Monday 26 July 2010

Mass murderer verdicted

Cambodia’s war crimes tribunal today handed down its first guilty verdict against a senior Khmer Rouge figure, Tuol Sleng prison director Duch, for crimes committed under the regime more than 30 years ago.

Judges at the United Nations-backed court sentenced Duch to 35 years in prison. However, they reduced his sentence by five years after ruling that he had been illegally detained by a military court following his arrest in 1999.

Duch's prison term was reduced by a further 11 years for time served, meaning that he faces a total of 19 years behind bars.

Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, was convicted of crimes against humanity and war crimes for his role at Tuol Sleng, or S-21, the regime’s most important interrogation centre where as many as 16,000 men, women and children were brutalised before being systematically exterminated.

Only 14 people are known to have survived Tuol Sleng, which under Duch’s meticulous and rigid hand evolved into an efficient killing machine that came to symbolise the worst excesses of increasingly paranoid Khmer Rouge leaders.

Entire families were imprisoned for the alleged crimes of a single member, and on a single day in 1977 alone, Duch ordered the executions of 160 children.

An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians dying of disease, exhaustion from overwork, torture or execution.

During a six-month trial last year – the tribunal’s first – prosecutors painted Duch, a 67 year-old former math teacher, as a driving force behind the regime’s execution campaign, and argued that he guided crimes committed at Tuol Sleng.

Duch’s defence, on the other hand, contended that he had merely carried out orders issued by his superiors with an eye towards ensuring his own survival.

Monday 12 July 2010

Amalia & the Vuvuzela


Amalia & the Vuvuzela, originally uploaded by rob-gizzy.

On the day of the final of the Worldcup 2010 we went to the Museumplein in Amsterdam to see the Orange fans coming together to watch the final between Spain and Holland on the big screens.
Johan Cruijff once said that when you make one goal more than the other team you win ( dat is logisch). And that is what Spain did.

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam was decorated with a huge photo of Princess Amalia with a vuvuzela, and the statues on the roof were dressed in orange.

With a queen like Amalia, Holland will win the cup.
So, be patient, and one day the cup will be traveling through the channels of Amsterdam!!