Thursday, January 19, 2012

Judge’s OK an ‘obligation’, UN says

Reserve co-investigating judge Laurent Kasper-Ansermet. (ECCC)
Thursday, 19 January 2012
Bridget Di Certo with additional reporting by Mary Kozlovski
The Phnom Penh Post

The United Nations yesterday said Cambodia is “under an obligation” to appoint the Khmer Rouge tribunal’s reserve co-investigating judge, a day after the government denied any such obligation exists.

Martin Nesirky, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, told the Post that pursuant to the 2003 Agreement between Cambodia and the UN establishing the tribunal, there is an “obligation” on Cambodia to appoint the UN’s nominee, Laurent Kasper-Ansermet, as international co-investigating judge.

We continue to call upon Cambodia to fulfill its obligation under the Agreement,” Nesirky said.


On Monday, the Council of Ministers’ Press and Quick Reaction Unit called a snap press conference to chastise media and rights groups for reporting that Cambodia “must” appoint Kasper-Ansermet.

The government has taken the position that the Supreme Council of Magistracy, a national body that appoints and disciplines national judges, is entitled to make a “decision” about the appointment of Kasper-Ansermet. Until he is appointed, investigations into cases 003 and 004, which are opposed by many high-ranking government officials, are effectively paralysed.

Amid concerns over judicial independence and the fate of cases 003 and 004 at the court, the UN has appointed American lawyer David Scheffer as Special Expert at the court, tribunal spokesman Lars Olsen confirmed yesterday. Scheffer served as the US’s first Ambassador at Large for War Crimes under the Clinton administration and is a long-term ECCC observer.

Previously, the Special Expert has been involved in such areas as the drafting of anti-corruption measures and fundraising.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

In an effort to integrate Cambodia into the Indochinese Federation, Vietnam has deployed many tricks in Cambodia in order to reach its goal.


Does international law allow one Country to capture the children of its neighbors and brainwash them and later use them to attack their own Country and commit the mass killing of their own people?

Vietnam did exactly like that to Cambodia. That's why approximately 3 million Cambodians have perished from 1975 to 1979 because of Vietnam's bad intention toward Cambodia. Vietnam has created Khmer Vietminh to make Khmer fight with Khmer, to make Khmer kill each other.

In addition, hundred of thousands of Khmer people died in the 80s due to Vietnam’s deployment of the K5 project.

If the killings during the Pol Pot’s era were not so clear that most of the killings were committed by the Khmer Vietminh, the K5 project on the other hand has explicitly reflected Vietnam’s vicious intention toward Cambodia because Cambodia at the time was fully controlled by Vietnam, which was the chief architect of the K5 project. The K5 project has caused hundreds of thousands of Khmer people dead mostly were men.

The United Nations should look into this unique case of Vietnam’s interference in Cambodia. It should examine at present Vietnam’s dominance in Cambodia as well.

Our people lamented that why Khmer people always suffer?

Because Vietnam has its own plan of making Cambodian people suffer by initiating war, making Khmer fight with Khmer, making Khmer kill each other, and exploit it.
Vietnam has always found some dumb Khmers such as Hun Sen to carry out strictly its orders – no matter what the costs to Khmer people and Cambodia.
For instance, why did Hun Sen implement those bilateral treaties with Vietnam and defy the 1991 Paris peace accord?

Anonymous said...

SI LE VIÉTNAM ET LE GOUVERNEMENT HUN SEN SONT HONNETES OU SONT TRANSPARENCES POURQUOI ILS SONT SI CRAINTIFS DU TRIBUNAL INTERNATIONAL POUR LES KHMERS ROUGES (C E T C)?........QUELLE HYPOCRISIE?.......QUEL PRÉTEXTE? TROP C'EST TROP HYPOCRITE...LE GOUVERNEMENT HUN SEN ET LUI MEME ET SON MAITRE COCO.