CIVIL RESISTANCE


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[Go to Facebook Profile for narrative.]

 

Honorable Exit Strategy for Hun Sen

Part II of the commentary written on 17 Sept. 2013

Click on image to read Commentary of Sept. 2013

 

 

HUN SEN'S LAST CHANCE:

 

Promising "Culture of Dialogue"

to usher in Reconciliation


Theary C. Seng

(Kirirom, 27 April 2015, edited/expanded 29 April, 4-5 May)

 

This is a companion piece to the commentary Honorable Exit Strategy for Hun Sen that I wrote on 17 Sept. 2013, almost two months after the July 2013 elections during a period of high hopes for regime change, what I called the “Season of Cambodia Flourishing”.

 

That September commentary has received 1.9 million hits, a reflection of the desire for and curiosity at the possibility....


In one masterstroke, Hun Sen could make all serious reprisals obsolete by accepting Sam Rainsy’s offer of reconciliation by genuinely reforming and making way to step down peacefully. Any lawsuit will be greatly deflated with a genuine reconciliation.


Second, Hun Sen’s bloody legacy of the past 30 years can be redeemed, his children’s future given a cleaner start. And this can only happened with reconciliation and the peaceful transfer of power. Imagine the materials being written or to be written condemning Hun Sen’s rule and his crimes. As the Gang of Four (Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary and wife Thirith) and S-21 Duch could not have imagined, shrouded in the damp of the Cold War and darkness of communism, international law catching up with them and the mounds of materials convicting them in the public arena almost 40 years later, so Hun Sen and his CPP must realize how much more the materials and greater the condemnation in the age of social media and liberalism?


Continue reading...

 

 

* * *

 

A scar left from 38 years ago when a KR cadre, one Saran, pierced it with his finger with intention of blinding me.



To my Facebook accounts for larger image.


On 4 September, the three thousand residents of Don Sor subdistrict [Daun Sar Commune, comprising of 11 villages whose chief was KR clerk Sok’s father-in-law based in O’ Sagam, and whose security chief was Nou Yaen, aka Pich Sauy, cousin of my paternal grandmother Budh, still living in my ancestral village of Chensa, also part of Daun Sar, responsible for our imprisonment which ultimately led to my Mom’s death, and the deaths of my Mom’s sister Eap and newly-wed husband Long] in Region 23 assembled at noon in their communal mess hall. The subdistrict [commune] chief, a Southwest cadre, presided. The Svay Rieng district [“srok”] chief, another Southwest cadre name Hong [KR clerk Sok mentioned his name several times in my conversation with him, 18 April 2015], arrived on a motorcycle with two bodyguards. Hong told the crowd he was looking for “CIA, KGB and Vietnamese” spies in the subdistrict. … A week later, at 4 A.M., a Southwest security squad of fifteen assembled another 930 people … all 930 were massacred..


[Almost exactly the terrorizing accounts of my Mom’s parents and her sisters in Prey Roka Village but they were given literally a last minute reprieve from death, having dug their own graves, also around this time in this same in Daun Sar Commune under the commune security chief Nou Yaen of Chensa Village. Upon invasion, the Vietnamese soldiers sought out Nou Yaen but he went into hiding in Romheas Hek district (north of Chensa) where he had other relatives.]


… Combined with other eyewitness accounts of massacres, these figures suggest that a total death toll of 100,000 among easterners in 1978 [including the 20,000 to 30,000 of my prison in the Wat Boeung Rai vicinity]… can safely be regarded as a conservative estimate. The real figure is probably around 250,000 dead.


- The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79 by Ben Kiernan (p. 404), an otherwise excellent book for its expansive interviews of survivors and one of the first books to give a detailed composite of the KR regime, but its obsession with race is wrong.


“By and large, the regime discriminated against the enemies of the revolution rather than against specific ethnic or religious groups.”David Chandler, as quoted in The Pol Pot Regime, p. 252

 

[David Chandler, Elizabeth Becker, William Shawcross, Philip Short, Steve Heder, Stephen Morris and others have it right on this issue of race, rather than Ben Kiernan and Michael Vickery.]

