Phnom Penh
06/04/2007
The Cambodian judges of the Khmer Rouge tribunal issued a statement Thursday chiding their international counterparts for canceling a meeting later this month, publicly widening a rift that observers fear will threaten the tribunal further.
In a statement issued through the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, the official name for the tribunal, the Cambodian judges said the cancellation marked an unwillingness by the UN-appointed judges to move a tribunal forward.
Earlier this week, international judges announced they would cancel an April 1 plenary session to establish internal rules for a tribunal because the Cambodian Bar Association would require foreign lawyers to pay fees amounting to $4,900 the first year to work on a tribunal.
No former Khmer Rouge leader has been indicted in the tribunal. Instead, the ECCC has been beset with difficulties, the most public and most recent among them the refusal of the bar association to lower fees for foreign lawyers.
International judges see the high fees as a watering down of the tribunal's standards.
The Cambodian judges censured the Defense Support Section of the ECCC for "not being active" in working with the Cambodian Bar Association to find a solution and said to the international judges that the fees should not affect the rules.
However, at least one rights worker said Friday the issues were related.
"The internal rules focus on the freedom to choose the lawyers freely. How can it be free when the fees are too high?" said Long Panhavuth, director of the Fair Project for a Free Society. "I believe it is related. The defendants and the victims don't have lawyers to represent them freely. This has a great impact on international standards."
Observers warn that if a tribunal does not get under way soon, it will collapse under its own three-year time limit.
"The national judges…hope that the international judges will reconsider their decision and participate in the planned plenary session," according to the ECCC statement, quoting a letter the Cambodian judges say they sent to their international counterparts.
In a statement issued through the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, the official name for the tribunal, the Cambodian judges said the cancellation marked an unwillingness by the UN-appointed judges to move a tribunal forward.
Earlier this week, international judges announced they would cancel an April 1 plenary session to establish internal rules for a tribunal because the Cambodian Bar Association would require foreign lawyers to pay fees amounting to $4,900 the first year to work on a tribunal.
No former Khmer Rouge leader has been indicted in the tribunal. Instead, the ECCC has been beset with difficulties, the most public and most recent among them the refusal of the bar association to lower fees for foreign lawyers.
International judges see the high fees as a watering down of the tribunal's standards.
The Cambodian judges censured the Defense Support Section of the ECCC for "not being active" in working with the Cambodian Bar Association to find a solution and said to the international judges that the fees should not affect the rules.
However, at least one rights worker said Friday the issues were related.
"The internal rules focus on the freedom to choose the lawyers freely. How can it be free when the fees are too high?" said Long Panhavuth, director of the Fair Project for a Free Society. "I believe it is related. The defendants and the victims don't have lawyers to represent them freely. This has a great impact on international standards."
Observers warn that if a tribunal does not get under way soon, it will collapse under its own three-year time limit.
"The national judges…hope that the international judges will reconsider their decision and participate in the planned plenary session," according to the ECCC statement, quoting a letter the Cambodian judges say they sent to their international counterparts.
16 comments:
Can anyone (preferably a person who is thoroughly knowledgeable of the ECCC) help enlighten me on the issues which seem to keep the Cambodian and foreign lawyers at loggerhead. From what I see through media reports, they seem to make a mountain out of a mole hill. If I may, I would like to offer a couple of sentences as foods for thought:
To the Cambodian jurists and the CBA: As hosts, please be courteous to your guests. Remember that a good and proper host might have to bend backward a little bit in order to make the occasion socially acceptable.
To the foreign jurists: Please don't try to implement to many changes regarding the Cambodian scheme of things. The great sociologist, Margaret Meade, taught us that ethnocentrism is counterproductive when dealing with different cultures. We appreciate your efforts, but we will remember your action more than anything else if you could overcome your prides and work with those your despise.
Chanda Chhay
Washington, DC
stupid khmer underqualified judges, don't you try or pretend to turn the table on foreign judges.
when it coes to money, you never satisfied.
Lok Chanda Chhay,
It is not about eurocentrism or ethnocentrism, justice and human rights are universal across humanity. You should know the Khmer culture of corruption and impunity. Is it to much to ask for ?
I think Chanda is a She, not a HE as even Dr. LAO Mong Hay or others have thought! Am I right Ms. Chanda Chhay?
Have a pleassant one.
The Cambodian Government is more couteous to other Communists State Ruler.
sok kalyan, yet chakriya are women ? too many poof judges and lawyers in cambodia
KHMER ROUGE WILL NEVER JUDGE KHMER ROUGE.
Let's say the foreigns judges succumb to the demandes of the voodoo khmer bar association let by AH ky tech , do you think it will solve the problems? ,FUCK NO,it will invite more demandings.This is CPP'S TRICK.There are always THIS and THAT from the beginning. This CBA doesn't care a shit about 1.7 millions victims.
If the trial is allow to go on,it will reveal all kind of atrocities commited by those involved and that include SIHANOUK,HUN SEN,CHEA SIM HENG SAMRIN because these 4 were active members of the KHMER ROUGE...
Well, you don't have to be a nuclear scientist to figure it out....
There is no such thing as perfect
justice system. If you don't
prosecute enough criminals, the
criminals will victimized innocent
citizens. If you prosecute too
criminals, you end up accidently
prosecuting some innocent people.
