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Jumbo Puzzle (Holland) No. 80076. Recent eBay purchase.
1.500 pcs, 90 x 60 cm.
I must confess that I have a weakness for historical motives and this was pure joy (and quite easy too).
William Bell Scott (12 September 1811 – 22 November 1890) was a Scottish artist in oils and watercolour and sometimes printmaking. He was also a poet and art teacher, and his posthumously published reminiscences give a chatty and often vivid picture of life in the circle of the Pre-Raphaelites; he was especially close to Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
On the morning of August 23rd, 1305, there was something of a carnival atmosphere in London. Since the early hours of what promised to be a fine day for Edward I’s capital city, crowds had been gathering to watch that most appealing of spectacles, a public execution. Such an event was not, of course, unusual when the law was often capricious and brutal; thieves, coiners, servants who had struck their masters, the simple-minded and the irreligious, these were some of the subjects on which the hangmen could rely for employment. But today’s proceedings promised to be special. The victim of the judicial process on this occasion was the Scot, William Wallace. Over the years English propaganda had depicted Wallace in the most extreme terms, as a man void of pity, one crueller than Herod, madder than Nero. Above all, he was portrayed as a traitor to Edward I and as such worthy of the worst the law could devise. Not since the execution of Thomas Turberville, the Englishman who had spied for France ten years before, had Londoners had the opportunity to enjoy the death of a traitor.
@ Tate Modern, London
Hrair Sarkissian’s Execution Squares 2008 comprises a series of photographs depicting the sites of public executions in Syria, the artist’s country of birth. The images were taken in three different cities – Damascus, Aleppo and Lattakia – in places where public executions have taken place, for civil rather than political crimes. Sarkissian took these photographs early in the morning when the streets were quiet, around the time when executions are carried out. The subject of an execution will usually be brought to the square at 4.30 a.m., but their body is routinely left there in full view of passers-by until around 9.00 a.m. Sarkissian’s first personal experience of an execution was as a child when he passed one of these squares on his journey to school and saw three bodies hanging in the street.
AN IN DEPTH LOOK AT CORVUS CORONE
LEGEND AND MYTHOLOGY
By Paul Williams
Crows appear in the Bible where Noah uses one to search for dry land and to check on the recession of the flood. Crows supposedly saved the prophet, Elijah, from famine and are an Inuit deity. Legend has it that England and its monarchy will end when there are no more crows in the Tower of London. And some believe that the crows went to the Tower attracted by the regular corpses following executions with written accounts of their presence at the executions of Anne Boleyn and Jane Gray.
In Welsh mythology, unfortunately Crows are seen as symbolic of evilness and black magic thanks to many references to witches transforming into crows or ravens and escaping. Indian legend tells of Kakabhusandi, a crow who sits on the branches of a wish-fulfilling tree called Kalpataru and a crow in Ramayana where Lord Rama blessed the crow with the power to foresee future events and communicate with the souls.
In Native American first nation legend the crow is sometimes considered to be something of a trickster, though they are also viewed positively by some tribes as messengers between this world and the next where they carry messages from the living to those deceased, and even carry healing medicines between both worlds. There is a belief that crows can foresee the future. The Klamath tribe in Oregon believe that when we die, we fly up to heaven as a crow. The Crow can also signify wisdom to some tribes who believe crows had the power to talk and were therefore considered to be one of the wisest of birds. Tribes with Crow Clans include the Chippewa (whose Crow Clan and its totem are called Aandeg), the Hopi (whose Crow Clan is called Angwusngyam or Ungwish-wungwa), the Menominee, the Caddo, the Tlingit, and the Pueblo tribes of New Mexico.
The crow features in the Nanissáanah (Ghost dance), popularized by Jerome Crow Dog, a Brulé Lakota sub-chief and warrior born at Horse Stealing Creek in Montana Territory in 1833, the crow symbolizing wisdom and the past, when the crow had became a guide and acted as a pathfinder during hunting. The Ghost dance movement was originally created in 1870 by Wodziwob, or Gray Hair, a prophet and medicine man of the Paiute tribe in an area that became known as Nevada. Ghost dancers wore crow and eagle feathers in their clothes and hair, and the fact that the Crow could talk placed it as one of the sages of the animal kingdom. The five day dances seeking trance, prophecy and exhortations would eventually play a major part in the pathway towards the white man's broken treaties, the infamous battle at Wounded knee and the surrender of Matȟó Wanáȟtaka (Kicking Bear), after officials began to fear the ghost dancers and rituals which seemed to occur prior to battle.
Historically the Vikings are the group who made so many references to the crow, and Ragnarr Loðbrók and his sons used this species in his banner as well as appearances in many flags and coats of arms. Also, it had some kind of association with Odin, one of their main deities. Norse legend tells us that Odin is accompanied by two crows. Hugin, who symbolizes thought, and Munin, who represents a memory. These two crows were sent out each dawn to fly the entire world, returning at breakfast where they informed the Lord of the Nordic gods of everything that went on in their kingdoms. Odin was also referred to as Rafnagud (raven-god). The raven appears in almost every skaldic poem describing warfare.Coins dating back to 940's minted by Olaf Cuaran depict the Viking war standard, the Raven and Viking war banners (Gonfalon) depicted the bird also.
In Scandinavian legends, crows are a representative of the Goddess of Death, known as Valkyrie (from old Norse 'Valkyrja'), one of the group of maidens who served the Norse deity Odin, visiting battlefields and sending him the souls of the slain worthy of a place in Valhalla. Odin ( also called Wodan, Woden, or Wotan), preferred that heroes be killed in battle and that the most valiant of souls be taken to Valhöll, the hall of slain warriors. It is the crow that provides the Valkyries with important information on who should go. In Hindu ceremonies that are associated to ancestors, the crow has an important place in Vedic rituals. They are seen as messengers of death in Indian culture too.
In Germanic legend, Crows are seen as psychonomes, meaning the act of guiding spirits to their final destination, and that the feathers of a crow could cure a victim who had been cursed. And yet, a lone black crow could symbolize impending death, whilst a group symbolizes a lucky omen! Vikings also saw good omens in the crow and would leave offerings of meat as a token.
The crow also has sacred and prophetic meaning within the Celtic civilization, where it stood for flesh ripped off due to combat and Morrighan, the warrior goddess, often appears in Celtic mythology as a raven or crow, or else is found to be in the company of the birds. Crow is sacred to Lugdnum, the Celtic god of creation who gave his name to the city of Lug
In Greek mythology according to Appolodorus, Apollo is supposedly responsible for the black feathers of the crow, turning them forever black from their pristine white original plumage as a punishment after they brought news that Κορωνις (Coronis) a princess of the Thessalian kingdom of Phlegyantis, Apollo's pregnant lover had left him to marry a mortal, Ischys. In one legend, Apollo burned the crows feathers and then burned Coronis to death, in another Coronis herself was turned into a black crow, and another that she was slain by the arrows of Αρτεμις (Artemis - twin to Apollo). Koronis was later set amongst the stars as the constellation Corvus ("the Crow"). Her name means "Curved One" from the Greek word korônis or "Crow" from the word korônê.A similar Muslim legend allegedly tells of Muhammad, founder of Islam and the last prophet sent by God to Earth, who's secret location was given away by a white crow to his seekers, as he hid in caves. The crow shouted 'Ghar Ghar' (Cave, cave) and thus as punishment, Muhammad turned the crow black and cursed it for eternity to utter only one phrase, 'Ghar, ghar). Native Indian legend where the once rainbow coloured crows became forever black after shedding their colourful plumage over the other animals of the world.
In China the Crow is represented in art as a three legged bird on a solar disk, being a creature that helps the sun in its journey. In Japan there are myths of Crow Tengu who were priests who became vain, and turned into this spirit to serve as messengers until they learn the lesson of humility as well as a great Crow who takes part in Shinto creation stories.
In animal spirit guides there are general perceptions of what sightings of numbers of crows actually mean:
1 Crow Meaning: To carry a message from your near one who died recently.
2 Crows Meaning: Two crows sitting near your home signifies some good news is on your way.
3 Crows Meaning: An upcoming wedding in your family.
4 Crows Meaning: Symbolizes wealth and prosperity.
5 Crows Meaning: Diseases or pain.
6 Crows Meaning: A theft in your house!
7 Crows Meaning: Denotes travel or moving from your house.
8 Crows Meaning: Sorrowful events
Crows are generally seen as the symbolism when alive for doom bringing, misfortune and bad omens, and yet a dead crow symbolises potentially bringing good news and positive change to those who see it. This wonderful bird certainly gets a mixed bag of contradictory mythology and legend over the centuries and in modern days is often seen as a bit of a nuisance, attacking and killing the babies of other birds such as Starlings, Pigeons and House Sparrows as well as plucking the eyes out of lambs in the field, being loud and noisy and violently attacking poor victims in a 'crow court'....
There is even a classic horror film called 'THE CROW' released in 1994 by Miramax Films, directed by Alex Proyas and starring Brandon Lee in his final film appearance as Eric Draven, who is revived by a Crow tapping on his gravestone a year after he and his fiancée are murdered in Detroit by a street gang. The crow becomes his guide as he sets out to avenge the murders. The only son of martial arts expert Bruce Lee, Brandon lee suffered fatal injuries on the set of the film when the crew failed to remove the primer from a cartridge that hit Lee in the abdomen with the same force as a normal bullet. Lee died that day, March 31st 1993 aged 28.
