bogol: daamn cops!

bogol: daamn cops!

This guy thinks that he has problems, he should try dealing with the Cambodian Traffic Police ?!?!

Ta Mok 'The Butcher' is Dead

Khmer Rouge 'butcher' dies at 80

A former army chief of the Khmer Rouge who was accused of genocide has died at the age of 80 in Cambodia.

Ta Mok, nicknamed "The Butcher", was linked to atrocities dating to the leadership of Pol Pot in the 1970s.

Some 2 million people died under the brutal Khmer Rouge regime - of starvation, disease or execution.

Ta Mok was expected to be one of the first people tried for genocide and crimes against humanity at UN-backed hearings due to start next year.

"Ta Mok passed away this morning," military doctor Tuoth Nara told Reuters news agency.

"He was an old man and died of natural causes, given his poor health and respiratory problems."

One of only two surviving Khmer Rouge commanders in detention, Ta Mok had been unwell since last month and slipped into a coma last week.

Evading trial

Of all the Khmer Rouge leaders Ta Mok was regarded by many as the most brutal, the BBC's Guy Delauney reports from Phnom Penh.

He played a key role in a series of massacres and purges, which started even before the Khmer Rouge took power.

Ta Mok was in charge of the forces which destroyed the former royal capital Oudong in 1974, expelling civilians and killing officials and government soldiers.

Later he instigated purges as the Khmer Rouge went to war with itself.

He eventually became the overall leader of the organisation in 1997 but he was captured two years later and spent the rest of his life in jail.

Ta Mok's death leaves a Khmer Rouge prison boss, Kaing Khek Iev, more commonly known as Duch, as the group's only surviving leader in detention.

Pol Pot died in his jungle hide-out in April 1998 from an apparent heart attack.

Many Cambodians fear they will never get a chance to see justice, because ageing Khmer Rouge defendants are dying before they face trial.

Khmer Rouge cadre trial will not be fair, says lawyer

I am still in two minds about all this. I mean, justice is good, but US$56 Million to bring 3 or 4 people to justice just seems absurd / bizarre / ludicrous …

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Reuters

PHNOM PENH — A lawyer defending one of Pol Pot’s surviving henchman said yesterday his client could not get a fair trial because nearly all Cambodian judges on the Khmer Rouge tribunal had lost relatives in the genocide.

Kar Savuth, lawyer for the notorious prison commander Duch, said he would boycott the trials of surviving Khmer Rouge leaders accused of responsibility for the deaths of 1,7-million people.

“How do you expect Cambodian judges, whose relatives died under the Khmer Rouge, to pass fair judgment on my client?” he said.

“Of course they will give my client severe punishment, so I will boycott the trial.”

Almost every Cambodian family lost relatives under the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge regime and none of its top leaders, some of whom are still alive, has faced trial.

Pol Pot, “Brother Number One”, died in 1998, nearly a decade after a Vietnamese invasion ousted the regime.

“Brother Number Two” Nuon Chea, former head of state Khieu Samphan, and former foreign minister Ieng Sary are living in the northwest near the Thai border.

On Monday, 17 Cambodian and 10 foreign legal experts were appointed to the tribunal and they promised to be impartial. Tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath said the Cambodian judges “will use the law to judge the Khmer Rouge, not their emotions”.

The trials could begin early next year. Only two top cadres are in custody, accused of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.

Duch ran the Tuol Sleng interrogation centre where few prisoners survived after the Khmer Rouge took power following a civil war. The other detained cadre is Khmer Rouge military chief Ta Mok.

Ta Mok’s lawyer, Benson Samay, said he was more worried about getting the trials under way than the potential bias against his client.

“Don’t wait for the Khmer Rouge to die before they get the chance to tell the court what happened,” he said.