Khmer Rouge Tribunal

[Yappofloyd]

The Cambodian forum seemed a bit lonely and the majority of current problems in Cambodia arise from the unprecendented genocide of nearly a quarter of the Cambodian pop. by the Khmer Rouge between 1975 & 79, so I thought I'd start a thread on the Tribunal and current funding situation.

Previously, Khun GWR posted (http://www.angkor.com/2bangkok/2bangkok/forum/showthread.php?t=620) a link to Yale Uni Genocide Project. There is a good BBC website here (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3716166.stm) for a general background on the tribunal and Khmer Rouge atrocities.

The Tribunal will require US$56.3 million (UN appeal US$43m, Cambodian Govt. US$13m), or US$19m a year, for its anticipated 3 year lifespan, see here (http://www.un.org/apps/news/storyAr.asp?NewsID=12775&Cr=cambodia&Cr1=). The SG of UN, Kofi Annan, launched an appeal for funding late last year but understandably it has been somewhat low on the priority list for donors given the Tsunami.

As of early Feb, only Australia, Japan & France had made donations totalling US$6m (I'm not sure if there have been any contributions within the last month or so). The Tribunal cannot commence operations until at least one year of funding has been promised, so delays are likely given the current lack of donors. However, even with some delay and depending on the prosecution strategy, one would hope that the first 6 months of next year may see some indictments and initial pre-trial proceedings.

For detailed info the following sites are useful;

Yale Uni Genocide Program Tribunal News (http://www.yale.edu/cgp/news.html) - if you really want detailed background info and articles,
Cambodian Govt. Khmer Rouge Trail Task Force site (http://www.cambodia.gov.kh/krt/english/index.htm),
Documentation Center of Cambodia (DCCAM) (http://www.dccam.org/) - the most extensive database of info relating to the genocide. DDCAM was est. by an act of US Congress in 1994. Close working relationship with Yale program.
Amnesty critique (http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGASA230052003?open&of=ENG-KHM) on the Tribunal from April 2003 - if you want some detailed background on some of the NGO criticism of the UN/Cambodia agreement.

I am not an expert in the area but am somewhat following progress of the Tribunal. I'll try to update the thread as important info becomes available and the Tribunal comes closer to reality. Of course, everyone else is encouraged to do so as well....

[Yappofloyd]

As funding pledges by donor have been slow there is currently a special Pledging Conference taking place in order to secure the necessary funding. See UN SG press release (http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2005/sgsm9784.doc.htm) .

[Yappofloyd]

Forgot to update the outcome of the pledging conf. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4387575.stm) The BBC seems to be following the story closely and it now appears that the money is in the bank thanks mainly to the Japanese who contributed $21.6m of $38m. BBC report (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4500391.stm).

[Yappofloyd]

Khmer Rouge tribunal needs more than money
By NATHANIEL MYERS (BKK Post, 18/07/05)

After nearly a decade of negotiations and planning, the Khmer Rouge tribunal continues to inch closer to reality in Cambodia. Earlier this year, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced that pledges from member states now covered the UN's $43 million share of the tribunal's $56.3 million budget.

The process hit a snag in March, however, when the Royal Government of Cambodia unexpectedly announced that it could not cover most of its own share, and appealed to international donors to help it come up with the remaining $11.8 million it owed. Little progress has been made in the months since. International donors are reluctant to give again, and the Cambodian government has rejected suggestions of a national fund-raising campaign, even though some local business leaders have expressed interest in donating.

Yet, in the midst of this confusion, the government appears to have begun the process of selecting judges and prosecutors to staff the future tribunal, but it has shrouded the process in secrecy. No official list of candidates has been released, and the government has refused to describe the selection process, keeping secret the criteria for evaluation and the timeframe for its undertaking. Both of these developments are worrying. The first has been taken by some observers to suggest that the government does not fully support the tribunal.

As one observer noted, the government didn't seem to have much trouble finding the millions of dollars needed to pay for damage caused in the infamous anti-Thai riots in 2003. If the tribunal does come to fruition _ as still seems likely _ it may not be able to count on full cooperation from the government. At the same time, the lack of transparency in the jurist selection process suggests that the court may not take place in the open and transparent manner advocates had hoped.

This would be a tragedy. The Khmer Rouge tribunal holds great potential benefits for the Cambodian people; chief among them is its potential impact on the deeply troubled judicial system. A tribunal that respected international norms of fairness and due process would provide a powerful example to the national system, and could inspire increased independence and reform while dealing a significant blow to the entrenched culture of impunity.

At the end of this month, the consultative group of leading foreign donors is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Hun Sen to discuss progress on commitments made last December. Donors have already done much for the tribunal, but their work is not done. In order for the tribunal to make good on its potential for the Cambodian people, it is now clear that these major donors will have to exercise their political influence on its behalf. At their upcoming meeting with Mr Hun Sen, they should push the following three points:

First, the selection process for judges, lawyers and court staff must be made open and transparent. The public deserves to know who is being considered, what criteria will be used to evaluate them, and when decisions will be made. Civil society, particularly those NGOs who work in the legal sector, should be approached for comments and recommendations.

Second, the government must explain, to donors and the public alike, how it plans to cover its share of the tribunal's budget. It cannot expect donors to rush to bail it out, and it must adequately explain why it rejected the idea of a national fund-raiser. Though not all Cambodians can afford to donate money, many have suggested they would like to give as a way of feeling involved in the process of holding the former Khmer Rouge leaders accountable. At the absolute least, the government should accept donations offered freely by private citizens.

Third, donors should impress upon the government the importance of a successful tribunal outreach campaign to educate the general population. There have long been misconceptions amongst the public as to how the tribunal will work and who it will prosecute; it is time they be cleared up.Such misunderstandings have the potential to ferment unrest _ particularly if former Khmer Rouge cadres mistakenly fear they may be jailed _ and they will certainly lead to disappointment with the tribunal when victims notice that ex-Khmer Rouge in their communities are still at liberty.

Though many Cambodian NGOs are preparing outreach programmes, their plans do not excuse the government from its own responsibility to educate. Mr Hun Sen could begin to demonstrate his commitment to a successful process by recording public service announcements for radio and television which introduce and describe the tribunal. Donors have much to discuss and there is much work that still needs to be done in Cambodia to help its people. But given the enormous potential and equally enormous cost of the Khmer Rouge tribunal, it deserves a high place on the agenda.

Nathaniel Myers is an adviser to a non-governmental organisation on tribunal-related issues. He also specialises in hybrid courts and post-conflict justice. ndmyers@gmail.com

[GWR]

Trouble with living here is that there is a whole load of stuff out there you never get to find in bookshops because it's too controversial for local tastes. Whereas back home it is available, but no one alerts you to it because they too would rather live with some cherry-blossom view. Thus things we have all known instinctively for years finally emerge out of the woodwork as 'fact', after about half a century.

http://www.the-tls.co.uk/subject_by_subject/subject.aspx?path=/subject%20by%20subject/biography/
TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
POL POT
The history of a nightmare
Philip Short
672pp. | John Murray. £25. 0 7195 6568 5. US: Henry Holt. $30. | 0 8050 6662 4


Pol Pot: The history of a nightmare was written after the final death of the Khmer Rouge...
...
He also chronicles the last bizarre years of the Khmer Rouge on the Thai border, including an American attempt to kidnap Pol Pot, which was thwarted by his protector, the Thai General Chaovalit.

[airlana]

Trouble with living here is that there is a whole load of stuff out there you never get to find in bookshops because it's too controversial for local tastes.


Sure can relate to that.

Add to the list "THE DEVILS DISCUS" by Rayne Kruger about the events of 9th June 1946

Search on Google for more.

airlana
.

[Yappofloyd]

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen is at it again in attempting to delay the tribunal. The Post editorial gives some fairly clear reasons as to why after so much time the tribunal is still important.

EDITORIAL (BKK Post, 22/08/05) Khmer tribunal stalled again

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has thrown another log in the road to justice for citizens of the region's most abused country. The premier announced that while he, his government and parliament all had agreed to pay a share of the cost of a tribunal for former Khmer Rouge leaders, they just can't do it. That throws another pall over the quickly dying hope that the main, surviving butchers of the Pol Pot era will pay for the crimes of the horrible days of Khmer Rouge rule. There is more than good reason to doubt Hun Sen's glib explanation that he can't fund a trial because the country is broke.

According to the prime minister's statement, Cambodia might be able to come up with about $1.5 million of the $13 million it promised to provide. That promise came after years of excruciating talks between Cambodia and foreign friends, with delay and dodge at every turn, on every point, by Hun Sen and his officials. The talks frustrated even the United Nations, which simply walked out at one point. The US and Europe negotiated the UN's sceptical agreement to talk again.

Last year, the UN and several concerned members thought they had reached agreement. The final hurdle, after evading hundreds thrown out by Hun Sen and his government, was over how to fund the tribunal. The UN agreed to provide $43 million to help a three-year, Cambodian-controlled trial _ the equivalent of 1.8 billion baht, no small amount. Premier Hun Sen committed the rest. Now, he says, he just doesn't have the money.

In some cases, compassionate agencies and foreign friends might be sympathetic to the claim that Cambodia has run out of available cash. But years of experience have produced different reactions _ vexation and suspicion. Corruption in Cambodia has become rife, including within the government. In addition, there has long been doubt, spread over the years of discussion about a Khmer Rouge tribunal, that Premier Hun Sen has any desire to see such an event, which would surely see his own days as a Khmer Rouge commander brought up again.

Neither the international community nor the people of Cambodia have much choice in these events. The greatest fear among UN officials and diplomats in Cambodia is that even if they hold their noses and finance a tribunal, Hun Sen and his government supporters will torpedo it by delay, obfuscation and bringing only minor Khmer Rouge functionaries to the dock for many more years. Khmer Rouge leaders have already died of old age. These include their odious leader Pol Pot and his heavily involved wife, Khieu Ponnary. The highest ranking living suspect, Ieng Sary, lives with his wife and accused murderess Ieng Thirith in a protected western Cambodia village, more happily and more prosperously than most Cambodian people.

As much as United Nations members would like to see payment of their debts by Ieng Sary, Khieu Samphan and other cold-blooded killers of between one and 3.5 million of their fellow Khmers, the Cambodian people deserve to see such a trial. No one who knows the country can doubt the huge damage to a population that has struggled for 25 years to deal with the after-effects of three and a half years of the most brutal rule in Southeast Asian history.

The superficial claim that the government can't come up with money for a tribunal was unconvincing. It ignored a hugely conciliatory offer by Japan to allow the government to use aid funds for its paltry share of the tribunal. It also brushed aside all consideration of the importance of a tribunal to the Cambodian people.

In short, it is fair to assume that the Cambodian government and Prime Minister Hun Sen have access to the needed funds for a tribunal that would benefit their people. It is fair to speculate why the premier has pleaded poverty rather than attempt to find the funds. He may find it convenient to blame the world community. The truth is Hun Sen has no intention of allowing any meaningful tribunal to judge the Khmer Rouge crimes of excess.

[Yappofloyd]

Cambodians hardly well-served Justice for the victims of the Khmer Rouge has been a very long time coming By NUSARA THAITAWAT (Bkk Post 08/12/05)

The United Nations today begins deploying in Cambodia once again. This time the UN advance team's mission is to set up the logistics for the long-delayed tribunal hearing of the Khmer Rouge leaders responsible for the deaths of nearly two million people during their time in power between April 1975 and January 1979.

Headed by Michelle Lee, who was appointed in August to coordinate UN assistance for the tribunal in Cambodia, the UN team will assess the situation on the ground and coordinate with the government-appointed Khmer Rouge Tribunal Task Force. Ms Lee and Mr Sean Visoth, who was recently appointed by Royal Decree as Director of the Administration of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal are scheduled to hold their first press conference today in Phnom Penh. This is taking place as a shortlist of candidates are being interviewed by the UN for the posts of international judges, international co-prosecutor, international co-investigating judge and international judges of the pre-trial chamber, according to Stephane Dujarric, a UN spokesperson in New York.