The symbolism of the Crow resurrecting the dead star and accompanying him on his quest for revenge was powerful, and in some part based on the history of the carrion crow itself and the original film grossed more than $94 Million dollars with three subsequent sequels following.
TAKING A CLOSER LOOK
So let's move away from legend, mythology and stories passed down from our parents and grandparents and look at these amazing birds in isolation.
Carrion crow are passerines in the family Corvidae a group of Oscine passerine birds including Crows, Ravens, Rooks, Jackdaws, Jays, Magpies, Treepies, Choughs and Nutcrackers. Technically they are classed as Corvids, and the largest of passerine birds. Carrion crows are medium to large in size with rictal bristles and a single moult per year (most passerines moult twice). Carrion crow was one of the many species originally described by Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (Carl Von Linne after his ennoblement) in his 1758 and 1759 editions of 'SYSTEMA NATURAE', and it still bears its original name of Corvus corone, derived from the Latin of Corvus, meaning Raven and the Greek κορώνη (korōnē), meaning crow.
Carrion crow are of the Animalia kingdom Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Passeriformes Family: Corvidae Genus: Corvus and Species: Corvus corone
Corvus corone can reach 45-47cm in length with a 93-104cm wingspan and weigh between 370-650g. They are protected under The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 in the United Kingdom with a Green UK conservation status which means they are of least concern with more than 1,000,000 territories. Breeding occurs in April with fledging of the chicks taking around twenty nine days following an incubation period of around twenty days with 3 to 4 eggs being the average norm. They are abundant in the UK apart from Northwest Scotland and Ireland where the Hooded crow (Corvus cornix) was considered the same species until 2002. They have a lifespan of around four years, whilst Crow species can live to the age of Twenty years old, and the oldest known American crow in the wild was almost Thirty years old. The oldest documented captive crow died at age Fifty nine. They are smaller and have a shorter lifespan than the Raven, which again is used as a symbol in history to live life to the full and not waste a moment!
They are often mistaken for the Rook (Corvus frugilegus), a similar bird, though in the UK, the Rook is actually technically smaller than the Carrion crow averaging 44-46cm in length, 81-99cm wingspan and weighing up to 340g. Rooks have white beaks compared to the black beaks of Carrion crow, a more steeply raked ratio from head to beak, and longer straighter beaks as well as a different plumage pattern. There are documented cases in the UK of singular and grouped Rooks attacking and killing Carrion crows in their territory. Rooks nest in colonies unlike Carrion crows. Carrion crows have only a few natural enemies including powerful raptors such as the northern goshawk, the peregrine falcon, the Eurasian eagle-owl and the golden eagle which will all readily hunt them.
Regarded as one of the most intelligent birds, indeed creatures on the planet, studies suggest that Corvids cognitive abilities can rival that of primates such as chimpanzees and gorillas and even provide clues to understanding human intelligence. Crows have relatively large brains for their body size, compared to other animals. Their encephalization quotient (EQ) a ratio of brain to body size, adjusted for size because there isn’t a linear relationship is 4.1. That is remarkably close to chimps at 4.2 whilst humans are 8.1. Corvids also have a very high neuronal density, the number of neurons per gram of brain, factoring in the number of cortical neurons, neuron packing density, interneuronal distance and axonal conduction velocity shows that Corvids score high on this measure as well, with humans scoring the highest.
A corvid's pallium is packed with more neurons than a great ape's. Corvids have demonstrated the ability to use a combination of mental tools such as imagination, and anticipation of future events. They can craft tools from twigs and branches to hook grubs from deep recesses, they can solve puzzles and intricate methods of gaining access to food set by humans., and have even bent pieces of wire into hooks to obtain food. They have been proven to have a higher cognitive ability level than seven year old humans. Communications wise, their repertoire of wraw-wraw's is not fully understood, but the intensity, rhythm, and duration of caws seems to form the basis of a possible language. They also remember the faces of humans who have hindered or hurt them and pass that information on to their offspring.
Aesop's fable of 'The Crow and the Pitcher, tells of a thirsty crow which drops stones into a water pitcher to raise the water level and enable it to take a drink. Scientists have conducted tests to see whether crows really are this intelligent. They placed floating treats in a deep tube and observed the crows indeed dropping dense objects carefully selected into the water until the treat floated within reach. They had the intelligence to pick up, weigh and discount objects that would float in the water, they also did not select ones that were too large for the container.
Pet crows develop a unique call for their owners, in effect actually naming them. They also know to sunbathe for a dose of vitamin D, regularly settling on wooden garden fences, opening their mouths and wings and raising their heads to the sun. In groups they warn of danger and communicate vocally. They store a cache of food for later if in abundance and are clever enough to move it if they feel it has been discovered. They leave markers for their cache. They have even learned to place walnuts and similar hard food items under car tyres at traffic lights as a means of cracking them!
Crows regularly gather around a dead fellow corvid, almost like a funeral, and it is thought they somehow learn from each death. They can even remember human faces for decades.Crows group together to attack larger predators and even steal their food, and they have different dialects in different areas, with the ability to mimic the dialect of the alpha males when they enter their territory!
They have a twenty year life span, the oldest on record reaching the age of Fifty nine. Crows can leave gifts for those who feed them such as buttons or bright shiny objects as a thank you, and they even kiss and make up after an argument, having mated for life.
In mythology they are associated with good and bad luck, being the bringers of omens and even witchcraft and are generally reviled for their attacks on baby birds and small mammals. They have an attack method of to stunning smaller birds before consuming them, tearing violently at smaller, less aggressive birds, which is simply down to the fact that they are so highly intelligent, and also the top of the food chain. Their diet includes over a thousand different items: Dead animals (as their name suggests), invertebrates, grain, as well as stealing eggs and chicks from other birds' nests, worms, insects, fruit, seeds, kitchen scraps.
They are highly adaptable when food sources grow scarce. I absolutely love them, they are magnificent, bold, beautiful and incredibly interesting to watch and though at times it is hard to witness attacks made by them, I cannot help but adore them for so many other and more important reasons.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE PAIR IN MY GARDEN
Crows have been in the area for a while, but rarely had strayed into my garden, leaving the Magpies to own the territory. Things changed towards the end of May when a beautiful female Carrion crow appeared and began to take some of the food that I put down for the other birds. Within a few days she began to appear regularly, on occasions stocking up on food, whilst other times placing pieces in the birdbath to soften them. She would stand on the birdbath and eat and drink and come back over the course of the day to eat the softened food.
Shortly afterwards she brought along her mate, a tall and handsome fella, much larger than her who was also very vocal if he felt she was getting a little too close to me. By now I had moved from a seated position from the patio as an observer, to laying on a mat just five feet from the birdbath with my Nikon so that I could photograph the pair as they landed, scavenged and fed. She was now confident enough to let me be very close, and she even tolerated and recognized the clicking of the camera. At first I used silent mode to reduce the noise but this only allowed two shooting frame rates of single frame or continuous low frame which meant I was missing shots. I reverted back to normal continuous high frames and she soon got used to the whirring of the mechanisms as the mirror slapped back and forth.
The big fella would bark orders at her from the safety of the fence or the rear of the garden, whilst she rarely made a sound. That was until one day when in the sweltering heat she kept opening her beak and sunning on the grass, panting slightly in the heat. I placed the circular water sprayer nearby and had it rotating so that the birdbath and grass was bathed in gentle water droplets and she soon came back, landed and seemed to really like the cooling effect on offer. She then climbed onto the birdbath and opened her wings slightly and made some gentle purring, cooing noises....
I swear she was expressing happiness, joy....
On another blisteringly hot day when the sprayer was on, she came down, walked towards it and opened her wings up running into the water spray. Not once, but many times.
A further revelation into the unseen sides to these beautiful birds came with the male and female on the rear garden fence. They sat together, locked beaks like a kiss and then the male took his time gently preening her head feathers and the back of her neck as she made tiny happy sounds. They stayed together like that for several minutes, showing a gentle, softer side to their nature and demonstrating the deep bond between them. Into July and the pair started to bring their three youngsters to my garden, the nippers learning to use the birdbath for bathing and dipping food, the parents attentive as ever. Two of the youngsters headed off once large enough and strong enough.
I was privileged to be in close attendance as the last juvenile was brought down by the pair, taught to take food and then on a night in July, to soar and fly with it's mother in the evening sky as the light faded. She would swoop and twirl, and at regular intervals just touch the juvenile in flight with her wing tip feathers, as if to reassure it that she was close in attendance. What an amazing experience to view. A few days later, the juvenile, though now gaining independence and more than capable of tackling food scraps in the garden, was still on occasions demand feeding from it's mother who was now teaching him to take chicken breast, hotdogs or digestive biscuits and bury them in the garden beds for later delectation. The juvenile also liked to gather up peanuts and bury them in the grass. On one occasion I witnessed a pair of rumbanctious Pica Pica (Magpies), chasing the young crow on rooftops, leaping at him no matter how hard he tried to get away. He defended himself well and survived the attacks, much to my relief.
