Thomas Miller
The Phnom Penh Post
Senate president Chea Sim yesterday appeared to endorse Prime Minister Hun Sen’s stated opposition to prosecutions at the Khmer Rouge tribunal beyond its second case, while the visiting United States ambassador for war crimes urged the court to resist political interference.
Chea Sim, who is also president of the Cambodian People’s Party, said that his party “supports” the court’s process “along the line of what was stated” by Hun Sen to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon during a meeting in the capital on October 27 last year.
In that meeting, Hun Sen “clearly affirmed that Case 003 will not be allowed”, Foreign Minister Hor Namhong told reporters at the time, fuelling speculation that the government was meddling in judicial decisions.
“The court will try the four senior leaders successfully and then finish with Case 002,” Hor Namhong added.
Speaking yesterday at the 60th anniversary of the CPP, Chea Sim said his party “supports the process” of the court “to try the crimes committed by the most senior leaders of the regime”.
While the court’s mandate gives it jurisdiction to try two categories of people – “senior leaders” and “those most responsible” for the atrocities of the regime – Chea Sim mentioned only the first.
Government officials have repeatedly stated that trying mid-ranking cadres, such as the three suspects in Case 004, could spark unrest and plunge the Kingdom back into civil war.
Both cases remain officially open but the court’s co-investigating judges have apparently sabotaged the Case 003 investigation, which concerns former KR navy commander Meas Mut and air force commander Sou Met. No information has been released on the Case 004 investigation.
In comments to the press yesterday during a visit to Phnom Penh, the United States Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues, Stephen Rapp, said the US expected decisions at the tribunal to be based on the law and the facts of the case.
“We know that people would like to see this tribunal finished at the end of Case 002, but that is not a political decision. The decision is to be made by this court according to the statute, according to the law, according to the facts that are developed,” he said.
Clair Duffy, a trial monitor for the Open Society Justice Initiative who attended the press briefing, said yesterday that Rapp’s statement “fail[ed] to recognise that previous statements of this nature have had no impact on the situation”.
“Right now, action – in the form of an independent inquiry – is what’s required here, not general statements about judicial independence,” Duffy said.
OSJI has called for an investigation into claims that Case 003 had been deliberately botched by the co-investigating judges – who did not interview suspects or investigate crime sites – amid political pressure.
Duffy said Chea Sim’s comments were “definitely suggestive” of pressure on the court.
“Why would there be need for any reference to the executive in talking about an independent judicial process, particularly knowing that the Prime Minister expressed clear opposition to Cases 003 and 004 during that 27 October meeting?” she said.
Phay Siphan, spokesman for the Council of Ministers, said the government respected the mandate of the court.
“But we do have a right to express ourselves as a government too, or as a political party, too,” he added.
5 comments:
All of the Khmer Rouge are the killers, KR Viet and KR China.
it's like finding out the problem, then fix it once and for all so the problem won't occur again! however, fixing it doesn't mean kill them, it just means use the rule of law to punish them. no more killing again in cambodia!
I disagreed about Hun Sen's and Chea Sim's decisions to block the Case 3. It should go through many more cases, because I believed that there more leaders involved. Not just the national leaders involved, but also the international contries' leaders involved. I studied the international histories, there were never existences in the ways that your own country leaders killed or eliminated their own people. It did not matter if you did not like the previous regime. You don't kill or eliminate your countrymen(people). That's the real truth.
Senate president Chea Sim & Prime Minister Hun Sen
In that meeting, Hun Sen & Foreign Minister Hor Namhong & Heng Samreng and Keat Chun also should be take them to UN court as well.
Case 003 will not take place in this ECCC.
This ECCC will end up with disappointment from majority of Cambodian.
Case 002 will face a lot of obstcles from CPP as we all have seen and heard all the dirty tricks that CPP has used to obstruct this ECCC court process.
I agree wiht 1 commnent on this KI-Media says :
Khmer must worry about Cambodia being swalled by yuon Hanoi instead of puting justice in the wrong hands of this Hanoi ECCC.
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