Official ECCC Internal Rules available for download

The adopted version of the "Internal Rules" of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) is now available for online download in English and French.

The English version can be obtained by right clicking the link below and save it to your computer:

ECCC Internal Rules in English

La version française du "Règlement Intérieur" des Chambres Extraordinaires au Sein des Tribunaux Cambodgiens peuvent être télécharger en cliquant le lien suivant:

Règlement Interieur du CESTC

Khmer Rouge trial rules agreed

Up to a quarter of Cambodia's population died in the four years of Khmer Rouge rule [Reuters]

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 2007
Al Jazeera

A meeting of Cambodian and international judges has approved rules for the prosecution of former Khmer Rouge leaders, clearing the way for the long-delayed genocide trials to begin.

The decision ends months of infighting and clears the last major roadblock to beginning court proceedings.

"These rules will ensure us ... fair and transparent trials," co-prosecutor Robert Petit told reporters, adding they had been adopted unanimously.

"Now that the rules are adopted, we can move forward."

He said that Cambodian and foreign prosecutors who have been building cases against former Khmer Rouge leaders would probably send those files on to investigating judges within weeks.

The rules announced on Wednesday in Phnom Penh will govern every aspect of the United Nations-backed tribunal's operations.

The tribunal was set up last year, but agreements over the court process had been held up because of wrangling over legal fees and procedures.

The delays mean that the trials proper are unlikely to start before early 2008, officials say.

Counter-revolutionaries

Up to two million Cambodians died from hunger, disease, overwork or execution during the Khmer Rouge rule over Cambodia from 1975 to 1979.

The radical communist group had sought to transform Cambodia into their version of an agrarian utopia, clearing the cities, abolishing money, closing schools and wiping out anyone - such as intellectuals and professionals - who they saw as counter-revolutionaries.

The repeated delays in starting up the trial process has raised concerns that the ageing Khmer Rouge leaders would die before being brought to court.

Pol Pot, the so-called "Brother Number One" of the Khmer Rouge, died in a jungle hideout close to the Thai border in 1998.

Ta Mok, the group's military commander, who earned the nickname "The Butcher", died in prison last July.

The likely first defendants to appear before the tribunal include "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, the former foreign minister, Khieu Samphan, the former president of the Khmer Rouge government and Duch, head of the infamous S-21 interrogation and torture centre in Phnom Penh.

ECCC Internal Rules meeting could be completed by next week

9 June 2007
By Mayarith
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy

The meeting between Cambodian and foreign officials of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia (ECCC) is expected to complete sometimes next week, and the tribunal will be able to continue its work to bring to trial the former Khmer rouge leaders.

The meeting between the 29 Cambodian and foreign officials started on 31 May, and the meeting is expected to complete on 13 June.

Reach Sambath, ECCC spokesman, revealed some information about this more than one week long closed door meeting: “During the meeting of the last few days, there are a lot progress made, and we are happy with all the progress. This is a big hope for all the Cambodian victims who have been waiting, and they (victims) always ask us everyday the same question again and again as to when the trial will move on. Therefore, the meeting for the past full week produced numerous positive points.”

On Wednesday of next week, it is expected that the “Internal Rules,” which constituted a major obstacle to the progress of the trial of the former Khmer Rouge leaders, will be adopted.

Jurists Reviewing Tribunal Rules 'One by One'

Mean Veasna, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
07/06/2007

A meeting to jump-start the Khmer Rouge tribunal has meant careful scrutiny of more than 100 internal rules, jurists said Thursday, with both sides voicing more optimism than during past meetings.

Cambodian and UN-appointed judges and prosecutors began a series of meetings this week to find agreement on each of the rules so that a tribunal can be held.

French judge Marcel Lemonde said a number of important points were being discussed again, but talks were "on a good track."

Cambodian judge You Bunleng said the meetings were now just a matter of technical discussions.

"It does not look like there is any tension," he said.

Cambodian prosecutor Chea Leang said she was hopeful following "many understandings."

Both sides seemed ready to agree this time, Kek Galabru, founder of the rights group Licadho, said.

"They told us it is OK this time," she said. "Maybe there will be no problem."

Similar meetings have failed to reach full agreement on the rules, which are imperative for the functioning of the courts.

The latest round of talks only became possible after the Cambodian Bar Association relented on high fees for the participation of foreign lawyers, which had caused the UN-appointed international jurists to cancel a meeting at the end of May.

There Could Be A New Obstacle In the Khmer Rouge Tribunal

Posted date: 04-06-2007
By Sovannarith
Samleng Yuvachun Khmer
Translation from Khmer by The Khmer Rouge Trial Web Portal

Civil society organizations have shown their concern that there will be a new obstacle in the legal procedures of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal although the Cambodian and international co-judges agreed to sit in the plenary session on May 31 to discuss the internal rules in order to urge the process of the tribunal.