Earlier this week, the Documentation Centre of Cambodia (DC-Cam), a non-profit, independent research institution on the killing fields expressed concern over the transparency of the tribunal proceedings and the lack of infrastructure for the participation of the Cambodian people. Like many colleagues who have been working in human rights in Cambodia over the past decade, Youk Chhang, director of DC-Cam believes that the success of the tribunal will very much depend on how Cambodians deal with their feelings and hopes.

Of the nationals who were subjected to genocidal regimes in modern history, Cambodians have had to wait a very long time for closure and justice - a total of 26 years - unlike the survivors of Nazi Germany, Milosevic's Yugoslavia, Hutu Rwanda and Saddam's Iraq. No doubt this long wait, most of the time overshadowed by continued civil war, political instability and poverty, means that the tribunal has taken on different meanings for different people, complicated by USaid's estimation that two out of five Cambodians today suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

A Western diplomat has commented that the three years and eight months of Khmer Rouge brutality ensured that "either you're a victim, a perpetrator ... or both." Other observers have a more optimistic view of the trial which they say will certainly open old wounds but could help people answer some questions about the Cambodian justice system, stimulating a dialogue among Cambodians on whether their legal apparatus works and what they want their justice system to become. The tribunal could also serve as a reminder to young Cambodians of the unspeakable inhumanity endured by their parents under the Khmer Rouge, and perhaps inspire them to work towards building a peaceful and stable Cambodia.

So far, the Cambodian government has kept information about the tribunal low key - and it has yet to make any announcement on its public information policy once the tribunal has started. By way of preparing the public for the tribunal, it has published only one brochure on the killing fields, last year.
The word in Phnom Penh that the candidate tipped to head the Cambodian government's national public information programme around the tribunal is a non-Khmer-speaking foreign national, serves only to underline the lack of will to ensure the transparency of tribunal proceedings and people's participation in the tribunal.

Work to prepare the public for the tribunal has largely been left to DC-Cam and other human rights organisations. A number of programmes have been implemented over the past decade, for example:The Victims of Torture Project: A project that documents past abuses in selected sites in Cambodia by creating a climate that allows victims of torture to come forward and address their emotional needs, as well as those of their families and communities, through counselling. The project also seeks to learn survivors' views on memory and justice, and to promote community reconciliation in Cambodia. The Living Documents Project: This will bring approximately 1,200 people (in groups of about 30) from various part of the country to witness the tribunal for one week over the course of the three-year proceedings. This is aimed at building momentum for participatory democracy and freedom of information in Cambodia.

The Public Information Room was opened at DC-Cam in April 2004 to allow scholars, reporters and the general public to view over 600,000 pages of documentation from the Khmer Rouge era, plus petitions and interview transcripts taken from survivors of the regime, and a variety of other materials that could potentially serve as evidence at the tribunal.

The Cambodian government has been dragging its feet on the tribunal issue for the past seven years and clearly remains very much a reluctant party to finding closure and justice. The reasons appear to have gone far beyond the involvement of certain high ranking government personalities in the Khmer Rouge. The tribunal is going to set a different kind of standard for justice and legitimacy which the Cambodian government is not ready to provide to its people, even after Prime Minister Hun Sen's 27 years in power.

In 1990, the UN made history by deploying the first ever transitional authority in a sovereign state, and then the world's largest peace keeping mission. This time, the UN can make history again by ensuring that the survivors of the Khmer Rouge regime find closure and justice through transparency of the tribunal's proceedings and active public participation. With the tribunal meaning different things to different people, disagreements are expected as the most painful chapter in Cambodian history is re-opened for meticulous examination, but there are multiple ways to peacefully deal with them and reach a broad consensus. These might include assessments by the UN and Cambodian government, press reports, evaluations by local and international NGO and human rights groups, and most importantly, the opinions of the Cambodian public on whether the tribunal is serving them well.

Nusara Thaitawat is a freelance writer who has followed developments in Cambodia for many years.

[Yappofloyd]

Lack of funds must not block path of justice How the Cambodian government and Asean can help break the logjam over the Khmer Rouge Tribunal By YOUK CHHANG (BKK Post 16/12/05)

Phnom Penh _ The United Nations will begin to set up its office in Phnom Penh in February 2006, in preparation for the three-year tribunal of the senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime formally known as Democratic Kampuchea. A judicial institution (the Extraordinary Chambers, or EC) will soon be formed to investigate and prosecute crimes committed by members of the ousted regime.

The Cambodian people have waited over 25 years to see justice done: under the Khmer Rouge, our country lost between a quarter and a third of its population _ the largest death toll, in percentage terms, of all the genocides in modern history. Since 1979, not a single credible trial of the regime's leaders has been held.

Some of the Khmer Rouge leaders have died. Brother Number One, Pol Pot, died in the jungle in 1998, and Central Committee member Ke Pauk died in his sleep in 2002. Only two former cadres are languishing in jail. One is Duch (age 59), the former head of the notorious Tuol Sleng Prison (S-21), where an estimated 14,000 enemies of the state died and only about 12 inmates survived. The other is Southwest Zone commander and Central Committee member Ta Mok (age 78), who was jailed when he refused to join Prime Minister Hun Sen's government in the early 1990s.

Both Duch and Ta Mok have now been charged with war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the rule of Democratic Kampuchea. The regime's remaining leaders (such as Ieng Sary, the former Khmer Rouge foreign minister) have enjoyed lives of relative ease, but are ageing rapidly. Most are now in their 70's. Many now wonder whether the Cambodian people must continue to wait to see justice done because the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) cannot or will not meet its financial obligations for the tribunal.

If it does not, will the UN try to make up the shortfall or will it withdraw from the process? It is too early to know the answer, but before the deal is done, a number of solutions can be explored. In 2003, the RGC and the UN agreed to share legal and financial responsibility for the EC trials. The international community has raised enough money to cover the UN's share for at least the first year of the tribunal. Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, the European Commission, France, Germany, India, Japan, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Norway, Republic of Korea, Sweden, and the United Kingdom have made contributions. The RCG agreed to provide $13 million in cash and services as its contribution.

The government never indicated that money was a problem until last summer, when its representatives said the RGC could afford to contribute only $1.5 million, and that it was seeking donors' help in funding its portion of the costs. The response of the international community has not been heartening: the only country that has helped so far is India, which donated $1 million in October 2005.

On Dec 9, the UN appealed to donors around the world and Japan in particular, to help the government cover its $10.5 million shortfall. And the government has also stated that it will accept donations from wealthy individuals and from the private sector, both in the country and abroad.

These statements lead to more questions than they answer. How will the money be raised? Will the process be transparent? Should the government itself pay more than $1.5 million? And should the RGC officially approach its neighbours in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for funds?

Steps the Royal Government of Cambodia Can Take

To date, the government has spurned Japan's offer to help cover its share of the budget. Although no official reason has been given for its refusal, perhaps the government is afraid that Japan will try to unduly influence, or even monopolise, the EC process.

This would be difficult, given the oversight by the international community as represented by the UN. Japan is willing to help and the government should accept its offer so Cambodia can move on and see the Extraordinary Chambers begin their work.

If the government truly wants Cambodians to donate funds, making appeals through the press is not enough. It should instead make a sincere and formal request and disseminate it widely, both within the country and abroad. Many impoverished victims of the Khmer Rouge want to make small donations, but few have access to newspapers and would not know how they might contribute. Allowing them to support the tribunal gives them a stake in their justice system.

But in accepting contributions, the government also takes on an obligation to ensure a transparent process. People must know where their money is going and what it will fund. The government should be prepared to have the fund's use audited and to publish the audit report.

This will help the government, too, because if people have their goodwill reciprocated, they will also have confidence in their elected officials. The government should make another good-faith effort to locate funding from its own budgetary resources for the tribunal. The RCG has a contractual obligation with the UN to ante up its share of funding for the EC trials; if it does not, it will violate its contract with the UN. This would give the UN the right to stop providing further assistance.

After nearly 10 years at the negotiating table, the government cannot claim that it did not know what its share would be. $13 million is a considerable sum for a poor country, but not insurmountable in light of its annual budget and the intangible returns it could realise. UN Deputy Coordinator Michelle Lee said in a news conference in Phnom Penh on Dec 13, that the UN is looking into whether the approximately $6.9 million left in a trust fund for the Cambodian elections in the early 1990s could be used to help cover the shortfall.

She cautioned, however, that the countries that gave the money _ Japan, Denmark and Australia, for example _ would have to agree to use this, and there are no guarantees that they would do so. Contributing more from its own resources would have a number of benefits for the government. It would help dispel the nagging impression that the RGC is trying to stall the tribunal, and it would give Cambodia real ownership in the tribunal in the eyes of people around the world.

Increased government funding would also demonstrate the RGC's true commitment to justice, which might encourage more countries to help Cambodia. Many nations have expressed concern that their contributions might be wasted because Cambodia's judicial system is seriously flawed. To alleviate such concerns, donors might consider contributing on a year-by-year basis. They need not contribute the full amount up front and could merely agree to release future instalments, provided the proceedings prove to be fair and transparent.

A Role for Asean

Some Asian governments still view human rights as largely a Western issue. Over the past few decades, however, many Asians have demonstrated their belief that these rights are universal and that due process and the rule of law are critical elements of modern societies.

As Asian countries _ and those from Asean in particular _ play an increasingly important role in global politics, their conduct should reflect the changes that have been taking place in Asia. As yet no Asean member state has made a financial contribution to the Extraordinary Chambers. But there are other ways to support Cambodia's quest for justice. They include:

Technical assistance. Countries like Singapore, for example, have highly trained technicians who could help identify and exhume the over 19,000 mass graves that are spread throughout Cambodia. Compared to bringing in Western experts, Singapore could provide efficient and cost-effective expertise to the EC that would yield critical forensic evidence.

Documentation. Asean states could send Cambodia relevant official documents, photographs and other materials related to Democratic Kampuchea, which might serve as evidence during the proceedings and could help Cambodians to better understand their history.

Counselling. At present, Cambodia has only 12 trained psychiatrists, while about a third of the survivors of Democratic Kampuchea _ some two million people _ still suffer from what is called post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. The Transcultural Psychosocial Organisation has found that simple treatments, such as breathing exercises or sleeping medication, can go a long way toward helping those who are experiencing anger, insomnia and other debilitating symptoms of PTSD. Because they have an innate understanding of the Asian psyche, counsellors from Asean could be of invaluable assistance to the Cambodian community.

Hardware. At least some portion of Cambodia's contribution to the tribunal can be in kind. Donations of computers for administrative staff or for university history and political science classes would be very valuable.

Transportation. Travel can be a time-consuming and expensive undertaking for most Cambodians. For those who would want to travel to Phnom Penh to attend part of the proceedings, the costs can be prohibitive. Thus, the donation of large vans or small buses would meet a significant need.

cont...

[Yappofloyd]

Volunteers. The Documentation Centre of Cambodia works with some 200 Cambodian student volunteers who will go door to door to distribute information and help people learn what to expect from the trials. This will help citizens to gain a clearer understanding of the trials and assist in building a future core of citizens who are involved in their communities. The Cambodian students would benefit from their association with students from throughout Asean, who will help broaden their knowledge of regional history and politics, and learn different approaches to problem solving.

Radios. While this does not seem like a very important donation, it is critical. In a country where many people earn no more than a dollar a day, few have access to newspapers or television. Radio is the main medium Cambodians use for learning. Thus, donations of new or used radios would be invaluable in helping them stay abreast of developments in the tribunal.

Youk Chhang is Director, Documentation Centre of Cambodia. Email: dccam@online.com.kh

[Yappofloyd]

Editorial in todays Post. "...the Cambodian government is proceeding at a crawl", is a huge understatement. More realistically they are going backwards!

