Khmer Rouge Torturer Admits to Crimes Against Humanity

By Pei Hu

Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

PHNOM PEHN, Cambodia – Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, admitted responsibility for crimes committed during the rule of the Khmer Rouge regime. Duch is accused of crimes against humanity including torture and premeditated murder that lead to 10,000 deaths.

During the short Khmer Rouge regime, 2 million lives were lost due to starvation, being over-worked, and from execution. At the UN-backed tribunal in Cambodia, Duch expressed “regretfulness and heartfelt sorrow” for his actions. Duch told the court, “May I be permitted to apologize to the survivors of the regime, and also the loved ones of those who died brutally during the regime… I ask not that you forgive me now, but hope you will later.”

On Tuesday, prosecutors opened their case against Duch. Co-prosecutor Chea Leang said, “For 30 years, one-and-a-half million victims of the Khmer Rouge have been demanding justice for their suffering… Justice will be done. History demands it.”

Duch, former Tuol Sleng prison ward, is the first key Khmer Rouge leader to be on trial, and four more Khmer Rouge leaders are awaiting trial. Leang said Tuol Sleng prison “formed an integral and indeed vital role in a widespread attack on the population of Cambodia.”

Prosecutors read out gruesome details from the notorious Tuol Sleng prison during the indictment, including medieval methods of torture. “Several witnesses said that prisoners were killed using steel clubs, cart axles, and water pipes.” The indictment also read, “Prisoners were then kicked into the pits, where their handcuffs were removed. Finally the guards either cut open their bellies or their throats.”

Thousands of people have died in Tuol Sleng, which is now a Genocide museum with photographs of the victims lining the wall.

Duch was in charge of interrogations at Tuol Sleng, but “every prisoner who arrived a S-21 [Tuol Sleng] was destined for execution.”

“As a member of the [Khmer Rouge] I recognize responsibility for what happened at Tuol Sleng,” Duch told the tribunal. At 66 years-old, Duch is the only Khmer Rouge defendant to admit his part in the atrocities, but he insisted that he did not hold a senior role in the regime and had no choice but to work at Tuol Sleng, “I was in a life and death situation for myself and my family.”

Duch was discovered in the Cambodian country side by British journalist Nic Dunlop in 1999. Dunlop said it was “surreal” to see Duch in a court room.

For more information, please see:

BBC – Khmer Rouge Leader Admits Crimes– 31 March 2009

Reuters –Khmer Rouge torturer accepts blame for 14,000 deaths– 31 March 2009

Toronto Star – Khmer Rouge torturer apologizes– 1 April 2009

U. N. Human Rights Report on North Korea

By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

North Korea – A report presented by Vitit Muntarbhorn, a United Nations envoy to North Korea, states a “broad range of egregious human rights violations” in the country.  He accused North Korean authorities of committing widespread torture in prisons.  “Life in the reclusive communist-ruled country is ‘dire and desperate’,” said Vitit Muntarbhorn.

In addition, he claimed about almost 7 million North Koreans have not received the food assistance. Muntarbhorn criticized North Korean government for using access to food as a method of controlling its population.  In December, the UN World Food Programme estimated that approximately 40 percent of North Korea’s population, or 8.7 million people, would need food assistance in 2008 due to a deficit in domestic cereal production.

“The abhorrent prison conditions, including lack of food, poor hygiene, freezing conditions in winter time, forced labor and corporal punishment, result in a myriad of abuses and deprivations,” Muntarbhorn wrote in his report.

Muntarbhorn never gained entry to North Korea, but he has been investigated North Korea for years.  He often consulted with U.N. agencies working in North Korea and human rights groups outside.  In preparing his report, he also spoke with North Korean refugees in South Korea, Japan and Mongolia.

North Korea rejected the report, saying it was filled with “fabrications and distortions.” Sang Il Hun, a North Korea representative to the U.N. Human Rights Council, said the report was a politically motivated attack on the country, and that North Korea adequately protects human rights.

For more information, please see:

AFP – 6.9 million North Koreans lack food aid: UN expert – 16 March 2009

AP – UN expert: North Korea commits widespread torture – 16 March 2009

Bloomberg – North Korean Human Rights ‘Dire and Desperate,’ UN Envoy Says – 16 March 2009

Bloomberg – North Koreans Lacking Food Aid Total Almost 7 Million, AFP Says – 16 March 2009

Jurist – UN rights investigator cites North Korea for ‘egregious’ violations – 16 March 2009

Reuters – Life in N.Korea dire and desperate, U.N. forum told – 16 March 2009

Mexican President Gets Away with Genocide

01 April 2009

Mexican President Gets Away with Genocide

By Maria E. Molina
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

MEXICO CITY, Mexico – A federal tribunal has exonerated former President Luis Echeverría Álvarez of genocide charges stemming from a notorious massacre of student activists in 1968. Echeverria was the country’s interior secretary on Oct. 2, 1968, when soldiers opened fire on a student demonstration in Mexico City’s Tlatelolco Plaza before the capital hosted the Olympics.

