KRT graft complaint killed on appeal

Michiel Pestman (right), co-defence lawyer for Nuon Chea, speaks to reporters at the Appeal Court in Phnom Penh yesterday. (Photo by: Heng Chivoan)

Wednesday, 27 July 2011
Thomas Miller
The Phnom Penh Post

Lawers for Khmer Rouge Brother No 2 Nuon Chea expressed chagrin yesterday after they attempted to add new evidence to a criminal complaint filed in Cambodian courts concerning graft allegations at the Khmer Rouge tribunal, only to find that the case had been closed nearly two years ago.

The defence team also claimed yesterday that corruption at the tribunal was “as acute as ever”.

Nuon Chea’s attorneys wanted the Appeal Court to consider four diplomatic cables from the United States embassy in Phnom Penh, made public earlier this month by WikiLeaks.

Attorney Michiel Pestman said the “most compelling” new information was contained in a November 2008 dispatch claiming that Knut Rosandhaug, deputy director of administration for the Khmer Rouge tribunal, knew of five witnesses who could give evidence in an alleged kickback scandal.

Kickbacks to Ruling Party Spurs Corruption: Analyst

Lao Mong Hay says while there is nothing wrong with joining a political party or being politically active, a party should not demand anything more than a membership contribution.

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Friday, 08 July 2011
Men Kimseng, VOA Khmer | Washington

“This is a mechanism that breeds corruption. Based on their salaries, they are not able to afford [such contributions]. Therefore, they have to find extra sources of income, which means accepting bribes or embezzling from the national budget.”

A high number of civil servants are “trapped” in their allegiance to the ruling party, forcing them into acts of corruption in order to keep their jobs, a leading Cambodian analyst said Thursday.

Lao Mong Hay, a longtime political analyst and former researcher for the Asian Human Rights Commission, told “Hello VOA” that public employees have to contribute money to the Cambodian People’s Party and work to expand grassroots support, an expensive endeavor that is difficult to maintain on a legitimate salary.

“This is a mechanism that breeds corruption,” he said. “Based on their salaries, they are not able to afford [such contributions]. Therefore, they have to find extra sources of income, which means accepting bribes or embezzling from the national budget.”

Absence of Tribunal Administrator Raises Concerns

Sok An (L) and Sean Visoth (R)

Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Wednesday, 23 June 2010

“The non-resolution of Sean Visoth’s position provides opacity and doubt that will affect the whole process.”

Khmer Rouge tribunal officials say the prolonged sick leave of its top Cambodian administrator, who faded from his position at the height of corruption allegations at the UN-backed court, has not affected operations.

Some independent observers, however, say the more than one-year absence of Sean Visoth will hurt the court, if it goes unresolved.

Sean Visoth requested leave for health reasons in November 2008, as international donors were considering corruption allegations by Cambodian staff at the court, who said they were paying kickbacks to senior officials in order to keep their jobs.

Approximately $700,000 were withheld from the tribunal, despite assurances from court and government officials that corruption was not taking place t the court.

Several months earlier, Sean Visoth had promised to leave his job if corruption were found in his department.

Sean Visoth has never been officially replaced, but officials at the Council of Ministers told VOA Khmer in recent interviews he has taken a position there.

Sean Visoth now works closely with Council Minister Sok An, who also overseas the tribunal for the government, the officials said on condition of anonymity.

Knut Rosanhaug, the UN deputy administrator for the tribunal and Sean Visoth’s international counterpart, told VOA Khmer in a recent interview he was unaware of the personal health situation his colleague.

Rosanhaug said he would work with whomever the government appointed.

“It is the privilege of the government to appoint its staff at the court,” he said, adding that his current working relationship with the acting director, Kranh Tony, is “excellent.”

Reached by phone, Sean Visoth said he has not yet determined whether he will return to work at the court. “I have another position as adviser to the government,” he said.

Meanwhile, an internal committee has been set up on the Cambodian side of the court to investigate kickback allegations, led by a Cambodian independent councilor.

Rosanhaug said he had not received any reports on kickback allegations from the independent councilor.

The question of corruption within the tribunal came directly to a head in January 2009, when lawyers for detained Khmer Rouge leader Nuon Chea filed a suit in Phnom Penh court alleging corruption by Sean Visoth and his chief of staff, Keo Thivuth.

Lawyers claimed corruption in the court compromised their client’s chance for justice. The Phnom Penh court declined to act on the suit.

Now, as the tribunal heads into a trial of Nuon Chea and other jailed leaders, some tribunal observers say the question of corruption and the position of Sean Visoth need further attention.

“The non-resolution of Sean Visoth’s position provides opacity and doubt that will affect the whole process,” said Chhang Youk, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia. “The court must correct whatever the mistake was” before the upcoming trial, expected in early 2011, he said.

Chhang Youk said his team had experienced problems submitting documents to the court, especially in the administration office.

However, Rosanhaug said anyone with problems can contact himself or Kranh Tony for assistance.

And tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath said the court had not met any obstacles without Sean Visoth. There is no scheduled date for his return, Reach Sambath said.

Cambodia set for final arguments in KRouge jail chief trial

By Patrick Falby
AFP

PHNOM PENH — Cambodia's Khmer Rouge war crimes court on Monday begins final arguments in its first trial, bringing the regime's prison chief closer to justice for the "Killing Fields" atrocities 30 years ago.

Kaing Guek Eav -- better known as Duch -- has apologised for his role in the horrors of the hardline communist regime, which killed up to two million people. However, lawyers this week will argue about the extent of his guilt.

"We want to lead them back to the evidence to remind them again of the magnitude of the abuses and the reality of Duch's role in them," prosecutor Bill Smith told AFP.

For Cambodians, the controversial tribunal, established in 2006 after nearly a decade of negotiations between Cambodia and the United Nations, is the last chance to find justice for the Khmer Rouge's crimes.

Since his trial began in February, Duch, 67, has repeatedly used hearings to publicly ask for forgiveness for overseeing the murders of around 15,000 men, women and children at Tuol Sleng prison, built in a former high school.

He is charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture and premeditated murder, and faces a maximum term of life in prison by the tribunal, which does not have the power to impose the death penalty.

Duch is expected to apologise again this week as his defence bids to lessen his sentence, however prosecution and civil party lawyers will each use a day of hearings to outline their arguments for a harsher decision.

A verdict is expected early next year.

Hundreds of Cambodians are set to attend the specially built courtroom on the outskirts of Phnom Penh for the hearing on Monday, which is due to start at 9:00 am (0200 GMT).

Duch will sit with the court's judges, lawyers and witnesses behind a massive bulletproof screen to prevent possible revenge attacks.

