CIVIL RESISTANCE


My TREASON & INCITEMENT MASS TRIAL (Initial Page on Trial Matters)     TUESDAY, 14 JUNE 2022 VERDICT ANNOUNCEMENT Court Statement: Concluding Remarks ការការពារ ផ្លូវច្បាប់ របស់ខ្ញុំ  [ ... ]


CIVIC EDUCATION



This Kew-Kew! Kew-Kew! wants us to forget these courageous women fighting for their basic livelihood--their homes--in the Christmas/New Year celebrations.  Let us give this Kew-Kew! Kew-Kew! something to think about with their LOUD presence, with your cameras, your iPhones, your Androids and a ready-to-blog selves.


Mark your calendar:


WEDNESDAY, 26 December 2012

2 P.M. at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court


 

. . .

 

Click to listen the LIVE conversation


BBC World Service

(Weekend Programme) LIVE radio interview with me for about 10 minutes


YOUTH in Cambodia

2:20 p.m. Phnom Penh time, Saturday, 22 Dec. 2012


. . .

 

Flat Stanley in the Penh

 


The book Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown, writes Isabel Grace to her Mieng Srei, "is about a young boy named Stanley who is accidentally squished 'as flat as a pancake' when a bulletin board falls on him.  The story goes on to tell how Stanley discovers some real advantages to being flat.  He can slide under doors, go down into sidewalk grates, and even fold himself up small enough to fit into an envelope and be mailed for exciting vacations... I have selected you to be Flat Stanley's 'host family' and hope that you will send him back to me after a short visit telling us (my class) something about your city and the exciting things Flat Stanely saw and did while he was there..." - Isabel Grace Seng (7-year-old niece, Michigan)



Flat Stanley has all of us under his spell and mesmerized on how flat he is! Andy Ianuzzi, Michiel Pestman, and Isabel Grace's aunt Theary Seng (Phnom Penh, 17 Dec. 2012)

I will greatly miss these troublemakers!

 

The Lawyers for Notorious Khmer Rouge Leader Quit



After a long trip from 7-year-old Isabel Grace Seng's Byron Center Christian School in Michigan, Flat Stanley is a bit jet-lagged arriving this Monday (Dec. 17) morning into the Penh, but otherwise still as flat AND flexible. Here with Isabel Grace's aunt, Flat Stanley's host in the Penh socializing with fellow troublemakers, Andy Ianuzzi and Michiel Pestman of the Nuon Chea defense team

 

 

. . .

 

 

A proper "Good-bye" to the King Father Norodom Sihanouk

with his half-brother HRH Norodom Sirivudh (Royal Palace, 9 Dec. 2012)


This evening private viewing will be aired on TVK on Monday, 10 Dec. 2012.

 

. . .

 

 

Be Still My Soul


(my favorite hymn)


Dedicated to my godfather Wally Boelkins during this grieving period.


In LOVING MEMORY of HELEN.



Helen and Wally, Michigan, March 2012

 

. . .



Obama, in Cambodia for a Meeting,

Sidesteps the Ghosts of History

 

The New York Times / International Herald Tribune

By Peter Baker, November 20, 2012, News Analysis


President Obama’s visit to a country deeply scarred by its involvement with the United States did nothing to purge the ghosts or even address them. Mr. Obama made clear he came only because Cambodia happened to be the site for a summit meeting of Asian leaders, but given the current government’s human rights record, he was intent on avoiding much interaction with the host.


“How are you?” Mr. Obama asked Prime Minister Hun Sen when he showed up, unsmiling, for a meeting made necessary by protocol. “Good to see you.”


Those, as it turned out, were the only words he uttered publicly to or about Cambodia during his two days here. In private, aides said, Mr. Obama pressed Mr. Hun Sen about repression. While they usually characterize even the most hostile meeting in diplomatic terms, in this case they were eager to call the meeting “tense.”


But the president’s public silence disappointed human rights organizations that had called for a more explicit challenge to Mr. Hun Sen’s record of crushing opposition. And it left to another day any public examination of the United States’ role in the events of the 1970s that culminated in the infamous “killing fields” that wiped out a generation of Cambodians.


Theary Seng, president of the Association of Khmer Rouge Victims in Cambodia, said, “President Obama should have met with the human rights community and activists challenging the Hun Sen regime, and while then and there, offer a public apology to the Cambodian people for the illegal U.S. bombings, which took the lives of half a million Cambodians and created the conditions for the Khmer Rouge genocide.”

