COMMENTS (0)

RECOMMEND (111)

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

PLUSONE

MORE

E-MAIL

PRINT

TEXT SIZE

The prospect for renewed conflicts looms larger and larger so when people talk about justice they have to take into consideration that people like Duch. Q: Who is Duch? A: He is known as Kank Kek Ieu, which is his real name. He is a Sino-Khmer from Kompong, which is a central province in Cambodia. He was the director of Tuol Sleng, codenamed S-21. This was the nerve center of the Khmer Rouge (KR) killing machine. He was of the special branch during the KR period from 1975-1979 in Cambodia, and he is responsible for the deaths in part of at least 14,000, perhaps as many as 20,000 people. Q: Why did he just suddenly appear? A: I think simply because the KR were allies of the West for so many years. There was never a political will on part of the Western governments and China to actually track people like this down and have them arrested and tried. So he’s never been technically on the run, so to speak. He’s always been around and had a lot of contact with foreigners. But most of the foreigners didn’t realize who he was. Q: He's shown he's willing to face a trial? A: Yes, he’s very clear about that. He's resigned to the fact that if that is God’s will, then he will give himself over, I think. Q: Do you think trials will lead to national reconciliation in Cambodia? A: No, the timing now is not right for an aggressive campaign to actually arrest and track down a lot of these people, like Duch. Duch represents the Cambodia dilemma which is a choice between peace and justice. If justice is aggressively pursued, the chances for peace in a very tense environment become more and more remote. The prospect for renewed conflicts looms larger and larger so when people talk about justice they have to take into consideration that people like Duch, because of his position within the KR hierarchy, can implicate practically everybody who was involved in the genocide directly—both leaders and people who actually carried out executions. So he is a very key person in that respect. This makes him different from the others. But if you start going after people like this, the list could really be endless, and then we're talking about hundreds of thousand of people who are involved. And you are talking about a country which has not known peace for more than thirty years. Suddenly, in the last few years, the KR has disintegrated and their zones have now opened up. But if you start going after people, then they are going to start to protect themselves in whatever way they can. Q: How do you compare Burma and Cambodia, in terms of peace and reconciliation? A: It's really difficult. In Burma it’s an ongoing problem because people have stayed in power. In Cambodia, that is not the case. I think in terms of principle I think that people have committed massive human rights abuses. I think the principles remain the same. How they are actually arrested and held accountable for their actions remains unclear. The people who committed the crimes are still in authority. Q: Will Burmese leaders face the same fate as the KR? A: I think that it’s up to the Burmese. I think that what is important is that people that are actually in positions of power who use those positions to orchestrate killings, such as 1988 when they gunned down thousands of people in the streets of Rangoon and other provincial capitals and towns. I think the leaders will one day have to face the music or they will be banished. It’s very difficult to anticipate because the country is still in turmoil and the government that has committed those atrocities is still in power. But one day I hope, and I'm sure that it’s the hope of many thousands and millions of Burmese, that these people will be held for trial, but when you come down to the low level where you have soldiers committing abuses in villages in say Shan or Karen states, it is difficult to say where to draw the line. This is a dilemma that is being faced with the discovery of comrade Duch in Cambodia. [Top] Nic Dunlop is a freelance photographer based in Bangkok and a frequent visitor to Burma. He has been working with the Irrawaddy since 1994. An Interview with Dr. Naing Aung, Chairman of the ABSDF The Irrawaddy recently spoke to Dr. Naing Aung, Chairman of the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front, about the organization’s evolution and how it is responding to the challenges of its political agenda. As the ABSDF, which recently convened its Fifth Conference on the Thai-Burma border, strives to establish a stable framework based upon clear principles, its status as a military organization seems to be standing in the way of efforts to introduce genuine accountability to the decision-making process. In the following excerpts from our interview with Dr. Naing Aung, the Irrawaddy raises the question of whether due process is being applied in handling problems of internal discipline.