US-Based CACJE demands the removal of King-Father's immunity during the progress of the KR Tribunal

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Unofficial translation from Khmer by Socheata

Cambodian Action Committee for Justice & Equity (CACJE)
451 Revere Beach Blvd, Revere, MA 02151, USA
Email: cac_je@yahoo.com, Tel: 401 451 8090
Spokesman and Representative to Cambodia: Mr. Nam Tara, Tel: (855-11) 918 009

20 August 2007

To: Samdech Heng Samrin, President of the National Assembly of the Kingdom of Cambodia

Subject: Request for a plenary session meeting of the National Assembly to remove the immunity of the former Monarch, and to annul Article 7 of the Cambodian Constitution during the period of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal session.

Based on the request subject above, the Cambodian Action Committee for justice and Equity believes that the maintenance of the immunity for former Monarch, Samdech Preah Norodom Sihanouk, and the enforcement of Article 7 of the Cambodian Constitution during the progress of the joint UN-Cambodian Tribunal to judge former Khmer Rouge leaders and those responsible in the Khmer Rouge regime, constitutes an obstacle preventing the ECCC investigation judges from performing their work according to justice standards, and also, this action does not provide equity to all leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime.

Article 31 of the Cambodian Constitution stipulates: “… Every Khmer citizen shall be equal before the law, enjoying the same rights, freedom and fulfilling the same obligations regardless of race, colour, sex, language, religious belief, political tendency, birth origin, social status, wealth or other status.” Therefore, in their names as Cambodian citizens who are equal before the law, regardless of their social status, or other status, numerous documents and studies written by independent researchers have shown that Samdech Preah Norodom Sihanouk, the former President of the GRUNK, and later the President of the Democratic Kampuchea (Khmer Rouge), was an important individual among the public and secret individuals who were involved in the formation of the Khmer rouge movement, and the Khmer Rouge regime known all over the world as a genocide regime that unfairly killed more than 2 million Cambodian people.

In order to allow the freedom for the national and international co-judges to have sufficient rights, and they can use their own impartial judgments to issue warrants for suspects, witnesses, and victims to come and provide clarifications in front of the tribunal, and in order to guarantee the equity of the respective roles of the former Khmer rouge elders and those responsible, and especially, to apply the international law standards in the search for justice for the Cambodian people who were victims of the cruelty and inhuman actions (perpetrated against them), CACJE requests that the Cambodian National Assembly presided by you, Samdech President, consider the request above, and bring it up to the agenda of a plenary session of the National Assembly to discuss and approve.

I hope and trust that the importance of the provision of justice, allowing the victims to know the identity of the leaders involved in the killing of million of Cambodian people, will make the international community recognize the independence of the Cambodian National Assembly in its cooperation with the joint tribunal between the UN and Cambodia to successfully sentence the former Khmer Rouge leaders and those who bear high responsibility of this regime.

Please accept, Samdech, my respect.

(Signed) Serey Ratha Suon
CACJE Mission President

CC:
The King’s cabinet
Members of the Constitutional Council
Office of the Senate President
Office of the Prime Minister
Members of the National Assembly
National and International Media
Office of the spokesperson and representative of CACJE in Cambodia.

Cambodian government rejects lift of immunity from prosecution for Sihanouk

August 25, 2007

The Cambodian government in Phnom Penh on Friday issued a statement to reject any proposal to lift the immunity from prosecution for former king Norodom Sihanouk.

"The Royal Government of Cambodia feels it must reject absolutely any idea to lift the immunity for prosecution held by His Majesty The King Father, Preah Samdech Preah Norodom Sihanouk, and to state clearly that this matter was clearly and definitively excluded at the time of the former king's retirement," said the statement.

"We recall that The King Father was, like his fellow citizens of Cambodia, a victim of the war in Indochina, caused by the intervention of foreign powers, and of the resultant Khmer Rouge ( namely the Democratic Kampuchea, DK) regime in which His Majesty lost 14 members of his family," it said.

"All is well known," it added, "the Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia states clearly in Article 7: The King of Cambodia shall reign but shall not govern. The King shall be the Head of State for life. The King shall be inviolable."

It is the responsibility of the co-prosecutors and co- investigating judges of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia (ECCC) to decide whom to try, within the jurisdiction of the court, which limited to senior leaders of DK and those most responsible for serious crimes under Cambodian and international laws, it said.

"It is the view of the Royal Government of Cambodia that such public agitation could have the result of jeopardizing the peace and unity of the Kingdom of Cambodia and play into the hands of those who would seek to return our country to its former state of war and chaos," it added.

Sihanouk retired as king of Cambodia in 2004. His son Norodom Sihamoni succeeded him.

The ECCC was designed by the United Nations and the Cambodian government to try former Democratic Kampuchea (DK) leaders on charges of crimes against humanity between 1975 and 1979.

Source: Xinhua

Cambodia affirms Sihanouk's immunity from Khmer Rouge trial

The then-"victimized" Prince Norodom Sihanouk giving a speech in the Khmer Rouge liberation zone in Cambodia, circa 1973. Khieu Samphan, the KR leader who could be charged by the KR Tribunal can be seen applauding next to then-Prince Sihanouk.

Friday August 24, 2007

(Kyodo) - The Cambodian government said Friday former King Norodom Sihanouk would retain his immunity from any prosecution ahead of the planned trial of former Khmer Rouge leaders.

The government said in a statement that Sihanouk was "a victim of the war in Indochina, caused by the intervention of foreign powers, and of the resultant Khmer Rouge regime in which His Majesty lost 14 members of his family."

The statement was made in response to a recent call by the U.S.-based Cambodian Action Committee for Justice and Equity for Cambodian Overseas for Sihanouk's immunity to be lifted to pave the way for a joint U.N.-Cambodian tribunal to investigate his role, if any, in the deaths of some 1.7 million Cambodians under the Khmer Rouge regime.

According to several publications, Sihanouk, 84, was invited as a nominal leader for about a year soon after the Democratic Kampuchea regime took power in 1975.

Currently, only Kaing Khek Ieu, better known as Duch, a former Khmer Rouge prison chief, is being detained awaiting trial by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.

Other surviving leaders including Nuon Chea, better known as brother No. 2, Ieng Sary, a former foreign minister, and Khieu Samphan, a former head of state, are living freely.

Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot died in 1998.

Sihanouk abdicated in 2004 in favor of his son, King Norodom Sihamoni.