Tribunal Breakdown Puts Onus on Donors: UN

By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
23 April 2009

The failure between UN and Cambodian negotiators to find a method to address corruption at the Khmer Rouge tribunal will mean funding decisions are left up to donors, a senior UN official told VOA Khmer.

The breakdown, after four months of talks, over whether complainants had a real choice to submit complaints, has put further funding for the cash-strapped Cambodian side of the court on uncertain ground.

The UN has argued that anonymity is essential to ensure allegations come to light. The Cambodian side has said complainants should be named, to ensure fairness and legitimacy.

But speaking to VOA Khmer in an exclusive interview, UN negotiator Peter Taksoe-Jensen, who is the Assistant Secretary-General of Legal Affairs, said the final decision over fairness was now in the hands of the donors.

“This is an issue for the donors,” he said. “I know they have been looking to the UN and the government of Cambodia to agree on a mechanism that could put the issue of corruption, or the allegations of corruption, behind us. And now we didn’t succeed in doing that, and therefore the UN has tried to address the issue unilaterally.”

Taksoe-Jensen traveled to Cambodia three times seeking to put to rest concerns over corruption that have made some donors balk at funding the Cambodian side of the court, which is now facing a budget crisis.

Prior to leaving Cambodia earlier this month, having failed to reach an agreement with his counterpart, Council Minister Sok An, Taksoe-Jensen said in a statement the UN would continue to handle complaints, through its own offices.

The UN had sought what it considered a transparent, credible method for addressing kickback allegations—which tribunal officials have repeatedly dismissed—but the Cambodian side argued that the UN sought to undermine national sovereignty.

“There was one outstanding issue that we couldn’t agree on, which was the question of what I have called ‘freedom of choice’ for all staff members of court… where they maintain freedom of choice to complain to whom they want to complain to,” Taksoe-Jensen told VOA Khmer Thursday.

Each side now understood the other’s position, he said. “So we have done a lot of good work, and there is only a little issue that separates us now,” he said. “And I hope and believe that can be dealt with. So we can agree very soon.”

Cambodian officials have said the two sides need not agree further than a February arrangement of a “parallel” system of complaints, where those on the UN side of the hybrid court complain through UN channels, and those on the national side complain through government channels.

Cambodian negotiators argue that this method will be satisfactory for donors.

However, some questions over donor funding remain. Earlier this week, the UNDP declined to release $456,000 in Australian funding for the Cambodian side of the court, saying in a statement it would not do so until questions of corruption were properly addressed.

So the Cambodian side of the court, which could only pay staff salaries in March with an emergency, bilateral infusion from Japan, remains under-funded, even as the tribunal’s first trial, of prison chief Duch, got fully underway.

In fact, neither side wants full transparency, said Peter Maguire, a US professor of law and war, and the only real pressure for full disclosure is coming from the non-governmental sector.

Following staff allegations of kickbacks last year, the UN investigated, but the results of that investigation have never been made public.

None of that bodes well for future trials, Maguire said.

“I think that basically the Cambodian government would like this trial to end after Duch’s case, and I think that everything is sort of leading in that direction,” he said. “I don’t know that they could successfully try other defendants in their lifetimes.”

Failed Corruption Talks Worry Some

By Men Kimseng, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
10 April 2009

Cambodian officials gave guarded reaction to a UN statement following failed corruption talks over the tribunal on Wednesday, a statement that said in part the UN would pursue its own anti-corruption measures at the UN-backed court.

UN Assistant Secretary General for Legal Affairs Peter Taksoe-Jensen left three days of talks with Council Minister Sok An Wednesday with no agreement on how to address the nagging allegations of corruption and mismanagement that have led to a dearth of funds and a cash-strapped Cambodian side of the court.

Phay Siphan, a spokesman for the Council of Ministers, pointed to the ongoing trial of Duch, the former chief of Tuol Sleng prison, where 16,000 Cambodians were sent to their deaths, as proof of the success of the courts.

Duch, the revolutionary name for Kaing Kek Iev, is the first of five defendants to be tried at a tribunal that was established in 2006 after a decade of negotiations between Cambodia and the UN.

“We have to ask whether this success can be separated from those of the administration,” Phay Siphan said. “It is not unless the administration team provides sufficient service that the trial is as smooth as what we have seen now.”

Duch’s trial has coincided with dire straights for the Cambodian side of the jointly administered tribunal. The Cambodian side, from where allegations of staff kickbacks to senior officials come, struggled to pay its employees in March. That’s because many donors to the tribunal are either waiting for corruption allegations to be resolved or are giving their money to the UN side of the court. A UN investigation into allegations made in 2008 has not been made public.

Taksoe-Jensen said in a statement after failed talks on Wednesday that it had been his goal to establish a system of monitoring that would have re-established credibility for the Cambodian administration. No agreement was reached.