Recently, the National Assembly has been discussing the drafts of the criminal legal procedures in which some articles will be used in the Khmer Rouge Tribunal. However, around 10 per cent of those drafts doesn't conform to the internal rules of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal and the international criminal law, which it can lead to another obstacle in urging the process of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal.

To make the drafts of the penal code become laws so that the Khmer Rouge can use in its process in 2008, National Assembly's members, who are discussing the drafts, must verify the laws clearly in order find justice for more than 2 million victims who died during the Pol Pot Killing Fields.

Chhang Youk, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam), said that he hadn't studied the new problem which might cause another obstruction to the legal procedural practice of the Khmer Rouge tribunal yet. "If they want to create obstacle, they can," he said.

The Khmer Rouge Tribunal which has also been participated by the United Nations practices in accord to some articles of the Cambodian penal code whose drafts are being discussed by the National Assembly. However, these laws do not conform to the international law. The legal procedural practice in the Khmer Rouge Tribunal will use the international criminal law according to the agreement between the government of Cambodia and the UN.

As a result, the leaders of civil society organizations consider the problems as a new obstacle to delay the process of legal procedural practice in the Khmer Rouge Tribunal. It should be noticed that the Khmer Rouge Tribunal has only 3 years in which it has spent 1 year already.

Sok An, who is in charge of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal and who negotiated with the UN, denied the accusations. He said the Cambodian and international judges must not only respect the agreement between the government of Cambodia and the UN and that but the court must also pay respect to the laws and regulations which are the 'internal' laws of Cambodia. Those problems were not difficult, he said.

Marcel Lemonde, co-investigating judge of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, claimed that the penal code which the National Assembly of Cambodia was discussing did not cause any 'serious' obstacle to the adoption of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal's internal rules.

Meanwhile, some civil society organizations including Center for Social Development (CSD), Human Rights organization ADHOC, and the DC-Cam, which are funded by international organizations, are working actively to educate people about the importance of the Khmer Rouge court.

Reach Sambath, spokesman to the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, once said that co-prosecutors had not accused anyone officially yet and that the Khmer Rouge Tribunal had received a lot of legal complaints from Cambodians living both inside and outside Cambodia. In those complaints, they insisted for compensations from the former Khmer Rouge leaders who had killed their family members, he said.

Reach Sambath claimed that the compensations for many Cambodians were not possible since there could be a for-all-together compensation building some achievement for the country.

Recently, the DC-Cam has distributed historical books about the Khmer Rouge regime to more than 200 high schools around Cambodia to help young Cambodians understand clearly about the history of the Khmer Rouge leadership which caused the killings of more than 2 million Cambodians from 1975 to 1979.

(Informal Translation)
Extracted from Samleng Yuvachun Khmer, vol. 14, #3051, Friday, June 2, 2007

Cambodian genocide tribunal judges try to hammer out guiding rules for trials

Cambodian co-prosecutor Chea Leang, left, talks on her mobile phone before a meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Monday, June 4, 2007. Cambodian and foreign judges sat down together Monday in a weeklong meeting aimed at finalizing rules for guiding the much-delayed genocide trials of former Khmer Rouge leaders blamed for the deaths of 1.7 million people. On the center, Robert Petit, foreigner judge from Canada; at right, Briton Rupert Skillback, with chief defense support section. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Monday, June 4, 2007
By: KER MUNTHIT
Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- Cambodian and foreign judges began a weeklong meeting Monday to confirm rules for the much-delayed genocide trials of former Khmer Rouge leaders, blamed for the deaths of 1.7 million people.

In his opening remarks, Kong Srim, a Cambodian judge with the U.N.-backed genocide tribunal, urged his national colleagues and foreign counterparts to work hard to adopt the procedural rules by June 13.

The rules are necessary before the trials for crimes against humanity and genocide can be convened, hopefully by early next year.

Speaking on behalf of her U.N.-appointed colleagues, Judge Sylvia Cartwright from New Zealand expressed optimism that the rules can be adopted.

"We know that if the internal rules are adopted in their present draft form, we have a foundation from which it may be possible to ensure a free, fair and transparent trial," she said.

She and Kong Srim are co-chairing the plenary session.

The radical policies of the communist Khmer Rouge are blamed for the deaths of about 1.7 million people through hunger, disease, overwork and execution during their 1975-79 rule.

The tribunal was created last year after seven years of contentious negotiations between the United Nations and Cambodia.

