Neatee Koun Khmers: Sovereignty and R2P

Re: Neatee Koun Khmers: Exploring the concept of sovereignty

In thinking about “sovereignty”, let us not forget the “responsibility to protect” (R2P) doctrine which says the Security Council of the United Nations has the duty to protect populations from grave crimes in international law, such as genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.

R2P Doctrine was first introduced in the report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS) and endorsed by states at the 2005 UN World Summit in New York.

In 1993, Francis M. Deng (a brilliant Sudanese I met when he was UN Undersecretary General for the Prevention of Genocide at a November 2007 Panel at the United Nations in New York City) et al. wrote of “sovereignty as responsibility” arguing that there exist limitations on sovereignty in international law, legal doctrine and state practice since the end of World War II.

What then are the criteria of the R2P doctrine and the principles of military intervention? What about Darfur? Burma? North Korea? Northern Uganda? vis-à-vis this emerging norm of R2P?

May I refer you to “Above Nations, Humanity: Universal Jurisdiction and International Criminal Justice”, a column I had written related to this R2P doctrine. For further interest, I am certain any Google search of "R2P" or "responsibility to protect" will cull up results.

Best,

Theary C. Seng

Genocides haunt survivors

02/13/2008
By Kevin Butler, Staff Writer
Long Beach Press Telegram (California, USA)

LONG BEACH - Phansy Peang lost her family, including her children, during the massacres of the Khmer Rouge in her native Cambodia.

Years later, Peang, 60, still is haunted and suffers depression, occasionally dreaming of her children that perished.

"It's lucky for me that I can see them in my dreams," she said.

Peang was among three survivors of genocidal regimes that shared their harrowing stories during a panel discussion Wednesday, part of a human rights forum at Cal State Long Beach.

The three-day President's Forum on International Human Rights, which concluded Wednesday, focused on "Modern Genocides and Global Responsibility."

Mariana Francisco, a Mayan woman who survived mass killings in Guatemala in the 1980s, described how she witnessed tortures and executions while serving as a nurse in her native country.

At least 200,000 Guatemalans died or disappeared as a result of the military's effort to suppress the Mayan population, whom government officials accused of harboring communist sympathies during a civil war.

When she was 8, she witnessed her brother's kidnapping by troops to force him to join the army, she said.

Some boys from Mayan villages who were conscripted into the army later wielded weapons against their indigenous community, she said.

Lillian Black, who spent seven months as a prisoner in the Nazi-run Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland, described how her family was forcibly moved to a ghetto and then placed into crowded train cars.

Upon arriving at the concentration camp, Nazi guards separated the passengers into two lines - in one stood her parents, in the other Black and her sister.

Black and her sister, who also survived, never saw their parents again.

The Nazi guards cut off her hair, gave her clothes and wooden shoes and later made her break stones as a slave laborer.

Early on in her time in the camp, Black, then 14 years old, did not realize mass executions were occurring.

She asked another person in the camp what had happened to her parents.

"She said, `Do you really want to know? Look over there where the fires are. That's where they are,"' Black said.

Black, 77, transferred to another camp and liberated by the U.S. military, said she has struggled with feelings of guilt at having survived. Her distress once caused her to visit a psychiatrist.

"He said, `You know, you have a right to live, it's OK,"' she said.

CSULB hosts genocide forum

The 6-day free event will feature panels, lectures and art exhibits.

02/01/2008
By Kevin Butler, Staff writer
Long Beach Press Telegram (California, USA)

LONG BEACH - Experts, authors, artists and survivors of mass killings will appear at Cal State Long Beach Friday through Feb. 13 for a forum on "Modern Genocides and Global Responsibility."

Part of the college's "President's Forum on International Human Rights," the event consists of a series of lectures, art exhibits, panel discussions and film screenings exploring topics such as the meaning of genocide and the role of governments in preventing atrocities.

The events, which are free and open to the public, include a keynote address by Francis M. Deng, the United Nations' special representative of the secretary-general on the prevention of genocide and mass atrocities.

Deng, who will be speaking Friday at 7 p.m. in the Carpenter Performing Arts Center, formerly was the UN secretary-general's representative on internally displaced persons and has served as a senior fellow at the the United States Institute of Peace.

Other speakers include Ishmael Beah, who recalled his harrowing experiences as a child soldier in Sierra Lone in his book, "A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier."

Also scheduled to appear is Immacule Ilibagiza, a Rwandan genocide survivor who recounted her ordeals and her religious awakening in her autobiography, "Left to Tell."

Among the films to be screened is "New Year Baby." Directed by Socheata Poeuv, the personal documentary explores her family members' survival in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge genocide and their journey to becoming Americans.

Poeuv, a television journalist, will be featured at the screening.

On Feb. 13, the final day of the event, a career fair will be held to offer students an opportunity to talk with representatives of human rights organizations.

The forum is sponsored by the CSULB Foundation, the Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education at the University of Southern California, the Port of Long Beach, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the California Conference for Equity and Justice, Behr Paints and Lowe's of Central Long Beach.

Although no registration is required for the free events, seating is limited and will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis.

For a complete schedule or for more information on parking and other issues, visit www.csulb.edu/humanrights.

kevin.butler@presstelegram.com, 562-499-1308