Peering into the Fishbowl of Justice

I wish this was a mock trial. I wish this was a courtroom simulation with fabricated events, locations and people. I wish the final slam of the gavel meant the show was over; time for actors to take off their masks and return to lives of normalcy and peace.

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But these blue curtains don’t open to a stage; they unveil a reality of horrific measure.

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This is the scene of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge Tribunal, seeking justice more than thirty years after the bloody genocide. In the four years between April 17^th 1975 and January 7^th 1979, three million were murdered. Intellectuals tortured, killed. Women and children ruthlessly killed. The court calls these acts: crimes against humanity.

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Today Cambodia is a different place, but the nation is still gasping for justice. The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) for the Prosecution Committed during the Period of Democratic Kampuchea, was created in 2001 to try those “most responsible” for the crimes. Trials finally began in February.

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The ECCC is a hybrid court with judges from Cambodia and the United Nations. Originally, it was estimated to cost $60 million and take three years. Now, the tribunal is asking for more than $140 million to last until 2010. That is an incredible amount of money; enough to feed many hungry mouths and clothe many naked bodies. For now though, the government says it’s the price of justice.

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I went to court on April 6^th to witness the trial of Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch and best known for heading the torturous interrogation center S-21. The players in the trial sat in a courtroom separated only from us by a sound-proof glass wall. It was as if we were being allowed to peer into a fishbowl of justice.

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Duch’s status was printed as such:

Indicted and sent to trial for Crimes Against Humanity, Grave Breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, and Homicide and Torture pursuant to the 1956 Penal Code: offences which are defined and punishable under Articles 3, 5, 6, 29 and 39 of the Law on the establishment of the Extraordinary Chambers as amended 27 October 2004.

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That is quite some baggage. About thirty years ago, thousands of people looked into Duch’s eyes clinging to any hope that he’d spare them. On that day, about one month ago, I looked into his gray filmy eyes and did not know what to think. When I caught his deep eyes, I quickly unlocked my gaze. Meeting his eyes was like being stung by a million stories of pain; it was a discomfort I’ve never felt and never want to feel again.

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Duch wore a clean white collared shirt and he looked calm but curious. With those eyes, he scanned the audience and I wondered who he was looking for. In fact, who are we looking for in him; a dirty unlovable enemy or a worn-out and brain-washed innocent?

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At a quarter past nine, was the call to “all rise.” We were each given headsets. Turn to channel 1 for Khmer, 2 for English and 3 for French. After beginning statements by Nil Nonn, the President of the Trial Chamber of the ECCC, things were underway. Duch sat; his back to the audience, facing the judges, flanked by security guards. I can’t imagine that he is a physical threat now. His body is frail, he’s small and he’s without his biggest weapon - unquestionable authority.

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The trial commenced. This is a “very big moment in Cambodia” said a colleague sitting next to me. But scanning the audience didn’t seem to prove that point. The small crowd was fairly young, the average age under forty years old. Journalists and Khmer law students seemed to dominate the fifty or so people in attendance. I overheard rumbles that a victim of the Khmer Rouge was sitting at the end of my row.

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Judge Jean-Marc Lavergne from France asked the questions and Duch answered. Succinctly recalling names, locations and other details, he shared stories about his life prior to the Khmer Rouge and about M-13, another interrogation center under his rule. His tone was steady as he started with his own history. Before the revolution he was a teacher. “The only thing I loved was teaching,” Duch said. But that was before the rising tide of communism swept him in and dismantled those dreams. Once committed, he “sacrificed all, sincerely and absolutely” to the revolution.

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He spoke words of regret about what happened at M13, saying “I was not satisfied by my job, but it was unavoidable. I hate[d] it.” Over and over he insisted that there was no other choice other than to listen to higher-ups who ordered him to torture and “smash.” “They kept sending people, it was my fate,” he said. I scrambled to keep up with his answers, my notebook filling up with words to convict. Hearing directly from the man whose name history books will oft repeat and label as “killer” was a radical experience.

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Judge Nil Nonn called an end to the day just as Duch began to unearth the torture methods and detention conditions at M-13.

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I dropped off my headset, walked through the huddle of reporters and outside and into the heat of another Cambodia scorcher. What an experience….

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There is so much more I could write about. The incredible dynamic of the multi-lingual judges, lawyers and Duch was dramatic in itself – could translation issues affect the decisions made and the understandings understood? I also came away questioning ‘what is justice for Cambodia today’ – I’m thinking about interviewing people to navigate that.

I hope to attend another day in court. Duch is now being questioned on S-21.