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
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JUSTICE FANTASYLAND Meet the Cast On YouTube (if your ISP censors KI Media in Cambodia)
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JUNK JUSTICE
Two more cycles left -- Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan -- of shock, "regrets" from Eccc the Clown and the public, and the similar refrains from me of 'GOOD RIDDANCE!" "FARCE!" "SHAM!" "JUSTICE FANTASYLAND!" -- before the smokescreen (designed to confuse, conceal and obscure) disappears and we can do the hard work of justice (now, minus the court) and reconciliation.
It's time that Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Open Society Justice Initiative and the Cambodian NGOs monitoring the Extraordinary Chambers advocate for the UN to invoke Art. 28 and withdraw. It's no longer "Can the ECCC deliver justice?" but "Let's limit the damage and salvage whatever limited benefits produced."
It's useless to call on the inexperienced civil party lawyers, as their selfish ambition under the guise of "defending poor Cambodian victims" and opportunity for resume-building on the international stage is too overwhelming for them to give it all up.
A year or so ago, a chorus of victims of one of the associations at the Choeung Ek memorial vowed that should Ieng Thirith be deemed incapacitated to stand trial, they will withdraw their civil party status. Since, Ieng Thirith has been deemed incapacitated, and the civil party lawyers have lulled them to stay as civil parties. Can you imagine these inexperienced lawyers advising otherwise against their professional and personal interests for the sake of the victims??!!
JUNK JUSTICE. The only appropriate place is the TRASH BIN. Before it can stink up the house anymore. - Theary, Phnom Penh, 15 March 2013
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Now working on a related editorial: JUSTICE and VICTIMS
are losing the WAR of ATTRITION . . .
Demise of key suspect leaves Khmer Rouge war crimes tribunal with only one conviction
Some question whether the costly process is worth it
The Independent (UK), Friday, 15 March 2013
Theary Seng, whose parents were also killed and who spent time as a child in forced labour camps, said it was not surprising young Cambodians were taking to social media to call for the UN-backed tribunal to be halted. She said the UN should invoke its legal right to end the trial. "This tribunal is a war of attrition," said Ms Seng, who wrote about her experiences in a memoir, Daughter of the Killing Fields. "The death of Ieng Sary is another example of how we, the victims, are losing???"
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Ieng Sary dies during Khmer Rouge trial
By Ben Bland, The Financial Times, Thursday, 14 March 2013 His demise, after a series of ailments left him immobile, deals a blow to those still fighting for justice and underlines, for the tribunal’s many critics, the futility of putting octogenarians through a protracted and highly contested legal process.
“His death is another reminder that justice delayed is justice denied,” said Theary Seng, a Cambodian legal activist whose parents were killed by the Khmer Rouge in the Boeung Rei prison while she was detained there as a child.
“He has taken with him many secrets that could have shed light on a very dark period of Cambodia’s history, which continues to haunt us.”[...]
Victims like Ms Seng, who attended Ieng Sary’s court appearances on a number of occasions after his arrest in 2007, are angry that they will never have the chance to disprove this defence. And they are angry about a messy process which they believe has failed to deliver either justice or truth and reconciliation. Only one man has thus far been convicted – the commander of the notorious Tuol Sleng prison, Kaing Guek Eav, or Duch – while two elderly top leaders, Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan, remain on trial, with five further suspects under investigation.
But ultimately, says Ms Seng, Cambodians will have to look beyond the legal process if they are to move on from the past.
“Of course we have been denied legal justice but that doesn’t mean we can’t pursue other forms of justice. Justice is a process with many elements to it. When crimes are this large, the pursuit of justice will never end in this lifetime.”
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Khmer Rouge Leader Dies, Eluding War Crimes Verdict
The Los Angeles Times, 14 March 2013
“Good riddance to a non-repentant war criminal,” said Theary Seng, founder of Phnom Penh-based Center for Cambodian Civic Education, a charity group that promotes democracy, adding that this was an occasion for national soul searching. “Justice delayed is justice denied.”
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Death Stirs Critics of Khmer Rouge Trials
The Wall Street Journal, 14 March 2013
The tribunal "has squandered the opportunity to bring about an acceptable degree of justice," said Theary Seng, a human-rights activist whose parents were killed by the Khmer Rouge. "What has been happening there in the last few years is farcical to an unacceptable degree," she said.