Trials had been expected to start this year. But Cambodian and foreign judges spent the last six months bickering about the rules. The setting of expensive legal fees for foreign lawyers wanting to take part in the tribunal was the latest obstacle, resolved only in April.

Many fear that unless agreement is reached quickly, the aging defendants could die before being brought to justice.

Kong Srim, who chairs the current joint plenary session, said that, after a long delay, a historic moment had arrived.

With the rules, the tribunal "can move forward to discharge its historic responsibility to provide justice, for which the Cambodian people and humanity as a whole have been waiting for a long time," he said.

Marcel Lemonde, a co-investigating judge, said in a recent interview that the investigation phase should begin within weeks after the rules are adopted.

Arrests of potential defendants could also begin during the investigation period, said Lemonde, a former judge in France.

But he has also warned that another failure to agree on the rules this time could put the future of the tribunal in jeopardy.

Amnesty International: ECCC Internal Rules must meet international standards

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Public Statement
AI Index: ASA 23/007/2007 (Public)
News Service No: 100
4 June 2007

Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia: Internal Rules must meet international standards

Amnesty International today called on the judges of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), as they open their plenary session, to ensure that the draft Internal Rules meet the highest standards of international justice.

The Internal Rules, due to be considered and adopted at this session, govern many important aspects of how the ECCC will work in practice. They must ensure that the ECCC trials are conducted fairly and that they fully implement the rights of victims. Although the Internal Rules are based on procedures in Cambodian law, there is a requirement that they are consistent with international standards.

This is the first time that the judges will meet in plenary to consider the Internal Rules since they were unable to reach agreement on a first official draft in November 2006. Amnesty International reviewed that draft and noted significant flaws, in particular:

• The draft Internal Rules failed to establish an effective mechanism to provide protection and support to victims and witnesses.
• Although the draft Internal Rules provided for reparations for victims, the scope and forms of reparations are vaguely defined and, in some instances, inconsistent with international law and standards).
• The draft Rules fail to incorporate rules necessary to ensure the protection and support of survivors of sexual violence.
• International rules prohibiting trials in absentia were not fully incorporated into the Rules.

To assist the Court in addressing some of these flaws, the organization submitted recommendations to the ECCC to effectively address victims and witnesses issues in the Internal Rules.

Since the November plenary, a committee within the ECCC has worked on the draft Internal Rules and has prepared a revised version which will now be considered by the judges. Unfortunately, the ECCC decided not to make the revised Internal Rules public, therefore it is not known to what extent the flaws in the previous version have been addressed.

Amnesty International urges the judges to ensure that the Internal Rules fully respect the right to a fair trial and the rights of victims. The organization believes that both aspects are fundamental to the credibility and the success of the ECCC. Anything less would seriously undermine the important and long overdue effort to ensure justice for the people of Cambodia.

Background

In June 2003, the United Nations and the government of Cambodia signed an agreement to establish the ECCC to bring "to trial senior leaders of Democratic Kampuchea and those who were most responsible for the crimes and serious violations of Cambodian penal law, international humanitarian law and custom, and international conventions recognized by Cambodia, that were committed during the period from 17 April 1975 to 6 January 1979."

On November 2006, the ECCC published a draft of the Internal Rules and invited submissions from civil society. The Internal Rules define their purpose to "consolidate applicable Cambodian procedure for proceedings before the ECCC and, pursuant to Articles 20, 23, and 33 of the ECCC Law and Article 12.1 of the Agreement, to adopt additional rules where these existing procedures do not deal with a particular matter, or if there is uncertainty regarding their interpretation or application, or if there is a question regarding their consistency with international standards."

The judges met to consider the Rules at the end of November but did not reach agreement on a number of issues.

Tribunal Jurists Expect Breakthrough in New Round of Talks

Foreign judge Claudia Fenz, center, from Australia, looks on during a Khmer Rouge tribunal meeting in Phnom Penh Monday

Kong Soth, VOA Khmer
Cambodia
04/06/2007

International and Cambodian jurists said Monday they expected a breakthrough and that the Khmer Rouge tribunal would proceed.

Tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath said both sides were "highly determined" to put the tribunal on course, after lengthy delays that have threatened to sink the tribunal altogether. "They will make the procedure go forward properly and fairly and quickly."

A representative for the international, UN-appointed judges, Sylvia Cartwright, said the group felt the "weight of responsibility" in the tribunal and were working to "serve the interests of justice for the people of Cambodia."

The tribunal so far has been bedeviled by details, and some observers warn the process is not yet in the clear. Too much delay, they say, will cause the tribunal to collapse under its own three-year time limit.

