|
Korean Job Discussion Forums
"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Teachers from Around the World!"
|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
|
 Posted: Mon Jul 26, 2010 8:11 pm Post subject: 16,000 deaths, 19 years in jail � fury at sentence for Duch |
 |
|
16,000 deaths, 19 years in jail � fury greets sentence for Pol Pot's executioner
| Quote: |
It was 9.53am when the curtain in front of the glass-enclosed court chamber finally swept back. When it did, it revealed Kaing Guek Eav, once head of the Khmer Rouge's most notorious jail, sitting at a bench, his face expressionless, and dressed in a crisp blue shirt with grey trousers pulled up unnaturally high over a rounded stomach.
When he was escorted to his place in the dock a few moments later, the man better known as Comrade Duch looked tiny and unremarkable. Yet over the next 60 minutes, the chair of the court calmly and methodically outlined why this United Nations-backed tribunal had concluded that the slightly-built man with thinning grey hair was responsible for terrible, "heinous" offences that constituted crimes against humanity. Crucially, they confirmed that his claim to have been simply following orders constituted no defence whatsoever.
The court ruled that the obsessive, 67-year-old former maths teacher who had overseen and run the Tuol Sleng interrogation centre where around 16,000 people were beaten, tortured and questioned before being dispatched to die, should be sentenced to 35 years in jail. Yet, after taking into account time already served and other factors, the actual sentence was reduced to 18 years and 10 months.
If the authorities subsequently grant him parole, the man responsible for overseeing some of the 20th century's most vivid cruelty and violence � on a single day in June 1977, he authorised the execution of 160 children � could spend less than 13 years in jail.
When the court's decision was read out, Duch pressed his palms together in a traditional gesture of respect and bowed slightly towards the court's chairman before he was led from the room. |
Nonetheless, I'm glad to see that he has been tried and sentenced. I wish war atrocities were prosecuted much more often and consistently. |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
Junior
Joined: 18 Nov 2005
Location: the eye
|
| Posted: Mon Jul 26, 2010 11:51 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I had a look round Tuol Sleng once. A really oppressive atmosphere permeates the place. Its something of an emotional tour through the torture chambers, the tiny dark cells, and the portraits of hundreds of victims.
I still keep a photo of one of the victims, a defiant and dignified face staring back from history - the only photo I kept from that entire SE Asian trip. I'm not sure why I still have it, because its someone I never knew. But its a treasured possession.
I agree though, the sentence is not enough though, and there are several others they should be trying as well but can't -because they are now powerful politicians.  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mosley
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
|
| Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 7:58 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Communist scumbag(is there any other kind?)should be slowly tortured to death. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Leon
Joined: 31 May 2010
|
| Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 6:50 am Post subject: |
|
|
| At his age it is basically a life sentence. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
bigverne
Joined: 12 May 2004
|
| Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 7:00 am Post subject: |
|
|
| To the kind of liberal-minded, morally sophisticated people who populate organisations such as the UN and the EU the death sentence is 'barbaric'. These kind of people honestly think such a sentence as given here constitutes 'justice'. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