 

Click here to read this complete news analysis

 

. . .

 

 

Kissinger in Cambodia:

Protests Greet Obama's Visit

International Herald Tribune / New York Times

Luke Hunt, 20 Nov. 2012


PHNOM PENH — Theary Seng was taking aim with precision and anger. The 41-year-old U.S.-trained lawyer and a regular on Cambodia’s crowded protest circuit was about to throw a dart at a poster of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.


Kissinger is one of 13 politicians and senior Khmer Rouge leaders in a dart game created by Poetic Justice, a nongovernmental organization run by Theary Seng that highlights deficiencies of the special U.N.-backed tribunal judging the Khmer Rouge’s crimes. Each player gets five throws. A bull’s-eye is worth seven points. The highest score wins.


Last Sunday afternoon, Theary Seng and three members of her staff were playing on Phnom Penh’s riverfront opposite the storied Foreign Correspondents’ Club. On this occasion — the fourth time the game has been staged in public — the point was to draw attention to the narrow scope of the Khmer Rouge tribunal ahead of President Barack Obama’s visit for a summit meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.


Click here to read full article.

 

. . .

 


Interview by Mike McRoberts of TV3, New Zealand standing on what was formerly the capital's largest natural lake, place of violent forced evictions (Phnom Penh, 20 Nov. 2012). Theary: "The international community gives muscles to this dictatorial regime to repress its own people. Before the government represses with Cambodian riels; now it's empowered and given muscles with NZ dollars, US dollars, Euros..."


Watch the TV3 New Zealand broadcast

with Mike McRoberts (aired 21 Nov. 2012)

At ASEAN summit, trade overshadows human rights



In solidarity with courageous protestors of Boeung Kak Lake, here sitting on what was formerly the capital's largest natural lake, with Council of Ministers facing it, with Bopha's mom and son (Phnom Penh, 20 Nov. 2012)

 

. . .

 


Open Letter

to U.S. President Barack Obama

Sent out as Press Release to 2,000 recipients

Published in The Phnom Penh Post, 20 November 2012

(2nd day of Pres. Obama's visit in Cambodia)

Read letter in KI-Media

 

 

. . .


Attempts of this Monday afternoon

in holding up 2 large banners of

War Criminal Henry Kissinger

and War Criminals Meas Muth / Im Chaem

of Cases 003/4 in front of US Embassy

 


CJOReillyGlobal: #Theary Seng being questioned by Police of her possessions ahead arrival of #Obama. If only they knew her rights. http://t.co/88lyV2C3 Nov 19, 2012, 10:23 UTCMs.

Theary Seng and some 30 security (plus more embedded in Wat Phnom Penh and Sunway Hotel)


Narrative of harassment and images of

Ms. Theary C. Seng's stand-off

with at least 30 big bulky, heavily armed security

in front of US Embassy Phnom Penh

(Tuesday, 19 Nov. 2012)

 


Theary Seng (reddish-orange blouse to right) and 30+ security next to US Embassy Phnom Penh, 19 Nov. 2012


. . .

 


Emotional Violence of Past Poetic Justice Dart Games

flared into Physical Assault on

Ms. Theary C. Seng

and those around her

along the Riverfront, Sunday, 18 Nov. 2012



A plain-clothes Cambodian police officer, left, pushes away Theary Seng, center, an organizer who was about to stage a protest in Phnom Penh, Cambodia Sunday, Nov. 18, 2012. Cambodia broke up a protest organized by her Sunday that was meant to highlight the alleged oppression of Cambodia's people by political figures, including former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and the late despot Pol Pot (AP Photo).


See more photos


See film of violence


See Opinion by Heng Soy on the vulgarity attempting to undermine Ms. Seng and the global attention on the Poetic Justice dart games



Theary Seng and Poetic Justice dart game (Photo: John Vink / Magnum Photos, 18 Nov. 2012)

 

. . .

 

. . .

 

 


Old friends (Prince Sirivudh and Ms. Theary) meeting up at the CICP-ICRC one-day conference.

 

Click here to see full program.



