The Khmer Rouge Trial (you can access the English version here) that is underway in Cambodia has recently detained many people suspected of crimes against humanity and war crimes. One of those people is torture leader Duch. Apparently, he has been detained by police since 1999 and has since been held in prison in Cambodia. Now that he is finally appearing before court, his defence lawyers are seeking bail on the foundation that his human rights have been violated as a result of his long detention in prision while awaitng trial. He is set to appear…Wait a sec. Did I read that right? He wants to talk about human rights violation? Seriously? He, who has tortured and killed almost 1.7 million Cambodians during a few short years, wants to talk about human rights violation? You gotta be kidding, right?
No, it’s no joke. Well, the idea itself is a joke, but I’m not kidding you. It’s true.
His defense lawyers argued that Duch’s human rights were being violated by his long detention and he should be freed on bail…
But his prosecutors are saying Duch is:
…a “flight risk” and urged the court to keep him behind bars - for his own safety and in the interest of public order.
If Duch were released he could be harmed both by “accomplices wishing to silence him and by the relatives of victims seeking revenge,” Robert Petit, a prosecutor from Canada, told the court.
Petit added that “the entire public order (could) be jeopardized” if the aging Khmer Rouge official were freed.
Well, duh. A man who is being put on trial for what he and the rest of the world knows is a serious offence is hardly going to stick around for everyone to discover the truth, now is he?
Another point, the families of those who he has murdered is most likely going to want some revenge, right? Hell, I sure would. So, I think the prosecutors have a point. No bail should be granted. It would be a stupid thing to do and it’s just simply not fair.
For him to claim that his human rights have been violated really makes me see red. He believes that during the Khmer Rouge regime he simply had to follow orders otherwise he, too, would die. What a load of crap. You can follow orders, but you needn’t kill 1.7 million of your fellow countrymen! Ladies and gentleman, that to me, is not called following orders. To suggest such a ludicrous idea, makes me believe that perhaps there is no punishment suited better to this man than the death penalty (despite my severe aversion to the idea).
The idea of justice in some cases such as this, is merely an illusion. Justice can never be done. People who have died cannot live again. People who have had families exterminated cannot bring them back to life. People who have survived can never escape their nightmares. So what is this justice that they are seeking? It is nothing more than an illusive dream.
The perpetrators of these crimes are in their old age. Just look at the leader himself, Pol Pot. He lived to the ripe old age of eighty something. He died in his sleep, as peacefully as they come. The other perpetrators are well in their sixties and seventies, what purpose is their prosecuting them? Certainly, not in order to obtain justice. Definitely not. They have lived their lives. They have propsered, they have had the chance to do all the things in their lives that none of their victims could. That is not justice.
Perhaps the media simply uses the term justice for a better lack of word. But justice just seems to make a mockery of the whole ordeal. Perhaps they are simply trying to bring closure to all people involved. Perhaps it is not justice that they seek, but truth.