EDITORIAL KR trial and the question of funds (Bkk Post 28/12/05)
The joint Cambodian and United Nations trial of the former Khmer Rouge leaders inches closer with many hoping that it may begin next year. The trial of the leaders of the worst genocide since World War Two is expected to cost $56.3 million, of which the UN sought, and obtained, promises of contributions from many other countries to cover $43 million. Cambodia has now said it needs to find a further $10.8 million of its portion and says it cannot pay this from its budget. Cambodia has slowly stumbled its way along the path towards establishing this tribunal. Its formulating of laws has taken years while visits by UN and other diplomats hoping to push the country along the path quicker have been futile.

Japan is already the major contributor to the trial, with Australia, Canada, Germany and France among the others. A notable absentee is the United States, whose Foreign Operations Appropriations Acts of 2004 prohibits American funding for any tribunal established by the government of Cambodia. The US, though, is the major financier of the famed Documentation Centre of Cambodia which has put together reams of detailed information about the Khmer Rouge regime. Its invested million endowment provides more than half of the centre's annual operational expenses. In the last half of this year the United Nations has taken deliberate steps forward, ignoring the procrastination of lawmakers in Phnom Penh. It has also overlooked Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen's plea for foreign funding to cover his country's portion, moving ahead in the hope that this matter will be resolved later.


Cambodian Sean Visoth, formerly the executive secretary of the government's tribunal task force, has been appointed director of the office of administration of the extraordinary chambers, and China's Michelle Lee, the UN-appointed coordinator, is the deputy director. This month, the UN has been interviewing the 21 applicants who have applied to serve as international judges and prosecutors at the tribunal. According to the Cambodian Daily, those applicants include prominent justices from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the US, Poland, Austria and Egypt. Some appear to have served at previous UN missions: Polish candidate Agnieszka Klonowiecka-Milart and Austrian justice Claudia Fenz in Kosovo, while US Judge Phillip Rapozo served in East Timor.

Cambodia's Supreme Council of the Magistracy must select two international judges for the trial chamber, three for the supreme court chamber and two for the pre-trial chamber, of which one will be a co-investigating judge and one a co-prosecutor. The May 2003 agreement between the UN and the government asserts that the trial judges must be ''of high moral character, impartiality and integrity'', be qualified as judges in their home countries and be experienced in criminal law, international law, international humanitarian law or human rights law. It appears that the UN is putting its jigsaw together and will soon have the pieces ready to fit into place. But yet again, the Cambodian government is proceeding at a crawl.

In late November Phnom Penh government task force adviser Helen Jarvis said the short-list of Cambodian judicial officers would likely be announced in December but we are already at the end of the month with no announcement made. Internally, opposition leader Sam Rainsy has been pushing the government to fulfil its obligations in regards to the trial but last week he too suffered from the country's judiciary when he was sentenced to 18 months' jail. Now expected to remain in exile in France, Sam Rainsy was found guilty in a trial international observers say was typical of that country's somewhat tainted judiciary and only loosely based on few substantiated facts.

It has been an astute move by the UN to proceed on the assumption that Cambodia will fulfil its contribution pledge. The ex-Khmer Rouge leaders are ageing and justice needs to be done for the sake of all Cambodians as well as human rights sufferers from throughout the world.

[Yappofloyd]

Khmer Rouge to face trial soon
by Seth Mydans, International Hearld Tribune (17/01/06)

KANTORK, Cambodia Twenty-seven years after the brutal Khmer Rouge regime was driven from power, it appears that at least some of its leaders may soon be put on trial for causing the deaths of nearly one-fourth of the Cambodian population. Under an agreement between the United Nations and the government here, a courtroom is being prepared, technical staffs are beginning their work and staff is being hired.

Next month, the head of a United Nations administrative team is expected to arrive and set up shop in Cambodia. Foreign and Cambodian judges, prosecutors and staff are being selected now for the mixed international tribunal. Diplomats and analysts who have been skeptical over nearly a decade of negotiations and delays now expect to see some measure of judicial accounting for the 1.7 million people who lost their lives from 1975 to 1979. "From a technical point of view, we are almost there," said Craig Etcheson, an expert and researcher on the Khmer Rouge regime. "I guess it's what you might call a rolling start."

At a military headquarters here on the southwestern outskirts of Phnom Penh, not far from a killing field where thousands of bodies were buried, a large, empty building filled with dust and sunlight is being furnished as a courthouse. There are still, as always, possibilities for delay, and nobody is rushing to take the plastic slipcovers off the 540 blue chairs in the hearing room. At one point, for example, an infestation of termites in the roof of the National Assembly building caused months of delay in the approval of a trial format. But most of the $56.3 million budget has been secured now, and some time soon, analysts say, the clock will start ticking on a three-part time frame: a year for investigations, a year for the trial and a year for appeals.

A decision has been made to aim for a small pool of senior figures. A half dozen names are most often mentioned as likely defendants; two of these are in custody and the others are living freely among the survivors of the regime they led. The top leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998. Although Cambodia's current leadership includes a number of former middle-ranking Khmer Rouge officials, experts say there is no reason to believe that Prime Minister Hun Sen was culpable. "We have investigated that back and forth and up and down, and there's just no evidence that he was involved in any prosecutable crimes during the period of jurisdiction for the tribunal," Etcheson said. "He looks clean."

Experts say the evidence against the likely defendants is substantial, though mostly indirect. A private Cambodian organization, the Documentation Center of Cambodia, has compiled tens of thousands of documents, interviewed hundreds of witnesses and identified thousands of mass graves. The center has set aside rooms in its headquarters for prosecutors and defense lawyers to study its archives and is putting together a rapid response team to provide any requested materials. "We are ready," said the center's director, Youk Chhang.

Sean Visoth, the tribunal's coordinator, said that at its peak it would employ a staff of 200 Cambodians and 100 foreigners designated by the United Nations. Under the mixed structure of the tribunal, his deputy will be a representative of the United Nations, Michelle Lee, who is scheduled to arrive here next month. Visoth, who survived the Khmer Rouge years doing hard labor, said the trial had three goals: to offer justice to the victims and survivors, to prevent similar atrocities in the future and to give the younger generation a clear picture of what happened.

Interviews and polls in recent years have shown that most people are eager for a trial, although, according to the historian David Chandler, "There is no real concept of accountability in Cambodia." In interviews with rural people, the notion of justice often seems to be equated with revenge, and a proverb is sometimes cited: "Do not answer hatred with hatred." Even now, as the process gets under way, it remains controversial among advocates of justice and human rights. The years of wrangling between the United Nations and the Cambodian government produced an awkward hybrid format that raises questions about the quality of justice on offer. The sentiment among many diplomats here can be summed up, in the words of one of them, as: "The only thing worse than no trial would be a trial that is a farce."

Unlike the UN tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, this one will include local judges and prosecutors who, critics say, are ill trained and subject to political manipulation. Under a complicated "supermajority" formula, the Cambodians will be in the majority, but their international counterparts will have veto power. A recent wave of convictions of Hun Sen's political opponents on libel and related charges has highlighted the role of the courts in Cambodia as a political arm of the prime minister.

"Clearly the way the judiciary is being used as an instrument against critics now is a real problem," said Brad Adams, the Asia director for Human Rights Watch, the New York-based monitoring group. "It shows the problems for the trials and the problem for the United Nations to be mixed up with these people."

[Yappofloyd]

February 16, 2006 Phnom Penh Journal
Now Prozac Battles Dark Dreams That Khmer Rouge Left
By SETH MYDANS New York Times

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Mao Irang is an evangelist for the new magic in Cambodia, a treatment that can cure everything from headaches to blackouts to nightmares to bursts of violence. "I ask my friends, 'What is your problem?' " she said. " 'Does your food get stuck in your throat? Do you have pain here, and here, and here? Do you have problems with your sleep?' I say, 'O.K., try this doctor.' "

Her doctor is Ka Sunbunaut, one of only 26 psychiatrists in this nation of 12 million traumatized people, the survivors and the children of survivors of one of the past century's most horrifying episodes of mass killing. After therapy with him, said Ms. Mao Irang, 35, a social worker tormented by her memories, "I felt like I was another person; I was not a prisoner anymore."
She was liberated through a combination of talk therapy and psychiatric drugs — treatments that are largely alien to Cambodians, who often turn to faith healers and herbalists. But the word is spreading now among a relatively small circle of educated people: your ailments have a cause, and there are treatments that can help you.

It is a quarter century since the Khmer Rouge was driven from power after causing the deaths of 1.7 million people from 1975 to 1979 through execution, starvation or overwork. "Until today, most people don't realize they have psychological problems," Dr. Ka Sunbunaut said in an interview. "They don't understand about trauma. Mostly, they believe it is all related to karma." Now, though, people here are increasingly turning to drugs like Prozac and Valium, which are expensive but available without a prescription. Dr. Ka Sunbunaut said most of the medicines he prescribed were generic drugs manufactured in Asia.

"He gave me holy medicine," said Preap Phal Theary, 52, a wholesale rice dealer and former French teacher. "It is a holy medicine. It has changed my life. I've become a normal person instead of a sick person." She said that before being treated, she had blackouts and intestinal problems. She had convulsions, and passed out whenever she went to the bathroom, she said.
"For 15 years I tried all kinds of medication, modern and ancient, with herbs and Chinese cures and spiritual cures and monks' blessings and praying at my home altar," she said. "For 15 years I had two jobs. One was to feed my children and the other was to be ready to fall into a coma at any moment, so I always needed an escort."

Psychiatrists now are considering the possible effects on traumatized people like Ms. Preap Phal Theary of plans to hold a trial for surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge. Preliminary work is being done to set up a tribunal, although it will be many months before any defendants are put in the dock. Convictions of the former Khmer Rouge leaders could bring some clarity and relief to people who still do not understand the causes of their suffering, doctors say. But for many the trial could revive traumas that have been suppressed over the years. "At the moment I'm not sure whether a tribunal can bring peace or problems in our society," said Dr. Sotheara Chhim, a psychiatrist who is managing director of the Transcultural Psychosocial Organization, which is preparing for the trial.

He said his concerns were "retraumatization" of survivors who will come face to face with the past; new trauma on young people who did not experience the Khmer Rouge era; and renewed anger and hostility among victims. "I believe everybody has suffered," he said in an interview. "Everybody has inside some memory, some past trauma. But their abilities to cope are different."

The Khmer Rouge era itself could be seen as an episode of madness. In a utopian frenzy these radical Communists sought to erase the modern world and systematically killed off most of the country's educated and skilled people. Few doctors survived. Cambodia has no in-patient clinics for mental patients, the doctor said, and only 40 psychiatric nurses (and another 40 in training). He is only now organizing a committee for mental health, with its own budget, in the Ministry of Health. No reliable data exist on the traumatic effects of the past, partly because people are not generally aware of the lasting impact of their experiences, said Dr. Sotheara Chhim. "People think their past problems have been buried and don't realize that the present is connected to the past," he said.

A study of Cambodian refugees in the United States, published last August in The Journal of the American Medical Association, found that 62 percent had suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder in the previous year, compared with a rate of 3.6 percent in the general United States population. It found that 51 percent had suffered from major depression, compared with 9.5 percent of the general population. According to the study, 99 percent of the survivors of the Khmer Rouge years reported almost starving to death, 96 percent said they had been forced into slave labor, 90 percent said that a family member or friend had been killed and 54 percent said they had been tortured. Even if they learn to cope, their memories remain to torment them, the doctors said.