 


In Chensa Village this January for a cousin's wedding, 2015.

 

PROCEDURAL (legal) JUSTICE is not possible (Ao is dead; Yaen is bedridden, almost unconscious), practical or desirable in this situation.

 

But this unsettled silence is not peace because peace requires justice, and justice is MORE THAN legal justice.

 

Justice demands truth, acknowledgement, possibly, restitution, if we are ever to have reconciliation. This can be done outside of the legal/judicial process, through conversations, formal dialogues as I am trying to do with these former perpetrators in my ancestral village of Chensa.

 

I have forgiven, but my forgiveness is tough, not mushy, not cheap because it requires that evil be called by its name. Whereas you can "forget" anything (morally neutral or not), you "forgive" a wrong by identifying it first as a wrong before it can be forgiven. If there's no wrong, there's nothing to be forgiven. I come to these men and their families with a fig leaf of peace in exchange for truth.

- Theary C. Seng, 25 April 2015


* * *

 

 

 

For asylum seekers, a novel (and odd) solution: Cambodia

AP / Yahoo News | 24 April 2015

 

Theary Seng, a Phnom Penh-based lawyer, expressed similar sentiments. When it comes to statistics for human development, corruption, education, social welfare and security, "Cambodia ranks at the very bottom tier," she said.


"These refugees," she said, "will be dumped into a sea of human-rights abuses."

 

 

* * *


Cambodia-Australia Refugees Deal

(Comments given to AP, since edited)

22 April 2015


It is not difficult to divine the motivation for Cambodia to accept this refugee deal from Australia: free, easy money in the whopping sum of USD35 million. It is an open secret that the Cambodian officials will personally pocket the bulk of these millions earmarked for the refugees, leaving the refugees to fend for themselves in the killing fields of Cambodia. If these Cambodian officials abuse their own citizens of their own blood and heritage, strip away land from their own citizens, plunder the national coffers and resources that could lift the Cambodian citizens from extreme poverty, one would be a complete naif or worse to think that genuine assistance and proper funding will be given to these impoverished, vulnerable foreigners.


The issue here is not the motivation of the Cambodian officials which is transparently obvious to anyone with an ounce of integrity but that of the Australian government.


I am greatly appalled by the blatant violations and heartless disregard by Australia of international law, binding covenants and conventions relating to rights and protection of refugees, particularly relating to those most vulnerable, e.g. children and women.


I am also deeply ashamed on behalf of decent Australians whose image is marred by their government's gross violations and heartless disregard for law and human rights.


Cambodia ranks at the very bottom tier of indices for human development, anti-corruption, education, social welfare, security, inter alia. These refugees will be dumped into a sea of human rights abuses.


Last year Hun Sen said the motivation was strictly humanitarian. Hun Sen has a long history of 30 years for violating and pooh-poohing humanitarian law against his own citizens. It will take more than his say-so to reverse his anti-humanitarian tendency.

 

. . .

 

Retracing the April 17 journey

from Phnom Penh to Svay Rieng Killing Fields

40 years later


My first meeting with Ta Sok! The former Khmer Rouge clerk ("smean") responsible for documenting the happenings of 11 villages (1974 to October 1978), including my village of Chensa and those of Prey Roka, Wat So, O'Sagam affecting my maternal relatives. He recorded names and background of "new" (vs. "base") people, death and prison orders, including the arrest list with my name and those of my mother's, four brothers' and paternal grandfather's. I had been waiting for this particular meeting all of my adult life! I had tried to meet him this past January 2015 when Lady Delilah and I took a walk there to O'Sagam from Chensa Village. Then I only chanced to meet his relative, a man who was climbing the palm tree to retrieve his palm juice.

Like my new "bracelets" I picked up at the site of the prison where the Khmer Rouge killed my mother and an estimated 20,000-30,000 others? This pair could have been the actual shackles the Khmer Rouge tried to put on my 7-year old ankles of skin and bones. Or, ones worn by mom, or Mardi, or Sina, or Lundi.

