It still remains to be seen whether survivors of the
Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge nightmare — like the families we work with — will be served
any semblance of justice.
Ieng Thirith,
otherwise known as the ‘First Lady’ of the Khmer Rouge and one of the few
senior players of that regime to ever face justice for their crimes, was
released by Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court due to her failing mental
health. The charges against her for crimes committed
as social affairs minister have not been dropped. However, as with other
Cambodian officials accused of genocide and crimes against humanity, Thirith is
dogged in her refusal to take responsibility.
It is believed that
Thirith is responsible for crafting the policies that were meant to reshape
Cambodian society according to the Khmer Rouge’s bizarre vision of an agrarian
utopia. Because of this woman, children were separated from parents, wives from
husbands. The trauma suffered by Cambodians under her leadership is
unfathomable.
Thirith, although
judged unfit to stand trial, was reportedly energetic in her defense in a 2009
hearing. She repeatedly claimed that the Khmer Rouge’s top ideologue was
responsible for “everything.” She cursed her accusers to the “seventh circle of
hell.”
It is nauseating to
think of what Thirith’s victims feel when they hear her words. We stand with
our friends in Cambodia in hoping for as much justice as can be realized at
this late stage in the world’s accounting of this atrocious regime.