Either way, some innocent people
will be persecuted by criminals or accidently by a justice system.
Now, tell me again, which system
you say is better, East or West?
We fully support the assessment made by 7:23AM. However, we wish to add that the UN is actually engaging with three battle fronts:
1- Sihanouk, Sihamoni, the entire royal family and CPP diehards are not stupid to incriminate themselves by allowing the KRT to go ahead,
2- Vietnam, master of all the above, must have been heavily involved also in the killing of millions of innocent Khmer people from 1975 to 1979 according to Pol Pot and all his lieutenants and
3- China which never relents her ambition to conquer Cambodia for the last 2 millennia. On the other hand, the PR of China is the direct boss of the Khmer Rouge. She never wished for one moment to stand trial and tarnish by the process her reputation as 2nd economic super power after the US (particularly at this moment in time when she is trying extremely hard to win hearts and minds of developping countries by giving massive economic aids to them).
The CBA is absolutely nothing. It's just a puppet whose strings are pulled up and down by Hun Sen. Hun Sen receives strict orders from both China and Vietnam to do whatever it takes to jeopardize the KRT process. Therefore, we wish to conclude our comments by saying that there won't be any KRT under Hun Sen regime.
I agree wholeheartly with 9:49AM. The innocents poors soul 1.7 millions victims were systematically massacre by the khmer rouge for NOTHING.. Now,it's the time for the next of KIN to do something about it.Remember, no JUSTICE no PEACE.
Dear Chanda,
The Royal Government of Cambodia, which is to say the CPP, has never wanted a Khmer Rouge Tribunal. Although normally a brilliant politician, Hun Sen made the blunder of calling for this trial in 1997 in order to simultaneously convince the hold-out groups of Khmer Rouge to turn themselves in and to dare Ranaridh not to co-sign the request with him, the "Prince" having been actively engaged in negotiations with the Khmer Rouge at the time to try and form a military alliance capable of unseating the CPP. As we know, Hun Sen took action before they were ready. In any event, Hun Sen never counted on the tenacity of the UN and "international community" in taking him up on the request to hold a Khmer Rouge tribunal, not to mention those members of the CPP who, unlike him, actually want to see an accounting for the KR Genocide. Given the fact that the Vietnamese backed PRK regime welcomed many former KR murderers into its ranks, where they still reside in comfort, and the fact that the major foreign backers of the Khmer Rouge (the Vietnamese from the beginning until 1973, and the Chinese thereafter) are financial supporters of the Hun Sen Clique, Hun Sen will do whatever is required to see that this tribunal never gets off the ground. Combine this with the fact that quite a few foreign backers of the tribunal have their own personal horses in this race, whether it be to establish as historical truth the lie that the "good" Khmer Rouge forced the "bad" Khmer Rouge from power in the 1979 Vietnamese invasion (keep in mind of course that the Vietnamese were the ones who originally put the Khmer Rouge in power, and had no problems with KR tactics until they turned them on the Vietnamese themselves), or simply to enjoy evenings on the riverfront for three years, compliments of the UN, and you can be assured that this farce will play itself out until the International Judges wake up and realize they are being made fools of by both sides. I could go on, but I think you get the point.............
Very interesting, Vietnamese
backing up KR who hated them and
had murdered thousands of their
citizens, not to mention KR has
plan to invade Vietnam.
Cut the crap, fools, you scheme
of misdirect khmer people from
the cause of the Genocide aint
good enough. You (fools) created
the genocide and destruction of
Cambodia, and we (Khmer) all know
that, period.
hey you fool @6:10PM...quit speaking as WE (Khmer)...you fool are not representing anybody but yourself, get it? Learn to get some facts before opening your freaking mouth, get it?
Who say I represent you traitor?
The Vietcong did help the Khmer Rouge came to power with weapons and man power to destroy the Lon Nol corrupted army!!!!
When the Vietcong decided to broke tie with China to join the Soviet Union, China began pushing the Khmer Rouge to attack the Vietcong!
Didn't China invaded Vietname in response to the Vietcong aggression on Cambodia and China also promised the Vietcong a second lesson if the Vietcong don't behave!!!!Do you know how scare the Vietcong were???aahahahha
I remembered right after the Vietcong invasion of Cambodia, the Vietcong signed the treaty with AH HUN SEN Vietcong slave for 25 years of borderless Indochina but as it turn out, the Vietcong can only stay in Cambodia for 10 years!!!!
So what now??? Everything is back to square one!!! Man! I really love this mind game and I hope that it will last forever!!!
I know alot of Vietcong double agents are still living in Cambodia right now and they have AK-47 hidden somewhere in the house!!!It is time to do house to house search by using metal detector to disarm all these Vietcong once and for all!!!!
Save you strength, bro. I am right
here. So, what do you want? You
don't expect bussiness as usual,
do you? I mean after you topple
our dearest and long time friend
(Sihanouk) just because he allowed
us to used the HCM trail to ousted
the infidels from our land, not
to mention abusing thousands of our
innocent civilians. What will you
do if I were to do the same thing
to your good friend like Sihanouk
and abusing your innocent
civilians, huh?
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