Ms. Preap Phal Theary, the rice seller, closed her eyes for a moment. "I see a man running, and I see a man shooting," she said. "I hear gunfire. You don't just have a picture of people running in a field, you have sound, too. I can hear the people saying, 'Oh, they killed him.' It is like a snapshot in my mind."
Until she was treated, she said, loud noises, gunshots and the sight of people arguing caused her to pass out. For Ms. Mao Irang, who was orphaned in the Khmer Rouge years, the most vivid memory almost seems to have been a nightmare. "When I heard my parents were killed I fainted," she said. "I did not wake up for a week. In the hospital they thought I was dead. They put me in a pile of bodies. "When I woke up I thought, 'What is that smell?' And I crawl, crawl, crawl to the door. And then I realize I am in the dead people's room." She was 7 or 8 years old at the time. She pressed the palms of her hands against her eyes. "Today, I feel much better," she said.

[Yappofloyd]

Good editorial from the Post

Editorial Bangkok Post 18/04/06
Cambodians look back in horror

Thirty-one years ago yesterday, as the communist Vietnamese neared victory in Saigon and the Thai people debated the direction of their still novel democracy, the first stories emerged from Cambodia. They were so shocking that many were inclined to dismiss them on April 17, 1975. The Khmer Rouge, one day into their Cambodian war victory, were emptying cities, forcing everyone to the countryside. Well-known personalities, including royal family members, were shot down in cold blood when they went to welcome the new rulers. Thus began an extreme experiment, using real people, which resulted in millions of deaths, unimaginable hardship and, to this day, a total lack of justice.

Since the peace treaty of 1989 ended that long and blood-stained conflict, it has become a cliche{aac} to say that war crimes tribunals are expected to begin soon. Lethargy, some apathy and especially the current Khmer government of Prime Minister Hun Sen have conspired to deny such courts and chance of a fair hearing for the survivors, victims and their families. If the always coming, never arriving tribunal weren't bad enough for the hope for justice, the real unfairness is the treatment of the men and women who should have been in the dock years ago. The top Khmer Rouge _ those who have not died like their leader Pol Pot _ live at home, among families and friends, reminiscing about their old days in the war and when they ruled the country.

After 31 years, it is easy to say "enough is enough", but that should have been said more than a decade ago. Premier Hun Sen and his supporters have dragged out the process of appointing a court and setting its rules for well over 10 years. And certainly it is easy to lay the blame on Hun Sen. He himself was a Khmer Rouge soldier, present 31 years ago and prodding the sick from the hospitals, the old from their beds and singling out people wearing glasses as "intellectuals" to be shot, or enslaved until they died of exhaustion. He invited his old leaders, even including top Khmer Rouge leaders Khieu Samphan and Ieng Sary, to Phnom Penh where they joked and bantered while the cameras rolled.

But Hun Sen alone would have been unable to delay a tribunal for the top Khmer Rouge. The international community committed some unpleasant actions, even if they were justified at the time. China, Singapore, Thailand and the United States allied to force Vietnam to give up its armed occupation of Cambodia. But they do not brag of their alliance of convenience with the Khmer Rouge for part of that period of resistance. Vietnam seems proud of overthrowing Pol Pot and ending the worst of the horrors in 1979, but does not brag of its early training and support for the Khmer Rouge. The United Nations itself ran the largest international armed intervention in its history, yet left the Khmer Rouge as a viable force, an unworkable and undemocratic government, and introduced Aids to Cambodia.

The victims of all of this are, of course, the people of Cambodia. They also were the victims of the undoubted, heavily documented atrocities of the Khmer Rouge. Dictators have killed more citizens than the Pol Pot gang, but Stalin, Mao Tse-tung and their like never visited the horrors to all citizens that the Khmer Rouge brought. Cambodia had no money, no markets, no religion, no institution. Then, with the total control of the country and all citizens, the Khmer Rouge killed all resident foreigners and perhaps half of all Cambodians in the country, in a period of just 44 months.

Perhaps Cambodians would not find closure with a war crimes tribunal that probed and laid the correct responsibility for the atrocities. But they might avoid the cynicism that affects them today. For 31 years they have suffered _ at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, the Vietnamese invaders and a callous government unwilling to represent its own people. The UN and its members, and the Hun Sen government have not helped them. And on the anniversary of the atrocities, that is shameful.

[Yappofloyd]

FOCUS / CAMBODIA : 31 YEARS SINCE THE KHMER ROUGE TOOK CONTROL ON APRIL 17, 1975 The making of a Khmer Rouge ideologue (BKK Post 18/04/06) By NUSARA THAITAWAT

Nuon Chea talks about his time as a student at Thammasat University, a civil servant of two ministries in Bangkok and a member of the Communist Party of Thailand; and what inspired him to join the Khmer Rouge "Thammasat taught me to serve the people. Thammasat also taught me to sacrifice personal interest for the public good. I was deeply touched by the principles of justice, equality and democracy that Thammasat stood for," said Nuon Chea, with his wife close by, at his modest wooden house close to the Thai border in Pailin, western Cambodia.

The old man expressed fond memories of his youthful days at the university, just like many of his Thai contemporaries who attended class there in the 1940s. His Thai had the eloquence and tone of a learned man, and as he spoke, he often quoted from Thailand's most respectable political thinkers.
"Cambodia gave me my natural life; Thammasat gave me my political life. I will always be grateful to Thammasat," he said. While Nuon Chea cherishes his memories of Thammasat, the university doesn't seem to recall having had him as a student. His academic record is nowhere to be found and there is minimal effort to assist genocide researchers from Cambodia who have asked for cooperation to complete his profile ahead of the opening of the United Nations-sponsored tribunal in Cambodia later this year.

If there is any reassurance for Thammasat, which may or may not have its own reasons for not being able to find the academic records of its most infamous alumni, Nuon Chea explained that what set him on the path to a political life was French colonial rule of Cambodia, widespread poverty and huge social disparities in his home province of Battambang in western Cambodia. "The beginning was in my hometown in Battambang. As a teenager I didn't know what nation meant. Thailand inspired me because it was an independent nation while Cambodia was a colony of the French. I really wanted to go to Thailand to study but when I actually got there, I saw many foreigners living and working there, I thought maybe Thailand too was not an independent nation after all. I saw many poor people in Thailand too (while I thought Thailand was rich).

"I asked myself what were my options; I was really fed up with society, why should I continue to study, to serve whom? At that time, I considered two options: either to ordain and live a Buddhist monk's life, or to struggle to free the people from poverty and oppression. "My politicisation was a step-by-step process, driven by the events surrounding my life. At night when I slept I thought about the true meaning of nationhood, I was determined to make a choice for myself."

At age 16 and not knowing a word of Thai, having studied at the local French school in Battambang for seven years, Nuon Chea took the advice of a Buddhist monk in Battambang to further his studies in Bangkok. Technically and some genocide researchers believe, emotionally _ he was Thai, as Battambang, Siem Reap and Sisophon were under Thai control (1941-46) under a deal between Bangkok and Tokyo during World War II.

Nuon Chea was given the Thai name Runglert Laodi by the monk and joined dozens of other Thai and Cambodian boys at Wat Benjamaborpit in Bangkok.
One of his contemporaries was none other than the late right-wing monk, Phra Kittiwuttho, who was well-known for preaching during the 70s that killing communists was not a sin. "In 1944, I enrolled at Thammasat's preparatory school," recalled Nuon Chea. "I was in Class 7, Room 9. I was head of my class. I remember that World War II had intensified and Thammasat had to close for safety reasons. All the students took refuge in the provinces. The university had to mail the material and homework to students. I only saw my classmates during exams. When the situation improved, Thammasat re-opened and I went back to study," he said.

Nuon Chea said he took seven or eight subjects, mostly law, but didn't finish his freshman's year as he worked while studying. He worked briefly with the Irrigation Department and then moved to the Comptroller Department at the Finance Ministry, where he worked for three years before taking a three-month leave to enter the monkhood in Chachoengsao province. Upon his return to Bangkok, Nuon Chea took another civil service exam, this time to join the Foreign Ministry. He was assigned to the Indochina Desk but was denied a professional position. Instead, he was given the same level of clerical position he had held at the Finance Ministry with the same amount of salary of 24 baht per month.

After less than three months, he quit to join the pro-democracy movement, without any explanation to his boss. That year, Field Marshal Pin Choonhavan successfully staged a coup and arrested four prominent ministers from the previous government. The four were former lecturers at Thammasat and Noun Chea joined the student movement to demand their release. "At that time there was a movement against France's second colonisation of Cambodia, operating from the Thai-Cambodian border. When I worked at the Foreign Ministry, I saw a report from Laos that the French had shot at innocent villagers who were fetching water from a river in Pak Se. I thought at that time: I study law to serve whom? To serve the ruling class? There was so much injustice. When I was in the monkhood, many farmers came to me for advice. They told me they were poor and had mortgaged their land to the district chief and lost it. I could only listen to them, I was really tired of social injustice."

cont...

[Yappofloyd]

During the interview, Nuon Chea clearly tried to paint the so-called conventional route to anti-establishment sentiment similar to that expressed by other well-known communist leaders: poverty, social injustice and the like. But perhaps the denial of a professional position by the Foreign Ministry which granted it to real Thais, sealed his political fate. In his mind, Nuon Chea was Thai but was not really Thai; he was not really equal, and didn't have the same rights as other Thais. This perhaps decided him on returning to Cambodia. Nuon Chea joined the Communist Party of Thailand (CPT) with the aim of learning how to liberate a country. He had, shortly after enrolling at Thammasat, become a member of the Youth for Democracy of Thailand, under the CPT. He and thousands of Thai students at that time, were branded communists by the government for demanding democracy and social justice.

In 1950, Nuon Chea left Thailand to join the struggle against the French in Cambodia. The move was facilitated by a transfer of membership from the CPT to the Vietnamese-dominated Indochinese Communist Party (ICP), which was trying to coordinate struggles in Cambodia, Laos and Thailand as well.
According to records at the Documentation Centre of Cambodia (DC-Cam), an independent non-profit research institution working on truth, justice, accountability and national reconciliation, in 1951 Nuon Chea was appointed Minister of the Economy in the anti-French Issarak Front. In 1954, he attended a training course in Vietnam and returned to focus on ideological training in various parts of the country.

In 1960, with the establishment of the Cambodian Communist Party (CPK), Nuon Chea became deputy secretary of its Central Committee and a member of its Standing Committee, the most senior bodies responsible for party policy, and held those posts continuously. Shortly after the CPK took power in April 1975 and launched its policies to purify the country and re-create past Khmer glory, Nuon Chea was appointed prime minister.That was in 1976 but he remained in the position for only a few months before Pol Pot took the post.

According to researchers, there is substantial and compelling evidence that Nuon Chea played a leading role in devising the CPK's execution policies, as well as substantial evidence that he played a central role in implementing those policies. For example, he is alleged to have known of and approved the torture and execution of 14,000 Khmer Rouge cadres, men, women and children at Security Office 21 (S-21), also known as Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh. These researchers have also pointed to the influence of Thai political thought throughout Nuon Chea's life. Research is being conducted on the use of Thai language in Khmer Rouge terminology. The researchers believe that Nuon Chea picked only those terms in the Thai language which were Khmer in origin, a sort of revenge against the Thais whom he both admired and despised at the same time.

At the age of 76 (at the time of the interview), living with his wife in a small wooden house, unlike some of his colleagues who enjoyed a comfortable life in luxurious mansions, Nuon Chea said his greatest fear was not to have to face a UN-sponsored genocide and crimes against humanity tribunal, but to lose his eyesight to old age and be unable to read. He said he was an old man and that his thoughts no longer mattered, though he had a few worries left: "I still believe in the principle of serving the people, that's what's missing in Cambodia. I'm worried about the young generation. Cambodia has been deeply hurt. I realise that we can't demand that the healing process be quick. We have to face the reality of things in the country. What I hope for is that the peoples of Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam could overcome their prejudice against each other and live together as good neighbours. The Vietnamese look down upon the whole region; the Thais look down upon the Khmers, and the Khmers look down on the Laotians. Let us not live by the old perceptions of each other, this is the time of globalisation. "Globalisation is not a matter of borderless technology, but borderless heart," he said. "I'm an old man now. I hardly need any sleep any more so I wake up very early in the morning, some times as early as 3.30am and turn on the radio to listen to Buddhist preaching. I also keep in touch with news from Thailand and the world through newspapers, radio and other sources," he said.

