Khmer Rouge Leaders Indicted; Reparations Uncertain, However

Youk Chhang, director of a research team that has compiled a vault of evidence archiving the regime’s abuses, says it is the most important trial in Cambodian history.

September 21, 2010
By Irwin Loy
IPS News

A war crimes tribunal in Cambodia may have reached a major milestone this week by indicting four former leaders of the genocidal Khmer Rouge. But much more needs to be done to ensure that the long-awaited trial is meaningful to the regime’s victims, analysts say.

On Sep. 16, the tribunal announced the indictment of four Khmer Rouge leaders: Nuon Chea, the party’s chief ideologue; Ieng Sary, the foreign minister; Ieng Thirith, the social affairs minister; and Khieu Samphan, the party’s head of state.

They face charges including crimes against humanity, murder and genocide and are accused of being among the architects of a regime that caused the deaths of up to 2.2 million people during the Khmer Rouge rule from 1975 to 1979.

More than three decades after the regime collapsed, the four ageing suspects are also the only senior Khmer Rouge leaders to be charged by the United Nations-backed tribunal.

"I think the case is going to be the most important trial in Cambodian history. It could allow Cambodians to turn to the next page and move on," said Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, whose researchers have compiled a vault of evidence archiving the regime’s abuses.

Officials with the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), the tribunal’s official name, say they hope a trial will begin during the first half of 2011.

However, some observers say the court will not truly be effective unless it can properly address the crucial issue of how reparations will be given to victims of the regime.

In July, the court convicted former Khmer Rouge prison chief Kaing Khek Eav. Duch, as he is better known, was convicted of overseeing the murders of an estimated 14,000 people judged to have been enemies of the regime. But advocates for victims and their surviving families said the court did not go far enough to address the hugely symbolic issue of reparations.

Part of the court’s mandate is to give a voice to victims. And so it allowed qualified victims and their families to participate directly in the proceedings as civil parties – and at levels that were unprecedented in international justice.

The tribunal is also able to award "collective and moral reparations" to approved victims. Demands from civil parties in the Duch case included free medical care, the creation of staffed education facilities and a curriculum about human rights abuses and genocide, as well as a trust fund that could provide vocational training and small-business loans.

But in the end, the court consented only to having the names of approved civil parties and victims listed in the final written judgment and for transcripts of Duch’s apologies and admissions of responsibility to be posted to the court website. This latter gesture was derided by some as being severely inadequate in a country where few rural residents have access to the Internet.

"It’s not meaningful to victims," said Sok Leang, the interim director and victims outreach manager for the NGO Centre for Justice and Reconciliation. "The names of the victims will be listed in the final verdict and then they will be digitised and posted on websites so everyone can see. This is just ridiculous in light of the technologies that victims living in remote areas have access to."

But in their decision, trial chamber judges noted that they were "constrained" by the rules of the court. It was not within the tribunal’s scope, they said, to award reparations the court had no jurisdiction to enforce – thus ruling out civil party demands to create school curriculums or national memorials.

And while the court’s legal framework stipulated that the accused was to be solely responsible for reparations, there were no measures allowing the ECCC to enforce its rulings if Duch was unwilling or unable to comply. The court was also unable to draw funding for reparations from third parties like donor countries or government.

Sok said the first case was a "test" – one that he said produced very mixed results. "I think it was a lesson for the victims as well as a lesson for the panel of judges," he said of some of the harsh reactions to the decision on reparations.

In the second case involving the four senior Khmer Rouge leaders, then, the tribunal must find more creative and symbolic solutions to the issue of reparations, should the accused be found guilty, Sok said.

"People have to have something to take away and be proud of this court; to be proud of the trial," he said. "If the reparations after this second case are similar to the first case, then most victims will not be satisfied. If the reparations are still the same, I think it will not be successful."

But the tribunal has taken measures that could see the matter handled differently in the second case. A day after the indictments were publicised, the court announced it had approved new rules that will expand its options for reparation during the second case.

The court will now be allowed to award reparations that may be funded by donor contributions. This would mean that potential reparations that would have been excluded under the old rules because the accused lacked the money to pay for them, could now be covered by donors. The rule changes do not affect the reparations rulings for the Duch trial.

"I think we are learning throughout the process what is working and what is not working," said Lars Olsen, a court spokesman. "Remember, this is the first time in international criminal justice that we have victim participation on this scale."

But while reparations have a highly symbolic meaning for victims, Olsen said the focus must remain on the trial’s criminal proceedings. "By the end of the day I believe the most important factor for any victim is to see that justice is being served," he said. "This can mainly be done through criminal proceedings, holding perpetrators responsible for crimes."

Irwin Loy was a city newspaper reporter for 24 hours Vancouver. He is currently based in Phnom Penh.

UN tribunal indicts 4 Khmer Rouge

Sun Sep 19, 2010
Press TV

The surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge have been indicted for the deaths of nearly 2 million Cambodians, after thirty-one years of impunity.