This week's proceedings will be broadcast live by all Cambodian television stations, court officials said.

Tuol Sleng prison was at the heart of the Khmer Rouge security apparatus and thousands of inmates were taken from there during Duch's tenure for execution at nearby Choeung Ek, an orchard now known as the "Killing Fields."

Led by "Brother Number One" Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge was responsible for one of the worst horrors of the 20th century, wiping out nearly a quarter of the population through starvation, overwork and execution.

Rising to power as a tragic spin-off from the US conflict in Vietnam, the movement emptied Cambodia's cities to take society back to a rural "Year Zero," purging city dwellers, intellectuals and even people who wore glasses.

The Khmer Rouge was ousted by Vietnamese-backed forces after a reign of terror lasting three years, eight months and 20 days, but continued to fight a civil war until 1998. Pol Pot died in the same year.

Duch has been detained since 1999, when he was found working as a Christian aid worker in the jungle, and was formally arrested by the tribunal in July 2007.

The court has faced controversy over allegations of interference by the government and claims that Cambodian staff paid kickbacks for their jobs.

The joint trial of four other more senior Khmer Rouge leaders is expected to start in 2011.

The court is also investigating whether to open more cases against five other former Khmer Rouge cadres after a dispute between the international and Cambodian co-prosecutors over whether to pursue more suspects.

Trial and tribulations in Cambodia [-Add'l KRT suspects include at least one gov't official and a retired general]

Oct 6, 2009
By Jared Ferrie
Asia Times Online (Hong Kong)

PHNOM PENH - In a legal landmark for Cambodians and for international justice, testimony at the first trial of the Khmer Rouge tribunal has successfully come to a close. But as judges deliberate the verdict of one self-confessed former torture chief, the fate of the tribunal itself is also in question.

A series of controversies, including Prime Minister Hun Sen's warnings that more trials would undermine national security and potentially re-ignite civil war, threaten to unravel future cases against former leaders of the radical Maoist regime. The man who stirred the controversy, former international prosecutor Robert Petit, left his post on September 1 for "personal and family reasons" as testimony was wrapping up.

Petit announced last December that he intended to charge six more suspects up and beyond the five who have already been detained and await trial. That sparked a legal dispute with his Cambodian co-prosecutor, who filed an objection, and the ire of Hun Sen.

"If you tried [more suspects] without taking national unification and peace into consideration, and if war re-occurred, killing between 200,000 and 300,000 people more, who would be responsible for it?" Hun Sen asked in a speech to mark the release of census results on September 7. Hun Sen said previously that he would rather see the court fail than pursue more prosecutions.

International rights groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have condemned his statements as political interference in the legal process. Other analysts have dismissed his civil war threat, speculating instead that Hun Sen is bidding to protect political allies in his government.

The prime minister was once a low level member of the Khmer Rouge, but he defected and fled to Vietnam. Other former Khmer Rouge members in government include Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Keat Chhon and president of the National Assembly Heng Samrin.

On September 2, the tribunal ruled that prosecutors could make submissions to the investigating judges in order to open up judicial investigations of the former Khmer Rouge members Petit had been building cases against. It was a split decision: Cambodian judges on the tribunal tried to block the move, while the international judges allowed for it.

Since his political and legal bombshell, Petit has been tight-lipped with the media. But in an interview the day before his departure from Cambodia, he spoke more openly to this correspondent.

"I am unconcerned about any politician's opinion about my work. It's not their job to take that on. It's mine; it's the court's," he said over coffee at Le Royal, the hotel immortalized in the film The Killing Fields as the refuge of the last rag-tag band of journalists left in Phnom Penh when the Khmer Rouge took over the city in 1975.

Petit said he hoped the prosecution would continue to pursue charges against six more suspects, in addition to the five who have already been arrested, "without any priorities other than the law and the evidence".

The five former leaders who await or are on trial include: Khieu Samphan, the former Khmer Rouge head of state; Ieng Sary, who held the post of foreign minister; Ieng Thirith, his wife and former minister for social affairs; Nuon Chea, known as "Brother Number Two", who served as deceased Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot's deputy; and former S-21 prison warden Kaing Guek Eav, better known by his revolutionary name Duch.

The additional six suspects identified by Petit have not been named publicly, but a source familiar with the investigation said they include at least one government official and a retired general. The source also said one of the suspects has already died. The Cambodia Daily newspaper identified him as the Khmer Rouge's former commerce minister, Van Rith, who died in November.

In a 2001 publication, Stephen Heder and Brian Tittemore named seven former Khmer Rouge leaders who they said the strongest cases could be made against. The list included some of these currently facing charges, but the authors also mentioned Meah Mut, a former Khmer Rouge commander, who now serves in an advisory position to the Ministry of Defense. He stands accused of transferring members of his division to the S-21 detention center.

"I believe there's enough evidence to justify prosecuting [the six unnamed suspects] and qualifying them as either senior leaders or the most responsible," said Petit, without referring to specific individuals. "That's my only concern."

Legal threats

He rejected the claim that expanding the scope of the prosecution would spark armed conflict, saying that Cambodians have no wish to return to war after suffering some of the worst atrocities of the 20th century. Petit suggested that if violence were to occur following an arrest, it would most likely be politically orchestrated. "It's not going to happen," he said. "And if something were going to happen, I would question the genuineness of it."

Hun Sen, who until recently had presided over fast economic growth and relative political stability, seems determined to thwart further prosecutions, judging from his September 7 speech. "I have achieved this work [peace], I will not allow anybody to destroy it," he said.

However the tribunal is in danger of collapse even without political interference. Claims that Cambodian administrative staff at the tribunal were forced to pay kickbacks to superiors in order to acquire and maintain their jobs were made in a United Nations report leaked to the media over two years ago. Yet no one has yet been named or charged for corruption.

The UN and Cambodian government appointed Uth Chhorn in August as an independent counselor, a position created in part to investigate the corruption allegations. But, on September 24, he told reporters that his job is not to resolve corruption charges. Rather, he said he will pass on information provided to him about corrupt practices to senior UN and government officials.

A German parliamentary delegation published a report last November implicating Sean Visoth, the head of the tribunal's administration, in the alleged corruption. He went on sick leave that same month and has not yet returned to work.

As the corruption controversy simmers, and as judges consider the case against the first defendant, Duch, prosecutors are already busy trying to build solid cases against the four suspects remaining to be tried. Those cases promise to be far more complex as Duch is the only one of the original five suspects who has admitted his guilt.

To be sure, it would have been hard for Duch to deny his role in the atrocities carried out by the Khmer Rouge. There are thousands of pages of documentary evidence linking him to the crimes committed at the S-21 prison, where as many as 17,000 people were tortured before being executed.

