DPA
International judges in a proposed Khmer Rouge trial have threatened to boycott an April plenary meeting unless the Cambodian Bar Association backs down on new demands to impose prohibitive fees on foreign lawyers to participate.
In a statement released Friday, the nine-member committee of foreign and Cambodian judges said they reached tentative compromise on draft basic internal rules but were now at loggerheads over a new stumbling block.
Delays have stalled and threatened to derail the joint United Nations-Cambodian 56-million dollar hearings.
"One issue not mentioned in the draft Internal Rules...is the impact of registration fees on the participation of foreign lawyers in the ECCC," the statement said.
"The latest decision of the Bar Association of the Kingdom of Cambodia imposes a fee that is unacceptable to the international judges, who consider that it severely limits the rights of accused and victims to select counsel of their choice.
"The judges are ready to hold a plenary at the end of April. For international judges, this will be possible only if a satisfactory resolution of this issue is reached."
The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), which was set up by the UN last year to try a handful of remaining ailing and ageing former leaders of the 1975 to 1979 regime, is a complex blending of international and Cambodian law.
Critics have claimed the Cambodian government, which still contains a number of former Khmer Rouge cadre and accepts hefty aid from China, has attempted to stall the trials through a series of subterfuges, including using alleged influence over the bar association.
The Cambodian government has strongly denied the allegations, and its leaders have said publicly that they want the trial to go ahead.
Donor nations, which have provided much of the budget for the courts through the UN side of the trial, have grown increasingly impatient with delays to the proceedings. The proceedings were only budgeted to take three years to complete.
Up to 2 million Cambodians died during the Khmer Rouge regime, but most prime candidates for trial remain at large, with many ill and almost all elderly. Leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998.
In a statement released Friday, the nine-member committee of foreign and Cambodian judges said they reached tentative compromise on draft basic internal rules but were now at loggerheads over a new stumbling block.
Delays have stalled and threatened to derail the joint United Nations-Cambodian 56-million dollar hearings.
"One issue not mentioned in the draft Internal Rules...is the impact of registration fees on the participation of foreign lawyers in the ECCC," the statement said.
"The latest decision of the Bar Association of the Kingdom of Cambodia imposes a fee that is unacceptable to the international judges, who consider that it severely limits the rights of accused and victims to select counsel of their choice.
"The judges are ready to hold a plenary at the end of April. For international judges, this will be possible only if a satisfactory resolution of this issue is reached."
The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), which was set up by the UN last year to try a handful of remaining ailing and ageing former leaders of the 1975 to 1979 regime, is a complex blending of international and Cambodian law.
Critics have claimed the Cambodian government, which still contains a number of former Khmer Rouge cadre and accepts hefty aid from China, has attempted to stall the trials through a series of subterfuges, including using alleged influence over the bar association.
The Cambodian government has strongly denied the allegations, and its leaders have said publicly that they want the trial to go ahead.
Donor nations, which have provided much of the budget for the courts through the UN side of the trial, have grown increasingly impatient with delays to the proceedings. The proceedings were only budgeted to take three years to complete.
Up to 2 million Cambodians died during the Khmer Rouge regime, but most prime candidates for trial remain at large, with many ill and almost all elderly. Leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998.
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