. . . Cambodia: Ieng Sary Death Shows Khmer Rouge Court Failings
Government Obstruction and Non-Cooperation Sabotage Justice Human Rights Watch, 14 March 2013
“Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen asked the United Nations in 1997 for assistance in holding Khmer Rouge leaders accountable – and since then has done everything in his power to stymie the tribunal’s work,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Hun Sen bears primary responsibility for denying justice to the victims of Ieng Sary’s atrocities.”[...] “It is a sad indictment of the Khmer Rouge tribunal that after more than six years, only one person has been convicted and only two others, Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan, remain on trial for Khmer Rouge-era crimes,” Adams said. “Cambodians now face the prospect that only three people will be held legally accountable for the destruction of their country.”[...] In 2002 the UN announced that it was pulling out of negotiations with Hun Sen to create a tribunal. Annan concluded that “interference by the executive with the independence of the judiciary” in Cambodia meant that “established international standards of justice, fairness and due process might therefore not be ensured.” The UN was fully aware that the government would use delaying tactics in negotiations to obtain a court it could control. In February 2002, Hans Corell, the chief UN negotiator, warned that foot-dragging and convoluted judicial decision-making procedures meant the Tribunal would be a “monster court … unable to produce a final judgment” since it was likely that key figures among the accused would die before that happened, given their already advanced age. He also foresaw that this would make it inevitable that the Tribunal would be “extremely costly.” “There are real questions about the purpose of continuing international UN involvement and donor support for the Khmer Rouge Tribunal,” Adams said. “Hun Sen has run circles around the UN and donors while successfully denying justice for the Cambodian people.”
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Ieng Sary Dies 14 March 2013, Phnom Penh Theary C. Seng
The death of Ieng Sary this morning is deeply regrettable but not surprising. It is regrettable because in dying, he took with him information we needed about the Khmer Rouge regime. His death closed shut the door of information on this dark period of Khmer Rouge history which continues to haunt us. Any further light he could have shed on this darkness is now extinguished. However regrettable, his death is not surprising. We have been anticipating his death for years now, since the Khmer Rouge Tribunal came into operation in 2006 and his arrest in 2007. Even when I met him in court as a civil party then, he was already dangerously aged, ailing.
His lawyers knew and know how to use the law as a weapon against justice by honing in on the flawed international criminal justice system and with tunnel vision focusing on legal procedures. It bought them time and ultimately this acquittal today. This Cambodian government -- the Cambodian People's Party, or CPP -- is comprised of many former Khmer Rouge cadres -- from the Prime Minister to the CPP president and president of the Senate to the president of the National Assembly to the Foreign Minister and the Minister of Finance, and so on -- and never, never wanted a legitimate tribunal of the Khmer Rouge. It did not want to risk information of of their own individual past as well as that of Vietnam, its patron, leaking into the public sphere. But when it was inevitable that there would be a Tribunal, this Cambodian government has done everything in its power to divert justice for the 2 million victims who lost their lives, including my parents, and the millions more struggling to survive to this day. This CPP too knows how to use the law as a weapon against justice. This Khmer Rouge Tribunal has squandered the opportunity to bring about an acceptable degree of justice. What has been happening there in the last few years is farcical to an unacceptable degree where both the UN and the Cambodian government use the law against justice in their exploiting the weakness of international criminal justice in the already fragile lawless context of the Cambodian environment, and with tunnel vision hone in on legal procedures and the parsing of legal minutiae with nonsensical connection to justice or the needs of Cambodians. Ieng Sary today may have eluded legal justice, but now he stands before the ultimate justice of the Almighty God. So in that I take comfort.
The Devil's Angel is an Agent of Peace The Phnom Penh Post, 2July 2008
Related,
"Reconciliation is the re-stitching of relationships in a very broken society like Cambodia - individuals with individuals, groups with groups, citizens with the state, citizens with institutions (the building of civic trust). It necessitates a very comprehensive process of not only legitimate prosecution (e.g. the opportunity squandered by the Khmer Rouge Tribunal) but dialogue (e.g. forums we conducted all over Cambodia on "Justice and Reconciliation", deemed Cambodia's informal truth and reconciliation commission, which give voice to victims, survivors, perpetrators with the line between "victim" and " perpetrator "oftentimes indistinguishable), truth telling (as truth is a pre-condition of justice and peace a dividend), education, memorials (with honor and diverse stakeholders), reparations (that is genuine and practicable) etc. Peace as "shalom" (or, flourishing) entails both the absence of conflict and the presence of justice. Deceit can never be spun into justice, no matter how sophisticated the spin." - CIVICUS Cambodia founding president Theary C. Seng
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Khmer Rouge leader Ieng Sary dead at 87
Global Post, 14 March 2013
Theary Seng, a withdrawn civil party to Case 002 and the president of the Association of Khmer Rouge Victims in Cambodia, said that she wasn't surprised by Sary's death. "His death was incredible in the sense that he took with him information that we needed, that we as Cambodians needed," observed Seng on Thursday.
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Heartbreaking!
Extremely difficult, but a must-see.
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This Kew-Kew! Kew-Kew! regime speaks political language non-stop.
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2 short video clips of the Stoplight System
(intentional system that is grossly in error, but not malfunctioning) If you cannot access KI-Media, click here. And here.
Criminal Negligence: Reckless disregard for the lives or safety of other persons The failure to use reasonable care to avoid consequences that threaten or harm the safety of the public and that are the foreseeable outcome of acting in a particular manner. Sue the Kew-Kew! Kew-Kew! for CRIMINAL negligence.
A fatal accident is waiting to happen at the many non-sensical stoplights found at the busy thoroughfares of Street 271 (the dike road), of Tuol Kork, and the intersection of Sihanouk Blvd. and Trasaek Paem (Street 63), probably among others, due to the intentional, highly dangerous lighting system currently in place where there exist 6 green arrows functioning simultaneously in opposite directions.
