Khmer Rouge trials

[waltky]

Cambodia bringin' the Khmer Rouge to trial...

Leaked document casts doubt on impartiality of Khmer Rouge judges
June 8, 2011 : As the UN-backed tribunal prepares to bring more former Khmer Rouge leaders to trial, a confidential document obtained by the Monitor raises questions about the judges' independence.

As an international tribunal prepares to bring former Khmer Rouge leaders to trial beginning June 27, a confidential document obtained by The Christian Science Monitor raises questions about the UN-backed court’s ability to independently prosecute members of the brutal regime. The 2008 court document reveals when tribunal prosecutors laid out their case against two former military commanders, they requested that the investigating judges detain them.

The level of detail in the document builds a strong case against the commanders, but the judges ignored the request to detain them and didn’t even summon the suspects for questioning during 20 months of investigation. The judges lack of response underscores concerns about their ability to carry out their duties. When they announced April 29 that they had concluded their investigation, many victims and observers were outraged, pointing out that investigators failed to question suspects and witnesses, or even inspect sites that could contain mass graves.

“[This] could in no way amount to an investigation in the eyes of any reasonable observer and is nothing short of a slap in the face to the millions of victims of the Khmer Rouge,” says Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights (CCHR). On Tuesday, the coinvestigating judges rejected a request by International Co-Prosecutor Andrew Cayley to extend the investigation, sparking a new round of criticism from observers and watchdog groups.

“If the judges had ever been serious about carrying out their legal obligations, as well as their ethical ones, they would be looking for a way to conduct the investigations with thoroughness and precision,” says Clair Duffy of the Open Society Justice Initiative. “Instead they've availed themselves of every opportunity to shut them down.” She adds that it was “particularly disturbing” that the judges treated allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity with such “flippancy.”

Two new suspects

 

[waltky]

Pol Pot's cohorts gettin' their just due...

Key Trial of Khmer Rouge Leaders Starts in Cambodia
June 23, 2011 - On Monday the United Nations-backed tribunal in Phnom Penh will open its hearing into the four surviving leaders of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge movement.

Cambodians have waited three decades for this day: when the surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge movement appear in court charged with an array of crimes - genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, murder. The list is long. The four defendants are Nuon Chea, also known as Brother Number Two, who is considered the movement’s chief ideologue; Khieu Samphan, the head of state; Ieng Sary, the foreign minister and, his wife, Ieng Thirith, the social action minister. The defendants in this case, the court’s second, deny all charges. That marks a change from Case One, where former security chief Kaing Guek Eav, known as Comrade Duch, admitted his role and pledged to cooperate with the court.

Case One

Duch ran the notorious S-21 security center in Phnom Penh, where at least 14,000 men, women and children were held, tortured, and then executed as enemies of the revolution. Duch was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity and was jailed for 30 years. He has appealed his conviction. Duch was charged with implementing policy, in his case, that involved torture and executions to unmask so-called strings of traitors whom the regime believed were trying to undermine the revolution. But the four defendants in Case Two are effectively on trial for devising policy, which distances them from atrocities.

Clair Duffy monitors the tribunal on behalf of the Soros-funded Open Society Justice Initiative. She says that difference will likely feature in defense arguments. “When we have seen trials of this scope involving defendants at that level of leadership allegedly, that is the kind of defense that has typically been run - either that they were not present at meetings where these kinds of policies were devised or that they weren’t aware of what actually was going to be the result of the policies that were being devised- i.e.: killings, torture, etc,” said Duffy.

Complexities

 

[Soaringdragon]

Thanks for highlighting this trial and its shortcomings. The trial is certainly long overdue and many of the Cambodian people have been waiting to see it occur. Hopefully, the world observers can ensure that it is meaningful.

 

[waltky]

They're so old now, probably some will die by then...

Genocide Trial of Khmer Rouge Leaders Likely Delayed Until 2012
August 24, 2011 - Court sources and observers in Cambodia say the genocide trial of four surviving Khmer Rouge is now likely to be delayed once again.

That follows an acknowledgment by the Khmer Rouge tribunal that one of the defendants requires psychiatric tests to determine her fitness to stand trial. The court is no stranger to delay, but recent events have revealed yet another possible suspension in the proceedings against four surviving Khmer Rouge leaders. Late last year, court officials were predicting that the trial for Case 002 would begin by mid-2011. But the recent confirmation that former social affairs minister Ieng Thirith needs a psychiatric assessment means it is now unlikely to start before January.