Into August and the last youngster remained with the adults, though now was very independent even though he still spent time with his parents on rooftops, and shared food gathering duties with his mum. Hotdog sausages were their favourite choice, followed by fish fingers and digestive biscuits which the adult male would gather up three at a time. In October, the three Crows were still kings of the area, but my time observing them was pretty much over as I will only put food out now for the birds in the winter months. The two adults are still here in December and now taking the food that I put out to help all birds survive in the winter months. They also have a pair of Magpies to compete with now.
Late February 2022 and Cheryl and Russell and their youngster are still with me, still dominant in the area and still taking raw chicken, hotdogs, biscuits and fatballs that I put out for them. Today I saw them mating for the first time this year in the tree and the cycle continues.
Corvus Corone.... magnificently misunderstood by some!
Paul Williams June 4th 2021 (Updated in April 2022)
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Photograph taken at an altitude of Fifty three metres at 09:23am on a beautiful summer morning on Thusrday 3rd June 2021, off Chessington Avenue in Bexleyheath, Kent.
Here we see a large adult Female Carrion crow (Corvus corone), a passerine bird of the family Corvidae and the genus Raven (Higher classification: Corvus), which is native to western Europe and eastern Asia. It can grow to twenty inches in length with a wingspan of up to thirty nine inches.
Nikon D850 Focal length: 180mm Shutter speed: 1/640s Aperture: f/7.1 iso250 Hand held with Tamron VC Vibration control set to ON (Position 1) 14 Bit uncompressed RAW NEF file size L (8256 x 5504 pixels) FX (36 x 24) Focus mode: AF-C AF-Area mode: 3D-tracking AF-C Priority Selection: Release. Nikon Back button focusing enabled 3D Tracking watch area: Normal 55 Tracking points Exposure mode: Manual exposure mode Metering mode: Matrix metering White balance on: Auto1 (4560k) Colour space: RGB Picture control: Neutral (Sharpening +2)
Tamron SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD G2. Nikon GP-1 GPS module. Lee SW150 MKII filter holder. Lee SW150 95mm screw in adapter ring. Lee SW150 circular polariser glass filter.Lee SW150 Filters field pouch. Hoodman HEYENRG round eyepiece oversized eyecup.Mcoplus professional MB-D850 multi function battery grip 6960.Two Nikon EN-EL15a batteries (Priority to battery in Battery grip). Black Rapid Curve Breathe strap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC 80MB/s card. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag.
LATITUDE: N 51d 28m 28.17s
LONGITUDE: E 0d 8m 10.61s
ALTITUDE: 53.00m
RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF FILE: 90.9MB
PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 36.20MB
PROCESSING POWER:
Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.10 (9/05/2019) LD Distortion Data 2.018 (18/02/20) LF 1.00
HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB Data storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit Version 1.4.1 (18/02/2020). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit Version 1.6.2 (18/02/2020). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 2.4.5 (18/02/2020). Nikon Transfer 2 Version 2.13.5. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rizal_Monument
The Rizal Monument (original title: Motto Stella, Latin, "guiding star") is a memorial in Rizal Park in Manila, Philippines built to commemorate the executed Filipino nationalist, José Rizal. The monument consists of a standing bronze sculpture of Rizal, with an obelisk, set on a stone base within which his remains are interred. A plaque on the pedestal's front reads: "To the memory of José Rizal, patriot and martyr, executed on Bagumbayan Field December Thirtieth 1896. This monument is dedicated by the people of the Philippine Islands".
The perimeter of the monument is guarded continuously by the Philippine Marine Corps’ Marine Security and Escort Group, the changing of the guard having become a daily ritual. About 100 m (330 ft) north-northwest of the monument is the exact location where Rizal was executed, marked by life-size dioramas depicting his final moments.
An exact replica of the Rizal Monument can be found in Madrid, Spain at the junction of Avenida de Las Islas Filipinas and Calle Santander.
Following the modest success of the post-WWII Ralston Tigre MkII, the Ralston company looked to a more ambitious and glamorous execution with the Tigre MkIII, released in 1961.
The basis for the new car, again came from the General Motors' premium division - Cadillac - for the architectural hardware.
The Frame & Underbody was developed from the 1959/60 GM 'C' Bodies - a short-lived production run for GM, hence the availability to the Ralston Company. Wheelbase was set at 130 in (3,302 mm) for the standard sedan, and all the specialty 2-door cars. The long-wheelbase Limousine, Town Car and Specialty models sharing the GM 'D' Body 150 in (3,805 mm) with the Cadillac Series 75 / Fleetwood.
Powertrain was also Cadillac derived, incluing the 390 CID (6.4 Litre) V8 engine. Power was rated the same 345 bhp (257 kW). Cadillac was to retire this engine, with the development of a new engine of the same capacity for 1961. For the MkIII-C of 1967 the V8 engine was enlarged to 429 CID (7.0 litre) with the new OHV Cadillac engine, but power remained the same as the 1961-67 models, while torque rose to 480 lb.ft (650 Nm).
One notable characteristic of all Ralston Tigre MkIII models are the reverse-opening doors. On all two-door cars, the doors operated on special hinges to move backwards along the body, offering easier ingress and egress for all passengers. For the four-door models, the front doors were conventionally hinged, per the originating GM 'C' and 'D' body vehicles, whilst the rear doors adopted the special hinged mechanism to allow rear passengers easier access. The adoption of GM's body-on-frame chassis permitted the omission of a conventional B-pillar on the four-door cars. A rarity at the time, but shared with the contemporary Lincoln saloons.
The real party trick appeared in 1964, with the introduction of the MkIII B. This model, though visually little changed from the MkIII of 1961, incorporated the first (and only) reintroduction of the V12 engine to the US-based motor industry.
Once more, the engine was based on that of a Cadillac.
www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2010/04/the-ohc-v12-that-cadill...
The prototype engines were produced in 7.4 and 8.2 litre forms, originally to support the fitment of the V12 to the upcoming Cadillac Eldorado - Cadillac's first front-wheel-drive vehicle. Ultimately the V12 installation in the Eldorado was cancelled, as the engineering team considered the engine to be transversely installed, until late in the development, where the V12 length would have been a significant disadvantage in terms of installing a matching transmission. Cadillac instead, continued with V8 development at the same swept capacities, even when the Eldorado was ultimately launched with the longitudinal engine installation with the gearbox alongside. As the Eldorado was to be the most premium of premium Cadillacs, the large capacity V8s filtered across to the RWD BOF models, but the V12 was not fitted to any of the division's cars.
This opened the possibility of offering the V12 to another luxury vehicle manufacturer who did not have the funding to develop such an engine on their own.
Ralston, wishing to also continue the production of the V8 models launched in 1961, renamed the V8 as the E I G H T, and offered the V12 engined as a premium model above this. In truth, the engine was the only key difference, as there were very few restriction on the use of either engine in combination with the low-volume bodystyles on offer.
Ralston remained (relatively) conservative on the engine specification, choosing not to lift the power from the original Cadillac specification, nonetheless choosing the larger 8.2 litre capacity engine at a rated 394 hp (296 kW) and 506 lb.ft (686 Nm).
Externally there was noting to differentiate between the fitment of the V8 and V12 engines to the cars, other than the subtle text spelling out or on the side engine vent ahead of the doors. The 1964 introduction coincided with a minor external facelift, key change being the fitment of a third 'X' feature in the front grille, replacing the '5th' headlamp feature fitted on 1961-early 1964 vehicles. Additionally, the modest tailfins were trimmed smaller again, and a more conservative rear licence plate treatment used in place of the 3rd rocket pod in the rear facia.
In 1967, the Tigre MkIII-C underwent further revisions. There were new front fenders, eliminating the large, round double stacked headlamps, replacing them with small corner bumperettes and small double-stacked corner lamps. the headlamps were now hidden behind louvres in the new grille. There was now a single 'X' form at the front of the grille, centrally mounted. At the rear, the existing rocket pod tail lamps were retained. The 1967 MkIII-C reverted to the MkIII 1961-64 trunklid and bumper, but with the central '+' rocket feature supplanted by the licence plate. For all SWB body styles. there were new tapered fender tops (barely fins), recalling the Tigre MkII C & D. Long wheelbase 4-door cars retained the MkIII-B rear fenders as they suited the overall vehicle lines better.
Minor changes to the side of the vehicle included deeper opening doors, and a more open front wheelarch taper. A chrome trim feature led from the front fender vent to the rear rocket pod.
The model shown here is the commonly ordered Hardtop Coupe - a very sharp looking car, despite the origins dating back eight years to 1959 for the basic architecture. The model is one of the 7.0 litre V8s, despite there being little differentiation externally to vehicles fitted with the V12.
A very similar car was used as the prototype vehicle fitted with early versions of the extremely rare V16. These cars were development mules for the proposed Ralston Centaur - to be termed , though ultimately no completed customer cars were ordered, the 21 prototype engines fitted to various Tigre MkIII vehicles were either completed as un-homologated show cars for use by the Ralston family on their various estates, later restored from their mule conditions to rare collector cars, or unfortunately, destroyed. It has been long rumoured that the 13 crushed cars all had their engines removed, so potentially there is a small pool of functioning 10 litre V16s waiting for re-fitment to Ralston chassis.
This Lego miniland-scale Ralston Tigre MkIII C Hardtop Coupe (1967) has been created for Flickr LUGNuts' 95th Build Challenge, - "Designing the Ralston Legacy", - for the design of vehicles under the fictional 'Ralston' company. The models must include a 'X' design feature on the car or bike. A number of Ralston challenge vehicle concepts are possible in this challenge.