Priceless.

I was given a pair of similar shackles when I visited this prison near Boeung Rai Pagoda in 2010 but immediately unable to find it again upon my arrival back to Phnom Penh

 

 

* * *

 

Scars of the Khmer Rouge: How Cambodia is healing from a genocide

 

CNN | 16 April 2015

 

"The scars of the Khmer Rouge are very deep and physical and present in modern Cambodia," said Theary Seng, a human rights lawyer whose parents were killed by the regime, and who moved to the U.S. as a refugee before returning to her homeland as an adult. ...


She described the country as a "land of orphans."...


How to heal? The silence was also due to the fact that Cambodians, in Seng's words, "lacked the vocabulary" of therapy and healing to process a crime of the magnitude of the one perpetrated against their society.



* * *



https://app.box.com/s/2sgc05964ehkbkvbs1s9foscq2miqg00


Application form for new NEC membership

of Permanent Committee of National Assembly Application Process

to become Candidates for Political Appointments to Constitutionally-mandated NEC

Amends Agreement of Months-long Political Negotiation


By Ms. Theary C. Seng


Excerpts:


The most problematic is the Nationality Declaration Form. Each applicant is required to agree to the following already-printed statement:


“I have Khmer nationality from birth and I only have Khmer nationality.[i]


“In the case in the future, I have another nationality besides Khmer, I am willing to resign from the NEC membership, and this Form will be deemed as my official resignation letter.


“[1] In the case the applicant has another nationality besides Khmer, the applicant must attach with the application the official document of the foreign State that verifies the renunciation of that nationality.”


As of this Sunday afternoon, Kek Galabru’s intention is unknown. But assuming she accepts both the CPP’s and the CNRP’s appointment of her to be the ninth neutral member of the NEC, the Nationality Declaration requirement of the application process—an administrative exercise-- effectively blocks her from even applying!

...

In addition to issues of the prohibitive timeframe and the unconstitutional nonsense of the Nationality Declaration Form, it is also problematic that the application form and process of the Permanent Committee is more restrictive than the provisions of the NEC Law, mainly Article 6.


For example, Article 6 states a qualification, the right to vote. This is broad. However, the NA Permanent Committee’s application form unconstitutionally narrows this to not a “right to vote” but “verification regarding voter registration from commune/sangkat authority that applicant has registered to vote.”


Whether a person has the right to vote (NEC Law) and whether that person has registered to vote (application form) are two different qualifications. What if the person has the right to vote—being Khmer, 18 years old, etc.—but chose not to vote? The right to vote includes the right not to vote. We may disapprove with her choice, but our disapproval doesn’t cancel out her right to vote, which is the NEC qualification for membership. Or, what if the person has the right to vote but for circumstances kept her from registering within the timeframe period? Again, whatever else we may think regarding the circumstances, it doesn’t take away the fact that she has the right to vote. The right to vote is the qualification for NEC membership, not whether the person has registered to vote.


Here, the NA Permanent Committee is effectively amending what the two working groups of the political parties had worked hard to negotiate over a period of months, when its role in this regard is only as a facilitation, administrative body.


A more reasonable way would be to provide options to verify a person’s right to vote, by simply stating: “Provide documentation of your right to vote”. “Verification regarding voter registration from commune/sangkat authority that applicant has registered to vote” may be one among other attachments that an applicant provides.

 

* * *

 

Note to RFA:Vietnamization


Please correct your broadcast of this Friday morning, 5:30 A.M. Phnom Penh time at 44:00 minute mark: Chun Chanboth gave an introduction of how Vietnamese authority is threatening Cambodian villagers not to plant on their own land in Tbaung Khmum Province (formerly part of Kampong Cham Province), bordering Vietnam. A more lengthy reporting by another reporter he named on this topic was to come on. Instead a replacement story about Chinese New Year (of over a week ago) came on instead.

http://streamer1.rfaweb.org/stre…/KHM/KHM-2015-0305-2230.mp3



Click on image or here to read more...