Under Duch's supervision, meticulous records of interrogation and torture were kept at S-21. While apologizing repeatedly in court to his victims, Duch also said he and his family would have been killed had he not carried out the murders ordered by his Khmer Rouge superiors.

The remaining four suspects, all of whom held much higher ranks, reject accusations that they led a regime that presided over the deaths of at least 1.7 million of its own citizens. All four suspects deny any knowledge of atrocities committed under the Khmer Rouge. Petit however said he was not worried about the cases against them.

"It is true that in general this regime did have secrecy and paranoia as some of its hallmarks. But if you've created that secrecy, if you've created that paranoia, if you've enforced it and made sure it permeates the structure that you're running ... then it doesn't help you much provided that it can be proven that you were in charge and that you did create these institutions," he said. "And I don't think that's going to be much of an issue here."

Of greater concern, perhaps, is the question of whether the suspects will live long enough to have their day in court. They are all elderly and some are known to have serious health problems.

Closing arguments in the Duch trial are set for November and a verdict is expected in 2010. A date has not been set for the trial of the remaining four suspects that have been identified and are currently incarcerated. Although prosecutors are now free to investigate and bring charges against the additional unnamed six suspects mentioned by Petit, nobody has been willing, at least publicly, to say if or when that might happen.

"It is important to say that this does not automatically mean there will be more prosecutions," Lars Olsen, a spokesman for the court, told reporters on September 2. "It means [the international prosecutor] is no longer barred by the disagreement with Cambodian colleagues."

Still, there is still a strong possibility that Duch will be the only Khmer Rouge member to be tried for his role in the regime that prompted historians to add "autogenocide", a term that refers to the extermination of citizens by a regime that shares the same ethnicity, to the English language.

After decades of ignoring almost inconceivable atrocities, and then finally pouring more than US$150 million into a tribunal now hotly contested by politicians and officials, the international community may yet fail to bring justice to Cambodia.

Jared Ferrie is freelance journalist based in Phnom Penh.

Groups Want Tribunal Shielded From Corruption

By Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
05 June 2009

Six of the country’s most prominent civic groups called on the UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal to ensure its integrity is safe from corruption.

In a joint statement to the courts, the groups called for a credible, independent method for dealing with alleged corrupt practices, following allegations made since 2007 that staff on the Cambodian side of the hybrid court pay kickbacks to senior government officials.

“We wish for them to have a solid mechanism for independence and to reinforce credibility,” said Thun Saray, president of the rights group Adhoc, which was among the six organizations to issue the statement.

The UN and Cambodian sides have not agreed on a unified mechanism for handling the allegations. The government argues that complainants should be identified; the UN insists on anonymity.

“We are concerned that the mechanism does not have enough efficiency to combat corruption in the court,” Thun Saray said.

Meanwhile, the Pre-Trial Chamber of the court postponed a decision on whether more indictments should be investigated. Judges met Friday to settle a dispute between the UN and Cambodian prosecutors.

International prosecutor Robert Petit has said six more suspects could be charged with atrocity crimes, but his Cambodian counterpart, Chea Leang has echoed concerns of Prime Minister Hun Sen, saying more indictments could destabilize the country.

“We are working,” said chamber judge Prak Kim San. “No result.”

Court to revisit tribunal graft case

Wednesday, 03 June 2009
Written by Georgia Wilkins
The Phnom Penh Post

PHNOM Penh Municipal Court prosecutors are considering reopening a criminal case into alleged kickbacks at the Khmer Rouge tribunal, defence lawyers said after a meeting with court officials Tuesday.

"They said they were going to move [the case] forward," Michiel Pestman, co-lawyer for Nuon Chea said, adding that prosecutors had "promised" to obtain a copy of a report on graft claims by the UN's oversight body, which was done in September but never made public. Pestman also said they were likely to summon director of administration Sean Visoth, who has been absent from the court for six months.

Ouk Savuth, deputy prosecutor at the Court of Appeals, said that he had received the case, but hadn't decided whether to reopen it.

The lawyers tried to meet with government officials Tuesday, but said the officials had declined to hold talks.

They also expressed concern about recently surfaced documents affiliating Helen Jarvis, a former press officer at the court and its current Victims' Unit head, with a Marxist political faction in Australia.

"[Her political beliefs] could have an influence on the fairness of the procedures," Pestman said. Jarvis and Richard Rogers, chief of defence, declined to comment Tuesday.

In the Cambodian Judges' Court

The judiciary has the power to investigate alleged fraud at the war-crimes tribunal

MAY 28, 2009
By JOHN A. HALL
From today's Wall Street Journal Asia.
OPINION ASIA

The Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Cambodia is facing a serious crisis stemming from unresolved allegations of a kickback scheme. Yet the United Nations, the Cambodian government and donor nations aren't dealing effectively with the allegations. That task has been handed to the tribunal judges, who have a golden opportunity to make a difference.

Cambodian government officials are alleged to have received kickbacks from Cambodian employees in exchange for securing them lucrative positions at the court. These are serious allegations. Refusing to address them could deal a fatal blow to the court's credibility. That would be a tragedy for the people of Cambodia, who seek justice for the Khmer Rouge's crimes. It would also be a blow for the international donors who funded this important court.

With the trials now underway, the need to finally address the allegations is urgent. And it's becoming clear that the tribunal's international and Cambodian judges are the court's best option to investigate and clear up the corruption claims. The Cambodian judges have vigorously denied that they have in any way been involved in improper practices. All the more reason, then, for them to investigate alleged corruption at their court with similar vigor.

They have already missed one opportunity. In March, defense lawyers for Nuon Chea, the former chief ideologist of the Khmer Rouge, filed a request asking the two co-investigating judges who are responsible for judicial investigation in the civil law tribunal to obtain the results of a U.N. investigation into possible corruption at the tribunal and to launch a review of the corruption allegations. The lawyers argued that this was needed to "assess what, if any, corrosive effects such alleged corruption has had on the administration of justice thus far at the [tribunal]" and to determine whether their client's right to a fair trial has been compromised. Co-Investigating Judges You Bun Leng and Marcelle Lemonde rejected that request.

The judges said that they lacked the jurisdiction to proceed as the requested information was "totally foreign to the facts covered by the current judicial investigations." They added that they couldn't intervene in response to "speculations as to hypothetical negative effects" of corruption, and that an administrative inquiry "would be superfluous" as the U.N. and Cambodian government were "seised of the situation." The defense teams filed an appeal May 4 with the tribunal's pre-trial chamber asking the three Cambodian and two international judges to reconsider the ruling of the co-investigating judges, arguing that "because exposure of the alleged scheme would likely discredit senior officials and embarrass the U.N., neither institution possesses the requisite impartiality to deal with the matter." Lawyers representing civil parties have since joined the appeal.