[Cadillac V12 engine information taken from 'thetruthaboutcars.com']
www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2010/04/the-ohc-v12-that-cadill...
Five women fall victim to a firing squad, they were among 100 Slovenians shot in the village of Celje in 1942.
One method the Nazis used to discourage rebellion was the shooting of hostages, especially women and children, in retaliation for acts of resistance. Five women, about to fall victims to a firing squad, were among 100 Slovenians shot in the village of Celje in 1942. The Nazis believed that the shooting of women and children would be especially effective in discouraging resistance activity. Yet, even such atrocities did not completely halt the actions of the Yugoslavian partisans.
Photo: Lydia Chagoll / United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archive
A complete equipment for the execution with an axe (1:5 replicas). Used in Germany at the end of the 19-th and early 20-th century. The executions took place in the gray morning in each prison yard. The bench, as well as the block was attached to the bottom of the scaffold, in order not to endanger the safe running of the execution. Around the block was sprinkled a lot sawdust to soak up the blood. The convict was printed by the assistants of the executioner to the bank. Here, the arms of the condemned were pulled down by using the rope and shackles on the existing block rings around the block . The head was printed in the notch on the block and is fixed. The whole ceremony was "accompanied" by the ringing of the sinners' bell until the ax fell.
heya! these few weeks have been really wacky, but i finally finished my Spooktober MOC: The Execution.
After the spooktober MOC, i have a few figbarfs in the making that are gonna be slightly different from my usual posts: i'll be making a WWII figbarf and some Spider-Man Figbarfs!
That's it.
With the execution of the 2nd Marquis of Huntly in 1649, Huntly Castle's glory days were over. While King Charles II visited briefly the following year, on his way to the Battle of Worcester, defeat and subsequent exile, the Civil War brought an end to the Gordon of Huntly family's long occupation of the castle. They moved permanently to Bog of Gight, or Gordon Castle as it became known.
While its noble owners may have moved on, the castle continued to have a roof over it for the next century and a half, and therefore continued to attract occasional national interest. In April 1689, just after the outbreak of the first Jacobite Rising, the castle was briefly the headquarters of Viscount Dundee and his Jacobite army, while in 1746, during a last Jacobite Rising, it was occupied by British Government troops.
*once the order is given, nothing and no one can stop it; all is done in perfect harmony;
shooters are trained to go for the heart, but frequently the bullets hit other parts of the body
I took this picture in 1992. My grandmother cut my cousin's hair, who was pulling his head into his shoulders and closing his eyes all the time. Somehow he was very afraid of this procedure.
Экзекуция
Эту фотографию я сделал в 1992 году. Бабушка стригла моего двоюродного брата, который всю дорогу втягивал голову в плечи и зажмуривал глаза. Почему-то он сильно боялся этой процедуры.
管樂小集 - 安平古堡的演出 / 古城牆前洋紅的節拍 - 笑容如花開四百年後
Great Music - The live show of the old Fort Zeelandia / Magenta beat former ancient city wall - Smile like flowers four hundred years after
Gran música - La demostración viva de la fortaleza vieja Zeelandia / Magenta venció antigua muralla antigua de la ciudad - Smile como flores 400 años después
管楽小集 - 安平古堡の公演 / 古い城壁の前でローズピンクの拍子 - 笑顔は4百年花が咲いた後のにようです
Große Musik - Die Live-Show des alten Forts Zeelandia / Magenta schlagen ehemaligen alten Stadtmauer - Smile wie Blumen 400 Jahre nach
Grande musique - L'exposition de phase du vieux fort Zeelandia / Magenta a battu l'ancien mur de la ville ancienne - Smile comme des fleurs Quatre cents ans après
Anping Tainan Taiwan / Anping Tainan Taiwán / 台灣台南安平
管樂小集 2013/12/26 安平古堡 Fort Zeelandia performances
{View large size on fluidr / 觀看大圖}
"無敵鳳眼妹好可愛喔" 用海賊王魯夫的聲音講這一句話
=========================================================
其實我是黑管妹(愛睏仙=無敵鳳眼妹)的粉絲
I am a fans of The sister with a clarinet
Soy los ventiladores de la hermana con un clarinet
私はクラリネットを持つ姉妹のファンである
Ich bin Ventilatoren der Schwester mit einem Clarinet
=========================================================
{My Blog / 管樂小集精彩演出-觸動你的心}
{My Blog / Great Music The splendid performance touches your heart}
{My Blog / 管楽小集すばらしい公演-はあなたの心を心を打ちます}
{Mi blog / La gran música el funcionamiento espléndido toca su corazón}
{Mein Blog / Große Musik die herrliche Leistung berührt Ihr Herz}
{Mon blog / La grande musique l'exécution splendide touche votre coeur}
書中風起雲動 劍下虎嘯龍吟
The book stroke have the clouds to move under the sword the tiger's roar and dragon to recite
誰知成敗早已天定
Who knows the success or failure already to decide for GOD
回首江山依舊 入眼夕陽正紅
Who looks back on the landscape as before pleasant setting sun is red now
但願人長久情長在
Hopes the persons long-time sentiment exist
熱蘭劍士無悔無憾
The Zeelandia's swordsman regretless not regrets
أولاً الحمدلله انها وصلت بالسلامه ^_^
ثانياً أتمنى تعجبكم الفكره
ثالثاً .. انت يا السوني اريكسون .. الله يرحمك .. انتهى دورك من اليوم وخلّك حق المكالمات بس ;p
رابعاً .. أتمنى تقبلوني معاكم يا كانونييييييين
أخيراً .. لكم كل الشكر يا أصدقاء على التشجيع والحافز
وأهم شي لأتخطى مرحلة الموبايلات :p
"On the morning of 27th May 1541, Margaret Pole was informed she would be dead within the hour. Henry VIII was determined to rid his realm of anyone that may pose a threat to his throne, which included a frail 67-year-old lady. Until the end, Margaret claimed her innocence before God, she stated no crime had been imputed to her and that she was wrongly judged. According to popular belief, a poem was found carved on the wall of her cell, as follows:
‘For traitors on the block should die;
I am no traitor, no, not I!
My faithfulness stands fast and so,
towards the block I shall not go!
Nor make one step, as you shall see;
Christ in Thy Mercy, save Thou me!’"
Blessed Margaret Pole was beheaded here, on East Smithfield Green, within the precincts of the Tower, on 27th May 1541, and buried in the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula.
"She died a traitor under the law, but to many others an unlawfully judged elderly woman who did not deserve her cruel end. Following the execution of his mother, Cardinal Reginald Pole said that he would ‘Never fear to call himself the son of a martyr’. And 345 years later, in 1886, Lady Salisbury became exactly that. On the 29th December 1886, she became the Blessed Margaret Pole under the Roman Catholic Church. She was beatified by Pope Leo XIII."
Today, 28 May, is her feast day.
The Postcard
A carte postale that was published by Laurent-Nel of Rennes. The image is a glossy real photograph. It was posted in Quiberon on Saturday the 10th. July 1937 to:
Miss M. Reeks,
74, Elphinstone Road,
Hastings,
England.
However, Miss Reeks' address has been crossed out and the card was forwarded from Hastings on the 13th. July 1937 to:
1, Chandos Road,
Cricklewood,
London NW2.
The pencilled message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"Saturday.
Dear Miss Reeks,
No doubt you will be
surprised to hear from
me.
I had a very nice time in
Paris, the Exhibition was
really lovely, but not near
finished yet.
Now we have moved
further on to Quiberon, a
pretty seaside, but nothing
to do.
The women dress in their
national costume and the
men go out fishing.
There is no music or lights
in the town. All you do is
watch the fishermen or go
on the beach.
Kind regards to Mrs. Taylor.
Hoping to see you soon,
V. M. Alan".
The International Exhibition in Paris
The exhibition to which the writer referred was the
Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques Dans la Vie Moderne.
The Exposition was held from the 25th. May to the 25th. November 1937 in Paris, France. It was held in the Palais de Chaillot, with 45 countries participating.
Quiberon
Quiberon is a commune in the French department of Morbihan, administrative region of Brittany, western France.
It is situated on the southern part of the Quiberon peninsula, the northern part being the commune of Saint-Pierre-Quiberon. It is primarily known as a seaside resort for French tourists during summer, and for its history of sardine production.
Quiberon is connected to the mainland by a tombolo which is a sandy isthmus.
History of Quiberon
During the Seven Years' War the bay was the site of the Battle of Quiberon Bay (1759) between the French and British fleets. Then later in July 1795 during the period of the French Revolution, Quiberon was used by French Royalist exiles, with assistance from the British, as the base for a failed invasion of Brittany (traditionally a royalist area). However the invasion was defeated by the Revolutionaries under General Lazare Hoche.
In the 19th. century, Nicolas Appert, a chemist, developed a technique that permitted the sterilisation of food. Thanks to this process, Quiberon became the leading harbour for sardine fishing and the production of canned sardines in France.
Many families from the Finistère département migrated to Quiberon for the fishing season (May to October). When the men put out to sea, the women worked in the sardine can factories.
The railway between Auray and Quiberon was inaugurated in 1882. It changed Quiberon's way of life. Fishing, canning and the exploitation of seaweed became replaced by tourism. At that time, some famous people stayed in Quiberon, including the writers Gustave Flaubert and Anatole France, and the actress Sarah Bernhardt.