 

 

 

Cambodia's Khmer Rouge Tribunal Charges 2 New Suspects

 

Associated Press / ABC News (America)

 

Theary Seng, a Cambodian-American human rights activist and lawyer, said she doubted that Hun Sen would allow the cases to proceed to trial, likening the court's proceedings under his pressure to "a political farce that is ridiculing the memory of the dead and grinding salt into the wounds of the survivors."

 


Photo: Phnom Penh Post

 

 

CAMBODIA'S CURSE (Joel Brinkley): "Human rights groups estimated that 650,000 more people had died in the year following the fall of the Khmer Rouge."

 

THEARY: So, in 1979-1980, Cambodia had a population of less than 4 million (5 M survivors MINUS these 650,000 deaths MINUS another 500,000 refugees who went to Europe, US, Canada, Austr/NZ).

 

For a people, malnourished with the women not menstruating from genocide and the similar destitution under occupation and famine, beginning in 1984, K5 Plan took another million of the male civilian population.

 

In law, we have a term for these abuses under occupation: GENOCIDE, the intentional destruction of a people.

 

* * *

 

GENOCIDE CONVENTION

 

Article II: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.


Article III: The following acts shall be punishable:

(a) Genocide;

(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;

(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;

(d) Attempt to commit genocide;

(e) Complicity in genocide.

 

 

Indochina Report Publisher M. Rajaretnam:

 

Dr. Luciolli's is the fourth in a series of exposes that Indochina Report has published on the Vietnamization process and confirms the previous analyses. The others in the series are: "The Vietnamization of Cambodia: A New Model of Colonialism" (pre-publication issue, October 1984), "The Military Occupation of Kampuchea" (Issue No. 3, July-September 1985), and "Vietnamized Cambodia: A Silent Ethnocide" by Marie Alexandrine Martin (Issue No. 7, July-September 1986).


. . .

 

30 YEARS OF HUN SEN

(Human Rights Watch, Jan. 2015)


III. Hun Sen and the “K5” Forced Labor Program


Vietnam installed a new government, mixing Hanoi-trained communists with former Khmer Rouge officers to run the People’s Republic of Kampuchea (PRK)....Pen Sovann soon fell afoul of Hanoi and was arrested. He was replaced by Chan Si, who died in office in December 1984. Hanoi, impressed with the capacity and loyalty of the young foreign minister, promoted Hun Sen to the post of PRK prime minister on January 14, 1985.


The PRK was a police state, with virtually no civil or political freedoms. Among the many serious human rights abuses of its rule, few were more notorious than the Kế hoạch năm or K5 plan. K5 involved the mass mobilization of Cambodian civilians for labor on the Cambodia-Thai border and which led to the deaths of many thousands of Cambodians from disease and landmines.


Planned in early 1983 by the Vietnamese military command for Cambodia...


The overwhelming bulk of this was carried out by the civilian population as planned....


According to Sin Sen, “K5 was led by Hun Sen. He was assigned this responsibility by Vietnam.”...


[by July 1985] 90,362 ordinary people were involved in the construction work.... Overall, one million or more Cambodians may have been sent to the border.


Read full report here:

 

 

 

Human Rights Watch | 12 January 2015

The 67-page report chronicles Hun Sen’s career from being a Khmer Rouge commander in the 1970s to his present role as prime minister and head of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP). The report details the violence, repression, and corruption that have characterized his rule under successive governments since 1985.

Read the Report

 

* *

 

My commentary on the 30 year rule of Hun Sen


Based on a response to media inquiry (well-known wire service) which I've since edited and expanded:


Thirty years ago, Vietnam gave birth to Hun Sen the Prime Minister. Thirty years later, the umbilical cord of Hun Sen and his CPP to Vietnam has not been severed. As a puppet of a historically aggressive, more powerful neighbor, whose annexation of Cambodia consistently over the years are well-documented but uninteresting to non-Cambodians, Hun Sen has consistently appeased and catered to the whims of its political master Vietnam. The facts are indisputable.