Court spokesman Lars Olsen says next week, the court will discuss recent medical reports examining the physical abilities of three defendants to stand trial. But the doctor who carried out those examinations has also recommended that Ieng Thirith have a psychiatric assessment. “And this is what the Trial Chamber will in the very near future do, Olsen says. "They will appoint international and national psychiatric expertise to conduct a further assessment on Ieng Thirith’s fitness to stand trial.”

All of that will take time. It will likely be months before the psychiatric report is finalized, discussed and then ruled on by the tribunal. Because the court wants to try the defendants together, the case cannot start until Ieng Thirith is declared mentally fit or unfit to stand trial. Anne Heindel, legal adviser at Phnom Penh-based genocide research organization DC-Cam, explains the legal principle behind being found unfit for trial. “It’s not just a medical assessment," Heindel says. "It’s the legal evaluation of a medical assessment. Can you participate in your defense? Can you instruct your counsel? Do you understand what your plea means? Do you understand what’s going on in the proceedings?"

If Ieng Thirith is found to be unfit for trial, Anne Heindel adds, that could mean a temporary or even a permanent suspension of the case against her, depending on how she responds to treatment. “The hope is always that with medical assistance somebody could then become fit for trial, and the trial could proceed at that point," she says. "With mental illness, if that’s what it is, it’s obviously much less certain than with a physical ailment and harder to judge.”

MORE

 

[waltky]

The wheels of justice grind slowly in Cambodia...

Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge Tribunal Draws New Criticisms
September 26, 2011 - In Cambodia, there is continuing controversy about the United Nations-backed court aimed at prosecuting members of the former Khmer Rouge government. The tribunal is the first of its kind to allow victims of specific crimes to participate.

Prosecution of Khmer Rouge members

German Judge Siegfried Blunk -- who was appointed by the United Nations -- and his Cambodian counterpart, You Bunleng, first drew criticism in April for closing down the investigation into the court’s third case against two senior Khmer Rouge military leaders suspected of thousands of deaths. Much of their international staff resigned after the case was shelved. While Case Three is still under consideration by the court, judges are now determining which victims can participate as civil parties.

Applications rejected

The judges recently rejected the applications of at least three people seeking to participate as victims. One is a Cambodian woman whose husband suffered hard labor and was then executed by the Khmer Rouge. In their rejection, the judges said her claimed psychological harm was “highly unlikely to be true”. They also defined the requirement of “direct” harm so narrowly as to exclude anyone other than the actual victim.

The applicant’s lawyer is Silke Studzinsky, who describes the ruling as outrageous. Speaking on Skype, Studzinsky explains why she has appealed. “None of the reasons has any legal basis. The first reason expresses that our client is only an indirect victim and (is) therefore rejected,” Studzinsky said. Studzinsky says that is “nonsense” since indirect victims were permitted in the tribunal’s first two cases - in fact her client was a civil party in those cases, which makes this rejection even harder to comprehend.

Reasoning called into question

Anne Heindel is a legal advisor with the genocide research organization in Phnom Penh called the Documentation Center of Cambodia. She says the reasoning in the rejection of the civil party applicant failed to meet the minimum standards. "Again it’s just the convoluted legal reasoning. It’s a clearly outcome-driven process. It doesn’t meet the minimum standards of legal reasoning, and, honestly, it’s the worst reasoned order I’ve ever read," Heindel said.

Heindel accuses the judges of applying legal standards that do not fit with the court’s jurisprudence, or any other legal authority applying to civil parties. She says it seems that they are trying to exclude anyone who was not a direct victim from taking part. “And, it’s clear and well established that immediate family members are recognized as victims and can participate in these circumstances," Heindel added. "So there’s no precedent anywhere that supports the legal reasoning of this decision.”

Case Three

 

[waltky]

Justice delayed is justice denied...

Why Some Khmer Rouge Suspects May Never Face Trial
Thursday, Sept. 22, 2011 - At first blush, it seems like a nourishing gift. The Phnom Srok reservoir in northwest Cambodia spreads nearly as far as the eye can see, providing water year-round for agriculture, fishing and swimming. But the human bones that, according to locals, still lie on the floor of the reservoir tell a different story. The reservoir's primitive, earthen dam was constructed in 1977 at a cost of an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 lives. Some collapsed and died from endless days of work; others were executed because they had become too weak to work effectively.

