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The Bucolic Life of a Cambodian Grandmother Accused of Mass Killings (2017)

29 points| pastamachine | 7 years ago |nytimes.com | reply

22 comments

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[+] dahdum|7 years ago|reply
This UN tribunal has been active since 2006, spent $300M, and has convicted just 3 people in that time.

Given Cambodia is uninterested in pursuing these charges for the sake of their political stability, I wonder if continuing is ultimately worthwhile.

[+] type-2|7 years ago|reply
300 million is a lot of money, I wonder if it would have been better spent elsewhere
[+] jhowell|7 years ago|reply
> Ms. Im Chaem said she had never planned to go to court anyway.

> “I do not like what they accuse me of,” she said in a recent interview at her home in Anlong Veng, a former Khmer Rouge stronghold. “I don’t want to think about that. There’s no reason for it. I don’t want to have any trouble. I just want to live in peace.”

[+] frostburg|7 years ago|reply
I find the fact that she can safely say something like that to journalists somewhat strange. Less odious fascists were taken to the woods and shot in postwar Italy despite the amnesty.
[+] hourislate|7 years ago|reply
It really is a tragedy that they will never be held to account for their crimes. The victims deserve more.
[+] DoofusOfDeath|7 years ago|reply
A tad OT, but I'd note that the issue is also contingent on one's world view.

Christianity (the religion with which I'm most familiar) holds that each individual is ultimately held accountable by/to God for his/her behaviour.

EDIT FOR CLARIFICATION: I'm not claiming that Christian doctrine is against governments being in instrument of justice. I'm simply pointing out that in Christian doctrine, every individual will also face God's justice after he/she is dead. Which is quite different from saying they will "never" face justice.

I have no desire to start a HN flamewar regarding whether or not that Christian doctrine is accurate.

Why, then, did I post this comment at all? Because (as I mentioned in another comment), the parent made a claim with a suppressed premise that certain Christianity (and perhaps Judaism, Islam, etc.) doctrines are factually inaccurate. I considered that noteworthy.

[+] DoctorOetker|7 years ago|reply
This reminds me of the excellent documentary The Act of Killing, and it's followup documentary...

Aren't the real perpetrators/instigators the developed nations (both capitalist and communist) of the period forcing random peoples to pick sides?

[+] robotrout|7 years ago|reply
I am pleasantly surprised that communist atrocities are actually published in the New York Times. It is so important not to forget and whitewash history.
[+] andybak|7 years ago|reply
You almost sound like you think the New York Times is a communist front organisation.