However, these continuing national security concerns vis-a-vis Vietnam have been overshadowed by virulent charges of racism by foreigners of Cambodians. The unfortunate and potentially dangerous effect has been the silencing of any robust discussion. This in turn leaves the Cambodians frustrated that they can't even express freely what they daily experience in their own home--the flooding of illegal immigrants--while simultaneously are unfairly denounced with the ugly moniker of racism.

 

[Read more...]


 

Theary's Curriculum Vitae / Resume


Click on image to view the complete CV

 

* * *

 

CNRP-NA nominates Ms. Theary Seng to NEC

 

Read more recommendations

 

. . .

 


My Skype LIVE interview from Cypress (California) with CNN Hong Kong Anna Coren re the ECCC verdict of Case 002/01 of FORCED TRANSFER. A 1-2 minute interview turned into an almost 20 minute conversation. Over the years, I've given countless interviews on the KR years and my own history during this time and most times I can recount without tears and much emotion. I thought I shed all the tears needed shedding for this past! I hardly ever cry over my own story these days... I guess I have underestimated the power of this milestone of a verdict as I got a bit emotional...

 

Click on image to watch the Skype video interview with Andrew Stevens

 



My interview this Monday morning with AP regional bureau chief Jerry Harmer (Phnom Penh, 28 July 2014) re the starting of Eccc the Clown (aka, KRT)'s case 002 part 2 in a couple of days.

 

. . .

 

 


Listening with the electric crowd in the tens of thousands to Sam Rainsy giving an impromptu rousing speech near the Council of Ministers (Phnom Penh, 19 July 2014).

See photos of this amazing trip from the Airport to the CNRP HQ, 19 July 2014

 

Cambodian Unionists Mark Murder of Prominent Labor Leader

(AFP | 22 Jan. 2014)

 


 

Videos 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

Photos 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |

 

 


Prince Norodom Sirivudh, AICHR Commissioner Cheat Chealy, PIC Dr. Yan Van Deluxe, CIVICUS Cambodia Theary C. Seng

My presentation on the first day was on The Right to Vote

 


Interview for documentary film on the Cambodia garment industry (Phnom Penh, 3 Oct. 2013)


Giving an on-camera film interview on the Exit Strategy for Hun Sen commentary (Phnom Penh, 18 Sept. 2013)

 


BBC interview of Theary, here background filming (2nd day of mass protest, 16 Sept. 2013)

 


Theary Seng giving an on-camera interview on the political development in Cambodia. Theary: "The protest tomorrow is part of the creative tension that brings about genuine change. I really believe the CNRP won and Sam Rainsy will become the Prime Minister within this election cycle; we don't have to wait another 5 years."

 

 

Sam Rainsy Returns


to a Rapturous

 

Hero's Welcome

 

Photos: Theary C. Seng, 19 July 2013

More images taken by me from the truck carrying Sam Rainsy at my Facebook accounts and in KI-Media 1 | 2 | 3 | 4


Sam Rainsy flashing CNRP no. 7 in the back of the pick up truck carrying him from airport to Democracy Square (19 July 2013)


I'm at the back of the truck where Sam Rainsy is standing on a raised platform, supported by bodyguards and his CNRP officials. The security surrounding his truck were amazing in protecting the truck from being flanked by frenzied supporters all the way from airport to Democracy Square, over 10 kilometers.

MORE PHOTOS and narratives

 

Global Convening to End Mass Atrocities

Istanbul (16-21 June 2013)


Istanbul, Turkey's largest city at 15 to 17 million people, is magical, as exquisitely stunning as one can imagine it to be and more (!!). Also known as Constantinople, named after the Roman Emperor Constantine who converted to Christianity in 4th century, it has now only one percent Christian out of 55 Million population.