The year 1924 was important for the peninsula because it was classified as health resort.
Penthièvre Fort
During the Second World War, Penthièvre Fort at the narrow isthmus was occupied by the Germans, and incorporated into the Atlantic Wall. It housed various blockhouses, but was mainly used by the infantry.
In July 1944, 59 resistance fighters were tortured and buried alive there. A Cross of Lorraine mounted on a stone pillar, with a plaque listing the names of the fighters, stands there in memory of them. Although the fort is still of military importance (as a training base), a tunnel where the bodies were discovered can be visited.
Note on the left of the photograph there is an advertisement for 'Bains Penthièvre'.
George Eliava
So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?
Well, the 10th. July 1937 was not a good day for George Eliava, because on that day he was executed at the age of 45 in Tbilisi, Georgian SSR, Soviet Union.
George, who was born on the 13th. January 1892 in Sachkhere, Kutais Governorate, Russian Empire, was a Georgian-Soviet microbiologist who worked with bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria).
George Eliava's Career
From 1909 to 1912 George studied medicine at Novorossiysk University and continued his studies in Geneva until 1914. He graduated at Moscow University in 1916. The same year, he became head of the bacteriological laboratory in Trabzon.
in 1917 he headed the bacteriological laboratory in Tbilisi. In 1918–1921, and again in 1926–1927, he worked at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, where he met Félix d'Hérelle, the co-discoverer of bacteriophages.
Eliava became excited about the potential of bacteriophages in medical applications, and brought the research (and, eventually, d'Hérelle), to Tbilisi.
In 1923, Eliava founded a bacteriological institute in Tbilisi to research and promote phage therapy. The institute was renamed George Eliava Institute in 1988.
From 1927, Eliava held the chair for hygiene at the medical faculty of Tbilisi, and from 1929 the chair for microbiology.
In 1934, the Tbilisi Black Death Centre was founded and headed by Eliava.
The Death of George Eliava
In 1937, Eliava was arrested and (together with his wife) executed as a "People's Enemy", either for being an intellectual or for competing for a woman with Lavrenti Beria, chief of the secret police to Joseph Stalin.
Mass Executions in Siberia
Also on that day, 24 people were executed in Siberia for sabotaging Soviet railways.
Chiang Kai-Shek
Also on the 10th. July 1937, Chiang Kai-Shek made a radio address to millions announcing the Kuomintang's policy of resistance against Japan.
zentrale Hinrichtungsstätte der DDR (von 1960 bis 1981)
[central place of execution of the GDR (from 1960 until 1981)]
www.mordort.de/morddetail/bei-eintritt-hinrichtung-260619...
Colouring History - WWII
German Wehrmacht General Anton Dostler is tied to a stake before his execution by a firing squad in a stockade in Aversa, Italy, on December 1, 1945. The General, Commander of the 75th Army Corps, was sentenced to death by an United States Military Commission in Rome for having ordered the shooting of 15 unarmed American prisoners of war, in La Spezia, Italy, on March 26, 1944.
Original B&W photo: cdn.theatlantic.com/static/infocus/ww2_20/s_w01_99-02957.jpg
Dusk, Jupiter, and the moon.
This shot makes me cringe. I want to like it, and I almost do, but I don't, because it's a reminder of a missed opportunity, wasted potential, and an off composition. I appreciate the concept I was striving for, but my execution feels flawed. The colors that evening were nice, but here they would be mere distractions from my disappointment. I let myself feel rushed, I guess, and took this sole shot in haste. Makes my insides contort thinking about it.
Joshua Tree National Park, California.
Accession Number: 1972:0033:0037
Maker: Unidentified
Title: Execution of the Conspirators - Springing of the Trap. [From Harpers Weekly, July 22, 1865]
Date: 1865
Medium: wood engraving
Dimensions: Image: 12.4 x 12.4 cm, Mount: 27 x 34.5 cm
George Eastman House Collection
About the Collection · Blog · Reproductions & Image Licensing
On 27 May 1541, Blessed Margaret Pole was executed in the Tower of London next to the church of St Peter ad Vincula.
After two years of being imprisoned as a traitor in the Tower, the 67 year old Plantagenet heiress was executed for opposing Henry VIII's Act of Supremacy. As a woman of noble birth, Margaret Pole was given a private execution. There are two accounts of her execution – One says that she was executed by an inexperienced axeman who missed her neck the first time, gashing her shoulder, and that it took a further ten blows to finish her off. The second account tells of how she managed to escape from the block and that she was hewn down by the executioner as she ran.
Margaret Pole was beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1886.
The view from the side of the executioner. On the backside of the block known as blood box is mounted. This element can be easily detached and reattached.
Executions down across globe, says Amnesty International
The number of people executed by their own governments fell by 25 per cent last year, with China carrying out the most executions, Amnesty International said Friday.
The human rights organization report — the Annual Death Penalty Statistics — outlines the number of executions and death sentences carried out in the world in 2006.
According to the report, at least 1,591 people were known to be executed by their own governments in 25 countries last year.
Of those executions, 90 per cent took place in six countries:
China - 1,010
Iran - 177
Pakistan - 82
Iraq - 65
Sudan - 65
U.S.A. - 53
Amnesty International believes the Chinese figures are drastically underestimated, suggesting the real total is close to 8,000 executions, based on information from a Chinese legal expert. China keeps its prisoner executions a state secret.
Five of the executions are known to be people under 18: four in Iran and one in Pakistan
"The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment," said Amnesty Secretary General Irene Khan. "It must be abolished and a universal moratorium will be an important step forward."
Thousands on death row
The same year, 55 countries handed down 3,861 new death sentences, adding to the more than 20,000 people waiting on death row, said the report.
"A death penalty free world is possible if key governments are willing to show political leadership," said Khan.
Across the globe, Amnesty reports 128 countries have abolished the death penalty either by law or in practice, while 69 countries retain or use the death penalty.
Methods of execution include beheading, electrocution, hanging, lethal injection, shooting, stoning and stabbing.
While Canada abolished capital punishment in 1976, it retained the death penalty for military crimes such as treason or mutiny. All references to the death penalty were wiped from the National Defence Act in 1998.
The final execution in Canada took place in Toronto in December 1962, when two men were hanged for murder www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/04/27/amnesty-executions.html...
These photos of the aftermath of Mussolini's execution at the end of WWII were in the final pages of my Uncle Louis' WWII photo album. I know he was in North Africa and Italy, not sure where he was at the end of the war. These are actual photographs he had, not just something he ripped out of a magazine. I read somewhere that large numbers of these photos were sold to American GI's.
台南西門路 - 司法宿舍藍晒圖 / 這裡曾經是 - 哈比人的廚房
Simon Road of the Tainan City - Judicial Dormitory Bule Print / Here once - Hobbit kitchen
Simon Vial de la Ciudad de Tainan - Judicial dormitorio Bule Imprimir / Aquí una vez - cocina Hobbit
台南西門路 - 司法の寮が青くて感光させます / ここはかつて - ハッピー人の厨房
Simon Straße der Stadt Tainan - Gerichtliche Schlaf Bule Print / Hier einmal - Hobbit Küche
Simon route de la ville de Tainan - judiciaire Dortoir Bule Imprimer / Voici une fois - cuisine Hobbit
Tainan Taiwan / Tainan Taiwán / 台灣台南
管樂小集 2014/12/20 Confucian temple Tainan performances
{ WHITE CHRISTMAS 白色聖誕 白色のクリスマス }
{View large size on fluidr/觀看大圖}
{My Blog / 管樂小集精彩演出-觸動你的心}
{My Blog / Great Music The splendid performance touches your heart}
{My Blog / 管楽小集すばらしい公演-はあなたの心を心を打ちます}
{Mi blog / La gran música el funcionamiento espléndido toca su corazón}
{Mein Blog / Große Musik die herrliche Leistung berührt Ihr Herz}
{Mon blog / La grande musique l'exécution splendide touche votre coeur}
家住安南鹽溪邊
The family lives in nearby the Annan salt river
隔壁就是聽雨軒
The next door listens to the rain porch
一旦落日照大員
The sunset Shineing to the Taiwan at once
左岸青龍飛九天
The left bank white dragon flying in the sky
There's no avoiding the bullet holes in one of the walls near the entrance to the Palace of the Shirvanshahs, Baku, Azerbaijan. Vintage 1918 but victim/perpetrator identities depend on who one speaks to.
HD PENTAX-D FA 28-105mm f3.5-5.6
This picture is in two different collections with completely different identifications.
Naval History & Heritage Command, Washington, DC, USA identified as “Execution Wall, Cavite, P.I.”
California State Library description “Spanish fortifications, Luneta (Manila)”
Gift to the library by Mrs. Frank Atkinson, Feb. 16, 1948
I tend to believe the Naval History & Heritage Command description is accurate but it is not verifiable that the California State Library description “Spanish fortifications, Luneta” is undeniably in error so it will remain.
Repository: California Historical Society
Digital object ID: Vault 306.001.jpg
Date: 1875 March 16
Call number: Vault 306
Preferred citation: [Invitation to attend the execution of Tiburcio Vasquez], Vault 306, courtesy, California Historical Society, Vault 306.001.