This April 17 has a different feel than the previous thirty April 17's. DC-Cam and other victims' organisations have been actively preparing people for the forthcoming tribunal by bringing hundreds, both victims and their families, and Khmer Rouge cadres and families, to see the tribunal building and sites such as Tuol Sleng prison. Educational and awareness campaigns are also being conducted to prepare people as best as possible for the tribunal. Nuon Chea, or Runglert Laodi, took the same path to Bangkok as countless young men from the countryside in Thailand and Cambodia, with dreams of a better life for themselves, their families and their countries. It was impossible to know that path would lead to unspeakable crimes. With the tribunal well on its way and Nuon Chea having told reporters that he is ready to appear in court and tell his story, we will finally have some answers, perhaps, for the millions of lives shattered by Nuon Chea's and his colleagues' youthful dreams. They can finally find closure from the darkest chapter of Cambodian history.

[Yappofloyd]

Judges sworn in for Khmer Rouge trials (Agence France-Presse)
Published: July 3, 2006 International Herald Tribune

PHNOM PENH Cambodian and UN- appointed judges were sworn in Monday at a ceremony that set the stage for the trials of several former Khmer Rouge leaders allegedly responsible for the deaths of about 1.7 million people.

Seventeen Cambodian judges and 10 foreign jurists were sworn in at a ceremony at 4 p.m. in the royal palace's Silver Pagoda, initiating a process that should see some suspects brought before a tribunal by mid-2007.
"This makes it official, formally establishing the Khmer Rouge tribunal," said Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which has compiled evidence of atrocities committed by the regime.

The simple ceremony, presided over by the Cambodian minister of the royal palace, Kong Sam Ol, and a UN envoy, Nicolas Michel, began what is expected to be a three-year process that many feared would never get off the ground. Since Cambodia first asked the United Nations for help in 1997, Prime Minister Hun Sen, who was a low-ranking Khmer Rouge member before fleeing the regime, has proven reluctant to commit resources to the trials.

Donors eventually contributed most of the $56.3 million necessary for the tribunal to operate. During six years of stumbling negotiations, the Cambodian government was blamed for trying to derail the trials. The former leader of the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot, died in 1998, and other survivors are already in their 70s and 80s, prompting fears that they too could die before facing justice for one of the worst genocides of the 20th century.

In its drive for a primitive agrarian utopia, the Khmer Rouge turned Cambodia into a vast collective farm between 1975 and 1979, driving millions from the cities into the countryside. About 1.7 million people were killed, with about 600,000 executed and the rest dying of starvation and overwork, during the Khmer Rouge reign.

On July 10, a two-person team - one Cambodian and one international prosecutor - is due to begin its investigation into the genocide. Prosecutors will decide which of the surviving leaders should face trial. Investigations are expected to last three to six months, with trials beginning in mid-2007.The tribunal will be based at a military compound in Kambol, about 15 kilometers, or 10 miles, west of Phnom Penh. So far only two former regime leaders, Chhit Choeun and Kaing Khek Iev, have been jailed on genocide charges.

[Yappofloyd]

EDITORIAL Khmer genocide trial a step closer (BKK Post 5 July 06)

After years of squabbling and procrastination, Cambodia on Monday took its first physical step to bring former leaders of the Khmer Rouge to trial. In a ceremony at the Silver Pagoda of the royal palace in Phnom Penh, 17 Cambodian and 10 foreign jurists were sworn in, vowing to perform their duties ''honourably, faithfully, impartially and conscientiously''. Initially, the task of prosecutors is to determine who should be brought before the court. This task may take 12 months. When that is established, the court proceedings will begin and experts predict they may last up to three years before any verdict is reached.

The Khmer Rouge stand accused of creating one of the worst human tragedies of the 20th century. Nobody will ever know exactly how many Cambodians died during the four-year reign of the regime but estimates put it at about 1.7 million. With an ultimate aim for an agrarian utopia, the regime tried to establish Cambodia as a huge collective farm. In its quest it abolished education, religion, property rights, currency and all human rights, and forced city dwellers to join farmers in the countryside.

Under the harsh and strict methods of the regime, those millions that did not die of overwork or from being executed for not performing their duty, died of starvation. Today's tourist is horrified by a visit to the infamous Tuol Sleng prison, where up to 20,000 people were tortured and then exterminated; but the prison pales into insignificance when all the atrocities throughout the country are considered.

At this stage, experts predict few former Khmer Rouge leaders will actually stand trial. The regime's leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998 while his deputies are now elderly men in their 70s and 80s, many suffering from poor health. Pol Pot's top deputy Nuon Chea, often referred to as ''Brother Number Two'' is now 79 years old. He has been treated in Bangkok for a heart ailment but reportedly resides just 30 metres from the Thai border in Pailin. ''Brother Number Three'' is Ieng Sary, 77. Whether he can legally be brought to trial remains unknown as he was granted a royal pardon in 1996 after he defected to the Cambodian government. Khieu Samphan, 75, was head of state for the Khmer Rouge and now lives in Pailin.

Others who may be brought to trial include Ta Mok, 80, an allegedly ruthless commander in the southwest whose nickname was ''The Butcher''; and Kang Kek Ieu, alias Duch, the born-again Christian who was the manager of the Tuol Sleng prison. Just how many rungs down the ladder prosecutors will step is not known, but Prime Minister Hun Sen, a once low-ranking Khmer Rouge member, has openly shown his reluctance to exacerbate the establishment of the trials, let alone contribute his nation's money to fund it. Foreign donors have finally promised most of the $56 million the trials could cost.

Starting next Monday at a specially-built military compound in Kambol, 15km west of Phnom Penh, the Cambodian and international prosecutors will begin their investigation into the genocide and ultimately decide who should face trial. Not just Cambodians but the world will be closely watching with interest, in the hope that proceedings go expediently and without any government interference. It is also hoped that prosecutors do not limit the investigation to the aged and infirm top leaders, some of whom will probably die before facing justice. Millions of people could not have been exterminated by half a dozen of the then top brass.

In the past, the Cambodian justice system has shown it leaves much to be desired, with outside influence common. The independence of this tribunal is paramount in restoring the faith of Cambodians in their judicial process. Along with the now continuing success of the International Court of Criminal Justice, based in The Hague, this trial hopefully will be a showcase to give hope to other victims of abuse in the world that their perpetrators will also face justice one day.

[Yappofloyd]

Khmer Rouge judges begin work BBC News 4 July 06

A team of Cambodian and foreign judges are beginning the long process of bringing former Khmer Rouge leaders to trial. A day after being sworn in at a ceremony in Phnom Penh, the 17 Cambodian and 10 foreign judges met for the first of four days of workshops. "They will discuss the milestones and critical activities for year one," said tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath.

Investigations will begin next week, with trials starting in 2007. Some 1.7m people are thought to have died during Cambodia's harsh Khmer Rouge regime, between 1975 and 1979. Many people had begun to fear that the trials would never get off the ground. Since Cambodia first asked the United Nations for help in 1997, the government has been reluctant to commit resources, and foreign donors have provided much of the funding.

STILL FREE
Nuon Chea: 80, chief lieutenant to Pol Pot, most senior surviving member of regime
Khieu Samphan: 74, head of state 1976-79. Pol Pot and Ieng Sary both married members of his family
Ieng Sary: Age unknown, foreign minister 1976-78. Said to be suffering serious heart condition

In 2003, Cambodia and the UN agreed jointly to convene the trials, but many analysts said the process could be undermined by the dire state of Cambodia's judicial system, which was badly debilitated by the Khmer Rouge policy of targeting the intelligentsia for extermination. But now a complex formula of majority voting by both Cambodian and international judicial officials has been devised, to try to ensure that tribunal decisions are backed by both sides.

Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot died in 1998. At present two former regime leaders, Ta Mok and Kang Keng Ieu, more commonly known as Duch, are in jail on genocide charges. But others, including Pol Pot's "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea, former head of state Khieu Samphan and former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary live freely in Cambodia. Nuon Chea told the Associated Press on Monday that he would go before the tribunal if called, in order to clarify the past. "I will be glad to go, so that people in my country and other countries will know the truth of what happened. Whatever they ask, I will tell them," he said.

[Yappofloyd]

Khmer Rouge inquiry sows hope, but Cambodia still grieves
Agence France-Presse Published: July 9, 2006 IHT

CHOEUNG EK, Cambodia Chhorn Sok kneels down, incense in hand, to pray to the souls of the dead at Choeung Ek, a notorious Khmer Rouge "killing field" just outside of Phnom Penh. On Monday, prosecutors are set to begin investigating several Khmer Rouge surviving leaders, and Chhorn Sok hopes his actions will help bring to justice those responsible for the genocide. "Please, can your souls help the court officials succeed in finding your killers, so that you all can rest in peace?" the 49-year-old prays before the 17-story Buddhist stupa said to contain more than 5,000 skulls of those executed at Choeung Ek.

Seventeen Cambodian and 10 UN-appointed foreign jurists were sworn in on July 3, marking the start of a long- awaited tribunal that should bring some former Khmer Rouge leaders to justice by mid-2007. Up to two million people were executed or died of starvation and overwork between 1975 and 1979, when Pol Pot's genocidal Khmer Rouge attempted to impose an agrarian utopia, forcing millions into the countryside. Pol Pot died in 1998. Surviving members of the regime, including his top deputy Nuon Chea, the former head of state Khieu Samphan, and an ex-foreign minister, Ieng Sary, are in their 70s and 80s, prompting fears that they could die before being tried. "I am glad to hear that surviving Khmer Rouge leaders will be brought to trial soon," said Chhorn Sok. "I have hope now. We have been waiting for this to start for so long."

He works as a cleaner at Choeung Ek, where an estimated 9,000 people were executed by the ultra-Maoist regime. "I have been living with pain," he said, gently dusting the skulls. Chhorn Sok said that he lost his right hand after an encounter with Khmer Rouge soldiers in 1973. Ten of his close relatives were among those killed during the regime's three-and-a-half year reign. "We want to know the reasons for the killings," he said. "We want justice to be rendered for the deaths and the victims of the regime. This will compensate my pain and others' pain."

Two prosecutors - one Cambodian and one foreign - will begin their investigations on Monday to decide which senior members of the former regime should face trial. Many believed the trials would never take place. Prime Minister Hun Sen of Cambodia was reluctant to commit resources to the tribunal; indeed, the government was accused of trying to derail the proceedings. Finally, after six years of halting negotiations between the government and the United Nations, hopes are high in Cambodia.

So far, only two former regime leaders - Ta Mok and Kaing Khek Iev, also known as Duch - have been jailed on genocide charges. Ta Mok has been hospitalized for hypertension, but his lawyer, Benson Samay, welcomed the beginning of the judicial process. He said that he was unconcerned that Cambodian judges, who may have lost relatives under the Khmer Rouge, might be biased against his client. "They will make the judgment based on the laws, and we also have foreign judges involved in the case," he said. "Nobody will take revenge."

[Yappofloyd]

Pol Pot: Once a killer, now a revered spirit By Seth Mydans International Herald Tribune Published: August 11, 2006

ANLONG VENG, Cambodia In a dream the other night, two snakes slithered out of Pol Pot's grave and gave his neighbor, Loan Pheap, what she said was a winning lottery number. This was not a surprise. The site of Pol Pot's cremation on this barren mountainside eight years ago is collapsing from neglect, its small fence broken, its low metal roof rusting and curling. But Pol Pot, one of the most brutal mass murderers of the last century, has become a sort of bookie for those who pray to him for numbers. For many here, he is the guardian spirit of the Dangrek Mountains, curing ailments and dispensing lottery numbers.