On Thursday, judges at the UN-backed tribunal specially convened to investigate and try the crimes of the Democratic Kampuchea government, which ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, signed an order to put four aging suspects on trial for what the court deemed was "an attack on the entire population of Cambodia."

The indictments include charges of war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity, murder, torture, and religious persecution.

Judge Marcel Lemonde of France, who also announced his resignation after a tumultuous four years, told reporters gathered at the UN-backed tribunal on Thursday, "Some commentators have said, and I believe they were correct, that this matter is the most complex since the Nuremberg tribunal."

The four accused are former revolutionaries who seized power in 1975 at the end of a civil war with a U.S. client regime.

They are Nuon Chea, 84, known as Brother No. 2, the Communist Party's deputy secretary, former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary, 84, and his wife Ieng Thirith, 78, a former minister of social action, and finally Khieu Samphan, 79, who chaired the party's central committee as it planned the deadliest of its purges of government officials.

In addressing the media, Judge Lemonde and his Cambodian counterpart, Judge Yu Bunleng, congratulated each other for what they considered personal and professional triumphs.

The court's two co-investigating judges dropped the charges against Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, for lack of new evidence. Duch was sentenced in July to 35 years in prison for the murders of an estimated 14,000 people in his role as commander of the Khmer Rouge secret police.

Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, a local organization that supplied much of the court's documentary record, said this case is the most important case the court will ever conduct, regardless of what becomes of any additional cases opened by UN prosecutors.

"The question is, why did Cambodians kill Cambodians? That is the most important question that has been put forward, and only case 002 can do that," Youk stated, using the case number for Thursday's indictment. It "would lead us to what is next," he added. "It will trickle down how far you can go."

Case 002

Saturday, September 18, 2010
By Kimberly Curtis
Foreign Policy Blogs Network

In an effort to prove that justice has no time limit, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) indicted four former officials of the Khmer Rouge regime on Thursday for a host of crimes including war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide under international law and murder, torture, and religious persecution under the Cambodian penal code. The indictment, which is the second to be handed down by the ECCC, comes nearly 32 years after the Khmer Rouge lost power to a Vietnamese intervention in early 1979.

The history of the ECCC has been fraught with charges of inefficiency, political interference, and the inevitable question of whether seeking justice for events that happened so long ago is worthwhile. Many of the highest ranking officials of the Khmer Rouge, who oversaw the deaths of an estimated two million people in their four year reign, died before the court was ever created. Those that remain are elderly and near the end of their lives. In a country still trying to figure out how to deal with the social, political, and historical legacy of tragedies past, the tribunal can at times seem to be an unwelcomed reminder of the worst chapter of Cambodian history. While some victims and their children have embraced the court, the ECCC still holds a peculiar spot amongst international and hybrid tribunals for the ambivalent position that the receiving country holds towards it and its fundamental mission to bring to justice those that caused such devastation.

Yet, these issues did not stop hundreds of victims of the Khmer Rouge from coming to Phnom Penh to witness the tribunal’s first trial of Kaing Guek Eav. Also known as “Comrade Duch”, he served as the Director of S-21, the school turned notorious detention and torture facility in central Phnom Pehn where possibly as many as 30,000 people were interrogated, tortured and killed under the regime. For a time it appeared that only Duch would be tried by the ECCC, so the trial garnered significant media coverage. As a recent Christian convert, Duch initially admitted his crimes and merely requested a lenient sentence, thereby providing the chance for possible catharsis for victims without the drawn out saga of a typical trial. But even this proved to be wishful thinking, as Duch requested on the last day of testimony that he be acquitted of all charges and his defense attorney charged that the ECCC did not have the authority to try him. Ultimately, the tribunal convicted and sentenced him to 35 years - 19 years with time served and other factors - a sentence that Duch is currently appealing to the consternation of Cambodia’s victims. With this drama still unfolding in the background, the tribunal’s indictment of four more Khmer Rouge officials officially opens Case 002 for the ECCC.

The new case places many of the regime’s remaining command structure on trial. The indicted include Nuon Chea, former Deputy Secretary of the Khmer Rouge, along with former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary and his wife Ieng Thirith who served as the former Minister of Social Action. Last of the four indicted is the regime’s former Head of State and Chairman of the party’s Central Committee, Khieu Samphan; all are believed to have been intimately involved in the purges that devastated the Cambodian population under the Khmer Rouge. Thus while there is little question that the acts of these defendants is deserving of a trial, most of the media coverage so far has focused on the addition of an unexpected charge to the indictment: the charge of genocide.

The applicability of the crime of genocide to the Khmer Rouge has been debated among scholars and human rights practitioners for several years. While certain ethnic groups like Cham Muslims were clearly targeted for their faith, numerous other groups also suffered from the regime’s purges as the result of not fitting into the group’s vision of revolution, including members of the Khmer Rouge. It is for this reason that the seemingly contradictory term ‘auto-genocide’ if frequently attached to the situation in Cambodia. But the concept of auto-genocide faces many legal hurdles and is generally not recognized in international criminal law. With the inclusion of the count on the indictment, the ECCC may be attempting to change that although it remains unclear if such a change is welcomed.

