VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh
02/04/2007
The UN-appointed jurists of a stuttering Khmer Rouge tribunal said Monday they will give the Cambodian Bar Association a final ultimatum to drop fees for foreign lawyers before boycotting an upcoming planning session scheduled for later this month.
Cambodian and foreign judges and prosecutors, collectively called jurists, have been bickering over internal rules for trials of former leaders of the Khmer Rouge, and last month said they had reached some solutions.
However, the Cambodian Bar Association's requests for excessively high fees for foreign lawyers is keeping the process from moving forward.
Cambodian Bar Association President Ky Tech has said the bar cannot budge.
Concerned observers say the last chance for a tribunal is fast approaching, as more deadlocks threaten a legal time limit on the trials.
Cambodian and foreign judges and prosecutors, collectively called jurists, have been bickering over internal rules for trials of former leaders of the Khmer Rouge, and last month said they had reached some solutions.
However, the Cambodian Bar Association's requests for excessively high fees for foreign lawyers is keeping the process from moving forward.
Cambodian Bar Association President Ky Tech has said the bar cannot budge.
Concerned observers say the last chance for a tribunal is fast approaching, as more deadlocks threaten a legal time limit on the trials.
4 comments:
I am really, really sad, sickening, and disgusted to see the Khmer Rouge tribunal being turned into a circus. I can't believe it that these jurists (both Cambodian and foreign lawyers) put money before justice. Have they no consciences? They seems to lack one thing in common--that is the respect for those who had perished in the Cambodian killing fields.
I am not a lawyer, but I know a thing or two about justice. For justice to be propperly served, we must find the truth. And in order to find the truth, we must bring both the victims and the perpetrators before the court to tell the world (from their own mouths or through their counsels) what exactly had happened. And finally, to make sure that the procedure is justly carried out, both sides should have equal access and freedom to choose counsels to represent them.
We must remember that this is a case of crime against humanity-a systemic mass murder that has nothing to do with national sovereignty, lawyer fees, and all the other craps which were being used as bones of contentions.
TO THE JURISTS, I want say one thing that if there is any common sense left in your brains, please give up any compensation involved in this endeavor and work as volunteers (not voltures) to help rectify what had been wronged or at least to help those wandering souls to find a resting place.
Chanda Chhay
Washington, DC
U.S.A.
If the foreign jurists walk out, it will make the CPP happy. that is what they wanted all along.
Since when Cambodia ever had proper justice system ?
What do we expect when our homeland is being controlled and manipulated by the Viet and the chinese who both MAY HAVE HAD the killing Fields blood in their hands???
Was the killing fields foreign-engineered or was it Khmer made???
Why is ah Vet dog HUN SEN regime in P. Penh playing this game of stone-walling???
Mr. Chanda Chhay
Thank you very much for your comment. I very much appreciated your idea and wholeheartedly support it.
Actually, in the old days, the legal profession was a calling, not a commercial,money t-making career. Lawyers would not sue their clients if they refused to pay fees due to them.
LAO Mong Hay, Hong Kong
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