Mullapudi discusses delayed justice [in Cambodia]

Uma Mullapudi ’10 discussed delayed justice following the Cambodian genocide during the Chase Peace Prize panel on Monday afternoon. (Samantha Oh / The Dartmouth Staff)

Tuesday, May 3, 2011
By Felicia Schwartz, The Dartmouth Staff

In the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge genocide, the pursuit of justice has been hindered by various political and social concerns — including a desire to achieve national unity — among Cambodian and United Nations leaders, according to Uma Mullapudi ’10, winner of the 2010 Chase Peace Prize. Mullapudi spoke about her thesis, “Thirty Years Later: Delayed Justice and the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, 1991-2004,” with Rutgers University professor Alex Hinton and Dartmouth history and Native American studies professor Benjamin Madley in a panel honoring Mullapudi’s prize-winning submission on Monday.

Mullapudi’s research questioned why justice was continuously delayed for victims of the Cambodian genocide, she said.

“Why did people who suffered so much have to wait approximately 30 years for justice to begin?” Mullapudi asked.

Cambodian and UN leaders found it necessary to balance pursuing justice with achieving national reconciliation, which they believed would ensure human rights, maintain national sovereignty and create peace and stability, according to Mullapudi.

"... a lot of Cambodians right now don’t generally trust govt officials ... They know that Cambodia has a corrupt govt": Dacil Keo

Corruption Should Not Impede Justice: Experts

By Sothearith Im, VOA Khmer
Original report from Virginia
15 June 2009

The UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal is facing nettling allegations of kickbacks and corruption. But experts at a recent genocide conference in Arlington, Va., say allegations of corruption at the tribunal should not be a central question in the court’s ability to dispense justice.

Alex Hinton, Rutgers University professor at the department of sociology and anthropology and director of the Center for the Studies of Genocide and Human Rights, said he has been disappointed that some certain problems are overshadowing the important aspects of the proceedings.

“No trial is pure and perfect,” he said. “The idea is that you try to aspire for those high standards. But the problem is, if you get focused on the negatives, you fail to see the positive things, and that’ll be a very disappointing thing if that’s the only thing that the Khmer Rouge tribunal is remembered for.’’

Greg Stanton, president of Genocide Watch and the International Association of Genocide Scholars, told VOA Khmer in an interview allegations remain unproven, even while they are being pursued by the UN and by defense lawyers.

“The UN has been asked to come in and help [Cambodia] govern this tribunal. I think it needs to have very high standards, and I’ve always insisted on that,” Stanton said. “So, I do believe the tribunal needs to be free of corruption.”

However, he said, we should not take the allegations to be an excuse to ignore the crimes committed by Khmer Rouge.

“If we let what are probably rather minor types of corruption undermine the credibility of this court, we would be ignoring the big picture, which is the tremendous crimes that the Khmer Rouge committed,” he said.

Dacil Keo, a Cambodian-American doctoral student of political science at University of Wisconsin-Madison, told VOA Khmer that corruption at any level could affect the process of justice sought by victims of the regime.

“In particular, a lot of Cambodians right now don’t generally trust government officials,” she said. “They know that Cambodia has a corrupt government. I think with that existing perspective on the Cambodian government, the Khmers should work very hard to make sure that, you know, if there’s corruption, they deal with it.”