Cambodia's "informal" Truth Commission in the 1980s. (Courtesy of Documentation Centre of Cambodia)Wednesday, 03 June 2009
Written by Georgia Wilkins and Neth Pheaktra
The Phnom Penh Post
A decision by judges to scrap a hearing on further prosecutions at the war crimes court has raised concerns that a resolution to the row has again been delayed.
A DECISION on the politically charged issue of whether Cambodia's Khmer Rouge tribunal will investigate more suspects could be delayed by judges, prompting calls by civil society groups to consider substitutes such as a truth commission in place of the war crimes court.
Judges cancelled a hearing to announce whether further prosecutions could move forward, set for Friday, said international co-prosecutor Robert Petit, who added that he believed the judges had decided to publish their decision "on paper" rather than orally. He said he did not know when a ruling would be made.
"But in the case of Cambodia [a truth and reconciliation commission] certainly cannot be a substitute for the current cases, nor for the [additional] ones I seek to prosecute," warned Petit, saying that calls for additional mechanisms of justice should be used as a complement to, not substitute for, legal justice.
The judges' decision would resolve the months-old legal wrangle between Petit and his Cambodian counterpart, Chea Leang, who has sought to block further prosecutions, citing concerns for national stability.
Five former Khmer Rouge leaders are already in the tribunal's custody. Petit has proposed a second list of suspects that is believed to contain six lower-ranking cadres.
Legal monitors say the judges' decision would be a litmus test for the hybrid court, saying the tribunal, already battered by long-standing allegations of corruption, must demonstrate its independence and allow the second submission to move ahead.
Pre-trial Chamber President Prak Kimsan could not be reached for comment on Tuesday. The court's legal communications officer, Lars Olsen, said the chamber was "still seized" by the issue. But he could not specify when a decision would be made.
Political claims
If the judges do make their decision this week, it will come against a backdrop of escalating public statements from government officials who warn more submissions could plunge Cambodia into chaos.
Speaking at a summit between South Korea and ASEAN on Monday, Foreign Minister Hor Namhong told the Associated Press that "we have to seek justice for our people" while considering the "peace and stability in the country".
Government comments on the issue have observers concerned about political pressure being put on judges.
His group, attached to the Open Society Justice Initiative, condemned government officials in May for wielding too much influence in the court.
Officials have staunchly denied having any involvement in judicial decisions.
"I hope the decision promotes justice," is all Petit would say on the issue.
Truth commission
Despite the absence of a decision, rights groups say they are already floating alternative ways to bring "complete" justice to victims.
The idea of a truth and reconciliation commission, similar to ones employed in South Africa and Sierra Leone, has been suggested, and Long Panhavuth affirmed that other mechanisms needed to be explored.
"The role of the court is not enough," he said, adding, however, that there would be legitimate challenges to building an effective commission.
"For a truth and reconciliation commission, you need money. You need political will. Otherwise, you will only get one corner of the story," he said.
Petit said Tuesday that a truth and reconciliation commission could complement the work of the court, so long as it wasn't treated as a substitute for legal justice.
"Impunity, generally, is too much of a problem not to be addressed to the full extent possible by this court. ... However, I do think that a [truth commission] or similar mechanism could be the logical continuation of our work," he added.
Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-CAM), said a commission "was great idea", but one that shouldn't excuse a poorly working court.
"The ECCC is not a history department, library or NGO forum. It is a court, and a court is an important element of any human society and we need to give it complete independence to perform."
A DECISION on the politically charged issue of whether Cambodia's Khmer Rouge tribunal will investigate more suspects could be delayed by judges, prompting calls by civil society groups to consider substitutes such as a truth commission in place of the war crimes court.
Judges cancelled a hearing to announce whether further prosecutions could move forward, set for Friday, said international co-prosecutor Robert Petit, who added that he believed the judges had decided to publish their decision "on paper" rather than orally. He said he did not know when a ruling would be made.
"But in the case of Cambodia [a truth and reconciliation commission] certainly cannot be a substitute for the current cases, nor for the [additional] ones I seek to prosecute," warned Petit, saying that calls for additional mechanisms of justice should be used as a complement to, not substitute for, legal justice.
The judges' decision would resolve the months-old legal wrangle between Petit and his Cambodian counterpart, Chea Leang, who has sought to block further prosecutions, citing concerns for national stability.
Five former Khmer Rouge leaders are already in the tribunal's custody. Petit has proposed a second list of suspects that is believed to contain six lower-ranking cadres.
Legal monitors say the judges' decision would be a litmus test for the hybrid court, saying the tribunal, already battered by long-standing allegations of corruption, must demonstrate its independence and allow the second submission to move ahead.
Pre-trial Chamber President Prak Kimsan could not be reached for comment on Tuesday. The court's legal communications officer, Lars Olsen, said the chamber was "still seized" by the issue. But he could not specify when a decision would be made.
Political claims
If the judges do make their decision this week, it will come against a backdrop of escalating public statements from government officials who warn more submissions could plunge Cambodia into chaos.
