Pol Pot regime murdered around 17,000 innocent people, besides employing electric shock torture and tearing out victims’ toenails, has been sentenced by a UN-sponsored court to a nominal 30 years in prison, of which he will actually serve 19. There are people in British prisons serving longer sentences for a fraction of the number of murders he committed. The only penalty that could remotely have matched his crimes was death. In so-called “democratic” countries however, under the aegis of the EU and UN bien-pensant doctrines of clemency, capital punishment is deemed “barbaric”. That is why Western pseudo-civilisation is doomed to extinction at the hands of more ruthless elements. Sparing the life of a creature like Duch is not civilised, it is effete. It does not testify to our regard for the sanctity of human life, but to our rulers’ contempt for it. A society that hangs a man for stealing a loaf of bread, as ours used to do, has disregard for the sanctity of human life; but a system that does not punish murder with death displays even more indifference to the rights of innocent life, giving sententious liberal cant precedence over the duty to testify to the value of life by insisting that murderers forfeit their own continued existence. Nor, as the inane liberal mantra intones, would it reduce us to the same level as murderers: that is claptrap. Liberal democracy has consistently sent out a signal to its enemies that they may destroy it with impunity. The derisory number of executions in post-war Germany, after the mass murder of millions, signalled that genocide would be condemned verbally, rather than effectively punished. The crimes of the Soviet Union have never been punished: the last generation of lords of the Gulag is ruling Russia today, sometimes in public office, sometimes in crime syndicates. Between 1917 and 1990 Communism worldwide slaughtered more than 100 million people: how many of the perpetrators have been punished? Then there is the fashion for international courts, valued as a step towards world government but wholly ineffectual in exacting retribution from mass murderers. The trial of the tiny number of Khmer Rouge leaders in captivity was delayed by years of wrangling over international jurisdictions. Similarly, Serbia should have been forced to try its own criminals, to prove to the world whether or not it had renounced its past and was genuinely fit to join the international community. At present, a grand total of four senior Khmer Rouge tyrants are awaiting trial – for the murders of 1.7 million people. It is said that to arrest any more might provoke civil war: the population, apparently, would rise up en masse to demand a return to Communist rule. Or it might have something to do with the fact that Prime Minister Hun Sen is himself a former Khmer Rouge cadre. The Western media will now hail the pathetic sentence imposed on Comrade Duch in headlines such as “Justice catches up with Cambodian killer…” What justice? We have forgotten the meaning of the word. By chance, I was in a British student union on the day in 1975 when the television news showed the red-scarfed Khmer Rouge marching into Phnom Penh, a spectacle greeted by undergraduates with cheers and much punching of the air. Those useful idiots now occupy key positions across our country. They were not the most senior apologists for the genocidal regime: the academic jacquerie led by such peddlers of delusion as Malcolm Caldwell at SOAS, Edward Herman, Laura Summers, Gareth Porter, George C Hildebrand and, above all, Noam Chomsky made a massive and largely effective effort to disguise the fate of Cambodia from the West. Adulation of “Democratic Kampuchea” was de rigueur in academic circles: had not the regime’s leaders been educated at the Sorbonne? Porter and Hildebrand described Western criticism of the Khmer Rouge’s enforced evacuation of the cities of Cambodia as “an inexcusable distortion of reality”. Chomsky, writing in collaboration with Edward Herman as late as 1979, claimed that “the evacuation of Phnom Penh, widely denounced at the time and since for its undoubted brutality, may actually have saved many lives”. Saving lives, as we know, was what the Khmer Rouge was all about. Chomsky, the progressive establishment’s leading comic singer and millionaire socialist, and his co-author claimed: “allegations of genocide are being used to whitewash Western imperialism…” George Orwell would have relished them. Meanwhile, the word continues to go out to the world’s totalitarian torturers and killers that they may pursue their crimes without fear of any future retribution. It will be different, of course, when we are under Sharia law. From: srp...@comcast.net To: camdisc@googlegroups.com CC: camn...@googlegroups.com Subject: Senior Khmer Rouge cadre jailed for mass murder and torture Date: Mon, 26 Jul 2010 21:51:58 -0400 Senior Khmer Rouge cadre jailed for mass murder and torture Hong Sa Vath (L), 47, whose father was killed in the S-21 Tuol Sleng prison during the Khmer Rouge regime, reacts after hearing the verdict for senior Khmer Rouge commander Kaing Guek Eav outside the ECCC on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, July 26 2010. A U.N.-backed tribunal sentenced Kaing, also known as "Duch", to 35 years in prison on Monday in its first verdict on the "Killing Fields" revolution blamed for 1.7 million deaths in Cambodia three decades ago. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea Mon Jul 26, 2010 By Martin Petty and Prak Chan Thul "We hoped this tribunal would strike hard at impunity but if you can kill 14,000 people and serve only 19 years -- 11 hours per life taken -- what is that? It's a joke" - Theary Seng Many former Khmer Rouge members are now part of Cambodia's civil service and occupy top positions in provincial and central government and experts say they are keen to curtail the court's progress and limit the scope of future investigations. Long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen is himself a former Khmer Rouge foot soldier who says he defected to eventual conquerors Vietnam. He has warned of another civil war if the court expands its probes into the horrors of Pol Pot's "year zero" revolution. Finance Minister Keat Chhon has also admitted his involvement as an interpreter for late Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, while Foreign Minister Hor Namhong has been accused of having Khmer Rouge connections and heading a detention center. He denies the claims. PHNOM PENH (Reuters) – The first Khmer Rouge commander to face a U.N.