This and the other issues highlighted here demonstrate the difficult task that still awaits the ECCC and the Cambodian people as they try to move on from the past. As international criminal law becomes more prominent in international relations, it is important to note that the experience of Cambodia and the ECCC offers many lessons for post-conflict situations to come. In the end it may not be the actual trial of these defendants or their sentences that matter, but the last-ditch effort by the international community to find justice for victims in some form and the inherent problems that have come with waiting for so long.

Khmer Rouge Committee impeachment subsequent to 31 years

Sat, 09/18/2010
FrenchTribune.com

The accusation articulated by the Co-Investigation judges of the Khmer Rouge Committee next to the previous Khmer Rouge leaders sways in 31 years subsequent to the drop of the regimen, and 12 years later than its military and political arrangement were at last take apart.

The indictment pronounced by the Co-Investigation judges of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal adjacent to previous Khmer Rouge leader of state Khieu Samphan, Social Action minister Ieng Thirith, Foreign Minister leng Sary, and Nuon Chea who is the brother No. 2 in the Khmer Rouge hierarchy arrives 31 years after the plummet of the regimen, and 12 years following its military and political arrangement were lastly dismantled.

Kaing Guek Eav, a.k.a. Duch, the disreputable leader of the S-21 prison was attempted and found guilty independently by the Tribunal on 26 July 2010.

Their offenses comprises of execution, murder, extradition (of Vietnamese people), enslavement, imprisonment, torment and harassment on political, racial and religious justification, rape, and other merciless acts.

As per the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, amid 1.7 and 2.2 million people lost their lives under the Khmer Rouge regime, and approximately 800,000 of these were brutal deaths.

Khmer Rouge Tribunal indictment after 31 years

This combination shows file photos of four top surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime. From left to right: Nuon Chea, 84, the group's ideologist; former head of state and public face of the regime, Khieu Samphan, 79; former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary; and his wife Ieng Thirith, ex-minister for social affairs, both in their 80s. Photo: AP

Phnom Penh, September 18, 2010
Parvathi Menon
The Hindu

The indictment pronounced by the Co-Investigation judges of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal against former Khmer Rouge leaders comes 31 years after the fall of the regime, and 12 years after its military and political structures were finally dismantled

The indictment pronounced by the Co-Investigation judges of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal against former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan, Foreign Minister leng Sary, Social Action minister Ieng Thirith (wife of Ieng Sary and sister-in-law of Pol Pot), and Nuon Chea (known as Brother No. 2 in the Khmer Rouge hierarchy) comes 31 years after the fall of the regime, and 12 years after its military and political structures were finally dismantled. Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, the notorious head of the S-21 prison was tried and convicted separately by the Tribunal on 26 July 2010.

Their crimes include extermination, murder, enslavement, deportation (of Vietnamese people), imprisonment, torture and persecution on political, racial and religious grounds, rape, and other inhumane acts. According to the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) between 1.7 and 2.2 million people died under the Khmer Rouge regime, and around 800,000 of these were violent deaths.

It is a phase of Cambodian history that has passed an entire generation of young Cambodians by. They know of it only through their parents, and memorials like the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh where the chilling history of that period is brought to life. The innocuous school building in which classrooms became torture chambers, and where 17,000 Cambodians were killed, is today a place where that past is relived.

“There are mixed feeling towards this trial,” said a judge from the Asian region who is on the Supreme Court Chamber of the Tribunal, known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia for the Prosecution of Crimes Committed during the Period of Democratic Kampuchea. “Some people want justice, others do not want to rekindle the past. The procedures followed by the Tribunal is based on the French legal system which makes it very slow, and will prosecute only the “most guilty”.”

Unforgettable mental trauma

Kay Kimsong, Editor-in-Chief of the Phnom Penh Post dismisses the view that time has erased collective memory. “There is a great deal of public and media interest in the cases,” he said. “Justice may be delayed but this trial is very important for the Cambodian people. Many young people cannot believe what their parents tell them, but here is documentation and evidence, here is Duch confessing to his crimes. My parents and everyone in their generation lost one or more family members, everyone suffered acute mental trauma. They can never forget.”

The ECCC was established in 2001 by a law passed by the Cambodian National Assembly. On Cambodia’s request, the United Nations agreed to participate, and the ECCC became fully functional in 2007. The five-tier tribunal has both national and international prosecutors and judges.

The ECCC is only prosecuting the top leaders of the Khmer Rouge, those who planned and gave orders and who are guilty of the most serious crimes. Of this group, Pol Pot and Ta Mok are dead, and the rest are old and frail.

The court’s second trial is likely to take place in the first half of next year, giving rise to fears that the accused may not survive that long. “Cambodians want the courts to move faster,” said Mr. Kimsong. “The prisoners have been getting excellent treatment and good medical care in custody. We want to hear them speak and defend themselves, we want to know what went on behind the scenes.”