“I have submitted to H.E. Sok An–for his consideration–a draft Exchange of Letters setting out an ethics monitoring mechanism acceptable to the United Nations,” said Peter Taksoe-Jensen in his statement issued late Wednesday, adding that he thought the system would also be acceptable to the government.

Taksoe-Jensen also said the UN side of the tribunal would strengthen its own ethic monitoring, forwarding complaints to UN headquarters in New York and informing the Cambodian government “as appropriate.”

Without commenting directly on the statement or exchange of letters, Phay Siphan said that during negotiations this week, the Cambodian side had suggested including the real name of complainants in any allegations brought forward, to avoid groundless accusations. The UN would not agree.

“The UN does not understand this issue. They don’t know Cambodian culture. We want the complainant to put their name with real ground so that we can look at the complaint together, but what they want tends to dominate [us],” he said. “They just want this or that, so as an independent and sovereign country, and since the court is in the Cambodian jurisdiction, Cambodia must preserve its right to maintain discipline, orders and work effectiveness.”

Taksoe-Jensen said in Wednesday’s statement it was crucial that complainants remain anonymous: “the United Nations continues to believe that for the ethics monitoring system to be credible, the staff should have the freedom to approach the Ethics Monitor of their own choice and put forward complaints without fear of retaliation. Such freedom of choice is an imperative element of a trustworthy ethics monitoring system.”

Taksoe-Jensen’s statement was quickly welcomed by an organization monitoring the court process.

“I support both the UN and Cambodian measures to get rid of the corruption scandal, otherwise at every court hearing or legal process it will become a forum for lawyers and defendants to raise every time,” Long Panhavuth, a program coordinator for the Open Society Justice Initiative, told VOA Khmer by phone.

OSJI was one of the first organizations to air concerns of kickbacks, in 2007.

Staff members allege they must pay a portion of their salaries to senior officials in the Cambodian government in order to work at the tribunal—a not uncommon practice in other sectors of Cambodian government.

“The corruption allegations not only tarnish the government, but the whole court, which is comprised of both the UN and Cambodia,” Long Panhavuth said.

Other civil society organizations expressed concern that short funding would derail the court process. They suggested the UN and Cambodia finalize their differences as soon as possible to ensure transparency in spending donor money and to secure donor confidence.

“We are concerned and sorry,” Kek Galabru, president of the rights group Licadho, told VOA Khmer. “We want to see the court finish its work by at least putting on trial the five defendants so that people are able to know the truth.”

“From what we witnessed at Duch’s hearing, the court is doing their work at an international standard,” she said. “We want to see such a court.”

No date has yet been scheduled for another round of talks, though the government has said it still welcomes a UN return to the table.

Row threatens Khmer Rouge trials

Francois Bizot was the first witness at the trial of the chief jailer, Duch

Thursday, 9 April 2009
BBC News

"We were very close to an agreement and I have left a proposal on the table..." - Peter Taksoe-Jensen, UN assistant sec-gen for legal affairs

Talks between Cambodian officials and the UN over funding and alleged corruption at the Khmer Rouge war crimes tribunal have broken down.

Cambodia says it is running out of money to pay staff, but international donors are withholding fresh cash until claims of corruption are addressed.

The deadlock could derail the trials of the surviving Khmer Rouge leaders.

Meanwhile, a French scholar detained for alleged espionage in the 1970s has testified against the chief jailer.

Francois Bizot, who wrote the book The Gate about his experiences, was the first witness to appear at the trial of Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, for crimes against humanity.

He said Duch was a man on a mission, and described a "terrifying atmosphere of fear and death" at the main prison, Tuol Sleng, which Duch ran during the 1971-1975 Khmer Rouge insurgency against the then US-backed government.

Last week, Duch apologised for his work at Tuol Sleng, accepting blame for the later extermination of 15,000 people.

As many as two million people are thought to have died during the four years of Khmer Rouge government in the late 1970s.

Polite terror

Duch is the first of the surviving Khmer Rouge leaders to go on trial at the UN-backed court - but the UN-Cambodia wrangling is threatening to derail the process.

Following three days of talks, a UN spokesman said the two sides had failed to reach a deal.

"We were very close to an agreement and I have left a proposal on the table of deputy premier Mr Sok An and asked him to consider it," said the UN assistant secretary general for legal affairs, Peter Taksoe-Jensen.

The tribunal is a Cambodian court - but UN-appointed judges and legal officials play key roles, and almost all of its running costs are met by international donors.

The administration is split into local and international sides - and it is the Cambodian half which has run into trouble, saying it is almost out of money for staff salaries.

But allegations that local staff have been forced to pay bribes for their jobs have led many donors to suspend funds until methods are in place to ensure cash is not siphoned off.

The visiting UN delegation insisted that local staff should be able to report corruption to an international "ethics monitor" - especially if they feared retaliation.

Lawyers and human rights groups say that the allegations of corruption could sink the court's credibility if not resolved.