Speaking at a summit between South Korea and ASEAN on Monday, Foreign Minister Hor Namhong told the Associated Press that "we have to seek justice for our people" while considering the "peace and stability in the country".
Government comments on the issue have observers concerned about political pressure being put on judges.
"We need to know that the decision [by judges] is a legal one, not a political one.""We need to know that the decision is a legal one, not a political one," said Long Panhavuth, a court monitor for the Cambodia Justice Initiative.
His group, attached to the Open Society Justice Initiative, condemned government officials in May for wielding too much influence in the court.
Officials have staunchly denied having any involvement in judicial decisions.
"I hope the decision promotes justice," is all Petit would say on the issue.
Truth commission
Despite the absence of a decision, rights groups say they are already floating alternative ways to bring "complete" justice to victims.
The idea of a truth and reconciliation commission, similar to ones employed in South Africa and Sierra Leone, has been suggested, and Long Panhavuth affirmed that other mechanisms needed to be explored.
"The role of the court is not enough," he said, adding, however, that there would be legitimate challenges to building an effective commission.
"For a truth and reconciliation commission, you need money. You need political will. Otherwise, you will only get one corner of the story," he said.
Petit said Tuesday that a truth and reconciliation commission could complement the work of the court, so long as it wasn't treated as a substitute for legal justice.
"Impunity, generally, is too much of a problem not to be addressed to the full extent possible by this court. ... However, I do think that a [truth commission] or similar mechanism could be the logical continuation of our work," he added.
Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-CAM), said a commission "was great idea", but one that shouldn't excuse a poorly working court.
"The ECCC is not a history department, library or NGO forum. It is a court, and a court is an important element of any human society and we need to give it complete independence to perform."
11 comments:
the stupid KR regime didn't have to kill and starve people. they could have done great things for cambodia and our khmer people. but no, they use brutality and killed and starved our people; how stupid can that be? god bless cambodia now.
the KR was like from another planet or another world or something; they don't understand that the world is bigger than their oyster. they think like tadpole in a fishbowl. it's called ignorance, you know! please get education, cambodia so we can avoid this stupid KR style regime again. god bless cambodia.
too much of anything is never good. same goes with too much egotistical people in cambodia. it's like it's all about me me me me!!!!! not good for the country, and people are always suffering a result of that! stop already! only education will change everything in cambodia. please get lots and lots of educations. stay in school! god bless cambodia.
Who is the teacher 2:25AM, TEP WONG?
Let he bless prince Shihanouk! I bet he will go nowhere but hell!
Viet had cvhanged their hot strategies of killing off all khmers applying in 1840 by Troeung Minh Giang ( so all KHmers rose up in the whole country for eight days and figth and kill Viets throughout Cambodia) to a soft strategies:
-Stategy of brothers cock-fighting b7y giving birth to the KHmer Rouges, endoctrinated the KR to kill Khmer people mfor Viets, armed ther KR, attacted God king N.Sihanouk to join KR. His son king, a full Viet from his mother Monique and 1/2 mViet father Sihanouk ( His mother Kossomak had love affair with Viet secretary of French resident, Sihanouk biological father, in Phnom Penh, and gave birth to Sihanouk) as a Viet rubber stamp to legalise the Vietnamisation of Cambodia.
-Assassinated all khmer nationalists sec5retely one by one to terrorise all Khmers who are against Viet rulers of Cambodia or against Viet puppet regime.
-Flocking more and more Viets illegal immigrants into Cambodia and dictated to Hun Sen to make those Viets into Khmer citizen.
So Cambodia will be a state of Viet Indochina very soon, the second Champa for sure.
6:50am,
You are Youn spy. Your story I heard mostly in Youn site, and now you preaching it in here to divide Khmers to fight each other so your Youn can come to my country, because Khmers are busy fighting.
Why don't you reveal your real name, Ah.me Youn kantorb spy?
Same Viet propaganda we seen enough.
The person post at 6;50AM is not Khmer but Vietnamese spy. That's how the Viets distract us from uniting. Uniting is too important for us Khmers but as we all know the Vietnamese like 6:50AM will try to do their best to destroy our unity.
Don't let these Viet spy bother us. We must unite and stop the illegal Youn from entering our country besides preaching hating our own people.
6;50am could be ah Youn PPU keuth nov srok Khmer. Pourk Ah Youn created lot of propagandas to distract Khmer from uniting.
STOP complaining and whinning!
Pi Anh: PPU
Complaining and whinning are for human beings, unless you are animals no on ecan understand what you barke about.
Pi Anh Ah Kvack: Hun Sen
6:50aM AND WE KNOW THAT YOUR MOTHE HAVE MADE IT WITH A DOG TO BROUGHT YOU UP! SO YOUR MOTHER HUSBAND KNOW ABOUT IT AND MAKE YOU EAT SHIT TILL YOU GROWUP! CRACKED HEAD!
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