The extraordinary rooms in the Cambodian courts made their last verdict, on September 22, fifteen years after their implementation.
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This is a discreet, almost shameful end. On September 22, in Phnom Penh, the extraordinary rooms in the Cambodian courts (CETC) made their last verdict in general indifference. The judges of this unique jurisdiction of its kind, implemented with the support of the United Nations in 2007 to judge the officials of the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouges between 1975 and 1979, rejected the appeal of Khieu Samphan, sentenced to prison for life. 91 years old, the former president of democratic kampuchéa, a genocidal regime of Maoist inspiration, is the last of the accused still alive. The Special Court, with its hundreds of Cambodian and foreign employees, its procession of lawyers, clerks, translators, will bend luggage when it has completed its mission of archiving its work.
What assessment? The CETCs have spent an amount estimated at $ 337 million (339 million euros) in fifteen years to judge five people and condemn three. In addition to Khieu Samphan, the special court sentenced Nuon Chea, the former ideologist of the Khmer Rouge regime, in life prison – he died in 2019 behind bars. Kaing Guek EAV, alias “Douch”, the former chief of the sinister prison S21, where thousands of people were tortured and executed, was also sentenced to life in 2012, before dying eight years later. Ieng Sary, the former chief of diplomacy of the genocidal regime, died during his trial in 2013; His wife, Ieng Thirith, ex-minister of social affairs, suffering from senile dementia, was declared unfit to be judged and was released in 2012.
Hopes born from the creation of these rooms, however, were immense, like the crimes committed during the bloody reign of the Khmer Rouge. This dark period, during which 1.7 million Cambodians lost their lives, was not even discussed in school programs. Pol Pot, the “number one brother” at the head of the Khmer Rouge regime, died in the jungle in 1998. His subordinates rallied one after the other to Prime Minister Hun Sen and sank a peaceful retreat. Abroad, lawyers and historians debated the semantics of tragedy. Was it a genocide, when the executioners like most of the victims were Cambodians? Should we speak of “autogenocide”, at the risk of amalgamating criminals and tortured?
The end of impunity
In this regard, the CEC’s assessment is undoubtedly positive. The Douch’s trial, the ex-boss of S21 prison, was the occasion of a real catharsis. The attitude of the accused confused the victims: after having, on numerous occasions, apologized, Douch, on the last day of his trial at first instance, asked, against all odds, to be acquitted. His years of collaboration with international justice, however, made it possible to acquire a fine knowledge of the functioning of the terrible center of detention which he directed.
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