政一B 邱科翰 (8)

姓名 : 邱科翰

班級 : 政一B

學號 : 07114248

[標題] Khmer Rouge leaders found guilty of Cambodia genocide, BBC, 161118

[內文] (節選)

For the first time, two leaders of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia have been convicted of genocide.

His deputy Nuon Chea, 92, and head of state Khieu Samphan, 87, faced trial on charges of exterminating Cham Muslim and ethnic Vietnamese communities.

This was the first genocide verdict given by the UN-backed tribunal on Pol Pot's brutal 1975-1979 regime.

Up to two million people, mostly from the Khmer majority, are believed to have died during those four years.

But the larger-scale killings of the Cambodian population do not fit the narrow definition of genocide under international law, says BBC South East Asia correspondent Jonathan Head, and have instead been prosecuted as crimes against humanity.

Friday's verdicts will almost certainly be the last from an unusual attempt at transnational justice that has lasted more than a decade, our correspondent adds.

The pair were also found guilty of a litany of other crimes, including the crimes against humanity of murder, extermination, enslavement and torture.

The two men - already serving life sentences for crimes against humanity from a separate trial - have again been sentenced to life.

But the landmark moment came when Nuon Chea was found guilty of genocide for the attempt to wipe out Cham Muslims and ethnic Vietnamese Cambodians, and Khieu Samphan was found guilty of genocide against the ethnic Vietnamese.

Researchers estimate that 36% of the Cham population of 300,000 died under the Khmer Rouge. Most of the Vietnamese community were deported, and the 20,000 who remained were all killed.

The Khmer Rouge's crimes have long been referred to as the "Cambodian genocide", but academics and journalists have debated for years as to whether what they did amounts to that crime.

The UN Convention on Genocide speaks of "intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group".

So prosecutors at the tribunal tried to prove that the Khmer Rouge specifically tried to do that to these groups - something some experts, including Pol Pot biographer Philip Short, say they did not.

During the trial, a 1978 speech from Pol Pot was cited in which he said that there was "not one seed" of Vietnamese to be found in Cambodia. And historians say that indeed a community of a few hundred thousand was reduced to zero by deportations or killings.

Apart from being targeted in mass executions, Cham victims have said they were banned from following their religion and forced to eat pork under the regime.

The verdict today may not end the debate completely, but victims groups have long waited for this symbol of justice.

Although there are cases against four other Khmer Rouge members, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has been vocal about his opposition to the tribunal starting any new trials and there is little chance this will happen.

A former mid-level member of the Khmer Rouge regime himself, he says his people want to move on and that further prosecutions could lead to violence.

The Khmer Rouge waged an insurgency after they were toppled from power, although thousands defected to the government in the 1990s before the group disbanded completely in 1999. There are parts of the country where victims and perpetrators live side by side in villages.

But many Cambodians pay little attention to the tribunal, and young people in particular are keen for their country to be known for something other than the "Killing Fields".

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[相關憲法條文]

憲法第七條 : 中華民國人民，無分男女、宗教、種族、階級、黨派，在法律上一律平等。

憲法第八條 : 人民身體之自由應予保障。除現行犯之逮捕由法律另定外，非經司法或警

察機關依法定程序，不得逮捕拘禁。非由法院依法定程序，不得審問處罰。非依法定程序之逮捕、拘禁、審問、處罰，得拒絕之。人民因犯罪嫌疑被逮捕拘禁時，其逮捕拘禁機關應將逮捕拘禁原因，以書面告知本人及其本人指定之親友，並至遲於二十四小時內移送該管法院審問。本人或他人亦得聲請該管法院，於二十四小時內向逮捕之機關提審。法院對於前項聲請，不得拒絕，並不得先令逮捕拘禁之機關查覆。逮捕拘禁之機關，對於法院之提審，不得拒絕或遲延。人民遭受任何機關非法逮捕拘禁時，其本人或他人得向法院聲請追究，法院不得拒絕，並應於二十四小時內向逮捕拘禁之機關追究，依法處理。