Following Tribunal Indictments, Appeals All Around

Four top surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime were indicted today by a U.N.-backed tribunal. They are, from left, Nuon Chea, 84, the group's ideologist; former head of state, Khieu Samphan, 79; former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary; and his wife, Ieng Thirith, ex-minister for social affairs, both in their 80s. (Photo: AP)

Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Friday, 17 September 2010

“We are appealing the rejection order, and we are busy at the moment, because we have only 10 days.”

Defense attorneys on Friday were preparing appeals for their defendants at the Khmer Rouge tribunal, which on Thursday officially indicted four senior regime leaders for atrocity crimes. At the same time, lawyers for civil parties began looking for ways to have more victims included in a trial.

Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith will be tried together next year for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide against Cham Muslims and the Vietnamese and other crimes.

However, Ang Udom, a lawyer for former foreign minister Ieng Sary, said his defense team will appeal the official closing order, issued by investigating judges Thursday, on grounds of jurisdiction and misconduct.

Nuon Chea defense attorney Andrew Innuzi said his team was considering an appeal, but had not decided on which grounds.

Defense teams and prosecutors both have 30 days to appeal the closing order, which came after three years of investigation. International prosecutor Andrew Cayley said his office was “considering the documents” and whether to appeal.

In more announcements Thursday, investigating judges said they were considering only 2,123 applications from more than 4,000 purported victims seeking to become civil parties in the upcoming trial, a decision that civic groups said was too small.

“We are appealing the rejection order, and we are busy at the moment, because we have only 10 days,” said Silke Stuzensky, a lawyer for the German Development Agency, which is helping victims in the tribunal process.

The rejection of nearly half the applicants constituted a deprivation of victims rights to participate, she said. Civic groups have pushed for the greatest inclusion of victims possible.

“We believe that the number of dismissed applicants is significant and worrisome,” said Hang Chhay, executive director of the Khmer Institute for Democracy, another group helping victims.

Lawyers will have to travel to the provinces this weekend and explain to people why they were not admissible as civil parties, or they will have to find further information from rejected parties to submit to the court, he said.

“Even if we are not satisfied, we can't stop the train from moving forward,” said Bou Meng, a survivor of Tuol Sleng prison and active participant at the tribunal.

While some were worried not enough victims were included, Chhang Youk, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, said the 2,123 could be too much.

“It's a big number,” he said. The tribunal's victims unit is the “weakest” of the court's offices, he said, and with so many civil parties the process for victims could be diminished.

KR Tribunal starts Case 002

Report by Yun Samean, Radio Free Asia
Video by Uon Chhin

Embattled Court Indicts 4 Khmer Rouge Leaders

Four top surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime were indicted today by a U.N.-backed tribunal. They are, from left, Nuon Chea, 84, the group's ideologist; former head of state, Khieu Samphan, 79; former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary; and his wife, Ieng Thirith, ex-minister for social affairs, both in their 80s. (Photo: AP)

Mike Eckel
AOL News

AOL News PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (Sept. 16) -- A United Nations-backed tribunal today indicted four senior Khmer Rouge officials, setting up the most important legal reckoning yet with the radical communist movement whose utopian agricultural policies led to the deaths of as much as one-quarter of Cambodia's population in the late 1970s.

The court, formally known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, accused Nuon Chea, the top deputy to Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, of crimes against humanity, genocide and other charges. Also indicted were Khieu Samphan, who was head of state from 1976 to 1979, the Khmer Rouge's foreign minister, Ieng Sary, and his wife, Ieng Thirith, the regime's minister for social welfare.

When the former Khmer Rouge leaders formally answer those charges in the courtroom next year, they won't be the only ones facing a trial. So too will the court itself, which has been fiercely criticized for its slow progress, leading only to a single previous trial.

The four, in their late 70s and 80s, have been in Cambodian custody since 2007. They have all maintained their innocence, claiming they were unaware of the waves of carnage that ravaged the Cambodian people, as described in the award-winning 1984 film "The Killing Fields." Pol Pot, the French-educated Marxist revolutionary who led the regime to power and through its collapse, died in 1998, living under nominal house arrest in a northern Cambodia district.

Scheduled to begin sometime next year, the trial will be the only the second for the unusual hybrid court, which has U.N. backing, is staffed by Cambodian and foreign judges, and is funded primarily by the U.S., Japan, and the European Union.

The first trial ended in July with the conviction of Kaing Guek Eav, better known by his alias Duch, who oversaw the torture and death of more than 14,000 people while running the Khmer Rouge's main prison in the capital, Phnom Penh.

These four defendants were higher in the murderous regime's hierarchy, experts said. Their trial "should tell a broader story of how the Khmer Rouge lived and how they operated," said Heather Ryan, a lawyer who monitored the Duch proceedings for Open Society Justice Initiative. "So this will be much more important trial."

Though Duch admitted his guilt, that trial was hampered by disputes over the role of Cambodians giving testimony and allegations of corruption among court and personnel. Many Cambodians were already impatient at how long the process took and the fact that in the 13 years since the U.N. agreed to help set up the tribunal, only one trial had been conducted. The dismay turned to outrage when Duch received a 19-year prison sentence; many victims complained that he should have been imprisoned for life.

