Enemies of the People

6 Aug 2010,

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A former Cambodian prison head under the Khmer Rouge regime was sentenced to 19 years in prison last week on July 26th. The sentence was the first ever given out by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, or ECCC, a hybrid UN-Cambodian government tribunal created five years ago to try senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge. The first defendant, Duch, served as head of the infamous Tuol Sleng prison, where up to 20,000 people accused of opposing the Khmer Rouge were tortured and killed. Duch’s original sentence was to last 35 years, however 11 years were subtracted for time already served, and another five to compensate for illegal detention in a military prison. The public reaction the trials has been mostly negative, with many Cambodians concerned that the sentence is not proportionate to the amount of suffering Duch was responsible for. An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians were killed under Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge regime, which lasted from 1975 to 1979. The public trial of three Khmer Rouge leaders, including the most senior surviving leader Nuon Chea, is expected to start in 2011.

A new documentary entitled Enemies of the People, explores the grisly history of the Khmer Rouge’s killing fields through the work of an intrepid Cambodian journalist, Thet Sambath, whose own father and brother were killed.

GUESTS: Rob Lemkin and Thet Sambath, film makers of Enemies of the People

Enemies of the People is showing at the Laemmle Music Hall, 9036 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills.

Find out more at www.enemiesofthepeoplemovie.com.