Mr. Andrea Acerbis (ICRC country representative, Ms. Malika Keo (personal assistant to H.R.H. Norodom Sirivudh), Ms. Theary C. Seng (founding president of CIVICUS Cambodia), H.R.H. Norodom Sirivudh (founding chair of CICP, half-brother of late King Father Norodom Sihanouk), H.E. Senior Minister Om Yentieng (who attended the launch of Speak Truth To Power (COURAGE, in Khmer) when Kerry Kennedy visited in Feb. 2011, and will send his personal assistant to discuss future collaboration of CIVICUS Cambodia's COURAGE curriculum and his Cambodian Human Rights Commission for educators), HE Om Yentieng's assistants. Lunch at Cambodiana Hotel, 8 Nov. 2012.

 

 

. . .

 

 

Spirit of Humanity Forum

 

Reykjavik, Iceland

SESSION 3: CALLING

4.15 - 5.45 pm Led by Miriam Subirana, Foundation for a Culture of Peace

The session includes:

Theary C. Seng, Founder, Centre for Justice and Reconciliation, Cambodia



Theary Seng with Princess Martha Louise (only daughter of Norwegian King and Queen), a genuine "people's princess" full of warmth and personality (Reykjavik, 15 Sept. 2012)

 

 

. . .

 

 

Violence, you're so boring!

 


U.S. President Barack Obama yawns at the beginning of the East Asian Summit Plenary Session at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster). An edit to Phnom Penh Post: "He came, he yawned, he said nothing, he left."


YAWNING. Violence is soooo boring. Intimidation is sooo uncreative. Violent men are such cowards. Violent women are such haggards. All function with such deep ignorance, with such lack of imagination.

 

DEEP, DEEP YAWN. My little nieces have more imagination, more creativity, more spunk in their little finger for their grace, for their compassion, for their empathy, than all the brutes who can only grunt and spew out vulgarity.

 

It is ALWAYS the case that it takes more creativity, more imagination to love than to hate; more strength, more courage to do justice than to exact violence.

 

- Theary C. Seng, 15 Nov. 2012

 

 

. . .

 


"Take that, Kissinger!" Poetic Justice dart games filming for ABC News.

More at Association of Khmer Rouge Victims in Cambodia...

"Cambodia's Khmer Rouge Court 'Dying'

ABC News film, aired 16 Oct. 2012

 

. . .

 

Khmer Rouge defendant Ieng Thirith ruled unfit for Cambodian genocide trial due to dementia

The Washington Post, 13 Sept. 2012


Others said the development highlighted one of the main complaints against the tribunal — that it is too late to truly deliver justice. Pol Pot, the regime’s top lead er, died in 1998.


The tribunal opened in 2006 — nearly three decades after the fall of the Khmer Rouge — following years of wrangling between Cambodia and the United Nations. The lengthy delays have been costly and raised fears that the frail surviving Khmer Rouge leaders will die before their verdicts come. “


Of course if she is seriously ill with Alzheimer’s, she should be released. There is no point in trying an incapacitated person,” said Theary Seng, a human rights advocate representing some victims who are allowed a role in the proceedings. “The point is the (tribunal) is so late in coming. The political foot-dragging and inertia has caused this travesty of justice.”

 

 

. . .


 

Poetic Justice

and Civil Party Withdrawal

in the News

Nov. 2011


Ex-leader: Khmer Rouge atrocities are 'fairy tale'

AP Newswire, 23 Nov. 2011


"I'm not surprised that Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan and Ieng Sary continue to deny their crimes as the charges against them of genocide, war crimes are very serious," said Theary Seng, a Cambodian lawyer and human rights activist who lost family members under their regime.


"Even if I am not surprised, I am however disgusted by their lack of remorse for the suffering they caused. They are delusional in their denial in light of the weight of evidence against them - the mounds of skulls and bones, the horrific testimonies from every survivor of cruelty, the magnitude and scope of evil unleashed by them across the whole of Cambodia."

 

. . .

 

"Khmer Rouge trial is failing Cambodian

victims of Pol Pot's regime"

Human Rights Watch Brad Adams' editorial

The Guardian, 26 Nov. 2011


. . .


"Justice Denied"

Douglas Gillison, Foreign Policy Magazine, 23 Nov. 2011


. . .


Deputy President of Victims Association, a Civil Party of the Orphans Class, Mr. CHEY Theara, Withdraws Civil Party Status, Denounces ECCC as Political Farce

_______________________

PRESS RELEASE

_______________________

 

Full statement in both Khmer and English in KI-Media.