If the judges continue to reject requests to investigate the allegations, they risk seeing their tribunal's successes overshadowed by persistent defense claims that corruption renders the trials unfair. Lawyers for civil parties have correctly warned that "arguments in this vein would not only undermine the principle of finality of proceedings, but would render elusive the justice and closure for which the victims of these proceedings have been waiting."

Judges have a responsibility to ensure the proper administration of justice within their court. The claim of the co-investigating judges that they lacked jurisdiction to investigate allegations of corruption involving court personnel was arguably in conflict with this core judicial responsibility. Moreover, a court must satisfy itself that the overall proceedings are fair. Yet the allegations implicate individuals responsible for making legal decisions and administrators and staff responsible for collecting, transcribing, translating and producing the evidence.

The judges' decision is crucial because there are few remaining options if the corruption allegations are ever going to be properly investigated. High-level negotiations between the U.N. and the Cambodian government to produce a credible investigative mechanism failed in April, and donor nations appear unwilling to press the point.

Donor nations have also failed to pressure the court into dealing with the allegations. Last year the U.N. Development Program froze donor funds to the Cambodian side of the tribunal pending a resolution of the allegations, but donors have recently signaled a willingness to support the tribunal regardless. Canberra has asked the UNDP to release Australian funds, stating that it is generally satisfied with the progress being made at the tribunal. When the UNDP refused, Japan provided more than $4 million directly to the Cambodian government -- enough to fund the tribunal through the end of the year.

In an apparent tit-for-tat response to continuing calls for an investigation of Cambodian court officials, Phay Siphan, secretary of state and spokesman at the council of ministers, stated on May 11 that the Cambodian government is currently investigating allegations of undisclosed wrongdoing involving U.N. court personnel. He said: "We have a file of who's the enemy of the [tribunal]. We don't want to expose any wrongdoing of the U.N. side in order to discredit the [tribunal]. We know who's the enemy of the tribunal and we know who's trying to manipulate what's going on. One day, if we feel the need to release it, we will release it." Andrew Ianuzzi, a legal consulatant for the defense team of Nuon Chea, characterized this as "the childish, thuggish behavior we have come to expect from the government."

With the U.N. stymied, donor nations lacking political will and leadership, and the Cambodian government stonewalling and raising counterallegations, all eyes are now on the tribunal's judges. Trial Chamber Judge Silvia Cartwright has stated that "one of the major issues that has been troubling for all the judges is that of corruption within the [tribunal]. We welcome all efforts to ensure that the allegations are dealt with fully and fairly and that independent measures are put in place to make sure [that claims] are resolved in a transparent manner." The judges now have an opportunity to put these fine sentiments into concrete action and throw their weight behind a competent, credible and transparent investigation of the allegations. It is time for them to deal with an issue which if left unresolved will expose all future judgments to crippling legal challenges.

Mr. Hall is an associate professor of law and research fellow in the Center for Global Trade and Development at Chapman University School of Law in Orange, California.

Doubts cast over veracity of ECCC personnel audits, observers say

Monday, 18 May 2009
Written by Robbie Corey Boulet
The Phnom Penh Post

US ENVOY to arrive in Cambodia for tribunal talks

ATOP US war crimes representative will meet with government and Khmer Rouge tribunal officials this week to discuss the UN-backed court, an embassy spokesperson confirmed Sunday. Clint Williamson, the US ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues, is to arrive in Cambodia today, however a schedule for meetings with senior government officials, including Cabinet Minister Sok An, could not be confirmed. "We don't have a schedule confirmed yet," US embassy spokesperson John Johnson told the Post, adding that he could not specify what would be on the agenda for the talks. This week's visit will mark Williamson's second since he took office in 2006, and he is expected to also hold talks with NGO representatives and embassy personnel amid growing concern over allegations of graft at the court that have resulted in a UN review and the freezing of donor funding. Negotiations between the UN and Cambodia over an anti-corruption mechanism at the hybrid court were abandoned last month, with the UN saying Thursday it had "no more meetings scheduled" - Georgia Wilkins

Lawyers and court monitors maintain that reviews of UN-backed tribunal's human resources practices ‘not designed' to unearth evidence of kickback scheme at the centre of graft row.

ON FEBRUARY 4, Andrew Ianuzzi, a legal consultant for the defence team of former Khmer Rouge leader Nuon Chea, visited Phnom Penh Municipal Court for his third meeting in less than three weeks with Deputy Prosecutor Sok Kaliyan.

The topic of the meeting was a criminal complaint - filed in January by Ianuzzi and two other international lawyers for Nuon Chea - accusing officials, including then-director of administration Sean Visoth, of "perpetrating, facilitating, aiding and/or abetting" a kickback scheme in which Cambodian employees were forced to hand over portions of their salaries to top tribunal officials.

Government officials have repeatedly claimed that no evidence of such a scheme has ever surfaced, citing a series of international audits assessing, among other things, the court's human resources and management practices.

But lawyers and tribunal observers have dismissed this argument as disingenuous, saying that the audits were not designed to assess kickback allegations in the first place.

During the February 4 meeting, Ianuzzi recalled in an interview last week, Sok Kaliyan indicated - not for the first time - that the complaint would be thoroughly investigated.

But one week later, while at Phnom Penh International Airport to catch a flight to Bangkok, Ianuzzi saw a front page newspaper article reporting that the Municipal Court had abruptly ended the investigation on February 5.

When Ianuzzi returned to Phnom Penh and reviewed the case file, he noticed documents that weren't there when he checked the file on February 4: reports on the audits, which he and others insist don't actually clear the accused officials of anything.

"The audits ... were never intended to detect the type of corruption that has been alleged," John Hall, an associate professor at Chapman University School of Law in California who has written extensively about the tribunal, said via email.

"It is misleading to claim otherwise."

Court spokeswoman Helen Jarvis declined to answer questions for this article.

All reports indicate that staff were paid their full salaries on the books and that it was only after ... that they made a kickback payment.

"I think we have canvassed this issue extensively, and there are reports on our website about all this, so I would refer you to that," she said.

Clean review

The website includes the 25-page Human Resources Management Review, an independent review released in April 2008.

"Robust [human resources] systems have been developed and implemented to address previous shortcomings, to give effective support to the judicial process and to minimize the risk of questionable HR practices occurring in the future," the review said in its conclusion.

"Zero tolerance for non-compliance with HR systems and the Code of Conduct will also support ongoing improvement in the performance of the ECCC."

