CSD Chief Files 1^st Civil Party Application to ECCC (The

Cambodia Daily, 26 Sept. 2007)

[ NOTE:  The ECCC came into operation in mid-2006.  When Theary Seng filed the first application in Sept. 2007, the ECCC has yet to establish the Victims Unit and the Victims/Civil Party Application Form.  She wrote up her own complaint and personally went to the ECCC and filed with the clerk at the Office of the Co-Investigation Judges.  It would take until the beginning of 2008 for the Victims Unit to be established and the Application Form to be available for the first time, with revisions and changes since then. ]

Nuon Chea's Pre-Trial Chamber hearing on provisional detention where Theary Seng made history as a civil party (Feb. 2008).

On February 8, Theary Seng, who is quickly becoming the poster child for the genocide that ravaged Cambodia in the late 1970s, stood to address a man she believes was responsible for the deaths of her parents and 1.7 million other Cambodians: Nuon Chea, Pol Pot's right-hand man and most trusted deputy, who is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. "For us, the graveyard was our playground," she said.

(excerpt from International Justice Tribune, above)

From ECCC archive - ENGLISH / KHMER

[ NOTE: The first and only dissenting opinion - which happens to be obviously and legally correct, then and in hindsight -  in the ECCC thus far (mid-June 2010) came from Australian Judge Rowan Downing in defense of civil party Theary Seng's right to speak in person - to the chagrin (as lawyers have no shame) of several foreign legal interns/fellows/consultants purporting to speak on behalf of Khmer victims (as several months in the country give that right!) in their feverish rush with ready drafted op-ed pieces for their 5-minute of fame with the local press and international email list serve. ]