Theary's presentation, during exchange with participants

 

I'm presenting on 19 June 2013 "Reconciling Peace with Justice in Cambodia: the Limitations of Tribunals to Address Mass Crimes"

https://www.box.com/s/g9go7em1jyvuhvy8jbjj

 

 


Theary Seng near Taksim Square on Istiklal Blvd. in front of the graffitied French Consulate (around noon-ish after service at Union Church in the vicinity, 16 June 2013)

 

Click here to read narratives and see more photos, or go to Ms. Seng's Facebook accounts

 

. . .

 

 

Theary C. Seng and the Road Ahead in Cambodia

By Michelle Phipps-Evans

Asian Fortune News, 3 Feb. 2013


Theary C. Seng (Photo: Roland Neveu, Dec. 2009)


The name Theary Chan Seng generates a fervor approaching reverence in the Cambodian community here and abroad. She is the Cambodian-born, American-educated lawyer and civil rights activist who founded the Cambodian Center for Justice & Reconciliation. It is a major component of another organization she serves as founding president, CIVICUS: Center for Cambodian Civic Education. This nonprofit group is dedicated to promoting an enlightened and responsible citizenry committed to democratic principles. It is actively engaged in the practice of democracy and reconciliation in Cambodia and the larger, globalized world.

So who really is Seng, the person? She is a survivor of the Khmer Rouge (KR) regime, and has spent almost two decades advocating for its victims, many of whom were orphaned, widowed, abused or molested—victims who were like Seng herself.


Read full article

In KI-Media

 

. . .


Obama, in Cambodia for a Meeting,

Sidesteps the Ghosts of History

 

International Herald Tribune (Peter Baker, November 20, 2012)


Theary Seng, president of the Association of Khmer Rouge Victims in Cambodia, said, “President Obama should have met with the human rights community and activists challenging the Hun Sen regime, and while then and there, offer a public apology to the Cambodian people for the illegal U.S. bombings, which took the lives of half a million Cambodians and created the conditions for the Khmer Rouge genocide.”

 

Click here to read this complete news analysis

 

. . .

 

Kissinger in Cambodia:

Protests Greet Obama's Visit

International Herald Tribune / New York Times


PHNOM PENH — Theary Seng was taking aim with precision and anger. The 41-year-old U.S.-trained lawyer and a regular on Cambodia’s crowded protest circuit was about to throw a dart at a poster of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.


Kissinger is one of 13 politicians and senior Khmer Rouge leaders in a dart game created by Poetic Justice, a nongovernmental organization run by Theary Seng that highlights deficiencies of the special U.N.-backed tribunal judging the Khmer Rouge’s crimes. Each player gets five throws. A bull’s-eye is worth seven points. The highest score wins.


Last Sunday afternoon, Theary Seng and three members of her staff were playing on Phnom Penh’s riverfront opposite the storied Foreign Correspondents’ Club. On this occasion — the fourth time the game has been staged in public — the point was to draw attention to the narrow scope of the Khmer Rouge tribunal ahead of President Barack Obama’s visit for a summit meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.


Click here to read full article.

 

. . .

 


Interview by Mike McRoberts of TV3, New Zealand standing on what was formerly the capital's largest natural lake, place of violent forced evictions (Phnom Penh, 20 Nov. 2012). Theary: "The international community gives muscles to this dictatorial regime to repress its own people. Before the government represses with Cambodian riels; now it's empowered and given muscles with NZ dollars, US dollars, Euros..."


Watch the TV3 New Zealand broadcast

with Mike McRoberts (aired 21 Nov. 2012)

At ASEAN summit, trade overshadows human rights



In solidarity with courageous protestors of Boeung Kak Lake, here sitting on what was formerly the capital's largest natural lake, with Council of Ministers facing it, with Bopha's mom and son (Phnom Penh, 20 Nov. 2012)

 

. . .

 


Open Letter

to U.S. President Barack Obama

Published in The Phnom Penh Post, 20 November 2012

Read letter in KI-Media

 

. . .

 


CJOReillyGlobal: #Theary Seng being questioned by Police of her possessions ahead arrival of #Obama. If only they knew her rights. http://t.co/88lyV2C3 Nov 19, 2012, 10:23 UTCMs.

