The Associated Press
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: International judges for a Khmer Rouge genocide tribunal said Tuesday they plan to boycott a meeting to adopt rules to guide the trials, presenting another obstacle to the already much-delayed U.N.-backed proceedings.
The decision is certain to further hinder — and perhaps jeopardize — the long-awaited trials of former Khmer Rouge leaders for crimes against humanity and genocide. They had been expected to begin sometime this year.
The foreign judges said in a statement that they will not meet with their Cambodian counterparts on April 30 as scheduled because the Cambodian Bar Association has not responded to their request for it to reconsider the US$4,900 (€3,700) legal fee it plans to impose on each foreign lawyer practicing at the tribunal.
"The international judges wish to emphasize that the window of opportunity is closing quickly and they simply cannot allow for endless delays," they said.
Calling the fee a "prohibitive entry cost," the judges said it "would allow the accused to argue that they have not been afforded the right to have counsel of their choice," in breach of international agreements on civil and political rights.
They also said that those lawyers planning to offer their services pro bono "would be left significantly out of pocket."
The foreign judges have voiced increasing frustration as disagreements over how to operate under Cambodian law — which is to guide the trials — have slowed and complicated the tribunal preparations.
Foreign participants have the right to withdraw altogether from the tribunal, although such a move would seriously undercut the credibility of the proceedings.
Last week, Ky Tech, the bar association's president, accused the foreign judges of childish behavior and of deliberately delaying the long-awaited tribunal.
On Tuesday, he refused to budge, saying his institution is independent and cannot be dictated to by any judges, including foreign ones.
"I will not make any decision under pressure and orders from those foreign judges," he said Tuesday.
But he noted that he has been working on the fee issue with Rupert Skilbeck, the U.N.-appointed head of the defense support section of the tribunal officially known as Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.
The radical policies of the now-defunct communist Khmer Rouge, when they held power from 1975-1979, led to the deaths of some 1.7 million people from execution, overwork, disease and malnutrition.
The decision is certain to further hinder — and perhaps jeopardize — the long-awaited trials of former Khmer Rouge leaders for crimes against humanity and genocide. They had been expected to begin sometime this year.
The foreign judges said in a statement that they will not meet with their Cambodian counterparts on April 30 as scheduled because the Cambodian Bar Association has not responded to their request for it to reconsider the US$4,900 (€3,700) legal fee it plans to impose on each foreign lawyer practicing at the tribunal.
"The international judges wish to emphasize that the window of opportunity is closing quickly and they simply cannot allow for endless delays," they said.
Calling the fee a "prohibitive entry cost," the judges said it "would allow the accused to argue that they have not been afforded the right to have counsel of their choice," in breach of international agreements on civil and political rights.
They also said that those lawyers planning to offer their services pro bono "would be left significantly out of pocket."
The foreign judges have voiced increasing frustration as disagreements over how to operate under Cambodian law — which is to guide the trials — have slowed and complicated the tribunal preparations.
Foreign participants have the right to withdraw altogether from the tribunal, although such a move would seriously undercut the credibility of the proceedings.
Last week, Ky Tech, the bar association's president, accused the foreign judges of childish behavior and of deliberately delaying the long-awaited tribunal.
On Tuesday, he refused to budge, saying his institution is independent and cannot be dictated to by any judges, including foreign ones.
"I will not make any decision under pressure and orders from those foreign judges," he said Tuesday.
But he noted that he has been working on the fee issue with Rupert Skilbeck, the U.N.-appointed head of the defense support section of the tribunal officially known as Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.
The radical policies of the now-defunct communist Khmer Rouge, when they held power from 1975-1979, led to the deaths of some 1.7 million people from execution, overwork, disease and malnutrition.
9 comments:
Ah Chkouts (foreign judges), this
is Cambodia, not Europe, Autralia,
or US. There is nothing to argue
about. All you have to do is to
Fucken follow our Khmer's rules.
Get it, you motherfuckers? Stop
stalling the trial and blaming
innocent people for stupid ideas.
The trial will not start so long as Sihanouk and his senior kr friends are alive. The chinese and vietnamese will do whatever they must to delay it. One or two more year the old bastard will die... then they'll let the comidy start.
Ky Tech is not Khmer Name!
He is a Yaun Vietname or a Chinese killer!
Put him in jail too with all ah Communist go to jail!
hahahah 10 years ago the government talk about Khmer Rouge trial and now still talking. So what happen to all the aids money now? Did you guys get yourself a new house or car already? fuck them all too many Yuon in Khmer just by looking at the voting result we can tell it Yuon who already taken Cambodia. Fuck Yuon Empirealist and Khmer must liberate for an interdependent country.
Idiots, this is srok Khmer, we
follow Khmer's rule-of-laws here,
not European, US, ..., or UK.
Also, if you come to srok Khmer,
don't bring your stupid laws and
constitution here because it ain't
gonna do you any good. You got
that, stupid?
8:36 AM...The Viet's slave rule of law?...the one you're now subjected to? Sure, no khmer has known it but you, because you're one freaking Viet's slave. How's your Viet whore mother doing, Jack arse???
My mum is fine, what about your
Yuon Cock Sucker mum?
How can your Viet whore mother be doing fine when she is doing nothing but sitting on Yuon's face, Viet's slave mother fucker?
She's doing fine shitting your
face, asshole. Trust me.
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