As part of their vision to transform Cambodia into an agrarian utopia, Khmer Rouge leaders ordered starving villagers to build dams like this by hand. Len Chovvy remembers digging for 14 hours a day as a young girl, surviving only on rice porridge. "When my father was old and sick, they took him to the base of the dam and smashed his head from behind with a wooden bat until he died," says Len, who now runs a food stall along the reservoir. "His blood was stuck there for days." She recalls the names of the two cadres who oversaw the dam's construction. One of them, "Comrade Im," was feared in those days for her uncompromising rule, she says.

These days, the elderly Im Chaem cuts a far less imposing figure: she speaks softly and her smile is as wide as a jack-o'-lantern. Her tone hardens, though, when asked about the U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal confronting the atrocities of the Pol Pot-led Khmer Rouge, whose reign of terror from 1975 to 1979 left an estimated 1.7 million dead from execution, starvation and overwork. The court began proceedings in 2006 to try the "senior leaders" and "those most responsible" for the deaths, but, thus far, neither category has been well defined.

"The Khmer Rouge involved many people, not just me. If I had known the Khmer Rouge were going to be bad, I would not have joined them. I just followed the orders of the high level. If I did not fulfill them, I would have been killed myself," Im Chaem tells TIME, intoning an argument commonly used by former cadres to justify their roles. "I try to forget my background but some people won't let me, they want to keep digging it up." Oddly, though, the tribunal judges in charge of investigating Im Chaem and other Khmer Rouge suspects living freely in Cambodia have done little prying themselves.

Last year, the tribunal sentenced Kaing Guek Eav (best known by his revolutionary name Duch), the former commandant of a Khmer Rouge torture facility, to 35 years in jail. It has recently started on its second case against the regime's four highest-ranking surviving leaders for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. The international co-prosecutor, Andrew Cayley, has also pushed for a third and fourth case (officially named Case 003 and Case 004) that, according to leaked court documents, target Im Chaem and four other suspects accused of implementing some of the regime's most catastrophic policies. But he's limited by the structure of the tribunal. In most war crimes courts, prosecutors may gather their own evidence, but in Cambodia's tribunal, they are limited to using evidence gathered by an investigating office headed by two judges who local and international court monitors say have made little effort to build a case file for a third and fourth trial.

Read more: Why Some Khmer Rouge Suspects May Never Face Trial - TIME

 

[editec]

Better late than never.

 

[waltky]

Two controversial judges need to be replaced...

Human Rights Watch: Khmer Rouge Tribunal Needs New Judges for Justice to Be Served
October 03, 2011 - Human Rights Watch says the Cambodian people have no hope of seeing justice for crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge so long as two controversial judges are sitting on the court trying former leaders of the genocidal regime.

The New York-based group said Monday that co-investigative judges You Bunleng of Cambodia and Siegfried Blunk of Germany have politicized the tribunal and should step down. Brad Adams, the head of HRW's Asia division, said the judges have violated their legal and judicial duties by not investigating two Khmer Rouge officials in what is known as Case 003. “These two men, the head of the air force and the head of the navy, were never even interviewed or notified that they were under investigation," Adams said, referring to Khmer Rouge air force commander, Sou Met, and navy commander, Meas Muth. "We know that [the investigators] didn’t go to the crime scene. We know that they didn’t interview the witnesses they should have interviewed. They simply closed this down and it will probably remain a mystery about why they closed it down.”

Political pressure...or not

Adams suggested the judges may be bowing to the pressure of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge fighter opposed to the prosecution of anyone but the most senior Khmer Rouge leaders. Mr. Hun Sen has said a civil war could break out if more investigations are made. The court has not confirmed the identity of the defendants named in cases 003 and 004, but Lars Olsen, a tribunal spokesman, said there is some question about whether they would be appropriate candidates for prosecution. “The judges have said that they are in doubt about whether or not the defendants will fall into the category of people under the jurisdiction of the court. Namely, senior leaders of Democratic Kampuchea or those most responsible for the crimes committed during the period of Democratic Kampuchea,” said Olsen.

Nearly two million people, or a quarter of Cambodia’s population, died under the Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1979. The U.N.-backed court was created nearly 30 years later in an effort to find justice for Cambodia’s victims and survivors. Olsen said Blunk and You Bunleng are fulfilling their duties to the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, or ECCC. “The co-investigating judges will continue to perform their duties independently and also, to the mind that the ECCC proceedings have built-in checks and balances,” he said.