Theary Seng and some 30 security (plus more embedded in Wat Phnom Penh and Sunway Hotel)


Narrative of harassment and images of

Ms. Theary C. Seng's stand-off

with at least 30 big bulky, heavily armed security

in front of US Embassy Phnom Penh

(Tuesday, 19 Nov. 2012)

 


Theary Seng (reddish-orange blouse to right) and 30+ security next to US Embassy Phnom Penh, 19 Nov. 2012


. . .

 


Emotional Violence of Past Poetic Justice Dart Games

flared into Physical Assault on Ms. Theary C. Seng

and those around her

along the Riverfront, Sunday, 18 Nov. 2012



A plain-clothes Cambodian police officer, left, pushes away Theary Seng, center, an organizer who was about to stage a protest in Phnom Penh, Cambodia Sunday, Nov. 18, 2012. Cambodia broke up a protest organized by her Sunday that was meant to highlight the alleged oppression of Cambodia's people by political figures, including former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and the late despot Pol Pot (AP Photo).


See more photos


See film of violence


See Opinion by Heng Soy on the vulgarity attempting to undermine Ms. Seng and the global attention on the Poetic Justice dart games



Theary Seng and Poetic Justice dart game (Photo: John Vink / Magnum Photos, 18 Nov. 2012)

 

. . .

 

Spirit of Humanity Forum

 

Reykjavik, Iceland

SESSION 3: CALLING

4.15 - 5.45 pm Led by Miriam Subirana, Foundation for a Culture of Peace

The session includes:

Theary C. Seng, Founder, Centre for Justice and Reconciliation, Cambodia



Theary Seng with Princess Martha Louise (only daughter of Norwegian King and Queen), a genuine "people's princess" full of warmth and personality (Reykjavik, 15 Sept. 2012)

 

. . .

 

 


"Take that, Kissinger!" Poetic Justice dart games filming for ABC News.

More at Association of Khmer Rouge Victims in Cambodia...

"Cambodia's Khmer Rouge Court 'Dying'

ABC News film, aired 16 Oct. 2012

 

. . .

 

Khmer Rouge defendant Ieng Thirith ruled unfit for Cambodian genocide trial due to dementia

The Washington Post, 13 Sept. 2012


Of course if she is seriously ill with Alzheimer’s, she should be released. There is no point in trying an incapacitated person,” said Theary Seng, a human rights advocate representing some victims who are allowed a role in the proceedings. “The point is the (tribunal) is so late in coming. The political foot-dragging and inertia has caused this travesty of justice.”

 

 

. . .


 

Poetic Justice

and Civil Party Withdrawal

in the News

Nov. 2011


Ex-leader: Khmer Rouge atrocities are 'fairy tale'

AP Newswire, 23 Nov. 2011


"I'm not surprised that Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan and Ieng Sary continue to deny their crimes as the charges against them of genocide, war crimes are very serious," said Theary Seng, a Cambodian lawyer and human rights activist who lost family members under their regime.


"Even if I am not surprised, I am however disgusted by their lack of remorse for the suffering they caused. They are delusional in their denial in light of the weight of evidence against them - the mounds of skulls and bones, the horrific testimonies from every survivor of cruelty, the magnitude and scope of evil unleashed by them across the whole of Cambodia."

 

. . .

 

"Khmer Rouge trial is failing Cambodian

victims of Pol Pot's regime"

Human Rights Watch Brad Adams' editorial

The Guardian, 26 Nov. 2011


. . .


"Justice Denied"

Douglas Gillison, Foreign Policy Magazine, 23 Nov. 2011


. . .


Deputy President of Victims Association, a Civil Party of the Orphans Class, Mr. CHEY Theara, Withdraws Civil Party Status, Denounces ECCC as Political Farce

_______________________

PRESS RELEASE

_______________________

 

Full statement in both Khmer and English in KI-Media.

Here, if ISP censors in Cambodia.

 

. . . . .