Sean Visoth said during the press conference announcing the review's release that it was designed "to recap all the separate audits and reviews carried out during the past year, and to assess whether HR management policies and practices of the Cambodian side of the ECCC are transparent, accountable, meet international standards and provide consistent and effective measures against any mismanagement".

At the same press conference, Jo Scheuer, then the country director for the UN Development Program, said, "Based on audits conducted from 2006 to present, there have been no questionable financial transactions, no misallocated resources and no incomplete or missing documentation in support of disbursements made by [the tribunal]. All of their financial transactions have passed audit scrutiny."

But Scheuer said in an interview last month that any kickback scheme would have been "off the books", meaning "there are no figures" that would surface in an audit.

"All the audits are clean because the books are clean," Scheuer said.

Heather Ryan, who has been monitoring the tribunal for the Open Society Justice Initiative, also said it would be impossible to assess kickback allegations with an audit of financial records.

"All reports indicate that staff were paid their full salaries on the books and that it was only after they received them that they made a kickback payment," she said in a May 10 email.

"If this is in fact the case, an audit of the books would not reveal anything about the practice."

Scheuer argued that the only way to investigate the alleged kickbacks would be to interview those making the allegations.

Ianuzzi also said investigators looking to effectively assess the kickback allegations would need to "interview witnesses and try to obtain" all relevant documents.

Several lawyers and observers said the nature of the audits - which they described as inadequate - underscored the need for the government to release the results of a UN review of the most recent kickback allegations, which surfaced last June.

The review was given to government officials last September but has not been made public.

Civil party lawyer Alain Werner said the government's refusal thus far to release the review results was fuelling "the constant speculation, the allegations and the rumours that are going on".

"Let's just disclose this report," he said.

Phay Siphan said in an interview Tuesday that he did not know which government officials had seen the UN review, but argued that its release could sour relations between UN and Cambodian officials.

"We respect each other, as a husband a wife, to create a new baby: the ECCC," he said.

He also reiterated the government's position that there is no need for further investigations into the kickback allegations.

"There have already been audits," he said, "and the findings showed that not a penny has been lost."

Cambodian staff are accused of involvement in corruption ... but Cambodia investigates foreign staff at the KRT instead: Sok An's thuggish world?

Cambodia investigates UN Khnmer Rouge tribunal staff

Friday, May 15, 2009
Robert Carmichael
ABC Radio Australia

The Cambodia government has announced it's investigating foreign court staff at the Khmer Rouge tribunal for corruption.

It comes after a long-running dispute with the United Nations over corruption allegations on the Cambodian side of the court.

The Cambodian government and the United Nations have had a difficult relationship in setting up and running the Khmer Rouge tribunal.

The relationship between the two partners worsened this week after a government spokesman said Phnom Penh had collated files on all foreign United Nations staff and was monitoring them for corruption.

It has caused an outcry with one foreign lawyer describing the move as "childish and thuggish".

The government back-pedalled a little on Thursday, saying it wasn't actually monitoring foreign staffers, just investigating claims that some had committed unnamed "misdeeds".

The United Nations has said those claims should be handed over to it for investigation.

US Envoy To Hold Tribunal Talks

Clint Williamson

By Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
14 May 2009

Clint Williamson, the US ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues, is scheduled to arrive in Cambodia next week to hold talks with the government on the beleaguered Khmer Rouge tribunal, officials said Thursday.

The Cambodian side of the UN-backed special court is facing a budget crisis, its funding withheld by donors and the UN over lingering allegations of kickbacks and mismanagement.

Three rounds of talks between a UN legal envoy and Deputy Prime Minister Sok An failed to reach an agreement on how the court should handle allegations that Cambodian staff pay substantial kickbacks to senior officials in order to work at the court.

A government spokesman said Williamson would meet with Sok An May 22.

Australia in a hurry to see salary kickbacks at the ECCC perpetuated?

Australia Pushes for Release of Tribunal Funds

By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
07 May 2009

Australia has urged the UN and Cambodia to reach an agreement over how to handle corruption at the Khmer Rouge tribunal and has officially demanded that the UNDP release $456,000 for administration of the court, an official said Wednesday.

“We continue to urge the Cambodian government and the United Nations to intensify their efforts to develop a credible anti-corruption mechanism which builds on progress to date,” Fiona Cochaud, deputy chief of mission at the Australian Embassy in Phnom Penh, told VOA Khmer by e-mail.

“Like other donors, Australia is concerned about allegations of corruption in relation to the administration of the ECCC,” she said, referring to the tribunal by its initials, for Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. “And we welcome the work undertaken to date by the Cambodian government and the United Nations to ensure that the ECCC administration operates in a transparent, fair and efficient manner.”

The tribunal, established in 2006 after a decade of wrangling between the UN and government, has been hounded by allegations by Cambodian staff they paid kickbacks for their jobs, in accusations strongly denied by tribunal officials.

The allegations have proven strong enough to give some donors pause, causing a budget crisis on the Cambodian side of the hybrid court, even as the first trial, of Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch, is underway.

Cochaud said Thursday that Australia is satisfied with the “broad progress” made by the courts in addressing corruption concerns, and it wants to ensure the administration will be able to support the functions of the tribunal.

“We are currently working with the UNDP on the modalities of the funds' release,” she said.

UNDP has not changed its position, the agency said in a statement Tuesday. “We are in discussions with our partners, but allegations of corruption must be resolved and genuine governance reforms must be put in place before UNDP is in a position to release funds.”

CAMBODIA: Corruption Allegations Undermine Khmer Rouge Tribunal

Written by Robert Carmichael

PHNOM PENH, May 1 (IPS) - The voice of Comrade Duch reverberates daily through the speakers at the 500- seat courtroom in Phnom Penh as he gives testimony in his trial for crimes against humanity.

Duch was the former commander of the notorious Khmer Rouge execution centre S21 in Phnom Penh in which 17,000 people are thought to have died between 1975 and 1979.

Another four senior surviving Khmer Rouge leaders are in custody awaiting trial.

The tribunal, a hybrid creation between the United Nations and the Cambodian government, has seen a number of controversies in its long gestation and brief life. The latest - and also one that crops up often - involves plausible allegations that Cambodian staff on the administration side of the tribunal paid kickbacks to senior staffers in return for their jobs.

This led donor nations to refuse to release more funds until the government established a mechanism to allow local staff to report corruption without fear of being fired. It hasn’t yet done so to the U.N.’s satisfaction, so the result is that Cambodian tribunal staff - some 250 people - have been paid late a number of times in the past year. That has happened again this month.