The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum is a museum chronicling the Cambodian genocide. Located in Phnom Penh, the site is a former secondary school which was used as Security Prison 21 (S-21; Khmer: មន្ទីរស-២១) by the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 until its fall in 1979. From 1976 to 1979, an estimated 20,000 people were imprisoned at Tuol Sleng and it was one of between 150 and 196 torture and execution centers established by the Khmer Rouge. On 26 July 2010, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia convicted the prison's chief, Kang Kek Iew, for crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions. He died on 2 September 2020 while serving a life sentence.
To accommodate the victims of purges that were important enough for the attention of the Khmer Rouge, a new detention center was planned in the building that was formerly known as Tuol Svay Prey High School, named after a royal ancestor of King Norodom Sihanouk, the five buildings of the complex were converted in March or April 1976 into a prison and an interrogation center. Before, other buildings in town were used already as prison S-21. The Khmer Rouge renamed the complex "Security Prison 21" (S-21) and construction began to adapt the prison for the inmates: the buildings were enclosed in electrified barbed wire, the classrooms converted into tiny prison and torture chambers, and all windows were covered with iron bars and barbed wire to prevent escapes and suicides.
From 1976 to 1979, an estimated 20,000 people were imprisoned at Tuol Sleng (the real number is unknown). At any one time, the prison held between 1,000 and 1,500 prisoners. They were repeatedly tortured and coerced into naming family members and close associates, who were in turn arrested, tortured and killed. In the early months of S-21's existence, most of the victims were from the previous Lon Nol regime and included soldiers, government officials, as well as academics, doctors, teachers, students, factory workers, monks, engineers, etc. Later, the party leadership's paranoia turned on its own ranks and purges throughout the country saw thousands of party activists and their families brought to Tuol Sleng and murdered. Those arrested included some of the highest ranking politicians such as Khoy Thoun, Vorn Vet and Hu Nim. Although the official reason for their arrest was "espionage", these men may have been viewed by Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot as potential leaders of a coup against him. Prisoners' families were sometimes brought en masse to be interrogated and later executed at the Choeung Ek extermination center.
In 1979, the prison was uncovered by the invading Vietnamese army. At some point between 1979 and 1980 the prison was reopened by the government of the People's Republic of Kampuchea as a historical museum memorializing the actions of the Khmer Rouge regime.
Upon arrival at the prison, prisoners were photographed and required to give detailed autobiographies, beginning with their childhood and ending with their arrest. After that, they were forced to strip to their underwear, and their possessions were confiscated. The prisoners were then taken to their cells. Those taken to the smaller cells were shackled to the walls or the concrete floor. Those who were held in the large mass cells were collectively shackled to long pieces of iron bar. The shackles were fixed to alternating bars; the prisoners slept with their heads in opposite directions. They slept on the floor without mats, mosquito nets, or blankets. They were forbidden to talk to each other.
The day began in the prison at 4:30 a.m. when prisoners were ordered to strip for inspection. The guards checked to see if the shackles were loose or if the prisoners had hidden objects they could use to commit suicide. Over the years, several prisoners managed to kill themselves, so the guards were very careful in checking the shackles and cells. The prisoners received four small spoonfuls of rice porridge and a watery soup of leaves twice a day. Drinking water without asking the guards for permission resulted in serious beatings. The inmates were hosed down every four days.
The prison had very strict regulations, and severe beatings were inflicted upon any prisoner who disobeyed. Almost every action had to be approved by one of the prison's guards. The prisoners were sometimes forced to eat human feces and drink human urine. The unhygienic living conditions in the prison caused skin diseases, lice, rashes, ringworm and other ailments. The prison's medical staff were untrained and offered treatment only to sustain prisoners' lives after they had been injured during interrogation. When prisoners were taken from one place to another for interrogation, they were blindfolded. Guards and prisoners were not allowed to converse. Moreover, within the prison, people who were in different groups were not allowed to have contact with one another.[5]
Most prisoners at S-21 were held there for two to three months. However, several high-ranking Khmer Rouge cadres were held longer. Within two or three days after they were brought to S-21, all prisoners were taken for interrogation. The torture system at Tuol Sleng was designed to make prisoners confess to whatever crimes they were charged with by their captors. Prisoners were routinely beaten and tortured with electric shocks, searing hot metal instruments and hanging, as well as through the use of various other devices. Some prisoners were cut with knives or suffocated with plastic bags. Other methods for generating confessions included pulling out fingernails while pouring alcohol on the wounds, holding prisoners' heads under water, and the use of the waterboarding technique. Women were sometimes raped by the interrogators, even though sexual abuse was against Democratic Kampuchea (DK) policy. The perpetrators who were found out were executed. Although many prisoners died from this kind of abuse, killing them outright was discouraged, since the Khmer Rouge needed their confessions. The "Medical Unit" at Tuol Sleng, however, did kill at least 100 prisoners by bleeding them to death. It is proven that medical experiments were performed on certain prisoners. There is clear evidence that patients in Cambodia were sliced open and had organs removed with no anesthetic. The camp's director, Kang Kek Iew, has acknowledged that "live prisoners were used for surgical study and training. Draining blood was also done."
In their confessions, the prisoners were asked to describe their personal background. If they were party members, they had to say when they joined the revolution and describe their work assignments in DK. Then the prisoners would relate their supposed treasonous activities in chronological order. The third section of the confession text described prisoners' thwarted conspiracies and supposed treasonous conversations. At the end, the confessions would list a string of traitors who were the prisoners' friends, colleagues, or acquaintances. Some lists contained over a hundred names. People whose names were in the confession list were often called in for interrogation.
Typical confessions ran into thousands of words in which the prisoner would interweave true events in their lives with imaginary accounts of their espionage activities for the CIA, the KGB, or Vietnam. Physical torture was combined with sleep deprivation and deliberate neglect of the prisoners. The torture implements are on display in the museum. It is believed that the vast majority of prisoners were innocent of the charges against them and that the torture produced false confessions.
For the first year of S-21's existence, corpses were buried near the prison. However, by the end of 1976, cadres ran out of burial spaces, the prisoner and family members were taken to the Boeung Choeung Ek ("Crow's Feet Pond") extermination centre, fifteen kilometers from Phnom Penh. There, they were killed by a group of teenagers led by a Comrade Teng, being battered to death with iron bars, pickaxes, machetes and many other makeshift weapons owing to the scarcity and cost of ammunition. After the prisoners were executed, the soldiers who had accompanied them from S-21 buried them in graves that held as few as 6 and as many as 100 bodies.
Almost all non-Cambodians had left the country by early May 1975, following an overland evacuation of the French Embassy in trucks. The few who remained were seen as a security risk. Though most of the foreign victims were either Vietnamese or Thai, a number of Western prisoners, many picked up at sea by Khmer Rouge patrol boats, also passed through S-21 between April 1976 and December 1978. No foreign prisoners survived captivity in S-21.
Even though the vast majority of the victims were Cambodian, some were foreigners, including 488 Vietnamese, 31 Thai, four French, two Americans, two Australians, one Laotian, one Arab, one Briton, one Canadian, one New Zealander, and one Indonesian. Khmers of Indian and Pakistani descent were also victims.
Two Franco-Vietnamese brothers named Rovin and Harad Bernard were detained in April 1976 after they were transferred from Siem Reap, where they had worked tending cattle. Another Frenchman named Andre Gaston Courtigne, a 30-year-old clerk and typist at the French embassy, was arrested the same month along with his Khmer wife in Siem Reap.
It is possible that a handful of French nationals who went missing after the 1975 evacuation of Phnom Penh also passed through S-21. Two Americans were captured under similar circumstances. James Clark and Lance McNamara in April 1978 were sailing when their boat drifted off course and sailed into Cambodian waters. They were arrested by Khmer patrol boats, taken ashore, where they were blindfolded, placed on trucks, and taken to the then-deserted Phnom Penh.
Twenty-six-year-old John D. Dewhirst, a British tourist, was one of the youngest foreigners to die in the prison. He was sailing with his New Zealand companion, Kerry Hamill, and their Canadian friend Stuart Glass when their boat drifted into Cambodian territory and was intercepted by Khmer patrol boats on August 13, 1978. Glass was killed during the arrest, while Dewhirst and Hamill were captured, blindfolded, and taken to shore. Both were executed after having been tortured for several months at Tuol Sleng. Witnesses reported that a foreigner was burned alive; initially, it was suggested that this might have been John Dewhirst, but a survivor would later identify Kerry Hamill as the victim of this particular act of brutality. Robert Hamill, his brother and a champion Atlantic rower, would years later make a documentary, Brother Number One, about his brother's incarceration.
One of the last foreign prisoners to die was twenty-nine-year-old American Michael S. Deeds, who was captured with his friend Christopher E. DeLance on November 24, 1978, while sailing from Singapore to Hawaii. His confession was signed a week before the Vietnamese army invaded Cambodia and ousted the Khmer Rouge. In 1989, Deeds' brother, Karl Deeds, traveled to Cambodia in attempts to find his brother's remains, but was unsuccessful. On September 3, 2012, DeLance's photograph was identified among the caches of inmate portraits.
As of 1999, there were a total of 79 foreign victims on record, but former Tuol Sleng Khmer Rouge photographer Nim Im claims that the records are not complete. On top of that, there is also an eyewitness account of a Filipino, a Cuban and a Swiss who passed through the prison, though no official records of either are shown.