People who live here say visitors have plucked the last bits of bone from among the cinders and carried them home for good luck. A casino is being built nearby to capitalize on this spiritual bounty. Last month, formal proceedings began in preparation for a trial of the surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge, who, with Pol Pot as their chieftain, were responsible for the deaths of about 1.7 million Cambodians from 1975 to 1979 - nearly a quarter of the population.

Here, in one of the last strongholds of the Khmer Rouge before the movement finally collapsed as a guerrilla army in 1998, some of its most reviled leaders are remembered with loyalty and affection. "The way I see it, he wasn't a bad guy," said Loan Pheap who served under Pol Pot in a women's military brigade and now sells gasoline and plants from her house beside the cremation site. "I still regard him as my father," she said. "He arranged my marriage because we didn't have any parents. During the wedding he told us to love each other forever, just the way a parent would."

This drab, muddy town in the remote north of Cambodia is in mourning now for another top leader, Ta Mok, who died at the age of 80 on July 21, leaving a shrinking handful of frail, aging men as potential defendants. Hundreds of people attended his funeral, weeping for a man who is accused of ordering tens of thousands of killings, but whom they remember as a benevolent patron, distributing rice and cattle even as he executed those who broke his austere communist regulations.

As the chieftain of Anlong Veng he banned theft, drunkenness, prostitution, marriage outside the commune, private enterprise, any contact with outsiders and listening to any radio station other than that of the Khmer Rouge, all punishable by death. Those regulations, posted in the schoolhouse and elsewhere, have been replaced by emblems of the new world that has taken root here. Sharing a wall at the entrance to town are advertising posters for Bayon beer, Luxury cigarettes and Number One condoms.

Many people here are bitter about the changes - "worse than bad," one farmer said - remembering what they say was a time of purity, order and discipline. "I loved him," said Yun Hat, a former Khmer Rouge soldier who lost a leg to a land mine just as Ta Mok had. "He gave us everything we needed. We lived in love and happiness. I never saw him commit any crime." But he and his friend, Em Man said they wished Ta Mok had survived to face his accusers and to tell those who had put their faith in him whether in fact he had been a mass murderer.

"Now he has become zero," said Em Man, a farmer who said he had been a driver for Ta Mok and who wore a red mourning string around his wrist. "He can't answer any questions. I wanted him to explain in court the black and white of his life. I never saw him kill anyone. But black is black and white is white and whatever the court says we will accept." Now, like Pol Pot, this man accused of ravaging his country has found a bleak and barren resting place - an unmarked concrete tomb on a sand- covered platform that is pocked with the hoofprints of wandering cows and visited by defecating dogs.

It is hard to consider how a genocidal killer should properly be laid to rest. Pol Pot was cremated in April, 1998 on top of a stack of old tires and furniture. Perhaps this offhand dismissal is appropriate for leaders who ruled by the adage, "To keep you is no gain, to kill you is no loss." Mourners who trek through a muddy field have left only paltry offerings at Ta Mok's tomb: a clump of burned-out incense sticks, five plastic cups of water, a black oil lamp whose flame has died and a roll of toilet paper that people here say is to wipe his mouth when he has consumed any food that is left for his wandering soul.

But already, in what appears to be a Khmer Rouge tradition, people say his ghost has begun dispensing lottery numbers. On the day of his funeral, Em Man said, a woman saw him in a dream, bet the number 783 in a local lottery, and won a million riel, or about $250. Em Man, squatting in the sand by the tomb, showed a scrap of paper with a list of numbers he said he had received from Ta Mok's specter. He said he would keep playing these numbers until he, too, wins a million.

The government has gotten in on the money-making game as well, hoping to turn the graves into tourist attractions. A shack on the main road, the Anlong Veng Tourism Office, lists the sites: faded photographs of weed-filled plots labeled as the former homes and swimming holes of Khmer Rouge leaders. The only site that draws a regular trickle of visitors is Ta Mok's concrete villa in the center of town, with its irrational maze of big, bare rooms and its underground bunker. Its broad balconies look out over a swampy artificial lake that is dotted with the skeletons of dead trees, a vista created by a man who seems to have felt a kinship with death.

When Ta Mok's harsh utopia collapsed, the outside world flooded in, bringing colored clothing to replace the black pajamas of the Khmer Rouge. Tiny enterprises opened - food stalls, gasoline in recycled Johnny Walker bottles, pirated videotapes, hair dressers and vendors selling cigarettes, duck eggs and mobile telephones. The past and the present mingle as thin white cows wander among the parked motorbikes. And that is where development stopped - at the bottom rung of Cambodian poverty - except for the wide blacktop road that runs through it, with its incongruous yellow center line.

If tourists ever do come, the smooth road will speed them 14 kilometers, or nine miles, up into the mountains to the weed-filled lot where Pol Pot was cremated, 300 meters, or 980 feet, from the border with Thailand.

[Yappofloyd]

Interview with head of Documentation Centre of Cambodia (linked at the top of this thread).

Survivor Gently Adds Voices to Cambodia’s Dark Tale By SETH MYDANS, International Herald Tribune Published: September 16, 2006 Prek Keo, Cambodia

YOUK CHHANG knelt among the coconut palms behind an isolated Buddhist temple and began asking, very gently, how a man named Sous Thy had become part of the killing machine of the Khmer Rouge. Mr. Sous Thy, then a weathered farmer of 45, squatted beside him in this quiet, private place 10 years ago, revealing bit by bit the secrets he had kept for the past quarter century.

Yes, he said, he had taken part in the killings, when 1.7 million Cambodians lost their lives from 1975 to 1979. He had been recruited as a teenager, knowing nothing but the rice fields around him, and had lived in terror every day that he himself would be killed. Mr. Youk Chhang listened quietly, taking notes, passing no judgment. He had been one of the victims of the Khmer Rouge, a half-starved boy who lost more family members than he wants to remember. Now, in both a public and a personal mission, he was trying to fit the pieces of those years together, to document, even if it was beyond understanding, how a nation could devour itself with such ferocity.

Mr. Youk Chhang, who is now 45, heads the Documentation Center of Cambodia, a private organization that over the past decade has collected a trove of 600,000 pages of documents, 6,000 photographs and 200 documentary films recording the Khmer Rouge rule. With financing mostly from the United States government and from Sweden, he and a staff that has now grown to 50 people have mapped about 20,000 mass grave sites, 189 prisons and 80 memorials, and have transcribed 4,000 interviews with former members of the Khmer Rouge.

SINCE his meeting with Mr. Sous Thy in a village not far from Phnom Penh, Mr. Youk Chhang has studied the stories of more former Khmer Rouge cadres than perhaps anybody else. And he has concluded that people like Mr. Sous Thy and people like himself could quite easily have changed places. “They are us, and we are them,” he said in an interview in his small office in Phnom Penh where photographs of victims and killers hang on the walls. “They are the evil side of us. Crimes are committed by human beings, by people just like me.”

In July, after years of delay, a special prosecutor’s office opened a formal investigation into the Khmer Rouge crimes, the first step in a process financed by the United Nations to bring top leaders to trial. Mr. Youk Chhang has handed over hundreds of thousands of documents and other materials that will form the core of the evidence to be presented in court, probably next year.

He has little sympathy for the self-satisfied, self-justifying leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime, now living freely in Cambodia, who are the targets of the investigation. Fewer than a dozen are likely to face trial. But after so many encounters with lower-ranking Khmer Rouge, he has found a sense of kinship with people whose actions he abhors. “I want to imagine what I would have done,” he said. “What would I have said to myself 28 years ago? There were all those people my age, just little kids, naïve, innocent.”

Mr. Youk Chhang was 14 when the Khmer Rouge seized power, forcing him into hard labor in the fields. Food and death became his twin obsessions. His father, an architect, died before the Khmer Rouge time. His mother survived and lives today in Phnom Penh. Decades later, the sound of the early-morning bell from his work brigade still disturbs his thoughts. “You can hear it deep inside your soul, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang,” he said. “It’s like the sound of death. It’s 3 in the morning and you’ve got to go to work, and you know you will see people dying that day in the fields around you.”

His experiences have left him with a horror of physical brutality of even the most minor sort. “When I see people hit their children, I cannot take this,” he said. Once, he said, he canceled an official meeting at a school when he saw a teacher strike a student. “I couldn’t talk to him. I had to leave. I feel it’s unacceptable to do harm to humans.” AS soon as he could, at the end of the Khmer Rouge years, Mr. Youk Chhang joined a flood of hundreds of thousands of refugees and found a new home in Dallas, where he married and earned a college degree. His two children, now 14 and 15, still live there, and he said they understood only a little about the Khmer Rouge years.

But although he had found health, safety and a new life, he said, he remained broken inside, like almost all survivors of those traumatic years, whatever role they had played. “The physical pain is gone,” he said. “But your heart, it is so hard to put back together. It is like a stained-glass window in a church, all the colors smashed on the floor. I thought, How do they put it back together?”

Searching for answers, he began assisting Ben Kiernan, a Cambodia expert at Yale University, who in 1995 sent him back to Cambodia to open the documentation center. One of the strangest things Mr. Youk Chhang has discovered as he has interviewed survivors and explored his own feelings is nostalgia. Even in the most terrible conditions, a moment of life is precious and fleeting, and when it is gone we may long for it. When Mr. Youk Chhang showed Mr. Sous Thy a photograph of himself from his Khmer Rouge personnel file, the former cadre’s face softened with memories. “That was my youth,” he said, gazing at the picture.

Mr. Youk Chhang’s memories are very different, but embedded in the horrors are moments of intense feeling, even happiness, that draw him back. “In the darkness,” he said, “any color, people treasure it, treasure the color of the sugar cane we grow. You treasure the beauty because it was so dark. You treasure the color of the straw that you use to make a roof. You treasure the smell of mint that you grew.”

Nothing in his safe life today is as vivid as those moments stolen from fear. None of his feelings are as sharp as the gratitude he felt for his mother, who gave him her food when he was ill and hoarded grains of rice for him when he was away. “I am doing all of this for my mother, honestly,” he said. “She loved to cook for us, and she loved the crab that we caught in the rice fields,” he said, remembering the Khmer Rouge years. “We would fish for the crabs with a bamboo basket, and whenever we got a crab we would laugh; we were so happy. “I wish I could go back, to be in that moment again,” he said. “I wish I could go back and tell her that I love her.”

[Yappofloyd]

The next two months will be make or break for the tribunal.

No justice in this world (Dec 19th 2006 | PHNOM PENH From The Economist print edition) Death is more likely than the law to catch up with the Khmers Rouges
“THINGS are going well,” says Robert Petit, a Canadian co-prosecutor at the UN-backed tribunal set up to try Khmers Rouges leaders for their atrocities. Five months after it started work, he says he is ready to recommend the first indictment as soon as the tribunal's Cambodian and international jurists have agreed on its rules of procedure. Sadly, no one is sure when, or even if, that will happen. Human Rights Watch, a lobby group, believes that “political interference has brought the whole process to a screeching halt.”

A plenary meeting of Cambodian and foreign judges convened in late November to reach agreement. It proved a disastrous exercise in mutual incomprehension. Cambodian judges, who appeared to be taking instructions from elsewhere, reportedly complained that there was not enough time to get through the 113 articles in the draft rules, and that they paid too much heed to international, not national, law. The foreigners resisted but were dismayed by the refusal of the Cambodians to engage in serious discussion.

It was never going to be easy to deliver justice to victims of the Khmers Rouges 28 years after the end of their rule, which killed up to 2m people. Top leaders, starting with Pol Pot, have already died. With every delay it is more likely others will be dead before indictment. The tribunal's official title, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), hints at its limitations. Compared with the recent tribunals on former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, Sierra Leone and East Timor, Cambodia's is much more firmly based in national law. Under the agreement wrung by Hun Sen, the prime minister, from a reluctant UN in 2003, it is the first to have a majority of national judges.

