Wednesday, 28 July 2010
FORMER Whakatane man Rob Hamill believes a former Khmer Rouge prison camp boss responsible for his brother’s death may again enjoy freedom, and possibly even appeal a 35-year jail sentence handed down in Cambodia.
On Monday Kaing Guek Eav – also known as Comrade Duch – was sentenced to 35 years in prison by a United Nations-backed tribunal after pleading guilty to crimes against humanity, war crimes, premeditated murder and torture.
Duch, 67, confessed to the torture of more than 12,000 people – among them Mr Hamill’s brother Kerry – before they were executed during his tenure as chief of the notorious Tuol Seng prison in Phnom Penh.
Rob Hamill was just a 15-year-old Whakatane schoolboy when his brother disappeared in 1978. The Hamill family – well-remembered in the Eastern Bay for the car dealership they ran for many years – only got confirmation of Kerry’s fate through extensive research following the 1979 collapse of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime during which up to 1.7 million people – approximately 26 per cent of the Cambodian population were killed, as famously portrayed in the film The Killing Fields.
Kerry Hamill was a crew member on a yacht that was sailing from Singapore to Bangkok when it was blown off course by a storm and into Cambodian territorial waters where it was intercepted by a gunboat.
The boat’s co-owner, Canadian Stuart Glass, was killed while Mr Hamill and the boat’s charterer, British man John Dewhirst, were taken to Tuol Seng, a former primary school that had been converted into a torture centre and prison.It was at Tuol Seng that Kerry became one of at least 10 Westerners and an estimated 10,000 Cambodians to be killed there.
Prosecutors had sought 40 years for Duch – the longest sentence available under international law. Speaking after the sentencing, Mr Hamill said he had realised Duch could appeal its length and may eventually again be a free man.
“Initially I was pretty chuffed with it. Forty years was asked for by the prosecution, so the judges only mitigated five years, which is I think a very good outcome,” Mr Hamill told the Waikato Times newspaper.
“But the reality of it is that it’s really only 19 years. The guy’s been in prison for 11 years, and they’ve taken off five years for an illegal detention.”
Mr Hamill said he was not satisfied: “There is the potential he’ll be a free man in the future – and that’s a real possibility. That is not appropriate, and I don’t think that’s justice for my brother.”
Mr Hamill had been adamant Duch should spend the rest of his living days in prison.
“He (Duch) is 67 now, that means he’ll be 86-odd when he gets out, and that’s very doable, I think. He looks pretty sprightly, pretty fit, he’ll have good healthcare in the prison. They may even appeal, take the risk of an increase or a decrease in sentence...I don’t know.”
As the list of civil parties in the case was read out in the court, Mr Hamill held up a photograph of his brother for Duch and the crowd gathered to see.
“It was difficult in court there at times – there were moments when I really thought about my brother,” he said.
Mr Hamill said survivors of the camp, and relatives of Duch’s victims, had “built strong and common bonds” throughout the trial and sentencing, with many embracing and comforting after the sentence was delivered.
“All the civil parties are really caught up in this emotionally – there was a lot of crying afterwards. We all got together, and a lot of people were very emotional.”
Mr Hamill will remain in Cambodia to continue filming for a documentary on his pursuit for justice for his brother, and the circumstances of his death. He hoped to find out more details on his brother’s last days.