Out of an estimated 20,000 people imprisoned at Tuol Sleng, there were only twelve known survivors: seven adults and five children. One child died shortly after the liberation.[5] As of mid-September 2011, only three of the adults and four children are thought to still be alive: Chum Mey, Bou Meng, and Chim Meth. All three said they were kept alive because they had skills their captors judged to be useful. Bou Meng, whose wife was killed in the prison, is an artist. Chum Mey was kept alive because of his skills in repairing machinery. Chim Meth was held in S-21 for 2 weeks and transferred to the nearby Prey Sar prison. She may have been spared because she was from Stoeung district in Kampong Thom where Comrade Duch was born. She intentionally distinguished herself by emphasising her provincial accent during her interrogations. Vann Nath, who was spared because of his ability to paint, died on September 5, 2011. Norng Chan Phal, one of the surviving children, published his story in 2018.
The Documentation Center of Cambodia has recently estimated that, in fact, at least 179 prisoners were freed from S-21 between 1975 and 1979 and approximately 23 prisoners (including 5 children, two of them siblings Norng Chanphal and Norng Chanly) survived when the prison was liberated in January 1979. One child died shortly thereafter. Of the 179 prisoners who were released, most disappeared and only a few are known to have survived after 1979. It was found that at least 60 persons (out of the DC Cam list) who are listed as having survived were first released but later rearrested and executed.
The prison had a staff of 1,720 people throughout the whole period. Of those, approximately 300 were office staff, internal workforce and interrogators. The other 1,400 were general workers, including people who grew food for the prison. Several of these workers were children taken from the prisoner families. The chief of the prison was Khang Khek Ieu (also known as Comrade Duch), a former mathematics teacher who worked closely with Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot. Other leading figures of S-21 were Kim Vat aka Ho (deputy chief of S-21), Peng (chief of guards), Mam Nai aka Chan (chief of the Interrogation Unit), and Tang Sin Hean aka Pon (interrogator). Pon was the person who interrogated important people such as Keo Meas, Nay Sarann, Ho Nim, Tiv Ol, and Phok Chhay.
The documentation unit was responsible for transcribing tape recorded confessions, typing the handwritten notes from prisoners' confessions, preparing summaries of confessions, and maintaining files. In the photography sub-unit, workers took mug shots of prisoners when they arrived, pictures of prisoners who had died while in detention, and pictures of important prisoners after they were executed. Thousands of photographs have survived, but thousands are still missing.
The defense unit was the largest unit in S-21. The guards in this unit were mostly teenagers. Many guards found the unit's strict rules hard to obey. Guards were not allowed to talk to prisoners, to learn their names, or to beat them. They were also forbidden to observe or eavesdrop on interrogations, and they were expected to obey 30 regulations, which barred them from such things as taking naps, sitting down or leaning against a wall while on duty. They had to walk, guard, and examine everything carefully. Guards who made serious mistakes were arrested, interrogated, jailed and put to death. Most of the people employed at S-21 were terrified of making mistakes and feared being tortured and killed.
The interrogation unit was split into three separate groups: Krom Noyobai or the political unit, Krom Kdao or the hot unit and Krom Angkiem, or the chewing unit. The hot unit (sometimes called the cruel unit) was allowed to use torture. In contrast, the cold unit (sometimes called the gentle unit) was prohibited from using torture to obtain confessions. If they could not make prisoners confess, they would transfer them to the hot unit. The chewing unit dealt with tough and important cases. Those who worked as interrogators were literate and usually in their 20s.
Some of the staff who worked in Tuol Sleng also ended up as prisoners. They confessed to being lazy in preparing documents, to having damaged machines and various equipment, and to having beaten prisoners to death without permission when assisting with interrogations.
When prisoners were first brought to Tuol Sleng, they were made aware of ten rules that they were to follow during their incarceration. What follows is what is posted today at the Tuol Sleng Museum; the imperfect grammar is a result of faulty translation from the original Khmer:
You must answer accordingly to my question. Don't turn them away.
Don't try to hide the facts by making pretexts this and that, you are strictly prohibited to contest me.
Don't be a fool for you are a chap who dare to thwart the revolution.
You must immediately answer my questions without wasting time to reflect.
Don't tell me either about your immoralities or the essence of the revolution.
While getting lashes or electrification you must not cry at all.
Do nothing, sit still and wait for my orders. If there is no order, keep quiet. When I ask you to do something, you must do it right away without protesting.
Don't make pretext about Kampuchea Krom in order to hide your secret or traitor.
If you don't follow all the above rules, you shall get many lashes of electric wire.
If you disobey any point of my regulations you shall get either ten lashes or five shocks of electric discharge.
During testimony at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal on April 27, 2009, Duch claimed the 10 security regulations were a fabrication of the Vietnamese officials that first set up the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.
In 1979, Hồ Văn Tây, a Vietnamese combat photographer, was the first journalist to document Tuol Sleng to the world. Hồ and his colleagues followed the stench of rotting corpses to the gates of Tuol Sleng. The photos of Hồ documenting what he saw when he entered the site are exhibited in Tuol Sleng today.
The Khmer Rouge required that the prison staff make a detailed dossier for each prisoner. Included in the documentation was a photograph. Since the original negatives and photographs were separated from the dossiers in the 1979–1980 period, most of the photographs remain anonymous to this day.
The buildings at Tuol Sleng are preserved, with some rooms still appearing just as they were when the Khmer Rouge were driven out in 1979. The regime kept extensive records, including thousands of photographs. Several rooms of the museum are now lined, floor to ceiling, with black and white photographs of some of the estimated 20,000 prisoners who passed through the prison.
The site has four main buildings, known as Building A, B, C, and D. Building A holds the large cells in which the bodies of the last victims were discovered. Building B holds galleries of photographs. Building C holds the rooms subdivided into small cells for prisoners. Building D holds other memorabilia including instruments of torture.
Other rooms contain only a rusting iron bedframe, beneath a black and white photograph showing the room as it was found by the Vietnamese. In each photograph, the mutilated body of a prisoner is chained to the bed, killed by his fleeing captors only hours before the prison was captured. Other rooms preserve leg-irons and instruments of torture. They are accompanied by paintings by former inmate Vann Nath showing people being tortured, which were added by the post-Khmer Rouge regime installed by the Vietnamese in 1979.
The museum is open to the public from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. On weekdays, visitors have the opportunity of viewing a 'survivor testimony' from 2:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Along with the Choeung Ek Memorial (the Killing Fields), the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum is included as a point of interest for those visiting Cambodia. Tuol Sleng also remains an important educational site as well as memorial for Cambodians. Since 2010, the ECCC brings Cambodians on a 'study tour' consisting of the Tuol Sleng, followed by the Choeung Ek, and finishing at the ECCC complex. The tour drew approximately 27,000 visitors in 2010.
S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine is a 2003 film by Rithy Panh, a Cambodian-born, French-trained filmmaker who lost his family when he was 11. The film features two Tuol Sleng survivors, Vann Nath and Chum Mey, confronting their former Khmer Rouge captors, including guards, interrogators, a doctor and a photographer. The focus of the film is the difference between the feelings of the survivors, who want to understand what happened at Tuol Sleng to warn future generations, and the former jailers, who cannot escape the horror of the genocide they helped create.
A number of images from Tuol Sleng are featured in the 1992 Ron Fricke film Baraka.
The Killing Fields are a number of sites in Cambodia where collectively more than 1,000,000 people were killed and buried by the Communist Party of Kampuchea during Khmer Rouge rule of the country from 1975 to 1979, immediately after the end of the Cambodian Civil War (1970–1975). The mass killings were part of the broad, state-sponsored Cambodian genocide.
Analysis of 20,000 mass grave sites by the DC-Cam Mapping Program and Yale University indicates at least 1,386,734 victims of execution. Estimates of the total deaths resulting from Khmer Rouge policies, including death from disease and starvation, range from 1.7 to 2.5 million out of a 1975 population of roughly 8 million. In 1979, Vietnam invaded Democratic Kampuchea and toppled the Khmer Rouge regime, ending the genocide.
The Cambodian journalist Dith Pran coined the term "killing fields" after his escape from the regime.
The Khmer Rouge regime arrested and eventually executed almost everyone suspected of connections with the former government or with foreign governments, as well as professionals and intellectuals. Ethnic Vietnamese, ethnic Thai, ethnic Chinese, ethnic Cham, Cambodian Christians, and Buddhist monks were the demographic targets of persecution. As a result, Pol Pot has been described as "a genocidal tyrant". Martin Shaw described the Cambodian genocide as "the purest genocide of the Cold War era".
Ben Kiernan estimates that about 1.7 million people were killed. Researcher Craig Etcheson of the Documentation Center of Cambodia suggests that the death toll was between 2 and 2.5 million, with a "most likely" figure of 2.2 million. After five years of researching some 20,000 grave sites, he concludes that "these mass graves contain the remains of 1,386,734 victims of execution". A United Nations investigation reported 2–3 million dead, while UNICEF estimated 3 million had been killed. Demographic analysis by Patrick Heuveline suggests that between 1.17 and 3.42 million Cambodians were killed, while Marek Sliwinski suggests that 1.8 million is a conservative figure. Even the Khmer Rouge acknowledged that 2 million had been killed—though they attributed those deaths to a subsequent Vietnamese invasion. By late 1979, UN and Red Cross officials were warning that another 2.25 million Cambodians faced death by starvation due to "the near destruction of Cambodian society under the regime of ousted Prime Minister Pol Pot", who were saved by international aid after the Vietnamese invasion.
