By Julio A Jeldres
Asia Times (Hong Kong)
The viability of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), the official name for the mixed Cambodian-United Nations tribunal established last year to try senior Khmer Rouge leaders, is once again in doubt, with senior government officials threatening to boot the legal body from the country. Crucially, this time the conflict is not about money or international representation, but rather the integrity of the Cambodian monarchy.
The latest controversy surrounds whether retired king Norodom Sihanouk, 85, should or should not be called to testify at the tribunal. The UN has been noncommittal about whether it would call on the retired monarch to the stand. Information Minister Khieu Kanarith recently threatened to kick the tribunal out of Cambodia if it decided to call Sihanouk as a witness.
He added that the ECCC operates under Cambodian law, that the same law guarantees Sihanouk's immunity, and that any attempt to lift that immunity "would be illegal and thus justify the termination of the tribunal's proceedings".
Since the UN began talks with Phnom Penh in 1997 about establishing the ECCC, the tribunal has been plagued by controversy, lack of funds and glacial progress. Last month one of the tribunal's senior Cambodian co-investigating judges, You Bunleng, was transferred to the presidency of the troubled Cambodian Court of Appeals. UN officials felt it amounted to interference in the tribunal's work and asked the government to reconsider the appointment.
The special representative of the UN secretary general for human rights in Cambodia, Yash Ghai, described the judge's transfer decree as "unconstitutional and unlawful", and opposition parties and human-rights workers in Phnom Penh also challenged the action. It appeared to have been made at the personal request of Prime Minister Hun Sen, casting foreign doubts on the constitutionally guaranteed principle of judicial independence.
While this controversy unfolded, the ECCC was at the same time moving to charge its first suspect, the infamous Kaing Kek Iev, alias Duch, who was in charge of the notorious Khmer Rouge prison S-21, where thousands were tortured and murdered. The timing prompted some observers to ask whether someone was trying to derail the process against Duch.
Then a little-known organization calling itself the Cambodian Action Committee for Justice and Equity, based in the small town of Revere, Massachusetts, wrote to the Speaker of the Cambodian National Assembly, Heng Samrin, asking him to convoke a plenary session "to remove the immunity of the former monarch Norodom Sihanouk and revoke Article 7 of the Cambodian constitution, which states that the person of the king is inviolable".
After Sihanouk retired as monarch in October 2004, the Cambodian National Assembly and Senate bestowed upon him the title of "Great Valorous King" and granted him the same privileges and immunities as those constitutionally given to the reigning monarch under Article 7 of the constitution. Legislation to that effect was passed by Parliament in that October and promulgated by King Norodom Sihamoni that same month.
Obscure outpost
What followed the request by this little-known US-based group can only be described as a crescendo of furious declarations and, unfortunately, also threats to the real existence of the tribunal. The ruling Cambodian People's Party issued a statement on August 24 that strongly rejected the request to remove Sihanouk's immunity and suggested that it was "aimed at destroying the stability, the unity and the progress of the nation".
The ruling party's statement was followed by similar statements by Funcinpec, the minor coalition partner in the government, and other smaller parties without representation in the Cambodian National Assembly. Significantly, the represented opposition party, named after its president, Sam Rainsy, did not issue any statement on the issue.
Sihanouk, who since his retirement in 2004 has been in poor health but has lost none of his political acumen or intellectual capacity, limited himself to writing letters thanking the parties that had expressed support for him. Hun Sen went on national radio and described the request as "a tactic to destroy Cambodia" and added that Sihanouk and his family had suffered greatly under the Khmer Rouge regime.
Hun Sen, who has a reputation for threatening his opponents, ministers and public servants on national radio and television, said there would be "consequences" for anyone who tried to lift Sihanouk's immunity.
He then proceeded to read from the minutes of a meeting of the Standing Committee of Democratic Kampuchea, the official name of the Khmer Rouge regime, held after Sihanouk resigned as head of state in March 1976. At the time, Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot ordered that Sihanouk not be allowed to leave the country, that his two younger sons, the children of Queen Monineath, be recalled to Cambodia, and that Sihanouk be kept under house arrest at the royal palace and that all his conversations be recorded.
Soon after Hun Sen's outburst, a UN public relations staffer of the ECCC told the Cambodia Daily English-language newspaper that "it was up to tribunal judges and prosecutors to decide whom to call as a witness and whom to indict. The retired king could be called as a witness, but whether he's bound to show up is another question entirely."