-backed tribunal was sentenced to 35 years in prison on Monday for overseeing 14,000 deaths in the 1970s, but he'll serve about half that, angering many Cambodians. Kaing Guek Eav, a 67-year-old former prison chief known as Duch, received less than the maximum 40 years sought by the prosecution for his role in the ultra-communist "Killing Fields" regime blamed for 1.7 million deaths from 1975 to 1979. Duch was found guilty of murder, torture, rape, crimes against humanity and other charges as chief of Tuol Sleng prison, a converted school known as S-21 that symbolized the horrors of a regime that wiped out nearly a quarter of Cambodia's population. He betrayed no emotion as a judge read the verdict, which cut his sentence to 19 years for time already served. He could be released even earlier on parole if authorities believe has been rehabilitated, according to the court. "We hoped this tribunal would strike hard at impunity but if you can kill 14,000 people and serve only 19 years -- 11 hours per life taken -- what is that? It's a joke," said Theary Seng, a Cambodian who is now a U.S. citizen and lost her father at S-21. "My gut feeling is this has made the situation far worse for Cambodia," she said. "It has taken a lot of faith out of the system and raised concerns of political interference." Duch had told the court he had no choice but to carry out orders and "kill or be killed." Prosecutors insisted he was "ideologically of the same mind" as the Khmer Rouge's top leaders and did nothing to stop rampant torture at his prison. Some Cambodians wept after hearing the verdict, expressing outrage at the joint U.N.-Cambodian court, which has spent $78.4 million of foreign donations over five years to bring the first of five indicted Khmer Rouge officials to trial. "There is no justice. I wanted life imprisonment for Duch," said Hong Sovath, 47, sobbing in the courtroom. Her father, a diplomat, was killed in the prison. Khan Mony, whose aunt was executed after passing through S-21, said she was devastated. Thousands huddled around televisions in cafes and homes to watch live broadcasts of the verdict. COMPLEX SENTENCE The court said it decided against life in prison for several reasons, including Duch's expressions of remorse, cooperation with the court, his "potential for rehabilitation" and the coercive environment of life under the Khmer Rouge. "The chamber has decided there are significant mitigating factors that mandate a finite term imprisonment rather than life imprisonment," the tribunal's president said in a statement. Cambodia does not have capital punishment. Now a born-again Christian, Duch had expressed "excruciating remorse" for the S-21 victims, most of them tortured and forced to confess to spying and other crimes before they were bludgeoned to death at the "Killing Fields" execution sites during the agrarian revolution, which ended with a 1979 invasion by Vietnam. Foreign investors see the Khmer Rouge trials as a gauge to whether rule of law is taking root in one of Asia's fastest-growing frontier markets. Justice, however, could be elusive as controversy surrounds other cadres awaiting trial. The cases of former President Khieu Samphan, "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea, ex-Foreign Minister Ieng Sary and his wife, Ieng Thirith are highly complex and politicized. Many fear they may never go to trial, or they might die before seeing a courtroom. Standing in the way of justice, analysts say, is not just the excessive bureaucracy and a drawn-out legal process, but a powerful single-party government that has never fully backed the tribunal and has historical ties to the Khmer Rouge. Many former Khmer Rouge members are now part of Cambodia's civil service and occupy top positions in provincial and central government and experts say they are keen to curtail the court's progress and limit the scope of future investigations. Long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen is himself a former Khmer Rouge foot soldier who says he defected to eventual conquerors Vietnam. He has warned of another civil war if the court expands its probes into the horrors of Pol Pot's "year zero" revolution. Finance Minister Keat Chhon has also admitted his involvement as an interpreter for late Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, while Foreign Minister Hor Namhong has been accused of having Khmer Rouge connections and heading a detention center. He denies the claims. (Writing by Jason Szep. Editing by Miral Fahmy) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Cambodia Discussion (CAMDISC) - www.cambodia.org" group. This is an unmoderated forum. Please refrain from using foul language. Thank you for your understanding. Peace among us and in Cambodia. To post to this group, send email to camdisc@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to camdisc-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/camdisc Learn more - http://www.cambodia.org _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail is redefining busy with tools for the New Busy. Get more from your inbox. http://www.windowslive.com/campaign/thenewbusy?ocid=PID28326::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WM_HMP:042010_2 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Cambodia Discussion (CAMDISC) - www.cambodia.org" group. This is an unmoderated forum. Please refrain from using foul language. Thank you for your understanding. Peace among us and in Cambodia. To post to this group, send email to camdisc@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to camdisc-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/camdisc Learn more - http://www.cambodia.org