 

Khmer Rouge Trial Missing a Marquee Defendant

Wall Street Journal, 21 Nov. 2011

“The release of Ieng Thirith is only one reflection of how incredibly late these trials are coming into place,” said Theary Seng, founder of the Cambodian Center for Justice and Reconciliation and herself, too, a victim of the Khmer Rouge regime, having lost her parents and spent five months in prison. She has withdrawn from the tribunal process, and instead put her energy into organizing public games of darts featuring the faces of the Khmer Rouge leaders along Phnom Penh’s riverfront – a “way of release” following victims’ frustrations with the trial process, mixed with “dark humor,” she said.

 

Theary Seng BBC News filming, Nov. 2011

Watch the BBC News coverage

But the trial - a joint enterprise between the UN and Cambodia - has been heavily criticised. Theary Seng, whose parents were killed by the Khmer Rouge, said putting three people on trial for the deaths of 1.7 million simply wasn't enough. (BBC News, 21 Nov. 2011)


Poetic Justice German Filming, 18 Nov. 2011
Filming for German DW-Global with Bastian and Sarin, 18 Nov. 2011. More photos...


Filming by BBC with Guy DeLauney, 17 Nov. 2011. More photos...

Khmer Rouge Trial: Cambodia Awaits Answers

BBC News, 21 Nov. 2011

 

. . .


Crying for Justice

AFP, 21 Nov. 2011

Khmer Rouge survivor Theary Seng told AFP she was "frustrated beyond words" that only Khieu Samphan looked likely to shed light on what happened. "The people want to know who is behind the Khmer Rouge, we want to see and understand the larger picture and we're not going to get that," she said.


From Tragedy to Sham in Cambodia

Asia Times Online, 19 Nov. 2011

In KI-Media

Others have gone further, arguing that the time might be ripe for the UN to pull the plug on the controversy-plagued court altogether. Last week, Theary Seng, a Cambodian-American survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime and a prominent advocate for victims' rights, withdrew her status as a civil party to the court, describing the proceedings as a "complete sham".

She said the UN should threaten to withdraw after setting some clear conditions for its continued participation. By pressing ahead, Seng said, the world body runs the risk of rubber-stamping a flawed process and further embedding cynicism in the Cambodian population.

"I understand the unwieldiness of any large bureaucracy, but at the end of the day it comes down to personalities, and there have been extremely weak personalities," she said. "In this regard, the UN is complicit."

 

 

In the End, Loss of Faith in Tribunal: Former Complainant

Hello VOA Special with Theary Seng, 16 Nov. 2011


Khmer Rouge Victim Quits Tribunal Saying UN-backed Court is a Sham

DPA, 15 Nov. 2011

 

Prominent Victims' Advocate Quits Khmer Rouge Tribunal

VOA International/English, 15 Nov. 2011


KRT Critic Offers 'Poetic Justice'

The Phnom Penh Post, 16 Nov. 2011


Theary Seng Denounces Tribunal; Introduces Dartboard Scheme

The Cambodia Daily, 16 Nov. 2011

 


Theary Seng's Press Conference, 15 Nov. 2011
More photos from Poetic Justice/ECCC Withdrawal Press Conference, 15 Nov. 2011



Poetic Justice
Front pages of The Cambodia Daily and The Phnom Penh Post, 16 Nov. 2011

 

. . .



Click here to read the full press release...


 

More information at "ECCC Civil Party"

More information at Association of Khmer Rouge Victims in Cambodia

In KI-Media



Theary Seng Criticizes KRT

as "Political Farce"

The Phnom Penh Post, 10 Nov. 2011

 


Radio Free Asia (both AM and PM broadcasts on 10 Nov. 2011)

 


Cambodian-American Lawyer Withdraws her Civil Party Status

Voice of America Khmer Service, 10 Nov. 2011

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Vietnamization: Military Occupation - Present
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 Francois Ponchaud, a French Jesuit who had diligently chronicled the destructiveness of the Khmer Rouge in his book "Cambodia: Year Zero," maintained that the Vietnamese were conducting a [ ... ]


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