In typical fashion, Sihanouk seized the opportunity and, on August 30, issued an invitation to the UN officials associated with the tribunal, including its international spokesman, Peter Foster, to visit the palace on September 8 for a three-hour conversation on "the affairs of the Khmer Rouge and Sihanouk". After that, Sihanouk stated that he would have nothing else to do with the ECCC proceedings.
On September 6, the UN-appointed deputy director of the tribunal's administration, Michelle Lee, sent a response to the royal palace declining Sihanouk's invitation. "I was not authorized to participate in this meeting, nor were other UN officials," Foster said during an interview from Phnom Penh. "We responded by saying that only the judges involved in the trial will be able to determine who will be a witness. The judges will do so based on procedural rules."
One week later, the leading pro-ruling-party Khmer-language newspaper Rasmey Kampuchea carried an anonymous op-ed piece suggesting that Lee's response declining Sihanouk's terms did not give a formal assurance that the retired monarch would not be called to testify. Because of that, the newspaper said, the issue could lead to a confrontation between the government and the UN as "a test for the cooperation between Cambodia and the UN".
Royal suffering
At the same time he invited UN tribunal members to meet with him, Sihanouk also issued a number of releases describing how he and his family, as well as other members of the royal family, had been treated under the Khmer Rouge. The list included the disappearance of five of his 14 children and 14 of his grandchildren, together with his aunts, uncles and cousins as well as loyal diplomats and staffers.
Sihanouk also blamed the United States for the events that led to the Khmer Rouge taking over Cambodia in 1975. Historians agree that until March 18, 1970, when Sihanouk was overthrown by a US-supported coup led by General Lon Nol, he had managed to keep the insurgent Khmer Rouge forces, then estimated at only about 3,000, largely under control.
The savage US bombing of Cambodia, the corruption of the Lon Nol regime and the unwillingness of the administration of US president Richard Nixon to talk to Sihanouk, who had taken refuge in Beijing, as well as changes in the leadership of China after prime minister Zhou Enlai's death, all catapulted the Khmer Rouge to victory in April 1975. Sihanouk resigned at head of state in March 1976.
While researchers and historians have found no evidence linking Sihanouk to the policies and mass killings by the Khmer Rouge, the former king has also stated that he would agree to appear at a tribunal at The Hague, but not in Cambodia - a statement that indicated his lack of faith in the ECCC's integrity.
The latest threat to close down the ECCC strengthens the argument that the tribunal will fail because, in a country where the judiciary is completely dependent on the ruling party's will, the Cambodian judges may not be able to act independently together with the UN-appointed judges.
Another question is how the so-called Cambodian Action Committee for Justice and Equity, unregistered in the US and staffed it seems by a single person, could stir such controversy.
All indications are that the coming weeks will prove crucial for the maligned ECCC, for the independence of Cambodia's judiciary, and for those who seek justice for the horrendous crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge.
Ambassador Julio A Jeldres is a research fellow at the Asia Institute of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and Norodom Sihanouk's official biographer.
The latest controversy surrounds whether retired king Norodom Sihanouk, 85, should or should not be called to testify at the tribunal. The UN has been noncommittal about whether it would call on the retired monarch to the stand. Information Minister Khieu Kanarith recently threatened to kick the tribunal out of Cambodia if it decided to call Sihanouk as a witness.
He added that the ECCC operates under Cambodian law, that the same law guarantees Sihanouk's immunity, and that any attempt to lift that immunity "would be illegal and thus justify the termination of the tribunal's proceedings".
Since the UN began talks with Phnom Penh in 1997 about establishing the ECCC, the tribunal has been plagued by controversy, lack of funds and glacial progress. Last month one of the tribunal's senior Cambodian co-investigating judges, You Bunleng, was transferred to the presidency of the troubled Cambodian Court of Appeals. UN officials felt it amounted to interference in the tribunal's work and asked the government to reconsider the appointment.
The special representative of the UN secretary general for human rights in Cambodia, Yash Ghai, described the judge's transfer decree as "unconstitutional and unlawful", and opposition parties and human-rights workers in Phnom Penh also challenged the action. It appeared to have been made at the personal request of Prime Minister Hun Sen, casting foreign doubts on the constitutionally guaranteed principle of judicial independence.
While this controversy unfolded, the ECCC was at the same time moving to charge its first suspect, the infamous Kaing Kek Iev, alias Duch, who was in charge of the notorious Khmer Rouge prison S-21, where thousands were tortured and murdered. The timing prompted some observers to ask whether someone was trying to derail the process against Duch.
Then a little-known organization calling itself the Cambodian Action Committee for Justice and Equity, based in the small town of Revere, Massachusetts, wrote to the Speaker of the Cambodian National Assembly, Heng Samrin, asking him to convoke a plenary session "to remove the immunity of the former monarch Norodom Sihanouk and revoke Article 7 of the Cambodian constitution, which states that the person of the king is inviolable".