Cambodian and international jurists failed in March to proclaim complete success in discussions over internal rules for the tribunal. Further talks were stalled when the Cambodian Bar Association set fees for foreign lawyers that were so high international judges feared watered-down trials. Ultimately, the bar association relented, paving the way for this round of talks.

KR Tribunal Judges meeting to "hopefully" finalize Tribunal Internal Rules

Cambodian and foreign judges sit together for a meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Monday, June 4, 2007. They sat down together Monday in a weeklong meeting aimed at finalizing rules for guiding the much-delayed genocide trials of former Khmer Rouge leaders blamed for the deaths of 1.7 million people. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Judges cautious on Cambodia trial talks

A Cambodian boy (R) and a tourist (C) look at human skulls at the Cheoung Ek killing fields on the outskirts of the capital Phnom Penh, 17 April 2007. Judges at Cambodia's Khmer Rouge tribunal opened talks Monday to end a long-running dispute in what many see as a last-ditch bid to save the country's genocide trials. (AFP/File/Suy Se)

PHNOM PENH (AFP) - Judges at Cambodia's Khmer Rouge tribunal opened talks Monday to end a long-running dispute in what many see as a last-ditch bid to save the country's genocide trials.

The meeting is the fourth attempt since November to approve internal court regulations necessary to move ahead with prosecuting those responsible for one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century.

Despite a high degree of optimism, judges were warned not to expect easy negotiations.

"It is not yet time to be confident we will reach a satisfactory conclusion," said Silvia Cartwright, one of the international trial judges.

Previous attempts bogged down over disagreements on legal fees and other procedures, sparking allegations of political interference and throwing the trials into question.

But judges are hopeful that they will be able to strike a resolution by the end of talks on June 13.

"People feel rather optimistic," co-investigating judge Marcel Lemonde, one of the 19 jurists who will vote on the rules, said before the judges went into session.

"The general mood is that the judicial process is going to begin at last," he said.

The talks follow separate meetings by foreign and Cambodian jurists last week to shore up their respective positions going into Monday's full plenary session.

An agreement on rules would be a major step forward in a process that over the past decade has been repeatedly stalled by fighting between the Cambodian government and the United Nations, which is jointly sponsoring the tribunal.

The trials are the last chance for Cambodians to find justice for crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge more than 30 years ago.

Up to two million people died of starvation and overwork, or were executed, during the communist regime's 1975-79 rule.

The Khmer Rouge abolished religion, schools and currency, exiling millions onto vast collective farms with the aim of creating an agrarian utopia.

Rights groups and legal advocates have called for swift trials amid concern that ageing former regime leaders will die before being brought to justice.

So far only one possible defendant is in custody, while several live freely in Cambodia.

The only other person to have been arrested for crimes committed during the regime, military commander Ta Mok, died in prison last July. Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot died in 1998.

The first trials of former Khmer Rouge leaders had initially been expected this year.

However, the delays mean trials are unlikely to start before early 2008, officials say.

Tribunal Begins Long-Awaited Rules Discussion

Mean Veasna, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
31/05/2007

Thursday, as Khmer Rouge tribuanl jurists began a series of meetings in the capital.

Khmer Rouge tribunal judges and prosecutors began a series of plenary meetings Thursday to discuss controversial internal rules that have hobbled effective trials to date.

"This tribunal, whether or not it can proceed, depends on this meeting now," tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath said. "This is the trial we anticipate and that will occur in the immediate future."

Judges and prosecutors, collectively called jurists, must find common ground on 113 articles of rules. A meeting in March fell short of full agreement on the rules between Cambodian and UN-appointed jurists. The March meetings were followed by weeks of deadlock, as the Cambodian Bar Association refused to lower fee requirements for foreign lawyers and the international jurists canceled an April plenary session.

Thursday's resumption of meetings was a mark of reconciliation, after the bar association eventually lowered the fee requirements. The plenary meetings are expected to last two weeks.

A legal expert for the rights group Adhoc, Isha Mussa, who monitors the tribunal, said obstacles remain before a tribunal can indict any former Khmer Rouge leaders, who are aging and in poor health.

"It does not comply with the Cambodian criminal side," he said. "So the Cambodian judges can interpret it in the future, and if it is the case, they can say that, 'Hey, when the internal rules are implemented, they should not be done that way, because they are wrong based on the Khmer criminal side's interpretation.'"

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy said difficulties remained over legal criminal procedures.

"We ask for a proper reviewing of the article," he said, "so the National Assembly will not implement the criminal legal procedure without responsibility, and it can be an obstacle in the formation of [the tribunal]. It is another big responsibility and the lawmakers have to understand that."