The appeals process

Those checks and balances include the ability to appeal any decision made by the co-investigating judges to the pre-trial chamber. The judges have not yet filed a closing order in cases 003 and 004. But even if they did, Human Rights Watch says any appeal against those orders would almost certainly be dismissed. Adams said the judges have already demonstrated they are not interested in hearing the international prosecutor’s concerns. “When the prosecutor objected, they threatened him with contempt of court. So it’s time for those guys to go," he said. "They need to go before those cases are finally and completely dismissed so that Cambodians can see these people put on trial if they are indeed responsible.” The court so far has tried and convicted one person, the former director of the S-21 prison. Kaing Guek Eav, or Duch, was convicted of crimes against humanity and war crimes. He is to spend the next 19 years in prison. The second case, involving the Khmer Rouge’s four senior leaders, is scheduled to begin next year.

Source

 

[waltky]

Khmer Rouge leaders gettin' their day of reckoning...

Cambodia genocide: Khmer Rouge trio go on trial
20 November 2011 - The UN-backed trial of the three most senior surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge, charged with crimes against humanity, has begun

The three most senior surviving leaders of Cambodia's genocidal Khmer Rouge regime have gone on trial. They include Nuon Chea, also known as Brother Number Two. He was the right-hand man of the Maoist regime's supreme leader Pol Pot, who died in 1998. The former leaders, now all in their eighties, face charges including genocide and crimes against humanity. The Khmer Rouge regime fell in 1979, and the process of trying its senior figures has taken many years.

Cambodia originally asked the United Nations and the international community to help set up a tribunal into the genocide in the mid-1990s. A joint tribunal was finally established in 2006 following long drawn-out negotiations between the Phnom Penh government and the UN - but to date, only one person has been convicted.

'Absolute suffering'

The other leaders on trial now are the regime's former head-of-state Khieu Samphan, and Ieng Sary, who was foreign minister and international face of the organisation. All three deny the charges they face. The tribunal began hearing four days of opening statements on Monday. Prosecutors told the tribunal that the Cambodian people were in a "pitiful state" and their suffering "was absolute" during the regime's rule.

Hundreds of people - including monks, students, regime survivors and former cadres - packed the court's public gallery for the first of four days of opening statements in the landmark case. "I feel very happy. I came here because I want to know the story and how it could have happened," 75-year-old farmer Sao Kuon, who lost 11 relatives under the Khmer Rouge, told the AFP news agency. The process has been broken up into several mini-trials, with the first hearing set to judge on the offence of enforced removal of people from the cities.

More BBC News - Cambodia genocide: Khmer Rouge trio go on trial

 

[Unkotare]

Wil Chomsky be on hand to testify?

 

[waltky]

Crocodile tears from Pol Pot's #2...

Khmer Rouge No. 2 gives insight to his role in Cambodia's 'killing fields'
November 22, 2011 - Nuon Chea, the deputy leader of the Khmer Rouge regime blamed for 1.7 million deaths in Cambodia's 'killing fields' told the tribunal today that he carried out its policies to protect the country.

The second-in-command of Cambodia’s brutal Khmer Rouge regime told a war crimes tribunal today that he was a patriot who fought to free his country from colonialism and foreign invasion, giving insight to his role in the death of 1.7 million people in the 1970s. In Nuon Chea's first public comments since his trial opened at the UN-backed court on Monday, the regime’s chief ideologue pinned most of the country’s problems on neighboring Vietnam. “I had to leave my family behind to liberate my motherland from colonialism and aggression and oppression by the thieves who wish to steal our land and wipe Cambodia off the face of the earth,” Nuon Chea told the court. “We wanted to free Cambodia from being a servant of other countries and we wanted to build Cambodia as a society that is clean and independent without any killing of people or genocide.”

The frail octogenarian, who is accused of involvement in the deaths of at least 1.7 million people during the Khmer Rouge’s 1975-79 rule, addressed his hour-long speech to “my beloved Cambodian people.” Nuon Chea is being tried alongside Khieu Samphan, the former Khmer Rouge head of state, and ex-foreign minister Ieng Sary. The three octogenarians face a raft of charges, including genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. A fourth defendant, Ieng Thirith, the former minister of social affairs, has been ruled unfit to stand trial. Nuon Chea’s address came after prosecutors gave a grisly and vividly detailed summary of Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, describing it as “a massive slave camp.” In his opening statements today, international co-prosecutor Andrew Cayley told the court not be tempted by feelings of sympathy for the old men who had “murdered, tortured, and terrorized” their own people.