After Sihanouk retired as monarch in October 2004, the Cambodian National Assembly and Senate bestowed upon him the title of "Great Valorous King" and granted him the same privileges and immunities as those constitutionally given to the reigning monarch under Article 7 of the constitution. Legislation to that effect was passed by Parliament in that October and promulgated by King Norodom Sihamoni that same month.
Obscure outpost
What followed the request by this little-known US-based group can only be described as a crescendo of furious declarations and, unfortunately, also threats to the real existence of the tribunal. The ruling Cambodian People's Party issued a statement on August 24 that strongly rejected the request to remove Sihanouk's immunity and suggested that it was "aimed at destroying the stability, the unity and the progress of the nation".
The ruling party's statement was followed by similar statements by Funcinpec, the minor coalition partner in the government, and other smaller parties without representation in the Cambodian National Assembly. Significantly, the represented opposition party, named after its president, Sam Rainsy, did not issue any statement on the issue.
Sihanouk, who since his retirement in 2004 has been in poor health but has lost none of his political acumen or intellectual capacity, limited himself to writing letters thanking the parties that had expressed support for him. Hun Sen went on national radio and described the request as "a tactic to destroy Cambodia" and added that Sihanouk and his family had suffered greatly under the Khmer Rouge regime.
Hun Sen, who has a reputation for threatening his opponents, ministers and public servants on national radio and television, said there would be "consequences" for anyone who tried to lift Sihanouk's immunity.
He then proceeded to read from the minutes of a meeting of the Standing Committee of Democratic Kampuchea, the official name of the Khmer Rouge regime, held after Sihanouk resigned as head of state in March 1976. At the time, Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot ordered that Sihanouk not be allowed to leave the country, that his two younger sons, the children of Queen Monineath, be recalled to Cambodia, and that Sihanouk be kept under house arrest at the royal palace and that all his conversations be recorded.
Soon after Hun Sen's outburst, a UN public relations staffer of the ECCC told the Cambodia Daily English-language newspaper that "it was up to tribunal judges and prosecutors to decide whom to call as a witness and whom to indict. The retired king could be called as a witness, but whether he's bound to show up is another question entirely."
In typical fashion, Sihanouk seized the opportunity and, on August 30, issued an invitation to the UN officials associated with the tribunal, including its international spokesman, Peter Foster, to visit the palace on September 8 for a three-hour conversation on "the affairs of the Khmer Rouge and Sihanouk". After that, Sihanouk stated that he would have nothing else to do with the ECCC proceedings.
On September 6, the UN-appointed deputy director of the tribunal's administration, Michelle Lee, sent a response to the royal palace declining Sihanouk's invitation. "I was not authorized to participate in this meeting, nor were other UN officials," Foster said during an interview from Phnom Penh. "We responded by saying that only the judges involved in the trial will be able to determine who will be a witness. The judges will do so based on procedural rules."
One week later, the leading pro-ruling-party Khmer-language newspaper Rasmey Kampuchea carried an anonymous op-ed piece suggesting that Lee's response declining Sihanouk's terms did not give a formal assurance that the retired monarch would not be called to testify. Because of that, the newspaper said, the issue could lead to a confrontation between the government and the UN as "a test for the cooperation between Cambodia and the UN".
Royal suffering
At the same time he invited UN tribunal members to meet with him, Sihanouk also issued a number of releases describing how he and his family, as well as other members of the royal family, had been treated under the Khmer Rouge. The list included the disappearance of five of his 14 children and 14 of his grandchildren, together with his aunts, uncles and cousins as well as loyal diplomats and staffers.
Sihanouk also blamed the United States for the events that led to the Khmer Rouge taking over Cambodia in 1975. Historians agree that until March 18, 1970, when Sihanouk was overthrown by a US-supported coup led by General Lon Nol, he had managed to keep the insurgent Khmer Rouge forces, then estimated at only about 3,000, largely under control.
The savage US bombing of Cambodia, the corruption of the Lon Nol regime and the unwillingness of the administration of US president Richard Nixon to talk to Sihanouk, who had taken refuge in Beijing, as well as changes in the leadership of China after prime minister Zhou Enlai's death, all catapulted the Khmer Rouge to victory in April 1975. Sihanouk resigned at head of state in March 1976.
While researchers and historians have found no evidence linking Sihanouk to the policies and mass killings by the Khmer Rouge, the former king has also stated that he would agree to appear at a tribunal at The Hague, but not in Cambodia - a statement that indicated his lack of faith in the ECCC's integrity.
