18 August 2009
Media Release URGENT
Hamill does NOT want to kill Duch

New Zealander Rob Hamill strongly rejects the headlines circulating in world media claiming he wishes to kill Duch, the Khmer Rouge commander of the camp where his brother Kerry was murdered in 1978.

In his testimony to the Extraordinary Court Chambers of Cambodia yesterday, Mr Hamill said he had at times in the past thirty-one years imagined Duch suffering the same torture inflicted on so many people, but he has never wanted to action those terrible thoughts. Mr Hamill made it clear yesterday that he is never going to give in to those feelings, that the testimony itself was part of the healing process and he was pushing the emotional burden of the crimes back on to Duch.

"I do NOT want to kill or cause any physical harm to Duch," Mr Hamill says.

"To want to kill another human being in retribution is to lower yourself to the level of the perpetrators of such heinous crimes."

"I am totally opposed to the death penalty. When the state executes people, it is the ultimate form of premeditation, and we are all made to be complicit."

ENDS

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