After toppling a US-based regime on April 17, 1975, the Khmer Rouge – led by “Brother No 1” Pol Pot – forcibly evacuated the capital Phnom Penh and put Cambodians to work in vast rural labor communes. Hundreds of thousands died from overwork, starvation, and summary execution as the regime embarked on a series of brutal internal purges. The Khmer Rouge were eventually toppled by a Vietnamese invasion in early 1979. During his remarks, Chea repeatedly accused Vietnam of plotting to “swallow” Cambodia. He also turned his blame on the protracted US bombing of eastern Cambodia in the early 1970s, saying Washington tried to “suppress the movement of struggle of the Indochinese people.”

Anne Heindel, a legal adviser at the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which researches Khmer Rouge atrocities, says Nuon Chea’s comments offered a fascinating insight into the mind of the aged ideologue. “In his view he was defending the nation from the Vietnamese… This is the way he sees the world.” Though there was a glaring lack of reference to the human suffering brought on by his regime’s policies, Ms. Heindel says it was vital the frail leader broke his silence and addressed survivors in person. “It’s a tremendously important part of the process,” she says. The trial continues tomorrow with opening statements from defence lawyers. The first section of the trial, focusing on the establishment of the Khmer Rouge regime and the forced evacuation of Phnom Penh, begins next month.

Source

 

[waltky]

Gettin' crochety in their old age...

Ieng Sary and Khieu Samphan slam Khmer Rouge court
23 November 2011 - The defendants in the trial are all in their 80s

Two Khmer Rouge leaders on trial for genocide have told the UN-backed court it has no authority to prosecute them. The regime's head of state Khieu Samphan said the prosecution case was "monumentally biased" and relied on accounts from newspapers. Ex-Foreign Minister Ieng Sary reiterated that he had received a royal pardon so should not be on trial. They are accused of leading a campaign of mass murder in Cambodia from 1975-1979 in which up to 2.2 million died. The Khmer Rouge regime tried to establish a Maoist utopia by forcing everyone to live as peasants, and exterminating everyone they regarded as enemies. The policies plunged the country into a humanitarian catastrophe - the regime was eventually swept from power by invading Vietnamese forces.

The long-awaited trial of three defendants began on Monday. The third defendant is Nuon Chea, known as Brother Number Two, who was the right-hand man to supreme leader Pol Pot. All three, who are in their 80s, deny the charges they face. Khieu Samphan dismissed the evidence against him as "fairytales" and launched a lengthy attack on the trial process and the prosecutor. He said the prosecution "wants my head on the block". He told the court that the Khmer Rouge had launched a successful resistance movement against an unpopular government and US forces, and was backed by the Cambodian people. He also said he was not responsible for every decision made by the regime, and could not have known about every death. Nuon Chea made similar arguments in his statement to the court in Tuesday's session.

Ieng Sary read out a short statement saying he would reject the court's authority until Cambodia's domestic courts had ruled on the validity of his 1996 royal pardon. Former King Norodom Sihanouk granted the pardon as part of a deal which resulted in the final surrender of the Khmer Rouge. However, all three defendants have said they will continue to participate in the proceedings. This case against these three men has been broken up into several mini-trials, with the first hearing set to judge on the offence of enforced removal of people from the cities. The defendants are all in their eighties - concern that they might die has forced the tribunal to split the cases in the hope of gaining at least one conviction. The trial is only the second to be held at the genocide court. Last year former Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch - who oversaw the notorious Tuol Sleng jail - was jailed for 19 years.

BBC News - Ieng Sary and Khieu Samphan slam Khmer Rouge court

 

[High_Gravity]

Its a shame Pol Pot checked out early and died a peaceful death in his sleep, he really deserved to be here for this.

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - an' feed him scant fare o' bread an' water...

Former Khmer Rouge jailer's appeal rejected, given life term
Friday 3rd February, 2012 - Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes tribunal has rejected an appeal by a Khmer Rouge jailer Kaing Guek Eav alias Duch, and increased his sentence to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity, torture and the premeditated murder of more than 15,000 people.

Duch, the first senior Khmer Rouge official to be charged by the court, was convicted in July 2010 for his role in running the infamous Tuol Sleng Prison in Phnom Penh under the Khmer Rouge's 1975-1979 rule. The 69-year-old former commander appealed his sentence of 19 years in March last year, saying he was a low-ranking official who merely followed orders while fearing for his life. The prosecution, meanwhile, had appealed for a longer sentence with surviving Tuol Sleng inmates expressing anger over his initial 35-year term being reduced to 19 years. The prosecutors noted that Duch had "frequently acknowledged his responsibility for crimes committed" at the prison.