Sponsored Links Many legal experts say the second trial will be far more complicated, given that the four leaders have denied the charges and that defense lawyers have been much more aggressive in challenging the prosecutors and the court than during the first proceedings.

That could further alienate Cambodians, many of whom are skeptical of how a court run under Western legal principles could ever help the country reckon with the estimated 2 million deaths and other atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge. Many also fear that the four defendants' elderly and frail condition could slow down the proceedings, or that they could die in custody without facing victims or prosecution.

"If it gets delayed beyond a certain point, or if the trial chamber appears that it's not adequately controlling the defense, it will lead to frustration among Cambodian people. And the donors," Ryan said.

The court has also faced political pressure from the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen, himself a former Khmer Rouge military leader who helped overthrow the regime in 1979. Several top political leaders have refused to give testimony despite the court's request, and Hun Sen has openly said that further trials could fuel strife and animosity in the destitute Southeast Asian nation.

CAMBODIA - UN-backed tribunal indicts four Khmer Rouge leaders

Four former Khmer Rouge leaders were indicted Thursday for genocide by Cambodia's UN-backed tribunal, paving the way for another trial surrounding the hardline Communist regime after the conviction in July of former prison chief Duch.

Four Khmer Rouge suspects face “questionable” genocide trail

(Photo: Flickr)

16 September 2010
By Lula Ahrens
Radio Netherlands Worldwide

Four former Khmer Rouge regime leaders will stand trial for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity at Cambodia's national, UN-backed war crimes court. The closing order was signed on Tuesday 15 September, allowing for the trial to begin in 2011. The Dutch lawyer of suspect Nuon Chea has serious doubts about the fairness of the trial. “I’m afraid it won’t meet international standards.”

The four are the most senior members of the hard-line communist movement still alive.

Former deputy to Khmer Rouge founder Pol Pot, Nuon Chea (84); foreign minister Ieng Sary (84), Sary’s wife and social affairs minister Iengh Thirith (78), and head of state Khieu Samphan (79) were indicted in December 2009. They have been in detention since their arrests in 2007.

Dutch lawyers
The Marxist Khmer Rouge regime wiped out nearly a quarter of the country's population between 1975 to 1979 in a bid to create an agrarian utopia. Up to two million people died from starvation, overwork or execution.

The current genocide charges relate specifically to the deaths of Vietnamese people and ethnic Cham Muslims under the Pol Pot regime. Estimates for the number of Cham who died under the Khmer Rouge range from 100,000 to 400,000. It is not known how many Vietnamese were killed.

One of the suspects, Chea, is defended by Dutch lawyers Victor Koppe and Michiel Pestman. Mr Pestman told Radio Netherlands that he expects the trial to start in April, and that it will probably last three years. “That excludes the appeal.” He added that from a statistical perspective, it is very likely that not all four suspects will live to hear the verdict. “Which is why one could wonder: what’s the point of this trial?”

“Unfair” trials
The Cambodia tribunal is a UN-backed national tribunal that tries senior members of the Khmer Rouge regime for violations of both Cambodian and international law. It is composed of both local and international judges.

Mr Pestman wonders whether it was a good idea of the UN to allow a majority of Cambodian judges to serve at the tribunal. “There is a painful gap between them and the international judges,” he said. “I’m afraid that this trial won’t be fair, that it will not meet international legal standards.”

The court is still investigating whether to open more cases against five other former Khmer Rouge cadres, but faces political and financial pressures. Prime Minister Hun Sen has said further trials could drive the country back to civil war.

Government influence
Cambodia is a one-party state that has been in power since 1979. Its judiciary has an ambiguous record. Mr Pestman wonders to extent it is able to free itself from that tradition.

“Ultimately, the government decides whether or not more suspects will be prosecuted,” Mr Pestman said. “That tells you how far-reaching the government’s influence is.

Last Friday, the Pre-Trial Chamber rejected our request to interview more witnesses, which gives the impression that the Cambodian government is in charge of who is and who isn’t allowed to testify. The credibility of the preliminary investigation is being called into question, and that affects the reputation of the court as a whole.”

Petit and Lemonde
Canadian prosecutor Robert Petit resigned in September 2009, later explaining that efforts by the Cambodian government to influence the court and the decision whether or not to prosecute more suspects had led him to his decision.

Mr Pestman told Radio Netherlands his position as a Dutch lawyer is also difficult. "On the other hand, I am a whistle blower. I am here to make sure this trial does not turn into a farce. But if the situation gets worse, I might reach the point where I, too, decide to leave.”

Frenchman Marcel Lemonde, one of the tribunal's two co-investigating judges, announced Thursday 16 September that he was quitting to focus on other projects. He will be replaced by German Siegfried Blunk.

This will be the court's second trial, following the historic sentencing of former prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, alias ‘Duch’ (67), in July for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Duch was given a 30-year jail term for his role overseeing the executions of an estimated 15,000 men, women and children. He could be released in 19 years, because of the time already served.