Judges meet to keep ball rolling on Cambodian genocide trials

2007-05-31

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - Cambodian and foreign judges met Thursday to narrow their differences on holding a much-delayed U.N.-backed genocide tribunal for former leaders of the Khmer Rouge, a brutal regime blamed for the deaths of 1.7 million people.

The judges' task over the next two weeks will be to adopt procedural rules necessary for convening the trials for crimes against humanity and genocide, hopefully by early next year.

Many fear that unless agreement is reached quickly, the aging defendants could die before being brought to justice.

Tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath said the meeting «is a very important and historical chance to bring the tribunal forward.»

With the likely defendants ailing and frail, and almost three decades having passed without their victims seeing justice done, the tribunal has no more time to lose, said Marcel Lemonde, a co-investigating judge.

«We know that some of the possible defendants are elderly people. They might die, so that's precisely the reason why we have to be very diligent and try and organize proceedings as soon as possible,» Lemonde told The Associated Press.

Once the rules are adopted, the investigation phase should begin within weeks.

The radical polices of the communist Khmer Rouge caused the deaths of about 1.7 million people through hunger, disease, overwork and execution during their horrific 1975-79 rule.

The tribunal, officially known as Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, was created last year after seven years of contentious negotiations between the United Nations and Cambodia. The government of Prime Minister Hun Sen _ a former Khmer Rouge soldier _ constantly bullied the world body for control of the joint venture.

With a US$56.3 million (¤42 million) budget limited to three years, trials had been expected to start this year. But Cambodian and foreign judges spent the last six months bickering about the rules. The setting of expensive legal fees for foreign lawyers wanting to take part in the tribunal was the latest obstacle, resolved only in April.

The tribunal is an unprecedented hybrid, with Cambodian judges holding the majority in decision-making matters but needing one supportive vote from a foreign counterpart to reach a super-majority to prevail.

It is operated under the Cambodian judicial system, often described by critics as weak, corrupt and susceptible to political manipulation.

Lemonde himself never worked at an international tribunal before but was a judge in France for 30 years. Cambodian law, which guides the proceedings, is based on the French model.

«The whole system is a very complicated one,» he said, pointing out that every decision has to be made jointly. Even language is a huge headache, he said, because everything has to be translated into Cambodian, English and French.

The rules have «only been one tiny issue that has taken a lot of energy and time from everybody,» said Theary Seng, executive director of Center for Social Development, a non-governmental Cambodian group that monitors the country's courts.

Their adoption, she cautioned, will remove «only one hurdle among countless potential hurdles» ahead.

She said the larger concern is that the quality and determination of the tribunal and its personnel, both Cambodian and foreign, have yet to be tested, and they will have to show both mettle and flexibility.

Cambodian officials will be thinking in the context of their future careers, taking into account the country's political pressures, which will remain long after their foreign counterparts have gone, she said.

The U.N.-appointed officials are also facing a heavy responsibility because «they have to balance their role as international judges and prosecutors with integrity and a known name already, and they have to balance that with their concerns and their suspicions that the process may not be up to a level that they feel comfortable with,» she said.

«This court has been organized probably not in an ideal way,» said Lemonde, «but this was the only one acceptable to everybody.»

Khmer Rouge court meets to determine rules

31/05/2007
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

A plenary session of judicial officers of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia has begun talks to adopt internal rules for the hybrid court to bring former Khmer Rouge leaders to justice.

The ECCC's spokesman, Reach Sambath, says the main objective of the session is to adopt the internal rules for the ECCC.

'The final draft has been prepared over previous months by the Rules Review Committee,'' Reach Sambath said.

The 113-article rules are needed for the planned three-year trial.

The officers have two weeks to decide on the rules.

The plenary was originally planned for April but was boycotted by the foreign judges after a row over fees imposed by the Cambodian Bar Association.

The fee question was finally resolved by the Cambodian Bar reducing it.

The ECCC is a hybrid court being put together by the United Nations and the Cambodian government to try surviving Khmer Rouge leaders over atrocities committed during the Khmer Rouge reign.

Discussions on the special court have dragged on since 1997.

Judge says Cambodian genocide tribunal in jeopardy if court rules not adopted

Marcel Lemonde, co-investigating judge for the Khmer Rouge tribunal, gestures during an interview with the Associated Press at his office in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, May 23, 2007. Lemonde on Wednesday said, the future of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge genocide trial will remain a question mark, if national and international judicial officials cannot agree on the rules for the proceedings when they meet next month. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Wednesday, May 23, 2007
The Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: The future of the Khmer Rouge genocide tribunal could be in jeopardy if Cambodian and international officials fail to agree on procedural rules when they meet this month, a foreign judge said Wednesday.

