Preparatory Meeting Civil Parties in Case 001 & Exhibition of Victims Participation in Case 001
On July 12, 2010, on the eve of the verdict in Case 001 against former S-21 head Kaing Guek Eav alias Duch, the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC), the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee (CHRAC), Youth for Peace (YFP), the Transcultural Psychosocial Organisation (TPO), the Cambodian Defenders Project (CDP), the Victims Support Section (VSS) of the ECCC and the Ksem Ksan Victims’ Association have jointly organized a Civil Party Meeting and the Exhibition on Victims Participation in Case 001 in the Cambodian-Japan Cooperation Center of the Royal University of Phnom Penh.
The Civil Parties of Case 001 were invited to discuss the upcoming judgement. It became clear that during the meeting the majority of the civil parties fear disappointment in the verdict. Many questions were asked to the Civil Party Lawyers in this regard. Additionally many civil parties are concerned about their pending status as civil party. In the worst case scenario many civil parties could be rejected in the end.
Apart from the preparatory meeting of the civil parties in the morning, the exhibition of victims´ participation in Case 001 was presented in the afternoon. The exhibition marks another significant contribution by the NGOs in this transitional justice process.
Mr. Thun Saray, president of ADHOC made following welcoming remarks: “With the exhibition today, we expect that the voices of the victims of crimes committed during the Khmer Rouge regime, especially in S-21 security center, will be loudly heard and strengthened. Their participation has a great deal of personal meaning and allows them to share these participatory experiences with their relatives and neighbors in their respective communities.”