In early April a senior U.N. negotiator arrived in a final bid to hammer out a deal with the government to set up the anti-corruption mechanism. One day of talks became two days, which went into a third. But out of the blue the Australia government stunned observers by announcing during the U.N. negotiations that it wanted the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP), which is holding back a half-million dollar Australian loan, to release that cash to pay court salaries.

The government saw the move as an endorsement of its position. The U.N. was undermined, and the meeting broke up without a deal.

Observers of the trial process were staggered. Was Australia’s timing accidental or by design they wondered?

Heather Ryan is a trial monitor for the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI), an NGO funded by billionaire George Soros.

"It is inexplicable to me why the Australian government would take a step like that," Ryan says. "It so obviously does undermine the negotiating position of the U.N. [and others] who are trying to eliminate or reduce corruption in the court."

The Australian embassy in Phnom Penh would not comment - by its own admission the matter is too sensitive - and referred enquiries to Canberra. An emailed reply from the Australian government department of foreign affairs did not directly answer questions over what had happened. Instead the reply laid out a series of broader strokes.

The government spokesman wrote that Australia’s request that the UNDP release the money was based on two points. The first was the "broad progress" made by the Cambodian government to address the corruption issue. The second was to ensure that the court’s work would continue at this critical juncture."

"Australia’s decision to make this request took into account the views of other donors and the United Nations, including in Phnom Penh," the spokesman wrote - although he did not say whether the other partners agreed with the decision. "The Cambodian government is keenly aware of the need to ensure that corruption concerns are addressed."

If the undermining of the U.N.’s negotiating position was the first surprise, then the second was the refusal by UNDP to release the funds.

UNDP country manager Jo Scheuer explains that the organisation can only release the money once the corruption allegations are addressed by Phnom Penh, reforms are put in place to make sure it cannot happen again, and money previously released by UNDP is accounted for.

Scheuer says one reason UNDP rejected Australia’s request is because the tribunal must meet international standards on the dispensation of justice. Allegations of corruption undermine that.

"The second reason is because we are the fund manager. We are the ones accountable for the proper use of what at the end of the day is taxpayers’ money," Scheuer says. "We have said for the last nine months that we need to see allegations resolved and mechanisms put up before we can resume our role."

Court-watchers are concerned that the allegations could damage the trial - possibly fatally.

Perhaps more significant than corruption allegations on the administration side, are several reports in the media that some Cambodian judges paid kickbacks to secure their posts. As Scheuer points out, some of the defence lawyers have already stated that the corruption allegations mean their clients cannot get a fair trial.

But Scheuer says UNDP has seen no evidence of corruption involving Cambodian judges. "I can 100 percent say of all the work we have done, the extent of our knowledge of the allegations is limited to the administration of the court," he says.

That leaves the court’s immediate concern the payment of April salaries. They will certainly be paid late, says tribunal spokesperson Helen Jarvis, but she is confident money will come in to cover the salaries.

But, it won’t come from UNDP. Scheuer says that even if funds were approved for immediate release - and they have not been - it would take another eight weeks to work through the disbursement process. The only logical conclusion is that someone else will pay this month’s bill.

Ryan at the OSJI says it is distinctly possible that other donor nations could follow Australia’s lead in disbursing funds before an anti-corruption mechanism is set up. And she fears that could further undermine the U.N.’s position.

"We are watching carefully to see if other donors follow suit with [Australia] or if they continue to stand firm [on] an adequate agreement before they release any additional funds to the Cambodian side," Ryan says.

Monthly salaries aside, more important is the damage this episode has done to the court’s reputation. Scheuer says all parties want to see the problem resolved so that comment about the court can revolve around the delivery of justice rather than corruption.

There remains much concern that the court could yet collapse. If that happened sooner rather than later, it would leave Comrade Duch as the only one to face trial for the crimes of the Khmer Rouge regime that killed as many as two million people.

Corruption Impasse Worries Tribunal Observers

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

With a controversial agreement over corruption complaints in place between the UN and Cambodian Khmer Rouge tribunal negotiators, worries remain over the future of the hybrid court.

The two sides are at loggerheads over anonymity for complainants, leading to a failure in talks earlier this month. For now, complaints to the Cambodian side of the UN-backed tribunal are to go through Cambodian channels, while the UN will handle complaints from its own side.

John Hall, an associate professor of the Chapman University of Law, in California, who has written on corruption at the tribunal, believes the UN could pull out if such a procedure is deemed insufficient.

“If the UN believes that the current situation is unacceptable, if it threatens the credibility of the court, it should say so, and it should withdraw its technical support for the court,” Hall said.

The lingering questions over corruption and mismanagement come as the tribunal’s first trial, of prison chief Duch, is underway. Duch, whose real name is Kaing Kek Iev, has been facing tribunal trial judges since March 30, addressing atrocity crimes charges for his role as the director of the regime’s Tuol Sleng prison, its main torture center, in Phnom Penh.

Even with Duch in court, the Cambodian side of the tribunal has struggled. It was only able to pay the March salaries of its staff through emergency bilateral funding from Japan.

If such money dries up completely, the tribunal could collapse, Hall said.

“The best hope of going forward is that the donors and UN finally take a firm stand and make it clear that allegations of corruption within the tribunal must be thoroughly investigated,” he said. “We talk about seeking a tribunal that meets international standards, but what does that mean if we continue to turn a blind eye to corruption?”

UN officials and other observers say increased pressure from donors could break the impasse, or a solution might be found between the secretary-general of the UN, Ban Ki-moon, and Prime Minister Hun Sen.

“You would have to have a political decision at the level of the secretary-general, and you would have to have the donors on-side,” said David Tolbert, a senior fellow at the US Institute of Peace and a former special adviser to the tribunal. “I don’t foresee at the moment the UN pulling out, but I am not privy to the internal discussions at this stage. So I think that’s speculative.”

The tribunal is unlikely to collapse, said Scott Worden, an expert on the rule of law at the USIP. The Cambodian government has proven effective at testing the limits of the donor community and finding political support for its aims, and besides, he said, donors still have obligations to help Cambodia.

“With a positive story like Duch’s trial, which is progressing, it’s hard for the international community to say, ‘We are going to cancel it,’” he said. “The Cambodian government knows that. So you have this bargain.”

Observers in Cambodia say that if the UN walks out, countries like China and some Cambodian officials will be pleased.

“It appears increasingly as though the Cambodian government would prefer to see the tribunal fail than to agree to a credible investigation of the corruption allegations leveled against Cambodian officials,” Hall said. “How shameful. The Cambodian people deserve better than that.”