憲法第十三條 : 人民有信仰宗教之自由。

憲法第十五條 : 人民之生存權、工作權及財產權，應予保障。

憲法第二十四條 : 凡公務員違法侵害人民之自由或權利者，除依法律受懲戒外，應負刑事及

民事責任。被害人民就其所受損害，並得依法律向國家請求賠償。

憲法第五十二條 : 總統除犯內亂或外患罪外，非經罷免或解職，不受刑事上之訴究。

{相關法條}

柬埔寨憲法 (KR時期) 第一條 : The State of Kampuchea is an independent, unified, peaceful, neutral, non-aligned, sovereign, and democratic State enjoying territorial integrity.

The State of Kampuchea is a State of the people, workers, peasants, and all other Kampuchean labourers.

The official name of the State of Kampuchea is "Democratic Kampuchea".

柬埔寨憲法第三條 : The culture of Democratic Kampuchea has a national, popular, forward-looking, and healthful character such as will serve the tasks of defending and building Kampuchea into an ever more prosperous country.

This new culture is absolutely opposed to the corrupt, reactionary culture of the various oppressive classes and that of colonialism and imperialism in Kampuchea.

柬埔寨憲法第四條 : Democratic Kampuchea applies the collective principle in leadership and work. 

柬埔寨憲法第十三條 : There must be complete equality among all Kampuchean people in an equal, just, democratic, harmonious, and happy society within the great national solidarity for defending and building the country together.

Men and women are fully equal in every respect.

Polygamy is prohibited.

柬埔寨憲法第二十條 : Every citizen of Kampuchea has the right to worship according to any religion and the right not to worship according to any religion.

Reactionary religions which are detrimental to Democratic Kampuchea and Kampuchean people are absolutely forbidden.

日內瓦公約第 147 條 : Grave breaches to which the preceding Article relates shall be those involving any of the following acts, if committed against persons or property protected by the present Convention: wilful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments, wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement of a protected person, compelling a protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile Power, or wilfully depriving a protected person of the rights of fair and regular trial prescribed in the present Convention, taking of hostages and extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly

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心得評論：

Genocide. A crime so horrible it was recognised throughout the world as a crime against humanity. Yet during the KR era, Muslims and Vietnamese were, many would argue, “systematically purged” by the government.
Racial equality and freedom of religion were documented and protected by the constitution not only here in Taiwan, but in Cambodia as well. The Cambodian constitution also promised a state that is “peaceful and neutral”, which was never realised during the KR era. The muslims and Vietnamese were targeted mainly because they compromised “state security” or were against "state ideologies." While Taiwan has been through a similar era known as the “White Terror”, our laws nowadays grants the right to judicial procedures and the protection of individual freedom. Unless under extreme circumstances, most people charged with crimes against the state could still ask for a fair (and sometimes open) trail conducted by the independent judicial branch. Our laws even went as far as granting citizens the right to demand compensation for any damage caused by the state, if the state were found guilty. If an incident like the Cambodian Genocide do occur, the victims could demand the state to make up for their losses, similar to what the Taiwanese government was trying to do with victims of the White Terror. 

Another reason an incident like the Cambodian Genocide is very unlikely to happen in Taiwan is that we have an independent judicial review system. While the KR also had a de jure constitution, it does not have any check and balance systems to ensure it would be enforced properly, rendering it useless. For a constitution to be de facto effective, the state needs to have a system based on rule of law, otherwise the constitution would be nothing more than a pile of paper. In Taiwan, this last line of defence is the “Council of Great Judges”, which serves as the supreme body on interpreting laws and the constitution. No government organisations could go against its rulings. Therefore, a regime like the KR would probably be disbanded before they could do any harm to our society.

As I am writing this, I wish to express my regards and prayers to the victims of the Cambodian Genocide. Having gone through a similar age of state cruelty, Taiwan is still recovering from scars caused in the past. This conviction in Cambodia won’t heal the wounds suffered by the society immediately, but I hope it speeds up the mutual understanding of its people, so that together, they could overcome the wrongdoings of history and make it right.