But if the issues are resolved, the first court sessions could be held by early 2008, said Marcel Lemonde, a co-investigating judge for the U.N.-backed tribunal.

"We say ... the trial must begin. People have been waiting for this trial for 30 years, and we can't delay anymore," Lemonde said.

The tribunal, set up to prosecute former Khmer Rouge leaders for alleged genocide and crimes against humanity, has already suffered "a bit of a question of credibility" because of delays, said Lemonde.

"And if the rules were not adopted at this time, then it would be dramatic for the future, the very existence of this court," said Lemonde, a U.N.-appointed judge.

The radical polices of the Khmer Rouge caused the death of about 1.7 million people through hunger, disease, overwork and execution during its horrific 1975-79 rule.

The meeting for Cambodian and U.N.-appointed judicial officials is slated from May 31 to June 13. Asked if this was the last chance for the procedural rules to be adopted, he said, "I would say so, yes."

The tribunal was created last year under a 2003 pact between Cambodia and the United Nations.

Trials were originally expected to start this year but have been repeatedly delayed by procedural disagreements between Cambodian and foreign judges. The setting of expensive legal fees for foreign lawyers wanting to take part in the tribunal was the latest obstacle, before being resolved last month.

Many fear the remaining Khmer Rouge leaders, who are aging and in declining health, could die before the trial starts.

Lemonde, formerly a judge in France, said "if everything goes correctly" at the coming meeting, the investigation phase would begin in the weeks afterward. He said the goal is to start the trial proceedings "at the beginning of 2008."

He declined to estimate the number of possible defendants but said the tribunal will try not only the most senior Khmer Rouge leaders.

While the tribunal will not be able to prosecute hundreds of defendants, he said it cannot let "very serious criminals" escape justice.

"We couldn't (just) say 'well, there are too many defendants, and this person is supposed to have killed 1,000 people but we won't deal with him.' This is not acceptable for the victims and for everybody in the world," Lemonde said.

"If we understand and get evidence that somebody has committed large-scale crimes, even if he's not a very high-ranking person, he will have to answer for his crimes," he said.

KR Tribunal judges to meet at the end of the month

Friday, May 18, 2007
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

The Cambodia Daily reported that 25 Cambodian and International judges of the Khmer Rouge tribunal will meet in Phnom Penh at the end of this month to ratify the Internal Rules of the KR tribunal, for the second time. Reach Sambath, ECCC spokesman, expressed his confidence on the outcome of this meeting, and he claimed that the result will be positive. International judges of the ECCC declared on 30 April 2007, that they will convene a new plenary meeting once the Cambodian Bar Association will cut the fees to $500 for international lawyers in the tribunal. According to a court official, the Cambodian judges, and the International judges will hold separate meetings on 31 May and 01 June to review the content of the Internal Rules. These rules are currently being revised by a 9-member committee.

Internal Rules Governing Khmer Rouge Tribunal Reached

By Rory Byrne
Voice of America
Phnom Penh
19 March 2007

Cambodian and international judges have reached an agreement on the rules that will govern running of the coming human-rights trial of the former leaders of the Khmer Rouge. Rory Byrne reports from Phnom Penh.

Efforts to begin hearings on human-rights abuses under the Khmer Rouge government are moving forward, now that the tribunal judges have resolved disagreements on the rules that will govern everything from defense lawyers to victims' rights.

The agreement last week means the way is now open to try the former leaders of the Khmer Rouge. During the late 1970's, the Khmer Rouge was responsible for the deaths of nearly two-million Cambodians.

Helen Jarvis is the spokeswoman for the tribunal, officially known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.

"Friday was a very important day in the history of the Extraordinary Chambers because both international and national judges in the review committee came together and agreed finally on the content of the internal rules," she said. "This is something they have been working on, really, since last July, so it was a big break through"

Negotiations resolved Cambodian concerns about protecting national sovereignty, and eased U.N. fears about the risk of political interference in the trials.

There also was a dispute about whether foreign defense lawyers would be allowed. Under the agreement, they will be, but only as a part of a team that contains at least one Cambodian lawyer.

Few other details of the agreement have been released.

The only outstanding disagreement concerns the high fees that foreign lawyers will be charged to join the Cambodian Bar Association before they can take part in the trials.

"There is still a sticking point on the fees, but that is a question that is outside the internal rules," said Jarvis. "So now the job of the internal rules is complete and we are calling a plenary session in all likelihood on the 30th of April."

Now that the way has been cleared to try the Khmer Rouge leadership, work will begin to select the judges and lawyers who will take part in the trial. The first defendant is not expected to appear before a judge before early next year.

