A sniff of justice for Cambodia

It’s been a while, well OK more like 31 years, but at last the citizens of Cambodia have a sniff of justice.This morning, Kaing Guek Eav was sentenced for 35 years for crimes against humanity and war crimes.For those of you who don’t know who he is, the BBC has a succinct piece online. But basically, Duch, as he is better known, was a notorious prison camp commander during the vicious Khmer Rouge reign of the late 1970s – a reign which left two million people dead and was famously documented in the film The Killing Fields.Now 67, he will be freed at 86 – once time already served and other legal shenanigans are taken into account. Not quite the full justice Amnesty would like and certainly not the term a sister of one his victims called for in the Telegraph, but at least it’s a step in the right direction. The key now, as we say in our press release, is to make sure that all the other people who were involved in the brutal regime also have their day in court.  If they manage to avoid justice then what does it say about the memories of the millions of people that suffered at the hands of Khmer Rouge?