The continued allegations have caused some foreign donors to withhold funding from the Cambodian side of the court. The Australian government has said it wants to release $456 million in funding, but the UNDP, which administers the money, has said it will not release it until current allegations, that staff have paid kickbacks for their positions on the Cambodian side, are addressed.

"The United Nations made the right decision in refusing to sign onto a sub-standard anti-corruption proposal," said James Goldston, executive director of the Open Society Justice Initiative, which monitors the tribunal. “It’s disappointing to see donors such as Australia undermine the UN’s resolve by releasing their funds to the court without an adequate anti-corruption mechanism in place.”

“The United Nations, Cambodian government and donors must now set a deadline for agreeing to an acceptable solution, which must include the right for [tribunal] employees to report wrongdoing to either international or national ethics monitors, as well as adequate protection for whistleblowers, including confidentiality guarantees,” he said. “Only after such an agreement is reached should donors feel confident to release their funds, and only on the condition that the mechanism will be closely watched and audited for performance.”

Corruption allegations continue to taint KR tribunal

April 27, 2009
ABC Radio Australia

The Khmer Rouge Tribunal currently underway in Phnom Penh has seen controversy in many forms.

The latest revolves around allegations of corruption, which have dragged on for months and seen donors freeze funding for the salaries of Cambodian staff.

Presenter: Robert Carmichael
Speakers: Heather Ryan, trial monitor for the Open Society Justice Initiative; Jo Scheuer, UNDP's country manager

Click here to listen to the audio program in English (Windows Media)

CARMICHAEL: This is the voice of Comrade Duch, former commander of the notorious Tuol Sleng execution centre in Phnom Penh. He's testifying at the Khmer Rouge tribunal where he's charged with crimes against humanity. But the credibility of the tribunal is at stake with long simmering allegations that Cambodian administrators paid kickbacks to senior staffers in return for their jobs. Most international donors have declined to release more funds to the tribunal until the Cambodian government resolves the issue.

But one donor has bucked the trend. Earlier this month Australia announced it would release funds while a senior UN official was in Phnom Penh trying to resolve the corruption allegations.

Heather Ryan is a trial monitor for the Open Society Justice Initiative.

HEATHER RYAN: It is inexplicable to me why the Australian government would take a step like that, that so obviously does undermine the negotiating position of not only the UN but others who are committed to trying to eliminate or trying to reduce corruption in the court and here in Cambodia in general.

ROBERT CARMICHAEL: The Australian Embassy in Phnom Penh refused to comment, saying the matter was too sensitive. But a spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs in Canberra said by email the decision was based on what he called "broad progress" in the Cambodian government's efforts to address corruption concerns, and to ensure that the court could continue its work.

Despite his comments that Australia had consulted with other donors and the UN before making its move, the UN Development Programme - which holds the money in a frozen trust - refused Australia's request to release the funds.

UNDP's country manager is Jo Scheuer.

JO SCHEUER: We are the ones accountable for the proper use of what at the end of the day is taxpayers' money. We have said for the last nine months that we need to see allegations resolved and mechanisms put up before we can resume our role, and that today is still the same position.

ROBERT CARMICHAEL: Lawyers for some of the defendants have used the corruption issue to argue their clients won't get a fair trial. And possibly worse than that, there have been some media allegations that Cambodian judges paid kickbacks to get their positions - a potentially fatal flaw for the tribunal.

Mr Scheuer says the UNDP has seen no evidence that happened.

JO SCHEUER: From the work we have done with the court we have no information whatsoever that anything happened on the judicial side of the national side of the court. It has been talked about, it has obviously been mentioned by some of the defence teams of some of the accused. I can 100 per cent say of all the work we have done, the extent of our knowledge of the allegations is limited to the administration of the court.

ROBERT CARMICHAEL: A tribunal spokesperson says April salaries for staff will be paid late, but is confident that money will come in. But the UNDP remains adamant the cash won't come from its funds. Heather Ryan at the Open Society Justice Initiative thinks it's possible other donors could follow the Australian lead. And that could potentially undermine the UN's insistence on fixing the corruption problem.

HEATHER RYAN: I am concerned about that and there is some evidence of that. I think the Australian's efforts to release their funds now without an agreement is evidence of that, and we are watching carefully to see if other donors follow suit with them or if they continue to stand firm that they want an adequate agreement before they release any additional funds to the Cambodian side.

ROBERT CARMICHAEL: And while monthly salaries are one thing, the bigger issue is the damage the corruption allegations have done and continue to do to the court's credibility. As UNDP's Jo Scheuer says: Everybody just wants to close this chapter and move on. But that requires action from Phnom Penh. For now, the ball remains in the Cambodian government's court.

Australia in controversy over Khmer Rouge trials [-Australia is undermining the UN]

AUDIO from Connect Asia: Corruption allegations at the Khmer Rouge tribunal

Mon, 27 Apr 2009
Robert Carmichael, Phnom Penh
ABC Radio Australia

Australia is mixed up in a controversy surrounding the credibility of the Cambodian tribunal hearing cases against former Khmer Rouge officials.

Allegations that Cambodian court employees paid kickbacks to senior staff of the hearings in return for their jobs have simmered for some time.

Most international donors have declined to release more funds to the tribunal until the Cambodian government resolves the issue.

But Australia has bucked the trend, announcing earlier in April that it would release funds.

Heather Ryan, a trial monitor for the Open Society Justice Initiative, told Radio Australia's Connect Asia program it is "inexplicable" why the Australian government would take such a step.

'Undermines UN'

She said it undermined the negotiating position of the UN and others committed to trying to eliminate or reduce corruption in the court and in Cambodia in general.

The Australian embassy in Phnom Penh refused to comment, saying the matter was too sensitive.

But a spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs in Canberra said the decision was based on what he called "broad progress" in the Cambodian government's efforts to address corruption concerns, and to ensure the court could continue its work.

At present, the court is hearing the case of Comrade Duch (Kaing Guek Eav), former commander of the notorious Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh, who is charged with crimes against humanity.

The Foreign Affairs Department says Australia consulted with other donors and the UN before making its move.

Refused to release

But the UN Development Program (UNDP) - which holds the money in trust - has refused Australia's request to release the funds.

UNDP country manager, Jo Scheuer, says: "We are the ones accountable for the proper use of what at the end of the day is taxpayers' money.

"We have said for the last nine months that we need to see allegations resolved and mechanisms put up before we can resume our role, and that today is still the same position."

Lawyers for some of the defendants have used the corruption issue to argue their clients will not get a fair trial.

Allegations about judges

There have been some media allegations that Cambodian judges paid kickbacks to get their positions - a potentially fatal flaw for the tribunal.

Mr Scheuer says the UNDP has seen no evidence that happened.