Many Solutions, But 'Fine Tuning' Remains, Tribunal Committee Says

Sarem Neou
VOA Khmer
Washington
16/03/2007

Statement from the Review Committee of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.

On 16 March 2007, the Review Committee concluded a ten-day session in Phnom Penh on the draft Internal Rules.

During the session, the Review Committee discussed in exhaustive detail many points and resolved all remaining disagreement, although some fine tuning remains to be done.

However, one issue not mentioned in the draft Internal Rules, but still outstanding, is the impact of registration fees on the participation of foreign lawyers in the ECCC.

The latest decision of the Bar Association of the Kingdom of Cambodia (BAKC) imposes a fee that is unacceptable to the international judges, who consider that it severely limits the rights of accused and victims to select counsel of their choice. The international judges believe that the failure to fix an appropriate fee places an obstacle to adopting the Rules while the national judges consider that the registration fee, being an issue outside the scope of the draft Internal Rules and should not be an obstacle to their adoption. The judges are ready to hold a plenary at the end of April. For international judges, this will be possible only if a satisfactory resolution of this issue is reached.

In order to find a solution that is acceptable to all parties, so that the Plenary can proceed on 30 April 2007, the BAKC is invited to reconsider its position as soon as possible and the ECCC Defence Support Section is requested to work closely with the Bar on this process.

All members of the Committee remain dedicated to completing this complex effort of successfully harmonising international and national law so that the ECCC can discharge its historic responsibility to find justice for the Cambodian people.

Khmer Rouge trial rules agreed at last

March 16, 2007

By Ek Madra

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - The trials of surviving Khmer Rouge leaders moved a big step closer on Friday as international and Cambodian judges said they had finally agreed on the rules of the tribunal.

"The review committee discussed in exhaustive detail many points and resolved all remaining disagreements, although some fine tuning remains to be done," they said in a statement at the end of 10 days of talks.

Disagreements which had held up the start of the tribunal, set up last year by Cambodia and the United Nations, ranged from admissibility of evidence and witness protection to the height of the judges' chairs.

The statement gave few details of what the agreement entailed, but it appeared to have ended what diplomats said was the threat of the U.N. side to walk away from trials expected to take three years and cost $53 million (27 pounds).

But it said one remaining point at issue was the fee demanded by the Bar Association of the Kingdom of Cambodia (BAKC) for international lawyers to join it so they can appear.

"The latest decision of the BAKC imposes a fee that is unacceptable to the international judges, who consider that it severely limits the rights of accused and victims to select counsel of their choice," the statement said.

It did not say what fee the Bar Association was demanding, but said the international judges believed it should not be an obstacle and the two sides had promised to thrash out their differences by the end of April.

START DATE AWAITED

It remained unclear when the trials would begin of 10 surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge, who emptied the cities and embarked on four years of radical agrarian revolution in which an estimated 1.7 people were executed or died of hunger or disease.

But tribunal spokeswoman Helen Jarvis said the agreement meant they could start soon.

"It means step a big forward and we hope soon we will be able to move to the judicial process," she said without elaborating.

Pol Pot, the "Brother Number One" of the government which spawned the "Killing Fields", died in 1998.

But "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea, former head of state Khieu Samphan and ex-Foreign Minister Ieng Sary are all living free in Cambodia and are due to face trial.

The only senior Khmer Rouge figure in detention is Duch, head of the notorious Tuol Sleng interrogation centre, a former school in Phnom Penh where at least 14,000 people were tortured and executed before a Vietnamese invasion ended their rule in 1979.

The path to their trials has been strewn with difficulties and there have been constant suspicions that the Cambodian government, despite its public protestations to the contrary, did not want them to go ahead.

The government has many officials with Khmer Rouge backgrounds who would not want their backgrounds investigated too closely and China worries details of its support of the back to the soil "Year Zero" government will come out, diplomats say.

The issue was raised at a meeting between the European Union and Southeast Asian foreign ministers this week in Nuremberg, scene of post-World War Two trials of German Nazi leaders.

"Time has passed, but not all the things have been forgotten," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said as he urged a swift start to the trials.

Cambodia sees moves towards Khmer Rouge trial

15 Mar 2007
By David Brunnstrom

NUREMBERG, Germany, March 15 (Reuters) - Cambodia's foreign minister expressed optimism on Thursday that Cambodian and international judges would soon resolve procedural disputes and move ahead with trials of Khmer Rouge leaders.

After a meeting of EU and Southeast Asian foreign ministers in Nuremberg -- scene of post-World War Two trials of German Nazi leaders -- Hor Namhong said he was aware of international concerns that finalising trial rules was taking a long time.