Green arrows straight, left, right in one direction, while the other direction has the exact same green arrows. When the light is about to turn Red, all the green arrows flash several times. Thus, Red is the new Green; Green in one direction is Green in all directions, and the Flashing Green is the new Yellow. No wonder, everyone is Kew-Kew! Kew-Kew!
It is better not to have a stoplight or these functioning lights (of great error, but not malfunctioning) than to have this non-sensical, highly dangerous lighting system; without the expectation of the stoplight, the drivers would then be more likely to be on alert at the intersection. If the Kew-Kew! Kew-Kew! regime has outsourced the work to a private company, the company along with the government should be held criminally culpable for such a reckless disregard for human life -- in particular, when the driving population already lacks sufficient skills and ethics on the roads.
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Celebrating being Women
We should celebrate womanhood every day, but it's good to have an official reminder to do so today.
We are Women, hear us roar!
Theary with accomplished Khmer women of Phnom Penh at Bunleng's birthday party, including a former Secretary of State of the Foreign Ministry to a medical doctor with a degree from France (March 2013)
Recently at church, an amiable looking young man reminded everyone of the upcoming March 8, International Women's Day celebration for all the women there, "the day when the men gave rights to the women". Let me provide a gentle correction to this young man and everyone else, as it is not the first time I've heard a similar heresy, even among the women themselves. (Several years back I heard women teased each other that it is the one day they have the right to beat up the men.)
MARCH 8 is NOT the "day the men gave rights to the women." Rather, March 8 is a day we set aside to REMIND EVERYONE (both men and women) of the INALIENABLE (not subject to sale or transfer; birth) RIGHTS women have with the men ALL THE TIME.
On this March 8, our hearts and prayers in particular go out to the Khmer women who are suffering from: domestic violence, gang rape ("bauk"), trafficking, and violent land evictions (Go, Boeung Kak Women!)
For me, EVERY DAY is international women's day.
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Cambodia War Crimes Tribunal Comes to Grinding Halt Because of Lack of Funds
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Out and about Town
More photos on Facebook.
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Theary C. Seng and the Road Ahead in Cambodia By Michelle Phipps-Evans Asian Fortune News, 3 Feb. 2013
The name Theary Chan Seng generates a fervor approaching reverence in the Cambodian community here and abroad. She is the Cambodian-born, American-educated lawyer and civil rights activist who founded the Cambodian Center for Justice & Reconciliation. It is a major component of another organization she serves as founding president, CIVICUS: Center for Cambodian Civic Education. This nonprofit group is dedicated to promoting an enlightened and responsible citizenry committed to democratic principles. It is actively engaged in the practice of democracy and reconciliation in Cambodia and the larger, globalized world. So who really is Seng, the person? She is a survivor of the Khmer Rouge (KR) regime, and has spent almost two decades advocating for its victims, many of whom were orphaned, widowed, abused or molested—victims who were like Seng herself.
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Cambodians mourn King Norodom Sihanouk in lavish style
Mark Magnier LA Times, 1 Feb. 2013
"I, like many others, am a bit awed by the mass outpouring and cult-like public display of high emotions," said Theary C. Seng, founding president of Phnom Penh's Center for Cambodian Civic Education, a civic group. "The reaction now is one mainly of children missing their King Father, a father who never quite allowed his 'children' to develop and grow up.” There's been such an outpouring in part because Sihanouk, for all his faults, was one of the nation's only constants through decades of civil war, turmoil and genocide, Seng said. "It took his death to unite Cambodians together, but this moment of unity and reconciliation is fleeting and superficial." she said. "I say farewell, not to a god-king, but to a man who loomed large in the imagination of Cambodians, for good or for ill. Farewell to an age and a personality."
A glimpse through King Sihanouk's life - RETOUR SUR IMAGE DE NORODOM-SIHANOUK
. . . Obama, in Cambodia for a Meeting, Sidesteps the Ghosts of History
International Herald Tribune (Peter Baker, November 20, 2012)
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
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Protests Greet Obama's Visit International Herald Tribune / New York Times 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.
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Watch the TV3 New Zealand broadcast with Mike McRoberts (aired 21 Nov. 2012) At ASEAN summit, trade overshadows human rights
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Open Letter to U.S. President Barack Obama Published in The Phnom Penh Post, 20 November 2012
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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)
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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
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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
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More at Association of Khmer Rouge Victims in Cambodia... "Cambodia's Khmer Rouge Court 'Dying' ABC News film, aired 16 Oct. 2012
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Khmer Rouge defendant Ieng Thirith ruled unfit for Cambodian genocide trial due to dementia The Washington Post, 13 Sept. 2012 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.”
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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."
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"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.
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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.
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)
Khmer Rouge Trial: Cambodia Awaits Answers BBC News, 21 Nov. 2011
. . . 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
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Click here to read the full press release...
More information at "ECCC Civil Party" More information at Association of Khmer Rouge Victims in Cambodia 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
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