Genocide in Cambodia

by Pol Pot; Quigley, John B.; Robinson, Kenneth J.; Jarvis, Helen; Cross, Nereida; De Nike, Howard J.

• ISBN13: 9780812235395
• ISBN10: 0812235398
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-04-04
• Publisher: Univ of Pennsylvania Pr

Summary

The Khmer Rouge held power in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 and aggressively pursued a policy of radical social reform that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Cambodians through mass executions and physical privation. In January 1979, the government was overthrown by former Khmer Rouge functionaries, with substantial backing from the army of Vietnam. In August of that year a special court, the People's Revolutionary Tribunal, was constituted to try two of the Khmer Rouge government's most powerful leaders, Pol Pot and Ieng Sary. The charge against them was genocide as it was defined in the United Nation's genocide convention of 1948. At the time, both men were in the Cambodian jungle leading the Khmer Rouge in a struggle to regain power; they were, therefore, tried in absentia.Genocide in Cambodiaassembles documents from this historic trial and contains extensive reports from the People's Revolutionary Tribunal. The book opens with essays that discuss the nature of the primary documents, and places the trial in its historical, legal, and political context. The documents are divided into three parts: those relating to the establishment of the tribunal; those used as evidence, including statements of witnesses, investigative reports of mass grave sites, expert opinions on the social and cultural impact of the actions of Pol Pot and Ieng Sary, and accounts from the foreign press; and finally the record of the trial, beginning with the prosecutor's indictment and ending with the concluding speeches by the attorneys for the defense and prosecution. The trial of Pol Pot and Ieng Sary was the world's first genocide trial based on United Nations's policy as well as the first trial of a head of government on a human rights-related charge. This documentary record is significant for the history of Cambodia, and it will be of the highest importance as well to the international legal and human rights communities.

Author Biography

Howard J. De Nike teaches in the Department of Anthropology, San Francisco State University, and was the Director of the Cambodia Law Project at the University of San Francisco School of Law. John Quigley is Professor in the Ohio State University College of Law and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Political Science. Kenneth J. Robinson is an associate at the law firm of Bloomfield and Kempf.

Table of Contents

Editors' Note: The Documents of the People's Revolutionary Tribunal	vii
A Personal View of the Documents of the People's Revolutionary Tribunal	xiii
Helen Jarvis
Introduction	1	(18)
John Quigley
Reflections of a Legal Anthropologist on the Trial of Pol Pot and Ieng Sary	19	(12)
Howard J. De Nike
Documents
List of Documents	31	(12)
Part I. Procedural documents	43	(30)
Part II. Documents of the Investigation	73	(388)
*Identification Documents of the Accused
Witness Statements	75	(69)
Religious Issues	144	(12)
*Issues of the Workers of Tuol Kauk
Military Issues	156	(4)
Issues of Ordinary Citizens	160	(59)
Statements of Former Agents of Pol Pot and Ieng Sary	219	(8)
Reports of Field Investigations	227	(60)
Crocodile Pit	227	(4)
Crematories in Siem Reap Province	231	(10)
Common Graves in Siem Reap Province	241	(9)
Common Graves in Sre Seam Village, Chiro 2 Subdistrict	250	(4)
Common Graves at Chup Rubber Plantation	254	(7)
Common Graves in Kompong Speu Province	261	(17)
Investigation at Wat Champuh Kaek	278	(9)
Reports on Various Aspects of Social Life	287	(92)
Excerpts from Captured Documents	379	(34)
Excerpts from Published Accounts	413	(48)
Part III. Indictment and Judgment	461	(92)
Indictment	463	(26)
Closing Statements	489	(34)
Judgment	523	(30)
Sources for Additional Information	553	(2)
Acknowledgments	555	(2)
Index	557