WUNRN
UN News Centre
CAMBODIA
- UN OFFICIAL WELCOMES GENOCIDE COURT’S DECISION TO PROSECUTE RAPE
1
March 2013 – A senior United Nations official today welcomed the recent
decision by Cambodia’s genocide tribunal to annul a previous ruling that would
have prevented it from trying crimes of sexual violence committed during the
Khmer Rouge regime.
“This ruling provides an opportunity to send a clear message that conflict-related sexual violence is a crime against humanity and that no matter how long it takes perpetrators will be prosecuted and punished,” said the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Zainab Hawa Bangura.
This latest ruling of the UN-backed Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) paves the way for the possibility of including acts of sexual violence, namely forced marriage and rape, to be included in its case against three former Khmer Rouge officials who have been charged with crimes against humanity and genocide.
Nearly two million people are thought to have died during the Khmer Rouge regime between 1975 and 1979. Since then, countless victims have come forward to tell their stories of forced marriage, sexual slavery, rape and other forms of sexual violence.
“The use of forced marriage in particular was systematic and widespread, employed by the regime to secure loyalty to the Government by breaking family bonds and taking a major life decision, who to marry, out of the hands of citizens and entrusting it to the State,” Ms. Bangura said.
“By not including forced marriage in the current case, the court ignores the pain and suffering of all these victims. The brave women who have stepped out of the shadow of shame and stigma represent just a fraction of the thousands of cases of sexual brutality that took place during this time.”
Ms. Bangura stressed that the ruling sends a message to victims that they have not been forgotten and that they will receive justice, and called on the court to give their cases the attention they deserve.
“Those who suffered under the Khmer Rouge should not be victimized again by having their cries for justice ignored,” she added.
The ECCC is an independent court set up under an agreement signed in 2003 by the UN and the Government, and uses a mixture of Cambodian staff and judges and foreign personnel.
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Cambodia
Source:
UK Guardian | Hanna Hindstrom
Gender violence in Cambodia
Net Saveoun was
18 when she was gang raped by Khmer Rouge soldiers.
She was one of 30
women selected to "carry salt" and taken to the forest in Pursat
province, western
"I was the
last one," said Saveoun. "I was hit with an axe and my clothes were
torn off and then they raped me. They hit me three times with an axe. Then I
was thrown into that hole full of blood. Everyone else was already dead."
But Saveoun is
not a witness in the proceedings that began last week in the extraordinary
chambers of the courts of Cambodia (ECCC). Instead she addressed a separate
hearing last Thursday, held on the other side of the city as part of the Cambodian
16 days of action on violence against women to highlight sexual crimes
committed by the Khmer Rouge.
To the
frustration of both victims and campaigners, rape and sexual violence have been
broadly excluded from the UN-backed trials. The investigating judges have
maintained that the regime punished perpetrators of so-called moral offences,
and that rape did not form part of official policy. So only forced marriages
have been included in the indictments.
But rights
activists say the ECCC has failed to investigate fully allegations of rape.
"Through our research we have seen that a lot of rapes were carried out,
especially by guards in prisons, and rapes before killings were common,"
said Duong Savorn, co-ordinator of the gender based violence project, part of
the Cambodian defenders project, which organised the hearing.
Rape was deemed as acceptable retribution
There is also
evidence to suggest that perpetrators were not punished and that the Khmer
Rouge deemed rape an acceptable retribution against "enemies of the
state".
"I heard of
only one case where the Khmer Rouge soldier in power who repeatedly raped women
was sent to a re-education camp," said Kasumi Nakagawa, who has
interviewed more than 1,500 people in a research project on sexual violence
under the Pol Pot regime.
The hearing's
panel of experts called for the ECCC to hold senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge
to account for the widespread sexual violence inflicted on the Cambodian
people.
"Sexual
violence is the only crime against humanity that is routinely dismissed as
'collateral damage'," said Nancee Bright, chief of staff to the UN's
special representative on sexual violence in conflict.
Organisers hope
the event will encourage victims to speak out and help end the culture of
impunity that still haunts
"[The
brutalities of the Khmer Rouge regime] may have happened a long time ago but
the legacy of those crimes lives on," said Bright. "We see sexual
violence including trafficking of girls as young as six, we see forced prostitution
and gang rape, oftentimes via people within their communities, and we see very
little protection of migrant workers."
This violence can
also have devastating impacts on the social and economic rights of Cambodian
women, including access to education. "I heard recently about a case of a
man going into a house and raping four students," said Sam Noeun,
executive producer at Women's Media Centre of Cambodia. "This can put
parents off from sending their daughters to study, especially in the countryside,
where it is difficult to travel."
There are no
comprehensive statistics on sexual violence but, according to rights groups,
rape is on the rise, especially among young people. While rape is illegal and
punishable by law –
Amnesty Report
A 2010 Amnesty
International report highlighted the endemic corruption and discrimination in
the judicial system that prevents women from accessing justice. Many cases are
"settled" out of court with the assistance of corrupt civil servants.
"I have no
hope at all in the legal system of this country," said Kong Vanna, who
witnessed his sister's rape more than 30 years ago and still lives in the same
village as two of the perpetrators. As the statute of limitations under
Cambodian law has passed, he has no legal recourse.
Rights activists
are adamant the ECCC must end the legacy of impunity and send a clear message
that rape is unacceptable. "If we don't address issues of violence in the
past, the violence of the present will continue to happen," said Duong
Savorn.
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BREAKING THE SILENCE: SEXUAL
VIOLENCE IN CAMBODIA
Direct Link to Full 62-Page Amnesty
International Report:
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