The judges hearing the appeals ruled that the original prison term did not "reflect the gravity of the crimes". "The crimes by Kaing Guek Eav were undoubtedly among the worst in recorded human history. They deserve the highest penalty available," said Kong Srim, president of the court's highest appeal body. The milestone final judgment was broadcast live on television. "This is hopefully the beginning to an end for the Cambodian people in dealing with this dark past," said court spokesman Lars Olsen. At least 15,000 inmates were tortured and executed in the country's "killing fields" outside the capital. Wearing a white shirt and a beige jacket, the former maths teacher sat impassively in the dock as the verdict was read out.

Survivors of the regime's reign of terror hailed the decision. Hundreds of Cambodians, including orange-robed monks, packed the Phnom Penh courtroom to see the verdict. "I can't forget the scars, the broken teeth, the torture," said Bou Meng, 71, one of just a handful of people to walk out of the S-21 detention centre alive. "But this is perfect justice for me. I am 100 per cent satisfied with the sentence." S-21, also known as Tuol Sleng, was the centre of the Khmer Rouge security apparatus. Thousands of inmates were taken from there for execution in a nearby orchard that served as a "Killing Field".

Duch, who for years after concealed his identity before he was discovered working in the jungle as a Christian aid worker in 1999, was the first former cadre to face the international tribunal. Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sok An said the sentencing marked "a historic day" for the country. "Today the people of Cambodia and all the world remember those who died, and hope that this trial and the delivery of the final judgement bring some relief for your pain and suffering," he told the S-21 survivors and relatives of victims at the court.

MORE

 

[waltky]

Khmer Rouge trials unraveling...

Judge quits Cambodian UN-backed Khmer Rouge trial
19 March 2012 - A second judge has resigned from the troubled UN-backed international war crimes trial in Cambodia.

Swiss Judge Laurent Kasper-Ansermet said he was leaving because his Cambodian counterpart, You Bunleng, had thwarted attempts to investigate former members of the 1970s regime.

Mr Kasper-Ansermet said the dispute had left him unable to work properly.

Last October, another judge, German Siegfried Blunk, resigned for similar reasons.

BBC News - Judge quits Cambodian UN-backed Khmer Rouge trial

See also:

Cambodia's Khmer Rouge tribunal in disarray
26 JUNE 2011, Around two million people died in the late 1970s after Pol Pot and his comrades took over the country

This should have been a time of quiet satisfaction for the Khmer Rouge Tribunal. The four most senior surviving leaders of Pol Pot's murderous government have been charged with genocide. This week's initial hearing will deal with various technicalities and legal arguments - with the trial proper to follow within a few months. Even critics of the process agree that this is the "heart" of the tribunal, opening the possibility that Cambodians may finally discover the reasons behind the brutal policies of the Khmer Rouge.

It follows the court's first case, in which former Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to 35 years in jail. Around two million people died in the late 1970s after Pol Pot and his comrades took over the country. They evacuated the cities and forced those who survived to make the long trek into the countryside to work in the rice paddies. Many died of malnutrition, others were summarily executed as "enemies of the revolution".

This latest genocide trial was poised to be a showcase for the tribunal's much-vaunted "hybrid" system - which allows Cambodian judges and legal officials to work alongside UN-appointed international officials. It was supposed to be a model for future international criminal tribunals, keeping costs down while strengthening the notoriously weak local judiciary by exposing them to international standards of justice.

But there is no celebration at the dusty complex on the outskirts of Phnom Penh which houses the tribunal. Instead there is a sense of an institution in crisis. A court monitor has called for an investigation into allegations of negligence and the violation of judicial independence. A victims' organisation has demanded the resignation of senior UN-appointed officials. And a number of international staff became so dismayed with the way crimes were being investigated that they quit in protest. The problem is not the forthcoming second trial - but a proposed third case.

More BBC News - Cambodia's Khmer Rouge tribunal in disarray

 

[waltky]

UN do-nothin's wringin' their hands like they always do...

UN ‘concerned’ after judge quits war crimes court
Wed, Mar 21, 2012 - The UN expressed “serious concern” after a second judge quit Cambodia’s war crimes court over a rift about whether to pursue more former members of the Khmer Rouge regime.