The latest threat to close down the ECCC strengthens the argument that the tribunal will fail because, in a country where the judiciary is completely dependent on the ruling party's will, the Cambodian judges may not be able to act independently together with the UN-appointed judges.
Another question is how the so-called Cambodian Action Committee for Justice and Equity, unregistered in the US and staffed it seems by a single person, could stir such controversy.
All indications are that the coming weeks will prove crucial for the maligned ECCC, for the independence of Cambodia's judiciary, and for those who seek justice for the horrendous crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge.
Ambassador Julio A Jeldres is a research fellow at the Asia Institute of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and Norodom Sihanouk's official biographer.
10 comments:
Talk with Hun Sen is useless. It's time for the UN and the United States use force against Hun Sen regime for Cambodian people justice. It can't prolong this tribunal again and again. As long as Hun Sen in power, this trial won't go as smooth as it should. Because Hun Sen is Hanoi regime. Hanoi, Hun Sen, Sihanouk, and China don't want this tribunal to succeed. They do whatever they can to implicate and stop this tribunal. They make sure UN wastes money for their pocket.
Time to send UN or American troops to Cambodia if the US wants oil in Cambodia. Otherwise, Hun Sen will give oil and gas to Vietnam and China for sure.
Why did you say the King did not want the KRT to having achieved success?
The King does not trust this " Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC)"; because it was created by the Vietnamese/CPP. Have you noticed Mr. Hun Sen keeps threatening to terminate the KRT if the King be put to stand trial? This King has no power anymore. In 1999 The King threatned them that he would testify when Hun Sen and his counterparts Vietnamese let the Khmer Rouge leaders go free.
Today Ieng Sary and his female companion are in Cuba living like King and Queen.
I think URSS, now Soviet, doesn't want the KRT either. Remember who support the Yuons in the 80s?
I think the old king is now too old. He don't respect his words anymore. Last time, He had saided that He will go the KRT anytime when they needed him. Now He's playing comedy.
In 1993, He has promised that if the Funcinpec, he will not claim himself as king. And you know all the story.
Sihanouk himself does not respect his word and he is in the same basket as Hun Sen. Do not compain to any country . Their own decision, please take a moment and think about that Cambodia belong to whom and who is the owner of Cambodia so I think that Sihanouk and Hun Sen stay in the same boat and direct by Monique who receives the order from her master(yourn).
I am agree with you 100%11:21PM That the last choices we have,remember UN troops in Iraq with US,Afghanistan with US, and Vietnam took block communist to kick khmer rouge out of Cambodia,so preserve justice to Cambodia I hope US will step in and kick the crap of that youn slave and Khmer kampuchea Krom standing up the same time so we all khmer living in the nation with long time peace and laws again.
Thank you
What the fuck of most Cambodian wanted communist and feudalism? How many more million PPL that Cambodian have to spent it citizen life for those two fuckin regimes,no wonder your dumb ass still always dumb has never learned democratic like US,Canada,Australia,England and your crazy mother fucker want only monarchy and communist so deserve your death.Thankyou
URSS then, now is Russia not Soviet. Keep talking to yourself telling yourself to agree with yourself. Preik Tnot is closed.
Anicha Anichang.
"Former King Sihanouk agreed to appear at a tribunal at The Hague, but not in Cambodia - a statement that indicated his lack of faith in the ECCC's integrity."
Not that he does not believe in the ECCC's integrity, Former King Sihanouk is fear for his safety if he is going to reveal anything, which leads to implicate the China, Vietnam have anything to do with the KR regime.
I still believe that Former King Sihanouk would find away to reveal the truth about the atrocity in Cambodia.
4;28am was my comment. Glad to read someone who has the capacity to reason. Thanks mate 8;42am.
All true Khmer compatriots, ladies and gentlemen,
Cambodia has cancers that were embedded into her by China+YUONS+Vietminh-CPP-Hun Sen+all royal crooks through traitor Sihanouk's flesh and blood, also through his YUON wife Monique and Sihanouk’s clique.
To have true and lasting peace for Cambodia these cancers have to be removed once and for all, either by the law of ECCC-KRT or by any means, as long as the majority of true Khmers agree with it.
If these cancers remain inside Cambodia, without proper treatment, YUONS will continue to swallow us bit by bit every day and China will gobble the whole region without mercy toward Cambodian land and all Khmer people. They will achieve this with the continued assistance of NORODOM SIHANOUK and HUN SEN.
KULEN MONOROM
(the rice farmer's son)
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