Thu, 20 Mar 2008 DPA
Phnom Penh - More than a quarter of Cambodian court defendants surveyed reported being tortured or coerced into confession and ordinary people lacked faith in the justice system, US ambassador to Cambodia Joseph Mussomeli said Thursday. Speaking at the launch of an annual judicial review by local anti- corruption organization the Centre for Social Development (CSD), the ambassador said that although the figures showed some improvement, the country's notoriously fraught system was still poor.
"The CSD annual report makes clear what goes on inside Cambodia's courtrooms still falls short of what can be considered procedural justice," he said.
"CSD reported that over 25 per cent of defendants appearing in court claimed to have been tortured or coerced into giving confessions. I note that this ... is the same as reported last year, indicating there has been no significant change."
The Court Watch Project by CSD has come to be viewed as the definitive annual survey of developments in the fledgling Cambodian judicial system since it was launched in 2003.
CSD, which receives funding from a number of donors including Germany and the US, interviewed a wide range of judicial officials, witnesses, lawyers and defendants between October 2006 and September 2007.
Judicial reform of the notoriously corrupt Cambodian system has been earmarked by donors to the aid-dependant nation as a key factor in the country's development after 30 years of civil war.
The report outlined a number of concerns, including poor training of the judiciary, bribery, torture, underfunding, a lack of independence and frequent pre-trial detention of prisoners for terms exceeding the legal limit of six months.
"Not all the news is bad," Mussomeli said, but "on balance ... there remains a good deal to be done before the people of the judicial system will earn the trust of the people of Cambodia."
"The CSD annual report makes clear what goes on inside Cambodia's courtrooms still falls short of what can be considered procedural justice," he said.
"CSD reported that over 25 per cent of defendants appearing in court claimed to have been tortured or coerced into giving confessions. I note that this ... is the same as reported last year, indicating there has been no significant change."
The Court Watch Project by CSD has come to be viewed as the definitive annual survey of developments in the fledgling Cambodian judicial system since it was launched in 2003.
CSD, which receives funding from a number of donors including Germany and the US, interviewed a wide range of judicial officials, witnesses, lawyers and defendants between October 2006 and September 2007.
Judicial reform of the notoriously corrupt Cambodian system has been earmarked by donors to the aid-dependant nation as a key factor in the country's development after 30 years of civil war.
The report outlined a number of concerns, including poor training of the judiciary, bribery, torture, underfunding, a lack of independence and frequent pre-trial detention of prisoners for terms exceeding the legal limit of six months.
"Not all the news is bad," Mussomeli said, but "on balance ... there remains a good deal to be done before the people of the judicial system will earn the trust of the people of Cambodia."
20 comments:
When we see that only the parties of oppositions and the NGO activists support your report and that the majority of the Khmer population are behind his government.
How to be sure that you do not try to support the antigovernmental political opposition with your partisan report ?
In Cambodia we also know that Mr. Paul Wolfowitz, ex-member of the office of Goerges W. Bush made a report on the existence of the weapons of massive destructions which are of use as legal argument to the invasion of Iraq by the armies Americans.
The history showed afterward that weapons of massive destructions in Iraq it is of lie and manipulation of G.W.Bush’office.
Then your report on the violations of human rights in Cambodia, it is a little bit similar not?
Mr. Joseph Mussomeli we know that you are paid by the USA to make your work.
But you should not take Cambodians for imbecile with your shit's report.
American's Bastard.
Fuk the USA!
i agreed with the US ambassador, mr. mussomeli that cambodia still have a long way to go in the judial reform like strengthen the justice department to be better and more effective in their power. because in any good, developped, civil society, a strong justice system is a must and is very much manditory as they serve the general public interest and help to less corruption, strengthening laws, curb violation of all sorts like human rights, civil rights, etc, etc. and cambodia still have a lot of work to be done in this field alone. i would like to see the US and other western nations continue to help cambodia in this field until cambodia have a permanent, good judiciary system in place. this one needs a lot of help as cambodia just awakened from the nightmare of the KR killing fields and cambodia can not let the guard down when it comes to justice for its people. thank you and may god bless cambodia.