Process
The judicial process of the Khmer Rouge regime, for minor or political crimes, began with a warning from the Angkar, the government of Cambodia under the regime. People receiving more than two warnings were sent for "re-education," which meant near-certain death. People were often encouraged to confess to Angkar their "pre-revolutionary lifestyles and crimes" (which usually included some kind of free-market activity; having had contact with a foreign source, such as a U.S. missionary, international relief or government agency; or contact with any foreigner or with the outside world at all), being told that Angkar would forgive them and "wipe the slate clean." They were then taken away to a place such as Tuol Sleng or Choeung Ek for torture and/or execution.[citation needed]
The executed were buried in mass graves. In order to save ammunition, the executions were often carried out using poison or improvised weapons such as sharpened bamboo sticks, hammers, machetes and axes. Inside the Buddhist Memorial Stupa at Choeung Ek, there is evidence of bayonets, knives, wooden clubs, hoes for farming and curved scythes being used to kill victims, with images of skulls, damaged by these implements, as evidence. In some cases the children and infants of adult victims were killed by having their heads bashed against the trunks of Chankiri trees, and then were thrown into the pits alongside their parents. The rationale was "to stop them growing up and taking revenge for their parents' deaths."[citation needed]
Prosecution for crimes against humanity
In 1997 the Cambodian government asked for the UN's assistance in setting up a genocide tribunal. It took nine years to agree to the shape and structure of the court—a hybrid of Cambodian and international laws—before the judges were sworn in, in 2006. The investigating judges were presented with the names of five possible suspects by the prosecution on 18 July 2007. On 19 September 2007 Nuon Chea, second in command of the Khmer Rouge and its most senior surviving member, was charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. He faced Cambodian and foreign judges at the special genocide tribunal and was convicted on 7 August 2014 and received a life sentence. On 26 July 2010 Kang Kek Iew (aka Comrade Duch), director of the S-21 prison camp, was convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to 35 years' imprisonment. His sentence was reduced to 19 years, as he had already spent 11 years in prison. On 2 February 2012, his sentence was extended to life imprisonment by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. He died on 2 September 2020.
Legacy
The best known monument of the Killing Fields is at the village of Choeung Ek. Today, it is the site of a Buddhist memorial to the victims, and Tuol Sleng has a museum commemorating the genocide. The memorial park at Choeung Ek has been built around the mass graves of many thousands of victims, most of whom were executed after interrogation at the S-21 Prison in Phnom Penh. The majority of those buried at Choeung Ek were Khmer Rouge killed during the purges within the regime. Many dozens of mass graves are visible above ground, many which have not been excavated yet. Commonly, bones and clothing surface after heavy rainfalls due to the large number of bodies still buried in shallow mass graves. It is not uncommon to run across the bones or teeth of the victims scattered on the surface as one tours the memorial park. If these are found, visitors are asked to notify a memorial park officer or guide.
A survivor of the genocide, Dara Duong, founded The Killing Fields Museum in Seattle, US.
The Khmer Rouge is the name that was popularly given to members of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) and by extension to the regime through which the CPK ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. The name was coined in the 1960s by then Chief of State Norodom Sihanouk to describe his country's heterogeneous, communist-led dissidents, with whom he allied after his 1970 overthrow.
The Khmer Rouge army was slowly built up in the jungles of eastern Cambodia during the late 1960s, supported by the North Vietnamese army, the Viet Cong, the Pathet Lao, and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Although it originally fought against Sihanouk, the Khmer Rouge changed its position and supported Sihanouk following the CCP's advice after he was overthrown in a 1970 coup by Lon Nol who established the pro-American Khmer Republic. Despite a massive American bombing campaign (Operation Freedom Deal) against them, the Khmer Rouge won the Cambodian Civil War when they captured the Cambodian capital and overthrew the Khmer Republic in 1975. Following their victory, the Khmer Rouge, who were led by Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Son Sen, and Khieu Samphan, immediately set about forcibly evacuating the country's major cities. In 1976, they renamed the country Democratic Kampuchea.
The Khmer Rouge regime was highly autocratic, totalitarian, and repressive. Many deaths resulted from the regime's social engineering policies and the "Moha Lout Plaoh", an imitation of China's Great Leap Forward which had caused the Great Chinese Famine. The Khmer Rouge's attempts at agricultural reform through collectivization similarly led to widespread famine, while its insistence on absolute self-sufficiency, including the supply of medicine, led to the death of many thousands from treatable diseases such as malaria.
The Khmer Rouge regime murdered hundreds of thousands of their perceived political opponents, and its racist emphasis on national purity resulted in the genocide of Cambodian minorities. Summary executions and torture were carried out by its cadres against perceived subversive elements, or during genocidal purges of its own ranks between 1975 and 1978. Ultimately, the Cambodian genocide which took place under the Khmer Rouge regime led to the deaths of 1.5 to 2 million people, around 25% of Cambodia's population.
In the 1970s, the Khmer Rouge were largely supported and funded by the Chinese Communist Party, receiving approval from Mao Zedong; it is estimated that at least 90% of the foreign aid which was provided to the Khmer Rouge came from China. The regime was removed from power in 1979 when Vietnam invaded Cambodia and quickly destroyed most of its forces. The Khmer Rouge then fled to Thailand, whose government saw them as a buffer force against the Communist Vietnamese. The Khmer Rouge continued to fight against the Vietnamese and the government of the new People's Republic of Kampuchea until the end of the war in 1989. The Cambodian governments-in-exile (including the Khmer Rouge) held onto Cambodia's United Nations seat (with considerable international support) until 1993, when the monarchy was restored and the name of the Cambodian state was changed to the Kingdom of Cambodia. A year later, thousands of Khmer Rouge guerrillas surrendered themselves in a government amnesty.
In 1996, a new political party called the Democratic National Union Movement was formed by Ieng Sary, who was granted amnesty for his role as the deputy leader of the Khmer Rouge. The organisation was largely dissolved by the mid-1990s and finally surrendered completely in 1999. In 2014, two Khmer Rouge leaders, Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan, were jailed for life by a United Nations-backed court which found them guilty of crimes against humanity for their roles in the Khmer Rouge's genocidal campaign.
The Cambodian genocide was the systematic persecution and killing of Cambodian citizens by the Khmer Rouge under the leadership of Communist Party of Kampuchea general secretary Pol Pot. It resulted in the deaths of 1.5 to 2 million people from 1975 to 1979, nearly a quarter of Cambodia's population in 1975 (c. 7.8 million).
Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge had long been supported by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its chairman, Mao Zedong; it is estimated that at least 90% of the foreign aid which the Khmer Rouge received came from China, including at least US$1 billion in interest-free economic and military aid in 1975 alone. After it seized power in April 1975, the Khmer Rouge wanted to turn the country into an agrarian socialist republic, founded on the policies of ultra-Maoism and influenced by the Cultural Revolution. Pol Pot and other Khmer Rouge officials met with Mao in Beijing in June 1975, receiving approval and advice, while high-ranking CCP officials such as Politburo Standing Committee member Zhang Chunqiao later visited Cambodia to offer help. To fulfill its goals, the Khmer Rouge emptied the cities and forced Cambodians to relocate to labor camps in the countryside, where mass executions, forced labor, physical abuse, malnutrition, and disease were rampant. In 1976, the Khmer Rouge renamed the country Democratic Kampuchea.
The massacres ended when the Vietnamese military invaded in 1978 and toppled the Khmer Rouge regime. By January 1979, 1.5 to 2 million people had died due to the Khmer Rouge's policies, including 200,000–300,000 Chinese Cambodians, 90,000–500,000 Cambodian Cham (who are mostly Muslim), and 20,000 Vietnamese Cambodians. 20,000 people passed through the Security Prison 21, one of the 196 prisons the Khmer Rouge operated, and only seven adults survived. The prisoners were taken to the Killing Fields, where they were executed (often with pickaxes, to save bullets) and buried in mass graves. Abduction and indoctrination of children was widespread, and many were persuaded or forced to commit atrocities. As of 2009, the Documentation Center of Cambodia has mapped 23,745 mass graves containing approximately 1.3 million suspected victims of execution. Direct execution is believed to account for up to 60% of the genocide's death toll, with other victims succumbing to starvation, exhaustion, or disease.
The genocide triggered a second outflow of refugees, many of whom escaped to neighboring Thailand and, to a lesser extent, Vietnam. In 2003, by agreement between the Cambodian government and the United Nations, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia (Khmer Rouge Tribunal) were established to try the members of the Khmer Rouge leadership responsible for the Cambodian genocide. Trials began in 2009. On 26 July 2010, the Trial Chamber convicted Kaing Guek Eav (alias Duch) for crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions. The Supreme Court Chamber increased his sentence to life imprisonment. Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan were tried and convicted in 2014 of crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions. On 28 March 2019, the Trial Chamber found Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan guilty of crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, and genocide of the Vietnamese ethnic, national and racial group. The Chamber additionally convicted Nuon Chea of genocide of the Cham ethnic and religious group under the doctrine of superior responsibility. Both Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan were sentenced to terms of life imprisonment.