Here, if ISP censors in Cambodia.

 

. . . . .

 

Khmer Rouge Trial Missing a Marquee Defendant

Wall Street Journal, 21 Nov. 2011

“The release of Ieng Thirith is only one reflection of how incredibly late these trials are coming into place,” said Theary Seng, founder of the Cambodian Center for Justice and Reconciliation and herself, too, a victim of the Khmer Rouge regime, having lost her parents and spent five months in prison. She has withdrawn from the tribunal process, and instead put her energy into organizing public games of darts featuring the faces of the Khmer Rouge leaders along Phnom Penh’s riverfront – a “way of release” following victims’ frustrations with the trial process, mixed with “dark humor,” she said.

 

Theary Seng BBC News filming, Nov. 2011

Watch the BBC News coverage

But the trial - a joint enterprise between the UN and Cambodia - has been heavily criticised. Theary Seng, whose parents were killed by the Khmer Rouge, said putting three people on trial for the deaths of 1.7 million simply wasn't enough. (BBC News, 21 Nov. 2011)


Poetic Justice German Filming, 18 Nov. 2011
Filming for German DW-Global with Bastian and Sarin, 18 Nov. 2011. More photos...


Filming by BBC with Guy DeLauney, 17 Nov. 2011. More photos...

Khmer Rouge Trial: Cambodia Awaits Answers

BBC News, 21 Nov. 2011

 

. . .


Crying for Justice

AFP, 21 Nov. 2011

Khmer Rouge survivor Theary Seng told AFP she was "frustrated beyond words" that only Khieu Samphan looked likely to shed light on what happened. "The people want to know who is behind the Khmer Rouge, we want to see and understand the larger picture and we're not going to get that," she said.


From Tragedy to Sham in Cambodia

Asia Times Online, 19 Nov. 2011

In KI-Media

Others have gone further, arguing that the time might be ripe for the UN to pull the plug on the controversy-plagued court altogether. Last week, Theary Seng, a Cambodian-American survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime and a prominent advocate for victims' rights, withdrew her status as a civil party to the court, describing the proceedings as a "complete sham".

She said the UN should threaten to withdraw after setting some clear conditions for its continued participation. By pressing ahead, Seng said, the world body runs the risk of rubber-stamping a flawed process and further embedding cynicism in the Cambodian population.

"I understand the unwieldiness of any large bureaucracy, but at the end of the day it comes down to personalities, and there have been extremely weak personalities," she said. "In this regard, the UN is complicit."

 

 

In the End, Loss of Faith in Tribunal: Former Complainant

Hello VOA Special with Theary Seng, 16 Nov. 2011


Khmer Rouge Victim Quits Tribunal Saying UN-backed Court is a Sham

DPA, 15 Nov. 2011

 

Prominent Victims' Advocate Quits Khmer Rouge Tribunal

VOA International/English, 15 Nov. 2011


KRT Critic Offers 'Poetic Justice'

The Phnom Penh Post, 16 Nov. 2011


Theary Seng Denounces Tribunal; Introduces Dartboard Scheme

The Cambodia Daily, 16 Nov. 2011

 


Theary Seng's Press Conference, 15 Nov. 2011
More photos from Poetic Justice/ECCC Withdrawal Press Conference, 15 Nov. 2011



Poetic Justice
Front pages of The Cambodia Daily and The Phnom Penh Post, 16 Nov. 2011

 

. . .



Click here to read the full press release...


 

More information at "ECCC Civil Party"

More information at Association of Khmer Rouge Victims in Cambodia

In KI-Media



Theary Seng Criticizes KRT

as "Political Farce"

The Phnom Penh Post, 10 Nov. 2011

 


Radio Free Asia (both AM and PM broadcasts on 10 Nov. 2011)

 


Cambodian-American Lawyer Withdraws her Civil Party Status

Voice of America Khmer Service, 10 Nov. 2011

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* * * * * *

 


Previous Blog ** All Past BLOGs ** All RANDOM Entries

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

Theary's BLOG

Published Articles of Vietnamization

Vietnamization: Military Occupation - Present
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 Francois Ponchaud, a French Jesuit who had diligently chronicled the destructiveness of the Khmer Rouge in his book "Cambodia: Year Zero," maintained that the Vietnamese were conducting a [ ... ]


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