At the moment, I think especially of the Iraqi and Afghan civils innocents misfortunes of the victims of the war led by the American mercenaries in Iraq and in Afghanistan.
And the Vietnameses civils victims of the orange agens released by US airforce in 1968 in Vietnam.
How will the Cambodian government keeping on denying the truth? This is not about any political parties but the truth is people are suffering from the government's inaction.
Mr Mussomeli, you do not go to persuade us that in the USA, there are no racism of the whites against colors's people, that there is no corruption, no immorality (when Bill Clinton, your president is sucked the cock by a trainee in his office, when Paul Wolfowitz makes nepotism with his sécrétaire), .......
You américians you do not always give good examples to follow, it is necessary to underline it.
We make you presents not remember to you the role of the CIA in the Lon Nol's coup of 1970 .
Let's do another coup and get Hun Shit out! What do you think everybody? I heard some of the generals doesn't like Hun Shit anyways.
Cambodia Department of National Defend
More than a quarter of Cambodian court defendants surveyed reported being tortured or coerced into confession and ordinary people lacked faith in the justice system, US ambassador to Cambodia Joseph Mussomeli said Thursday.
Hope that my dear Ambassador himself would expalin how the American interrogators get confession from those being held at Camp Delta and X-ray.
The report outlined a number of concerns, including poor training of the judiciary, bribery, torture, underfunding, a lack of independence and frequent pre-trial detention of prisoners for terms exceeding the legal limit of six months.
Hope that my dear Ambassador would explain to the world also the reasons behind detention of the people so called by the USA as Terrorist Suspects in camp Delta and X-Ray have been held more than hald a decade without being charged at all.
More than a quarter of Cambodian court defendants surveyed reported being tortured or coerced into confession and ordinary people lacked faith in the justice system, US ambassador to Cambodia Joseph Mussomeli said Thursday.
Hope that my dear Ambassador himself would expalin how the American interrogators get confession from those being held at Camp Delta and X-ray.
The report outlined a number of concerns, including poor training of the judiciary, bribery, torture, underfunding, a lack of independence and frequent pre-trial detention of prisoners for terms exceeding the legal limit of six months.
Hope that my dear Ambassador would explain to the world also the reasons behind detention of the people so called by the USA as Terrorist Suspects in camp Delta and X-Ray have been held more than hald a decade without being charged at all.
The sound and the voice of the Viet/Yuon anti-American, racist @2:20 AM, ladies and gentlemen!!!
That's the true color of the Viet/Yuon intruders on Ki-Media!
The Viet/Yuon intruders just do whatever they can to give Khmer/Cambodian a bad name.
Can you see now my Khmer people!
Correction 2:40AM is should read!
Didn't the US also abused and tortured prisoners in the recent years?
So what the hell is Moussomeli talks about?
Mr Mussomeli, the Americans are out-of-place to give lessons of human rights in Cambodia.
The truth of the matter is the U.S. undoubtedly does not have flawless human rights records either, particularly following the september 11 terrorists attacks on the U.S. soil,and therefore we're the same boat.
Gorillas out!
Do you now, Many policiens swindlers earn to much money with the democracy, human rights, coup of, and Ngo of subversion .
It is a true business.There is many money to earn.
As in 1970 with Lon Nol who is the first cambodian making business with coup of in exchange to much millions of US dollars.
Yes, there are millions and millions of dollars poured into corrupted NGOs to westernize Cambodia.
The sad part is if they succeeded is we can't beat them at their own game and they will step all over us forever. I hope can people understand that.
12:32am -12:59am-2:40am-3:03am-4:17am-4:17am-4:31am-5:35am you all are blind or pretending blind behind Hunviet.Don't try to wash away the Human right from innocent Cambodian people,they don't have computer like you and I have, but they have brain to think like others and they not suck up like you guys don't dare show the truth of what the government badly committed.
Thank you Mr.Mussomeli that you have good heart and your righteousness for human race,especially for those who are the victims of this vietnam puppet's government.Most of the current government officials are vietcongs from the khmer rouge regime that why they want to continue ignoring the Human right in order to oppress on Khmer people.
Wow, so many people are blind, 11:19?
What planet are you from, dude?
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