Unfortunately, existing Cambodian law is weak on the crimes the tribunal is investigating. Worse, the judiciary is one of the world's least qualified and most corrupt. Human-rights groups say it is not an instrument of justice but a political tool. Moreover, Hun Sen and other prominent government figures are themselves former Khmers Rouges and are assumed to remain sensitive about the tribunal's investigations and its targets for prosecution.

The tribunal remains dogged by other weaknesses. There is a disturbing lack of safeguards for witnesses. The meagre budget so far provided by Japan and Western governments leaves the ECCC acutely short of manpower and equipment. Jim Goldston, a leading American international jurist has accused governments of feebly acquiescing in “official ineptitude, power-grabbing and duplicitousness”.

The tribunal has given its rules committee until the end of January to agree on procedures that meet international standards. If it does, these will go to a new plenary, probably in February. If not, Ban Ki-moon, the new UN secretary-general, will have to decide whether to exercise the opt-out clause inserted in the UN's agreement with Cambodia—precisely for fear of political interference. But even if the UN does remain engaged, the message foreign judges are sending is that they may not.

[Yappofloyd]

Article in Bangkok post today suggesting Hun Sen is keen to see the trials go ahead. Here is an article just posted on the Post website

Cambodia to pursue Khmer Rouge trials 07/01/07

Phnom Penh (dpa) - The Cambodian government reiterated its pledge to prosecute former leaders of the Khmer Rouge, a senior official said Sunday. Chea Sim, president of the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP), marking the anniversary of the 1979 defeat of the Khmer Rouge, lashed out criticism of the slow pace of the promised trials.

"We wish that those entities who constantly look at the process in a negative way would take a more balanced approach to their stance and activities and stop trying to blackmail the Cambodian judicial system, sovereignty, national honour and distort history to suit their own political agendas," Chea Sim said. "The CPP undertook the struggle to save the people and has constantly searched for justice for the victims of the genocidal regime," he said.

The 56-million-dollar joint UN-Cambodian trial process finally began its prosecution phase in July, but has stalled again amidst fierce wrangling over internal rules needed to proceed. Critics including New York-based Human Rights Watch have accused the government of meddling in the process and of lacking the political will to move swiftly ahead with the trial, budgeted to take just three years.

Some critics have expressed doubts that the resolve of the government, which still contains a number of former Khmer Rouge cadre who defected and fled to Vietnam to form the nucleus of the movement which would return to defeat Pol Pot's regime. Pol Pot died in 1998, while another prime candidate for trial, Ta Mok, died in hospital last year. Other candidates are elderly and complaining of ill health, and advocates of a trial have warned it must proceed with haste or risk never taking place at all.

[Yappofloyd]

Unwieldy court further complicates Khmer Rouge trial
By Seth Mydans (IHT) Thursday, January 25, 2007 PHNOM PENH The

Cambodian judges were on one side and the foreign judges on the other this week in a dispute that captures a decade of difficulties in bringing to trial the last surviving leaders of the murderous Khmer Rouge. If they cannot agree on procedural rules soon, analysts and officials at the tribunal say, some foreign judges could walk out, casting a further shadow over a process that some critics say is already so compromised as to be of doubtful value.

Seventeen Cambodians and 12 foreigners took office as judges and prosecutors last July, inaugurating a United Nations-sponsored process that mixes Cambodian law with international standards of justice. It is an awkward formula made all the more questionable by the involvement of poorly trained Cambodian judges who were appointed by and are answerable to Prime Minister Hun Sen. Pragmatists say that a flawed trial is better than none at all and that there is no choice but to proceed with the tribunal you've got rather than the tribunal you might wish to have.

Three decades have already passed since the Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia, causing the deaths of 1.7 million people through killings, torture, starvation and overwork in a regime that lasted from 1975 to 1979. The potential defendants are aging and some have died, notably the Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot, in 1998. The trial targets top leaders and "those most responsible" for the crimes and is expected to focus on at most a dozen defendants. A handful of names are generally mentioned as potential defendants, only one of whom is in custody, with the remainder living freely in Cambodia. The foreign prosecutor, a Canadian named Robert Petit, has been pursuing the evidence vigorously and has not said where it is leading him. In an interview, he said he was ready to propose his first indictments once the judges have formalized the rules at a plenary session tentatively set for March. A trial might then begin by the end of the year.

A rules committee of nine judges is attempting to resolve the differences now. Sean Visoth, the tribunal's Cambodian coordinator, said: "If there is no compromise and there is no plenary, the international judges will walk away."
The delay has revived a familiar concern that Hun Sen might not in fact want the trial to proceed and might be throwing up the latest in a long series of roadblocks that have stalled it over the years. Among other things, he is believed to be under pressure from China, which does not want to see a trial that would be likely to demonstrate its close ties to the Khmer Rouge regime.

Cambodia and the United Nations reached agreement on the structure of the mixed tribunal in 2003 after years of difficult negotiations that involved both technical and political differences. Those differences remained at the heart of the disagreements that have stalled the trial since last November, according to experts on the tribunal. There are more than 100 sometimes complicated procedural rules to be agreed upon. But the core disputes appear to involve a fundamental, long- running issue: the independence of the trial from Cambodian political manipulation.

On the Cambodian side, an important issue is control, the U.S. ambassador, Joseph Mussomeli, said. "The government in general tries to keep tight control over the judiciary and anything that could have negative consequences," he said. The first concern is the scope of indictments in a country where the politics of the present remain tangled in the past. Some former middle-ranking Khmer Rouge are prominent in the current government, including Hun Sen — although experts say he is not culpable. Other potential defendants may have powerful patrons who seek to protect them from indictment.

One point of contention among the judges, according to people close to the negotiation, is an extremely complex provision that would in effect allow an indictment to proceed without the agreement of the Cambodian side. That provision is one of several balancing acts in the tribunal's supermajority system that at most junctures allows foreign and Cambodian judges to cast what amount to vetoes over one another's decisions. In addition, the Cambodian side is seeking to limit the right of defendants to be represented in court by foreign lawyers, which it says is a violation of Cambodian legal sovereignty.

Foreign analysts say that the Cambodian concern is that aggressive foreign lawyers would be independent of any political guidance and could send the case in unpredictable directions. A British lawyer, Rupert Skilbeck, has already set up a Defense Office to coordinate the work of individual lawyers once they are hired. He said that without the right to select their own lawyers defendants would be placed at a disadvantage. "It's important that the trials are very fair because if they're seen as show trials, then there will be no justice," he said in November, speaking to the Cambodian Bar Association, which is closely allied with Hun Sen and which opposes participation by foreign lawyers.

Mussomeli said that the Cambodian government, accustomed to controlling the judiciary, might be reacting defensively to Petit, who has taken on his job as prosecutor with an energy and independence that is unfamiliar here. In the interview, Petit sought to calm these concerns, saying he was aware of the sensitivity of his role and of the possibility that the tribunal could be derailed by an overly aggressive prosecution. "We have to apply the law in the context of Cambodia," he said. "I'm not stupid. You have to exercise discretion."

Petit has been involved in international tribunals in Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Kosovo and East Timor, and he said that he understood that in cases like these it is not possible to follow the law blindly, without reference to its context. "We all have a sense of our responsibilities," he said. "Our primary responsibility is to deliver justice to the victims of these crimes." That would not be possible, he said, if the process was shut down for any reason. "Having a right and exercising it with good judgment is two different things," he said.

He said he did not yet know how many cases he would forward to the next level of the tribunal, the investigating judges, who are to issue indictments.
"In this particular tribunal there are very specific expectations," he said. "Everyone knows what happened. We've got the evidence there, you just have to pick it up and carry it into court — well, it doesn't work that way. "We have to grasp events of great magnitude that happened 30 years ago and be legally and morally convinced that we have cases against individual people," he said.

[Yappofloyd]

It is of course not an uncommon practice in Cambodia to give kick backs in order to ensure tenure.

Cambodia genocide court faces graft charges - Agence France Presse 15/02/07

Phnom Penh - Cambodian officials at the court handling the Khmer Rouge genocide trials are being forced to kick back wages to the government in order to keep their jobs, a legal watchdog said Thursday. The allegations are the latest challenges to the credibility of the court, which is also bogged down in disputes between Cambodian and UN judges that make it unlikely the tribunal will begin its trials on schedule.

Court officials confirmed that an audit of the tribunal had been launched but denied that it was related to the allegations made by the US-based Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI). "The alleged entanglement of money, political favours, government officials, and judicial officers heightens fears that the Cambodian judges are subject to government interference and cannot act independently," the OSJI said. It said local judges were among those forced to give back "a significant per centage of their wages" to unnamed Cambodian government officials.

But Sean Visoth, chief administrator for the Cambodian side of the joint tribunal, called the outside audit a "regular process" that had nothing to do with the corruption charges. "All donor funds must be audited," he said. "These are unsubstantiated allegations." Most of the tribunal's 56 million-dollar budget comes from donors, with Cambodia so far contributing only a fraction of its 13-million-dollar share.

The willingness of the international community to foot the bill has repeatedly come into question amid allegations of government foot-dragging and political interference. "Donors, the international community, and the Cambodian people have the right to know that money entrusted to the (tribunal) is being spent transparently and honestly," said OSJI executive director James Goldston. "The court's most precious resource -- public confidence -- is at stake," he said. Up to two million people died under the 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge regime, which abolished religion, property rights, currency and schools. Leader Pol Pot died in 1998, and so far only one potential defendant is in custody.

[Yappofloyd]

Khmer Rouge genocide trial close to collapse as judges dispute rules
Diplomats say government hampering tribunal for fear of embarrassing revelations - The Guardian 27 Feb 07

With sad eyes Om Som sits in her shack in the Cambodian countryside waiting for answers. The shoeless 70-year-old has clung on for half a lifetime hoping to find out what happened to her beloved husband, and why.
She also prays for some scant justice for the man she never saw again after he was led away by three young Khmer Rouge cadres, falsely accused of stealing a chicken. The seven months pregnant mother-of-five was whipped unconscious for daring to complain.

Twenty-eight years after Pol Pot's brutal regime was toppled, the prospect of a long-awaited genocide trial of its senior leaders offers a faint glimmer of hope for Om Som. With her family she was evacuated from Phnom Penh when it was cleared by the Khmer Rouge in "Year Zero", starved and forced to labour in the fields. She endured the sight of bound prisoners brought in ox-carts to a Buddhist pagoda near her village and heard their tortured screams floating on night breezes from the makeshift extermination centre where 30,000 died. "I don't want any revenge, but if the government tries these leaders I'll be happy," she said. "What I really want to know is what happened."

But even that modest hope could be dashed. The trial to bring to book the Khmer Rouge's leaders for the extermination of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians in the "killing fields" is on the brink of collapse even before the first indictment can be handed down. Now victims' families scarred by Pol Pot's savagery fear his ageing henchmen may escape justice and die free men because wrangling between Cambodian and United Nations-appointed international judges over the tribunal's ground rules is threatening to derail the process.

Two attempts to resolve the disputes have foundered. Another effort to break the deadlock is set for a special session starting on March 5. But the senior international judge warns that another failure could prove fatal, forcing him and his colleagues to pull out. "If next month the new rules are not adopted we will not go forward because it would be useless," said the French investigating judge, Marcel Lemonde. "Then we would have to examine the possibility of the international judges asking the UN to withdraw and drop the whole process. It's now or never."

The crisis comes a decade after the Cambodian government approached the UN to establish a tribunal to try senior Khmer Rouge leaders for the torture, starvation and mass slaughter of a quarter of their compatriots between 1975 and 1979. Tortuous negotiations over the scope of the hearings eventually led to the establishment of a hybrid court with 17 Cambodian and 12 international judges who took office last July - a complexity human rights groups warned was a formula for disaster.

Two of the regime's leaders have died - Pol Pot, "Brother number one", under house arrest in 1998, and Ta Mok, the regime's military commander, in July last year. Just one is in custody, "Duch", born Kak Kek Ieu. He was the brutal interrogator who headed Phnom Penh's notorious Tuol Sleng torture centre - codenamed S21 - where he oversaw the slaughter of 10,499 "spies and traitors" and 2,000 children.

