About 200 victims of the Khmer Rouge on Friday protested outside the Khmer Rouge tribunal, which opened proceedings in the second trial against regime leaders Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan, calling for $13,500 in individual reparations for each family member who died during the regime.
The group of civil parties—victims recognized by the court and allowed to participate in the trial—have said collective reparations projects, which include a memorial stupa, an illustrated book and an exhibition, are worthless. Judges granted the reparations when they convicted Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan of crimes against humanity and sentenced them to life imprisonment at the conclusion of their first trial in August.
The civil parties who protested Friday, members of the Victims Association of Democratic Kampuchea, say they represent 1,780 other civil parties. They arrived the front gate of court at about 7:30 a.m. with signs calling for individual reparations and attempted to deliver a petition to Trial Chamber President Nil Nonn demanding $13,500 for each dead relative named in their filings to the court.
Pen Soeun, 60, a civil party who was a victim of forced labor and a forced marriage under the regime, said the group had arrived at the $13,500 figure by assessing a recent Cambodian tragedy.
“It should be the government who pays, because the government also paid a similar amount for each person who died during the stampede at Koh Pich,” said Mr. Soeun, referring to a stampede on the last day of the Water Festival in 2010 that killed 347 people.
Bou Meng, a survivor of the notorious S-21 prison who joined the protest Friday, said they were asking for a small sum of money when their losses were taken into account.
“We need individual reparations so we can use this money to hold Buddhist ceremonies for our beloved wives, children and parents who died during the time of Pol Pot,” he said.
Eleven civil parties were able to reach the main entrance of the tribunal, where they were met by tribunal spokesman Neth Pheaktra, who asked the protesters to hand him the petition so he could forward it to Judge Nonn, but the group refused.
“I cannot give my petition to others only if I can see with my eyes that my petition is handed to Judge Nil Nonn or his representative, not the spokesman,” Mr. Soeun said.
As proceedings continued inside, the impasse outside the court was finally broken when civil party lead co-lawyers Pich Ang and Marie Guiraud, accompanied by a representative of the trial judge, went to accept the petition at about 1:30 p.m.