Swiss co-investigating judge Laurent Kasper-Ansermet resigned on Monday, saying his efforts to probe possible third and fourth cases had been constantly “blocked” by his Cambodian counterpart at the UN-backed tribunal. “The situation at the [court] continues to be of serious concern and the United Nations is examining it closely,” Eri Kaneko, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said in an e-mail late on Monday.

Kasper-Ansermet’s resignation came after German judge Siegfried Blunk quit the court in October, citing government interference in the controversial cases. The UN named reserve judge Kasper-Ansermet as his replacement, but Cambodia refused to recognize the appointment, sparking an unprecedented row and forcing the Swiss to work without the support of his Cambodian counterpart.

The UN has not yet said whether it has a replacement judge ready to take over when his resignation takes effect on May 4, but observers believe any future judge would likely face similar difficulties. “The UN must demand that the Cambodian government desists from this political interference and make clear the consequences should it continue,” said Rupert Abbott, Amnesty International’s Cambodia researcher.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has long and vocally objected to pursuing more suspects of the 1975-1979 regime beyond the current second trial. The tribunal, set up to find justice for the deaths of up to 2 million people under the hardline communist Khmer Rouge regime, has so far completed just one case, sentencing a former prison chief to life in jail for overseeing the deaths of some 15,000 people. A second trial involving the regime’s three most senior surviving leaders is ongoing.

Source

 

[waltky]

Trials 'a monumental mistake'???...

Priest who exposed Khmer Rouge horrors slams trial
Mon, Mar 26, 2012 - Cambodia’s landmark trial against former Khmer Rouge leaders is “a monumental mistake,” says the French priest who 35 years ago became the first person to expose the horrors of the regime.

“I deny the United Nations the right to judge the Khmer Rouge,” said 73-year-old Francois Ponchaud, who was forced to leave Phnom Penh when the hardline communists took power in 1975. “The UN backed the Khmer Rouge for 14 years for geo-political reasons during the Cold War. I don’t see why the UN would now give itself the right to judge those it supported,” he said in an interview. In what is considered an embarrassing chapter in UN history, the Khmer Rouge was allowed to retain its seat in the UN General Assembly even after the regime was ousted by Vietnamese troops in 1979 and its blood-stained revolution was exposed to the world. In 2006, the Cambodian government and the UN set up a tribunal in Phnom Penh to try to find justice for up to 2 million people who died under the regime’s 1975-1979 reign.

Late last year, it began trying former Cambodian deputy leader Nuon Chea, former Cambodian foreign minister Ieng Sary and former Cambodian head of state Khieu Samphan, all of whom deny charges of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. The trial has been hailed as a milestone event in the still--traumatized nation, but the Roman Catholic priest is one of its few vocal detractors. Ponchaud, who returned to his beloved Cambodia in 1993, says the legal process betrays a lack of cultural sensitivity because it imposes a Western idea of justice on a staunchly Buddhist nation. “It’s a monumental mistake. The Cambodians don’t need this trial, invented by Westerners, that causes more pain than it heals. It just rehashes all this suffering that the Khmer people have begun to forget,” he said.

Ponchaud, who has spent years living alongside rural Cambodians, believes the country has its own way of resolving conflicts, and “it’s not through court verdicts.” Many survivors and former Khmer Rouge perpetrators have already found a way to “live together,” often side by side in the same village, he said, trusting that karma will set things right in the next life. “The concept of human rights is a very Judeo-Christian concept,” the clergyman said. “For a Buddhist, the human person doesn’t exist. When you die, you will be reincarnated.” However, Ponchaud is not in denial about the crimes that were committed under the hardline communist movement that enslaved the population in a bid to create an agrarian utopia.

He has vivid memories of the mass evacuation of Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975 when more than 2 million inhabitants — including the young, the elderly, pregnant women and hospital patients — were forced to abandon their homes for labor camps in the countryside. The priest himself was one of the last foreigners to exit Cambodia that May, after weeks holed up at the French embassy, the last refuge for expats, until the Khmer Rouge decided it was time for outsiders to leave. Ponchaud shared his story with journalists upon his return to France, but his claims that a capital city had been emptied of its residents in just a matter of hours defied belief. Two years later, in 1977, when the general public was still largely enchanted by the idea of the small nation’s rural revolution, Ponchaud published Cambodia: Year Zero — a book that detailed for the first time what was really happening inside the secretive country.

Source

 

[sparky]

war crimes
should be the gold standard for all oxymorons imho......

~S~

 

[DCJ]

Trials 'a monumental mistake'???...