Time is of the essence in Khmer Rouge genocide trial

Khieu Samphan (R), dubbed the KR regime "smiling face"

16/09/2010
EuroNews

The UN-backed genocide tribunal in Cambodia has formally indicted the four surviving leaders of the infamous Khmer Rouge regime.

Brother Number Two, Nuon Chea, was second-in-command to leader Pol Pot and chief organiser of the Khmer Rouge.

Khieu Samphan was the nominal head of state – the regime’s so-called “smiling face”.

Ieng Sary was Deputy Prime Minister and also Foreign Minister while his wife Ieng Tirith – the only woman on trial – was Social Affairs Minister.

Elderly and frail, they each deny the charges against them.

Several Khmer Rouge leaders, including Pol Pot, have already died, putting pressure on the tribunal to speed up the proceedings:

“This hasn’t always been easy, what with all the public notoriety, it hasn’t been particularly easy for me personally, either, but here we are today and this is very gratifying.” said judge Marcel Lemonde.

But not everyone feels gratified. Duch, the Khmer Rouge’s chief gaoler, was convicted by the tribunal in July and sentenced to 19 years.

But many in Cambodia say the sentence is too lenient.

1975 to 1979 was a dark time for Cambodia. Towns and cities were depopulated in a disastrous agrarian experiment. The educated classes and perceived opponents of the regime were ruthlessly purged.

Court: Top Khmer Rouge cadre charged with war crimes

"It's good news, but it's about time ... It's just another signal to the larger public that the court is ... alive and kicking" - Theary Seng

September 16, 2010
By Miranda Leitsinger
CNN

Story Highlights

• Not clear when trial with start; trial chamber has four months to hold hearing
• Four charged include former Khmer Rouge premier and deputy premier
• More than 2,000 civil parties added to case
• Decision follows July 26 conviction of former Khmer Rouge prison chief

(CNN) -- Four of the top former surviving Khmer Rouge cadre were charged with war crimes in Cambodia by a U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal for their role in the late 1970s genocide that left nearly one-quarter of the country's population dead, the court said Thursday.

The four also face charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and offences under the Cambodian Criminal Code 1956, including murder, torture and religious persecution.

The accused are Nuon Chea, acting prime minister under the Khmer Rouge, who also was known as Brother No. 2; Ieng Sary, the Khmer Rouge's deputy prime minister; Ieng Thirith, the regime's minister of social affairs and action; and Khieu Samphan, head of state.

"The charges are officially brought against the accused," co-investigating judge You Bunleng said at a news conference on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. The indictment was signed Wednesday.

It is not known when the trial will begin, but the trial chamber has four months to hold substantive hearings, You Bunleng said. He noted that more than 2,100 civil parties have been admitted to the case.

Victims of the Khmer Rouge welcomed the decision.

"It's good news, but it's about time," said Cambodian-American Theary Seng, chairwoman of the Center for Justice and Reconciliation. "It's just another signal to the larger public that the court is ... alive and kicking."

"It opens the door for the trial of the second case to move forward, and of course, this is the heart of the matter," she added.

The decision follows the July 26 conviction of the notorious chief of a torture prison, where more than 14,000 people died during the Khmer Rouge's reign from 1975-79 .

Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, was convicted of war crimes, crimes against humanity, murder and torture. He was sentenced to 19 years by the tribunal, also known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.

Duch is appealing his sentence. His lawyers say he should be acquitted because he was "a witness of the events of the relevant period" and should be in witness protection.

His sentence sparked anger as word spread outside the courtroom. Some said it made them lose faith in the U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal.

Prosecutors are appealing Duch's sentence, saying the punishment was too light.

At least 1.7 million people died under the ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge regime, from execution, disease, starvation and overwork, according to the Documentation Center of Cambodia.

An estimated 800,000 of those were violent deaths, You Bunleng said.

Duch's verdict was the first for the tribunal, which began its work in 2007 after a decade of on-and-off negotiations between the United Nations and Cambodia over the structure and functioning of the court.

Khmer Rouge Leaders Indicted

September 16, 2010
By SETH MYDANS
The New York Times

BANGKOK — A United Nations-backed court in Cambodia formally indicted four surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge on Thursday on charges of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and murder as the tribunal moved forward with its second case, after the conviction in July of the director of the main Khmer Rouge prison.

The four leaders have been in custody since late 2007, and all have denied the charges against them. They are due in court in January for a procedural hearing, followed by substantive court sessions later in the year. The charges against them involve the deaths of 1.7 million people by execution, starvation, overwork and disease from 1975 to 1979.

The defendants are Ieng Sary, who was foreign minister; his wife, Ieng Thirith, who was minister of social welfare; Khieu Samphan, who was head of state; and Nuon Chea, known as Brother No 2. The top leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998.

In the earlier case, Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, was sentenced to 19 years in prison for overseeing the torture and death of at least 14,000 people in the Tuol Sleng prison.

