PRESS RELEASE: Victims Associatio​n president calls for the resignatio​ns of UN administra​tor Knut Rosandhaug and co-investi​gating judge Siegfried Blunk

Founder, President of the Cambodia-based First-registered Victims Association Theary Seng Calls for the Resignations of UN Administrator Knut Rosandhaug and Co-Investigating Judge Siegfried Blunk

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PRESS RELEASE

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PHNOM PENH, 12 May 2011:  The president and founder of the Association of Khmer Rouge Victims in Cambodia (AKRVC), Ms. Theary C. SENG, calls for the resignations of UN top administrator Knut Rosandhaug and UN co-investigating judge Siegfried Blunk for their anti-victim actions and policies which work against the main goals of the Extraordinary Chambers (ECCC) of justice (truth-seeking) and reconciliation (meaningful victims’ engagement).

Mr. Knut Rosandhaug is a mindless bureaucrat of the worst kind for victims of the Khmer Rouge mass crimes.  He drove away the first and best possible chief of the ECCC Victims Support Section, Cambodian Keat Bophal, a woman of deep experience (hailed from the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights), caring personality and other stellar professional, educational credentials.  He masterminded the mindless co-lead lawyers’ scheme of civil party representation which strips away every meaningful participation of victims as “historic” civil “parties”.  After this scheme, a victim as “party” now exists on paper, as the actual rights of his/her party status are almost less than those of a “witness”.  At least a witness has a direct voice in the criminal proceeding detailing substantive facts; whereas now, a civil “party” is limited to testifying on the impact of the substantial facts.  Mr. Rosandhaug circumscribed the mandate of the co-lead lawyers Cambodian Ang Pich and French Elisabeth Simmoneau-Fort to only Case 002, ignoring Cases 003 and 004.  He allocated ZERO budget for any U.N. staff—junior, middle or senior—to be with the ECCC Victims Support Section since the resignation of U.N. lawyer Paul Oertly almost two years ago.

Pleads Ms. Seng:  “Please, Mr. Knut Rosandhaug, for the sake of Cambodians and the development of a more positive legacy of Cambodia—RESIGN.  Please UN, “promote” Mr. Knut Rosandhaug away to another position elsewhere outside of Cambodia.”

It’s difficult to divine Judge Siegfried Blunk’s state of mind for his fantastic arrogance and ignorance of 21^st-century Facebook-Twitter-KI-Media proportion in thinking he can hide securely behind the impenetrable veil of confidentiality and ignore his duty to keep the public and victims informed.  How is the constant refrain of “Confidential” reasonable in light of the inactivity and silence of the last 20 months?  He has failed the reasonableness test, the integrity test and the justice test. 

It is high time for both of them to go.   

States Ms. Seng, “We are stunned and incredulous.  Their implicit message to us is that we poor Cambodians should accept this tattered, cheap justice in silence because this is all we deserve.  To these men, I’d like to resoundingly state – Do your job with integrity, or resign.  We have enough of your arrogance and disastrous ECCC imperialistic macho-ism.”

These men have soiled the ideals of truth, justice, reconciliation for the Cambodian victims in their anti-victim actions and policies.  Their actions will further imbed the already deeply ingrained cynicism of the Cambodian population, the worst legacy imaginable for this fragile society of great distrust and trauma, as we struggle in the process of healing.

We are calling for their resignations and not for their Cambodian counterparts because the quality of their replacements is different.  The political interference and influence are so complete with the Cambodian personnel that it is difficult to imagine anyone doing a better job than Judge You Bunleng, for example, in his current position.  Whereas with the UN, it should be modeling international standards it so proudly espouses and be theoretically and in real terms free from domestic political interference with greater options of movement for the institution and for its personnel. 

Ms. Seng continues: “We trusted the UN.  Our hopes were raised because of the participation of the United Nations.  The fate of Cases 003 and 004 will cast a long shadow on the Extraordinary Chambers.  They serve as the litmus test of UN integrity and internationalized justice generally, and the legacy of the Extraordinary Chambers specifically. 

Ms. Seng concludes:  “We desire justice.  Truth is a pre-condition of justice.  Who gets heard and who speaks is a part of truth-seeking, a part of justice.  The deceit surrounding Cases 003 and 004 is unacceptable.”

For more information, please contact Ms. Seng at 012.222.552 or theary.seng@gmail.com.

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The Association of Khmer Rouge Victims in Cambodia—the first association based in Cambodia to be registered with the Ministry of Interior and the first to be recognized by the ECCC Victims Support Section and independent of any political or religious affiliation—is a network of survivors of the 1975-79 killing fields who are joined in the fellowship of suffering, in the demand for justice, and in the work for a just peace. The members of the Victims Association are from overseas and spread across the provinces and capital of Cambodia, coming together as a result of the public forums conducted by its Founder, and now its president Ms. Theary C. SENG and Victims Outreach Manager Mr. SOK Leang since 2007. They include widows and orphans; former child soldiers and former prisoners; hard-working farmers and middle-class city-dwellers; well-known actresses playwrights, authors and journalists; as well as teachers, translators, security guards, taxi drivers, inter alia. Among the other members of the Victims Association is the Civil Parties of Orphans Class, a special grouping pre-dating the AKRVC founding when introduced officially in the Pre-Trial Chamber hearing of Nuon Chea in Feb. 2008, and since officially recognized by the ECCC Victims Support Section and a party to the Extraordinary Chambers Case File No. 002 against the senior Khmer Rouge leaders. 

www.akrvictims.org