Others like Noun Chea, "Brother number two", Ieng Sary, the regime's foreign minister, and Khieu Samphan, its nominal head of state, are in their late 70s and still at liberty in Cambodia. No more than a dozen defendants, the top leaders and "those most responsible" for the genocide, are in the sights of the tribunal, whose estimated cost is $60m (about £30m).

The international judges had hoped to agree the procedures with their Cambodian counterparts last November so that the trials - which could take three years - could begin within months. A sub-committee hit the same impasse over the 113 rules in January. A sticking point is the defendants' right of international representation in court. Briton Rupert Skilbeck, a war crimes barrister appointed by the UN as the principal defender, has already established an office to coordinate defence lawyers once they are appointed.

But the Cambodian judges, unaccustomed to a vigorous defence, have proved reluctant to allow international barristers to conduct a robust scrutiny of the case against the accused. "Everyone in Cambodia was touched by Pol Pot's regime, so everyone has an opinion," said Alex Bates, another Briton who is the senior assistant prosecutor. "After 28 years everyone thinks they know who the guilty men are. Just put them in prison."

Both sides are adamant the process must be transparent and fair, in line with international standards, despite being under the umbrella of the Cambodian judicial system. "It's absolutely fundamental this trial is clearly fair," said Mr Skilbeck. "Not just in the interests of the accused, but of the Cambodian people and the Khmer Rouge's victims. If not, half the population will dismiss it as a sham. We can't be part of a show trial."

Diplomats monitoring negotiations accuse the government of prime minister Hun Sen - a former Khmer Rouge member - of deliberately hampering the process, even attempting to scupper it, fearful that embarrassing revelations may emerge. "The government only wants to be part of a process it can control," said one senior western diplomat in Phnom Penh. "It's not that Hun Sen will be indicted, but one or two top generals could be. What will people say in court? The Chinese supported the Khmer Rouge and are close to Hun Sen's government. They'll be making their own calculations about what could come out of this."

Human rights groups argue that the government is manipulating the Cambodian judges to tie up the discussions. "The Cambodian judicial system is notoriously corrupt and extremely vulnerable to political pressure from the top levels of government," said Sara Colm, of Human Rights Watch. Vann Nath, 62, whose writings and paintings have shone a light on the dark corners of the regime's gruesome crimes, despairs after waiting almost three decades. One of only seven survivors from Tuol Sleng, he said: "This just goes on and on and I've almost lost hope there'll ever be justice."

Backstory

The Khmer Rouge, led by "Brother number one", Pol Pot, came to power in Cambodia after casting aside coup leader Lon Nol and his corrupt regime. They swept into Phnom Penh on April 17 1975, which was declared Year Zero.

The regime set about building a radical, peasant-dominated agrarian utopia. The capital and provincial towns were cleared and the inhabitants forced to march to the countryside to work 15-hour days with virtually no food. Many died of starvation or disease. Many thousands more intellectuals and the devout were tortured and clubbed to death in the "killing fields". An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians perished.

The Vietnamese invaded and brought down the regime in January 1979. Pol Pot died in 1998.

[Yappofloyd]

Staring down horrors of the Khmer Rouge By Robert Turnbull Thursday, April 5, 2007 IHT

PHNOM PENH: Ever since his 1994 movie "Rice People" introduced a Cambodian voice to world cinema, the director Rithy Panh has become the conscience of a nation still haunted by the tragedy of its recent past. "From the beginning I knew my work would focus on the problems in my country," Panh said. "It's been 26 years since the fall of the Khmer Rouge, yet we still don't fully understand why we were forced to live through these horrors."

Having lost many of his relatives to the terror, during which 1.7 million people died, Panh, 42, has returned repeatedly to the personal dramas of national decimation. "Un Soir Après La Guerre" (1998), a feature set among the detritus of postwar Phnom Penh, charts the attempts of a returning soldier to forge a new life in a decimated moral and physical landscape.

The documentary "Bophana: A Cambodian Tragedy" (1996) tells the story of a couple separated and fatally tortured at S21, the regime's notorious detention center in Phnom Penh. Panh uses the victims' love letters and extracted confessions as voiceover. "When shall we two meet again," writes Sothy to his wife in a touching misquote of Shakespeare's "Macbeth."

The same high school-turned-torture center is the subject of Panh's multi-award-winning "S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine" (2003). To penetrate the minds of perpetrators, Panh spent several years gaining their trust. The results make compelling viewing. There are tears of remorse, but also a chilling indifference. "I had power over the enemy - I never thought of his life," explains one interrogator. "Most of these men still don't understand how they became killers," Panh said. "It's not simply a question of judgment. We need to find answers to these questions."

Pol Pot is dead, but so far not a single person has been tried or convicted for crimes committed during that period. Panh welcomes the upcoming UN-sponsored Khmer Rouge trial, but shares his compatriots' skepticism. "Attempts at reconciliation have long been a feature of Cambodian society," he said, "but how can a nation be reconciled with those who deny responsibility?"

His objective is neither revenge nor retribution: the key to the healing process he sees as lying in the collective memory of victims. "We have no recorded images of the genocide," he said. "If we don't confront the past, we will lose these essential memories; which is why I encourage people to tell their stories. The Khmer Rouge tried to destroy our culture and our identity, but it could never be simply a process of erasing something from a blackboard."

The film's effect was profound and immediate. The former Khmer Rouge leader, Khieu Samphan, saw "S21" and admitted the prison's existence for the first time, having formerly denied any knowledge of it. "These men build walls around themselves and live in ideological bunkers," Panh said. It was that holocaust, he says, that turned him into a film director. Panh arrived in Paris as a refugee in 1980. He started making films when handed a camera at a party at the vocational college where he had enrolled as a carpenter.

Panh then attended classes at Hautes Études Cinématographiques, where he shot his first documentary, "Site II," about a Cambodian border camp. Its success at Cannes in 1989 led to introductions to his current group of backers, among them the French-German television network Arte and the French network Canal Plus.

For his last film, "Les Artistes du Théâtre Brûlé," Panh turned his attention to Cambodia's performing artists. For him, the 10 percent of dancers, actors, and shadow puppeteers who survived the wars are the guardians of longstanding traditions that define Cambodian culture and underpin its identity. Most exist on salaries of between $10 and $15 a month, perform rarely and face an enervating daily struggle against government indifference and corruption.

The film's title refers to the popular Suramarit National Theatre in Phnom Penh, which was partially destroyed by fire in 1994, leaving its 250-person troupe homeless and depressed. Twelve years later, the theater has few prospects of being rebuilt.

Panh shows us the human costs of this tragedy. His film portrays a community that dreams of reviving Cambodia's classical repertory but prostitutes its talents in karaoke shoots and nightclubs to survive. "Soon people won't know what theater is," declares one actor. "Everyone will be watching ghost films or singing the same lyrics like parrots."

During the golden age of the '60s Cambodians enjoyed a prolific film industry with a large roster of home-grown stars and an inexhaustible supply of backers. Leading the endeavor was Cambodia's King Norodom Sihanouk, who used the same theater to inaugurate Southeast Asia's first "international" film festival for the purpose of promoting his own films.

Since returning to live in Phnom Penh three years ago, Panh has witnessed a revival in film culture with the emergence of a new generation of technicians. But he has serious reservations. "Of course I welcome it, but we still have a long way to go if we are going to give expression to our identity rather than escape into some fantasy world."

He pointed out that many of the 20 or so entries for Phnom Penh's recently begun national film festival revealed clear directorial preferences for gory thrillers and raucous action movies. "We now live in an era of media and images, but we must teach young people how to create their own images for their own personal expression," he said. Many of Cambodia's recent films, he said, are "cut like pop promos, consumed like popcorn and betray little understanding of the medium's technical possibilities."

Panh would like to see a film school and audio-visual department attached to the Royal University of Phnom Penh as the next step to encourage independent agencies and inspire local production. He acknowledges that private investors will seek quick returns, but would prefer that producers focus on expanding the industry's infrastructure and cultivating new directors.

Panh looks to other developing countries, especially in Africa, as evidence that film can help reignite pride in a culture that previous generations brought close to annihilation. But it needs significant help. His message to the government is clear: economic progress must go hand in hand with cultural development. Forget to develop culture and identity and you remain spiritually impoverished.

[Yappofloyd]

Staring down horrors of the Khmer Rouge By Robert Turnbull IHT Thursday, April 5, 2007

PHNOM PENH: Ever since his 1994 movie "Rice People" introduced a Cambodian voice to world cinema, the director Rithy Panh has become the conscience of a nation still haunted by the tragedy of its recent past. "From the beginning I knew my work would focus on the problems in my country," Panh said. "It's been 26 years since the fall of the Khmer Rouge, yet we still don't fully understand why we were forced to live through these horrors."

Having lost many of his relatives to the terror, during which 1.7 million people died, Panh, 42, has returned repeatedly to the personal dramas of national decimation. "Un Soir Après La Guerre" (1998), a feature set among the detritus of postwar Phnom Penh, charts the attempts of a returning soldier to forge a new life in a decimated moral and physical landscape.

The documentary "Bophana: A Cambodian Tragedy" (1996) tells the story of a couple separated and fatally tortured at S21, the regime's notorious detention center in Phnom Penh. Panh uses the victims' love letters and extracted confessions as voiceover. "When shall we two meet again," writes Sothy to his wife in a touching misquote of Shakespeare's "Macbeth."

The same high school-turned-torture center is the subject of Panh's multi-award-winning "S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine" (2003). To penetrate the minds of perpetrators, Panh spent several years gaining their trust. The results make compelling viewing. There are tears of remorse, but also a chilling indifference. "I had power over the enemy - I never thought of his life," explains one interrogator. "Most of these men still don't understand how they became killers," Panh said. "It's not simply a question of judgment. We need to find answers to these questions."

Pol Pot is dead, but so far not a single person has been tried or convicted for crimes committed during that period. Panh welcomes the upcoming UN-sponsored Khmer Rouge trial, but shares his compatriots' skepticism. "Attempts at reconciliation have long been a feature of Cambodian society," he said, "but how can a nation be reconciled with those who deny responsibility?"

His objective is neither revenge nor retribution: the key to the healing process he sees as lying in the collective memory of victims. "We have no recorded images of the genocide," he said. "If we don't confront the past, we will lose these essential memories; which is why I encourage people to tell their stories. The Khmer Rouge tried to destroy our culture and our identity, but it could never be simply a process of erasing something from a blackboard."

The film's effect was profound and immediate. The former Khmer Rouge leader, Khieu Samphan, saw "S21" and admitted the prison's existence for the first time, having formerly denied any knowledge of it. "These men build walls around themselves and live in ideological bunkers," Panh said. It was that holocaust, he says, that turned him into a film director. Panh arrived in Paris as a refugee in 1980. He started making films when handed a camera at a party at the vocational college where he had enrolled as a carpenter.

Panh then attended classes at Hautes Études Cinématographiques, where he shot his first documentary, "Site II," about a Cambodian border camp. Its success at Cannes in 1989 led to introductions to his current group of backers, among them the French-German television network Arte and the French network Canal Plus.

For his last film, "Les Artistes du Théâtre Brûlé," Panh turned his attention to Cambodia's performing artists. For him, the 10 percent of dancers, actors, and shadow puppeteers who survived the wars are the guardians of longstanding traditions that define Cambodian culture and underpin its identity. Most exist on salaries of between $10 and $15 a month, perform rarely and face an enervating daily struggle against government indifference and corruption.

The film's title refers to the popular Suramarit National Theatre in Phnom Penh, which was partially destroyed by fire in 1994, leaving its 250-person troupe homeless and depressed. Twelve years later, the theater has few prospects of being rebuilt. Panh shows us the human costs of this tragedy. His film portrays a c