Though the trial of Duch, with its testimony about torture and killings, was gripping, experts said the second case was more important, both in the stature of the defendants and in the process of the tribunal, which tries to apply international standards of justice within the Cambodian court system.

“There is no doubt that the second trial of the most senior leaders is of the most significance,” said Alex Hinton, executive director of the Center for the Study of Genocide, Conflict Resolution and Human Rights at Rutgers University. “Without it, Duch’s trial, despite its accomplishments, will always remind people of the larger failures of the court and suggest that he was a scapegoat.”

Khmer Rouge tribunal indicts 4 senior leaders

Sep 15, 2010

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - Cambodia's genocide tribunal has formally indicted four former leaders of the Khmer Rouge, paving the way for its second trial to begin next year.

The U.N.-assisted tribunal said Thursday its investigating judges issued the indictment after completing their investigation.

The trial is expected to begin by the middle of next year against Nuon Chea, the group's ideologist; former head of state Khieu Samphan; former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary; and his wife Ieng Thirith, the ex-minister for social affairs.

They each face four charges, including crimes against humanity, genocide, murder and religious persecution.

Their 1970s communist regime is believed responsible for the deaths of 1.7 million people.

Court indicts four KRouge leaders for genocide, war crimes

PHNOM PENH, Thursday 16 September 2010 (AFP) - Cambodia's UN-backed tribunal on Thursday indicted four former Khmer Rouge leaders for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the regime's most senior surviving member.

The court has decided to "send forward these four accused for trial", judge You Bunleng said at a press conference, before listing a long series of charges against the former top regime members, including torture, murder and rape.

Nuon Chea, 84, who was known as "Brother Number Two" and served as deputy to Khmer Rouge founder Pol Pot, will face trial in 2011 alongside former foreign minister Ieng Sary, his wife and ex-social affairs minister Ieng Thirith and former head of state Khieu Samphan.

International judge Marcel Lemonde said the investigation into the case, the tribunal's second after the July sentencing of former Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch to 30 years in jail, had taken so long because it was much more complex.

Digging deep into the killing fields of Cambodia

Former Khmer Rouge cadres (from left to right): Minister of Finance and Economy Keat Chhon, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hor Nam Hong, Prime Minister Hun Sen

Thursday, 6 December 2007
By Bun Ang Ung
On Line Opinion (Australia)

It is true that if there is a will, there is a way. The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) has so demonstrated with its recent arrests of former Khmer Rouge minister for foreign affairs Ieng Sary and his wife, ex-minister for social affairs Ieng Thirith.

There had been some doubt if Ieng Sary would be charged by the ECCC at all because of a royal pardon he had received in 1996 for his previous role in the Khmer Rouge regime. In 1979, he was sentenced to death along with Pol Pot by a “people's revolutionary tribunal” for genocide. In 1996, however, he led a breakaway faction that split the Khmers Rouge, hastening the end of its insurgency. He was rewarded with an amnesty which annulled the 1979 verdict. The pardon failed to last, however.

The ECCC did not charge Ieng Sary with genocidal crimes. To sidestep a potential controversy of trying the suspect twice for the same crime, it indicted him instead for crimes against humanity and war crimes. It is fascinating how legal terminology can be creatively exploited to suit a particular purpose.

An interesting question, nevertheless, is how deep the ECCC is prepared to dig into what else happened during the Khmer Rouge regime. Of course, the underlying agreement between the United Nations and the Cambodian government to create the ECCC refers only to crimes committed by “senior” leaders, which may appear to restrict the ECCC terms of reference. But the terminology seems to be loose enough for creative minds to explore further possibilities of enforcing liability for all involved, not just a select few.

The ECCC is charged with an interesting task of trying those who were alleged to be responsible for mass killings. This is the first necessary step towards addressing a culture of impunity that has, up to now, spread like bushfires in Cambodia. Its leaders in the past 50 years have been literally getting away with murder for too long. The ECCC trial ought to convey a message that their collective irresponsibility and impunity are no longer tolerated.

For now, the ECCC seems to deal only with soft targets - the losers who are also frail and in need of geriatric care. It is ironic that the arrests seem to do these accused a favour by bringing them to comfortable accommodations at the ECCC compound with nutritious food and round the clock top medical care. For any old and frail in any country, such a free treatment is a godsend.

It would be challenging, however, for the ECCC to extend their examination beyond the losers to include the winners who were thriving during the Khmer Rouge and are currently in government. Of course, incriminating evidence against winners is often unavailable, especially when they are still in power.

Influential academics and researchers, who had cosy relations with the Khmer Rouge, claimed they had found - when the Khmer Rouge was still in power - no evidence to support refugees’ early reports of killing fields in Cambodia. The reports were dismissed as a mere reflection of mental instability and as a justification for fleeing the country and their desire to be accepted for resettlement. Not until after the regime disintegrated have those same researchers produced evidence of the losers’ atrocities.

It would be an uphill, if not impossible, battle for the ECCC to dig deep to uncover what the winners were up to during the Khmer Rouge regime. It would have to take on some prominent ex-Khmer Rouge members who are now occupying high positions in the current government, such as the prime minister and minister for foreign affairs.