A lower court previously ruled the massacre constituted genocide but dismissed charges of involvement against Echeverria.  The court, which issued its ruling late Thursday, rejected federal prosecutors’ argument that an army crackdown on unarmed student protesters fit the legal definition of genocide. It also upheld previous rulings that the 30-year statute of limitations for genocide had expired.

The collapse of this latest case is demonstrative of successive Mexican governments failure to address Mexico’s international human rights commitments. The government of President Calderon, in particular, has failed to acknowledge or address the legacy of human rights violations.

The massacre unfolded on the night of October 2, 1968, when Mexican security forces opened fire in a public area, La Plaza de las Tres Culturas at Tlatelolco. The public square was crowded with thousands of activists. When the shooting stopped, hundreds of people lay dead or wounded, as Army and police forces seized surviving protesters and dragged them away. No one knows for sure how many people were killed and to this day, no one has been punished for the crime.

Thursday’s ruling exhausted prosecutors’ legal possibilities in Mexico. It was not immediately clear whether they planned to appeal the decision to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, in Costa Rica.

For more information, please see:

Amnesty International – Violent Crime and Insecurity in Mexico Are Rooted in Legacy of Impunity and Injustice from Past, Says Amnesty International, Commenting on Court Ruling on 1968 Student Massacre – 27 March 2009

Associated Press – Mexican court upholds ruling on 1968 massacre – 27 March 2009

The Chronicle of Higher Education – Mexican Court Exonerates Former President Accused of Genocide in Student Killings – 27 March 2009

JAWS Claims Samoan Journalists Harassed

By Sarah E. Treptow
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

APIA, Samoa – The Journalists Associations of Western Samoa (JAWS) has expressed concerns over attacks and threats on media personnel outside of the Court.  According to the group a camera man and a news reporter were attacked and two reporters were threatened.  JAWS claimed that more journalists continue to be threatened during major trials, though the statement did not give the details of who was attacked or why.

JAWS strongly condemned the violence in their statement.  They said they “wish to reiterate that we will not tolerate the harassment of local journalists in the pursuit of truth.”  The group continued, “Journalists play an important role in any society; the media is the fourth estate of democracy and it is essentially the eyes and ears of society.”  “By hindering the work of Journalists members of the public are inadvertently infringing upon the people’s right to know and be informed.”

“JAWS reiterates that media freedom is integral to democracy.”

For more information, please see:
Samoa Observer – Journalists harassed, JAWS claim – 28 March 2009

Islands Business – Journalists harassed in Samoa, JAWS claim – 30 March 2009

Inadequate Healthcare Responsible for High Maternal Mortality Rate in Haiti

29 March 2009

Inadequate Healthcare Responsible for High Maternal Mortality Rate in Haiti

By Karla E General
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Haiti has long been noted as the leader in maternal mortality rates in the Western Hemisphere, with 670 women dying from pregnancy-related factors for every 100,000 live births in Haiti in 2006. One of the major players in this phenomenon? Complete lack of, or (if the mother is fortunate enough to be admitted to a hospital), inadequate health care.

With a maternal death rate that comes nowhere near the United States’ (11 deaths for every 100,000 live births), Haiti is under attack from the international medical community to provide better services in their maternity wards. Wendy Lai of Doctors Without Borders (Holland) calls the situation “embarrassing to the Western world…[T]hese are preventable deaths.” According to Jacqueline Ramon, a maternity ward nurse at Port-Au-Prince’s General Hospital, women still must pay for all other childbirth-related costs – such as medical supplies, food and transportation – leading many to turn to untrained midwives who use traditional medicine.

Dr. Paul Farmer, a Harvard physician, expressed frustration at Haiti’s blatant denial of adequate health care to low-income pregnant women: “It’s never, ever going to work unless we say some things are not meant to be sold, and safe motherhood is one of them.” Farmer added that in rural towns where his nonprofit organization Partners in Health provides free health care, the maternal mortality rate is less than one-tenth the national average.

Comprehensive health care for all pregnant women in Haiti would cost about $40 million annually, a drop in the bucket for a basic human right.
For more information, please see:

San Francisco Chronicle – Childbirth Dangerous Business for Haiti’s Poor – 22 March 2009

Medical News Today – AP/Washington Times Examines Factors Behind High Maternal Mortality in Haiti – 19 March 2009

Washington Times – Childbirth Danger Rampant in Haiti – 17 March 2009