Priest who exposed Khmer Rouge horrors slams trial
Mon, Mar 26, 2012 - Cambodia’s landmark trial against former Khmer Rouge leaders is “a monumental mistake,” says the French priest who 35 years ago became the first person to expose the horrors of the regime.

“I deny the United Nations the right to judge the Khmer Rouge,” said 73-year-old Francois Ponchaud, who was forced to leave Phnom Penh when the hardline communists took power in 1975. “The UN backed the Khmer Rouge for 14 years for geo-political reasons during the Cold War. I don’t see why the UN would now give itself the right to judge those it supported,” he said in an interview. In what is considered an embarrassing chapter in UN history, the Khmer Rouge was allowed to retain its seat in the UN General Assembly even after the regime was ousted by Vietnamese troops in 1979 and its blood-stained revolution was exposed to the world. In 2006, the Cambodian government and the UN set up a tribunal in Phnom Penh to try to find justice for up to 2 million people who died under the regime’s 1975-1979 reign.

Late last year, it began trying former Cambodian deputy leader Nuon Chea, former Cambodian foreign minister Ieng Sary and former Cambodian head of state Khieu Samphan, all of whom deny charges of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. The trial has been hailed as a milestone event in the still--traumatized nation, but the Roman Catholic priest is one of its few vocal detractors. Ponchaud, who returned to his beloved Cambodia in 1993, says the legal process betrays a lack of cultural sensitivity because it imposes a Western idea of justice on a staunchly Buddhist nation. “It’s a monumental mistake. The Cambodians don’t need this trial, invented by Westerners, that causes more pain than it heals. It just rehashes all this suffering that the Khmer people have begun to forget,” he said.

Ponchaud, who has spent years living alongside rural Cambodians, believes the country has its own way of resolving conflicts, and “it’s not through court verdicts.” Many survivors and former Khmer Rouge perpetrators have already found a way to “live together,” often side by side in the same village, he said, trusting that karma will set things right in the next life. “The concept of human rights is a very Judeo-Christian concept,” the clergyman said. “For a Buddhist, the human person doesn’t exist. When you die, you will be reincarnated.” However, Ponchaud is not in denial about the crimes that were committed under the hardline communist movement that enslaved the population in a bid to create an agrarian utopia.

He has vivid memories of the mass evacuation of Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975 when more than 2 million inhabitants — including the young, the elderly, pregnant women and hospital patients — were forced to abandon their homes for labor camps in the countryside. The priest himself was one of the last foreigners to exit Cambodia that May, after weeks holed up at the French embassy, the last refuge for expats, until the Khmer Rouge decided it was time for outsiders to leave. Ponchaud shared his story with journalists upon his return to France, but his claims that a capital city had been emptied of its residents in just a matter of hours defied belief. Two years later, in 1977, when the general public was still largely enchanted by the idea of the small nation’s rural revolution, Ponchaud published Cambodia: Year Zero — a book that detailed for the first time what was really happening inside the secretive country.

Source

Very good article............

Although I would hope to have some justice for these crimes, the ppl there do seem to just wanna move on & forget about it...........

Perhaps the role of the UN & the USA should be put on trial............??

 

[waltky]

A day in the Killing Fields...

Forces ordered to 'clear' Phnom Penh
May 3,`12 (UPI) -- During the U.N.-led trial of former Cambodian regime leaders, a witness testified military forces were ordered to "clear" Phnom Penh of "enemies."

Pean Khean, 62, a former minister of commerce for the Khmer Rouge, testified Wednesday at the trial of Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan and Ieng Sary, three Khmer Rouge leaders who are facing charges of atrocity crimes, including genocide, for acts committed by the Pol Pot regime, Voice of America reported. "Those who were considered enemies would be destroyed when they were arrested," he said. "They were all to be cleared, and after them, the CIA from Phnom Penh had to be cleared too."

Pean Khean said he had joined the Communist Party of Kampuchea in 1966, when he was 16, "to liberate" Cambodia. On Monday, attorneys for Nuon Chea attempted to implicate Finance Minister Keat Chhon and Foreign Affairs Minister Hor Namhong for their alleged roles during the reign of the Khmer Rouge, The Phnom Penh Post reported.

However, trial chamber president Nil Nonn blocked defense attorney Michiel Pestman from questioning witness Saloth Ban, Pol Pot's nephew who worked under Ieng Sary, about Keat Chhon and Hor Namhong. "The witness is instructed not to answer this question, it is irrelevant," Nil Nonn ordered multiple times.

Read more: Forces ordered to 'clear' Phnom Penh - UPI.com