The prime minister was once a rising star in the Khmer Rouge cadre; he was a junior army officer who rose quickly to a commanding rank in the Khmer Rouge army in a relatively short period of time. It is indeed difficult to explain his meteoric rise without making an inference that he must have done something very right to impress, and thus secure quick promotions from the meritocratic regime that relied on mass killings to remain in power.

Another intricate case relates to the current finance minister, who served in 1976 as a minister in the Prime Minister’s Office of the Khmer Rouge regime when Pol Pot decided to appoint himself as prime minister, thus ending his obscure leadership role. It is incomprehensible that anyone could rise and stay close to the top without some essential personal attributes usually required by any tyrant. The minister was among the few in the leadership who survived Pol Pot’s suspicion and wrath; he would have had more than luck.

It is a tough call for the ECCC to come up with a full account of what all “senior” Khmer Rouge leaders and significant others did at the time. It would require much more than just the creative manipulation of the legal terminology.

But if there is will, there is way. Failing that, one has to wait until another regime change for evidence to come out.

UNG Bun Ang, former senator of the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a publisher of Alternatives Watch focusing on actions of Cambodian political parties that are aspired to govern the country in the future. He was head of group of Khmer programs in Melbourne for SBS Radio, and was a lecturer in Cambodian history and culture at the RMIT University of Technology.

The Khmer Rouge trials: Better late than never [-Is it?]

Aug 2nd 2007
BANGKOK
The Economist

After years of frustrating delay, the first of Pol Pot's henchmen is charged

DEATH allowed Pol Pot and his military chief, Ta Mok, to cheat earthly justice for the enormities of their Khmer Rouge regime. But at last there seems, after years of delay, a real prospect of bringing to trial ageing survivors from the ghastly regime's top ranks. On July 31st judges at a United Nations-backed tribunal in Phnom Penh brought the first charges, of crimes against humanity, against Kang Kek Ieu, alias Duch, who ran Tuol Sleng, the regime's interrogation and torture centre in Cambodia's capital.

True to the stereotype of the coldly meticulous death-camp guard, Duch is said to have kept detailed notes of his work, which may now be used as evidence. Just as predictably, the defendant, now in his sixties and a born-again Christian, insists he was simply obeying orders. Prosecutors hope charges will also soon be brought against four other Khmer Rouge leaders.

Some Khmer Rouge figures have been living in tranquil liberty since reaching an accord in the 1990s with Hun Sen, Cambodia's long-serving prime minister. He was himself a lesser figure in the Khmers Rouges. But there is not thought to be any evidence linking him to the crimes of their 1975-78 reign of terror, when perhaps a quarter of the country's people were either slaughtered or died of starvation or exhaustion. The prime minister rejects accusations of obstructing the tribunal, and insists he is keen for the trials to go ahead.

Ten years have passed since Cambodia first asked the UN for help in creating a special court. In 2003, after years of haggling over how much control the UN would have over it, agreement was reached to create an unusual hybrid. Unlike previous tribunals, such as those for Sierra Leone and the former Yugoslavia, the “Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia” has a majority of local judges. The judges and prosecutors were sworn in last year, but there ensued months of arguing over such things as court procedures and the swingeing fees that Cambodia's Bar Association wanted to charge foreign lawyers taking part in the proceedings.

The prosecutors have compiled thousands of pages of evidence including statements from hundreds of witnesses. They are expected to argue that the Khmers Rouges' mass slaughter amounted to genocide—and indeed the Cambodian government uses Tuol Sleng, now a grisly tourist attraction, as a “genocide museum”. But this will prove contentious, since the regime's fanatical Maoists mostly killed members of their own race. If nothing else goes wrong, trials could begin next year. But if they drag on or prove unexpectedly complex, the tribunal's $56m budget may prove insufficient, prompting further rows over money and perhaps yet more delays in bringing justice to the few senior members of the regime still alive.

Tribunal Indictments Discussed on 'Hello VOA'

Sok Samoeun (right), director of the Cambodian Defenders Project (Photo: VOA)

Poch Reasey, VOA Khmer
Washington
25/06/2007

Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, and Sok Samoeun, director of the Cambodian Defenders Project, both of whom work Khmer Rouge tribunal issues, discussed possible indictments of Khmer Rouge leaders on "Hello VOA" Monday.

Key questions to be discussed following the adoption of the tribunal's internal rules this month surround the definitions of "senior leaders" and "most responsible."

Youk Chhang told listeners that the 2003 UN-Cambodian agreement only called for indictments of "senior leaders of Democratic Kampuchea." It's up to the courts to decide who that would be, he said.

Sok Samoeun said the courts had only built 8 detention rooms so it was not likely more than ten cadre would be indicted.

Callers wanted to know whether the courts could bring justice to victims.

That Cambodians participate actively in the process was most important, Youk Chhang said.

Sok Samoeun said he hoped Cambodia's judicial system would be strengthened by a tribunal where Cambodian judges might gain important experience from their international counterparts.