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| Judge Laurent Kasper-Ansermet was appointed as Reserve Co-Investigating Judge on 1 December 2010. (Photo: Courtesy of ECCC) |
Radio Free Asia
The Cambodian government sits on a UN request to confirm a replacement judge at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal.
The United Nations and nongovernmental groups have taken Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s administration to task for delaying the confirmation of a U.N.-appointed judge to the Khmer Rouge Tribunal amid charges that the government does not want the trial to go forward.
The Open Society Justice Initiative, a New York-based group which has been monitoring the tribunal proceedings since they began in 2007, said the delay in confirming Swiss reserve judge Laurent Kasper-Ansermet has stifled proceedings against defendants accused of genocide under the murderous Khmer Rouge regime, which ruled Cambodia from 1975-79.
“The Open Society Justice Initiative is deeply concerned over the Royal Cambodian Government’s failure to confirm the appointment of the international co-investigating judge at the Khmer Rouge tribunal in Cambodia,” the group said in a statement this week.
Failure to confirm the appointment “has created yet another impasse in the progress of judicial investigations into five suspects (known as Cases 003 and 004),” the group said.
The suspects are “alleged to have committed an array of international crimes,” the group added.
Resigned
Under the terms of the agreement between the U.N. and Cambodia that established the Tribunal, the U.N. sent judge Kasper-Ansermet to Phnom Penh last month to replace German judge Siegfried Blunk, who resigned in October after accusing the Cambodian government of interfering in the court’s work.
“The United Nations has since made every effort to secure the appointment of the judge,” U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky told Agence France-Presse.
Cambodia is required to appoint the previously selected reserve judge to fill the vacancy left by Blunk’s departure, Nesirky said.
Blunk’s Cambodian counterpart on the Tribunal, Judge You Bunleng, has vowed not to cooperate with, or recognize actions taken by, Kasper-Anserment until his appointment is officially confirmed.
The Swiss judge has meanwhile accused You Bunleng of blocking “important” information concerning the five defendants whose cases have now stalled.
One trial so far
The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), as the Tribunal is officially called, has so far completed just one trial which led to the jailing in 2010 of former Khmer Rouge prison chief Kaing Guek Eav for 30 years for overseeing the deaths of thousands of people.
The Khmer Rouge regime has been blamed for the deaths of approximately 1.7 million Cambodians through execution, torture, starvation, overwork, and disease.
A second trial involving the Khmer Rouge's four most senior surviving leaders is under way. Many do not expect the third and fourth cases to proceed.
Hun Sen, himself a former Khmer Rouge cadre, and other Cambodian officials have often expressed opposition to any further prosecutions in the Tribunal beyond the second trial.
Reported by Richard Finney.
5 comments:
You are all think I am stupid(Hun Sen said)? We are the best train from Vietnam so the UN can't do any shit and touching our government because our government are cheated ,bought out the people to topple the people.
these TRAITORS are brainwashed by COMMUNIST/VIETCONG VIETNAM.
la répétition montre que, si le viétnam et le gouvernement cambodgien hun sen sont honnettes ou transparences pourquoi ils sont si craintifs au tribunal international(c e t c)?
In the last few centuries, Khmer people have suffered heavily because of Vietnam's ambition trying to swallow Cambodia.
In order to make its goal materialize, Vietnam has initiated all kinds of trouble with Cambodia.
For example, in the last 50 years, which event that Khmer people suffered without Vietnam's involvement? If Vietnam is not in the front scene, Vietnam would stay behind the scene to generate turbulence in Cambodia.
So, to combat this evil nation Vietnam, we must strengthen our morale and must find a way to provide the proof to the international communities, especially the International Court of Justice, about Vietnam's criminal activities against Khmer people, making Vietnam accountable for its ill acts.
It is imperative that our educated people gather the necessary information and find a way to bring Vietnam to face justice. For instance, the K5 project which imposed by Vietnam in the 80s, resulting of hundreds of thousands of Khmer people dead, is a typical case that we should use as the first concrete step to make Vietnam pay for its evil deeds.
Vietnam has done horrible things to Khmer people, but we have never done anything to make Vietnam pay for it. That is why Vietnam kept doing bad things to Cambodian people and currently implementing its colonization on Cambodia.
Who gain from this ECCC ?
Hanoi and US gain have gain from this Haoi-US ECCC in Cambodia such as covering up their atrocities , mass killing such US B 52 bombing and killing field by yuon Hanoi as part of Indochina Federation.
So this is Hanoi-US ECCC in Cambodia.
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