But agreeing rules for such trials in Sierra Leone and Rwanda had perhaps taken longer, he told a news conference. He said discussions were continuing among the judges, who planned a full meeting to finalise the rules next month.

"For myself, I am optimistic that the international and Cambodian judges and prosecutors can finalise internal rules not ...a long time from now," he said.

An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died of torture, execution, starvation, disease or overwork during the ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge revolution from 1975 to 1979.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana urged Cambodia to move ahead with trials, which would involve the top surviving allies of Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, who died in 1998.

Solana said that with Cambodia and Hor Namhong in the chair of the Association of South East Asian Nations for the next two years, there would be many occasions to stress the need for a trial, which the EU is helping to fund.

"Time has passed, but not all the things have been forgotten," Solana told reporters.

DISAGREEMENTS

A U.N.-Cambodian tribunal was set up last year, but launching the trials has been held up by disputes between the two sets of judges, who will work under a complicated formula designed to ensure judgements have the support of both.

The judges have been holding two weeks of talks due to conclude on Friday to resolve the disputes, which have raised doubts as to whether the process can proceed.

The question has long been whether the surviving Khmer Rouge leaders, now in their 70s and 80s, would die before they could be tried. They include Pol Pot's deputy Nuon Chea, former head of state Khieu Samphan and ex-foreign minister Ieng Sary, all of whom are living free.

Procedural disagreements have ranged from admissibility of evidence to witness protection and even the heights of judges' chairs. However last week the Cambodian Bar Association removed a significant barrier by lifting a ban on foreign lawyers.

Diplomats say the U.N. side of the court would walk away if it felt its local counterparts were dragging their feet or acting on orders of Prime Minister Hun Sen, an ex-Khmer Rouge soldier who lost an eye in the capture of Phnom Penh in 1975.

In public at least, Hun Sen, who is not linked to any Khmer Rouge atrocities, has made clear he favours a trial. Hor Namhong is another former Khmer Rouge member who defected to ally himself with Vietnam before it invaded Cambodia and drove the group from power.

Despite official statements in support of a trial, the Cambodian government and administration remains riddled with former Khmer Rouge cadres, many of whom will not want prosecutors raking through their pasts.

China, the main Khmer Rouge ally, has lobbied Hun Sen to stall the proceedings to prevent the full extent of Beijing's involvement coming to light, diplomats say.

Despite delays, Cambodia foreign minister sees Khmer Rouge trial taking place

Thursday, March 15, 2007
The Associated Press

NUREMBERG, Germany: Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said Thursday he was not worried that delays in bringing members of the Khmer Rouge regime to justice for their murderous rule in the late 1970s will prevent their trial by special tribunal from taking place.

He said Cambodian and international judges "are discussing internal rules" and that difficulties in staging their trial were common.

"Some people in some countries are concerned about the slow process," Hor Namhong told reporters after an EU-Southeast Asia meeting. But he added that it took longer to try those charged with genocide in Sierra Leone and Rwanda than the preparations of the Khmer Rouge tribunal.

"International judges and prosecutors are discussing internal rules," Hor Namhong added.

"In April there will be a plenary session of all the judges and prosecutors in order to finalize the internal rules."

The meeting was held in Nuremberg, the German city where prominent members of the political, military and economic leadership of Nazi Germany were tried for their roles in the horrors of World War II.

Hor Namhong's upbeat comments about trying Khmer Rouge members for atrocities committed in a dark period of his country's history's clash with difficulties in actually doing that.

Cambodian and U.N.-appointed judges wrap up a 10-day meeting Friday aimed at thrashing out differences on how to integrate Cambodian and international law. But procedural disputes have all but paralyzed their efforts.

The first trials were expected this year, but the special tribunal, officially known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia, has been bogged down by infighting that many say could cripple the proceedings entirely.

The tribunal was set up to operate with the Cambodian judicial system, but with protections against corruption and political manipulation.

Squabbling over details about the rules governing the trials has eaten up nearly a third of the tribunal's three-year plan. Further delay could mean that former Khmer Rouge leaders will never be brought to trial for turning Cambodia into the bloody land of "the Killing Fields."

The radical policies of the now-defunct Khmer Rouge, who held power in 1975-79, led to the deaths of about 1.7 million people from execution, overwork, disease and malnutrition. But not one of the communist group's leaders has ever been brought to trial.

Pol Pot, the movement's leader, died in 1998. Ta Mok, its military chief, was imprisoned pending court charges, but died last July. Kaing Khek Iev, who headed the infamous Khmer Rouge S-21 torture center — also known as Tuol Sleng, and now a genocide museum — is the only leader now in custody awaiting trial.