"From the work we have done with the court we have no information whatsoever that anything happened on the judicial side of the national side of the court."

Khmer Rouge Trial Threatened

Friday, 24 April 2009
Written by Susan Postlewaite
Asia Sentinel (Hong Kong)

Long-delayed justice in Cambodia may be denied yet

Although the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge have been unfolding in a Phnom Penh courtroom for three weeks, a toxic mix of corruption allegations, political interference and a money shortage threaten to shut the tribunal down, even as the world reads that justice is finally being done after 30 years of inaction.

The situation hit a low point with a blunt threat by Prime Minister Hun Sen recently that if the court runs out of money it's fine with him. He said the international prosecutor's desire to arrest more Khmer Rouge leaders living freely in Cambodia is "propaganda."

"Do not believe the propaganda there will be a widespread trial," Hun Sen told reporters, adding that any more arrests beyond the five suspects in custody could create civil war. "I agree to accept the defeat of this court or the collapse of the court, but I will not let this country have civil war again," Hun Sen said. He was in the Khmer Rouge himself but defected to help Vietnam liberate Cambodia in 1979.

Meanwhile the trial of the regime's lead torturer Kaing Guek Eav, 66, also known as Duch, was off to what prosecutor Robert Petit said was a "good beginning," with four other aging Khmer Rouge leaders in custody and supposed to be tried in 2010. The Khmer Rouge were responsible for 1.7 million deaths by starvation, torture, execution, and overwork in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. Petit wants more than five leaders tried, but his Cambodian co-prosecutor does not agree.

The dispute was turned over to the judges in December along with Petit's potential arrest list of five or six names. There is no indication when they will decide.

"The trial of Kaing Guek Eav is extremely exciting and there is a sense that justice is finally unfolding for the millions of victims," said John Hall, a professor at Chapman University‘s School of Law in California. But, he said, the inability of the court to credibly investigate allegations that Cambodian court personnel had to pay kickbacks to get and keep their jobs is fraying the patience of the donors who support the court.

"At some point the UN and the international judges must seriously consider what Judge (Marcel) LeMonde called the nuclear option - to walk away," he said.

The problems have taken on renewed urgency as the court does not have money to pay Cambodian staff salaries for April. Australia offered to release funds that had been put on hold for six months pending an investigation into the corruption allegations. But the UN blocked the release. The UN has refused to release funds since last July when allegations resurfaced by Cambodian staff that a kickback ring operates at the court and they have to pay a percentage of their monthly salaries to a middleman.

Court spokeswoman Helen Jarvis said Friday that "we're confident" that the staff salaries will be paid next week. She said she could not say what country will shoulder the expense. (Japan came in with a $200,000 "urgent" donation to pay March salaries.)

Jarvis also said the judges are still considering whether more arrests will be allowed. "They're working on it. They have given questions back to the co-prosecutors. It‘s very complex," she said.

The UN investigated last fall but refuses to release its findings. UN Assistant-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Peter Taksoe-Jensen has met three times since January, most recently for three days ending April 9, with Cambodian officials about the alleged kickbacks.But no resolution has been reached.

The court's senior Cambodian administrator, Sean Visoth, was named in November as a participant in a report by a German parliamentary delegation after their meeting with the court's UN administrator. Visoth has been sick leave since then.

Human rights groups and defense attorneys believe the corruption is widespread and could well extend to the judicial side, although they have not submitted evidence of that.

"The Cambodian judges and prosecutors receive their orders directly or indirectly from Hun Sen. They cannot act independently for fear of being removed or worse," said Brad Adams, executive director of Human Rights Watch Asia division.

"I've said for years that Hun Sen will try at key moments to sabotage the tribunal, and sadly, yet again he has done so," Adams said. "It is ridiculous to suggest the possibility of a spontaneous security threat from former Khmer Rouge, as they have no ability to take up arms against the government. If anything happens, it will only happen with Hun Sen's blessing."

Prosecutor Petit, veteran of war crimes courts in Rwanda and East Timor, said he still hopes that the judges will agree with his request to arrest more leaders. He also said the graft allegations have to be dealt with.

"This has to go away so it no longer shares the headlines with the more important work of the court. Half the headlines are about the problem they refuse to deal with," said Petit. "It threatens the continuation of the court. It's a very real problem."

Three of the defense attorneys representing the other suspects in custody asked the court to investigate the corruption, but the court's co-investigating judges said they don't have jurisdiction.

"The corruption is like a plague where everybody gets tainted," said defense attorney Michael Karnavas who represents 82- year- old Ieng Sary, the Khmer Rouge's foreign minister. He said if the UN is "worried that Hun Sen is going to kick them out they should be out the door first."

Others pointed out that Hun Sen has the UN over a barrel because the UN doesn't want to walk away from the tribunal, but it also doesn't want to be seen supporting a court that doesn't meet international standards of justice.

Hall said as unpalatable as it would be to halt the trial, it may " be preferable than to continue to condone a court whose legitimacy has been so seriously undermined."

"Is a flawed court better than no court? Not necessarily," he said.

Calls Mount for Release of Tribunal Funding

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
21 April 2009

Government and rights officials appealed to the UNDP Tuesday to release Australian funding for the Cambodian side of the Khmer Rouge tribunal, which is facing a budget crisis in the wake of corruption allegations.

The Australian government pledged $456,000 in April 2008 to the Cambodian side of the UN-backed court, but the UNDP, which manages donor funding, has not released the money.

The Cambodia Daily reported Tuesday that Australia had authorized the release of funds.

The UNDP said Tuesday it “was not in a position to release the funds at this time.”

“There must be a resolution of the allegations” of corruption before the money is released, UNDP said.

“If UNDP does not agree to release the funds to the Khmer Rouge tribunal, it will affect the regular process of the tribunal,” Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan said Tuesday. “The United Nations in its management of the funds provided for the Khmer Rouge tribunal should follow what the donors want.”

The government is “doing everything to ensure the transparency, morale, work effectiveness and increased confidence” at the court, he said.

The call for funding comes after failed talks this month between a senior UN legal adviser and the Cambodian government on how to address issues of corruption at the court, where Cambodian staff members have alleged they were forced to pay kickbacks for their positions.

The two sides are at odds over whether the identities of those who complain about corruption should be protected. The two sides have so far agreed on a parallel “mechanism” whereby complaints on the UN side are handled by the UN and those on the national side are handled by Cambodia.


Thun Saray, president of the rights group Adhoc, said the Cambodian side of the court risked running out of money if funding is not released.


“This can damage the whole process of the Khmer Rouge tribunal,” he said. “The donors are not concerned about providing funds, because the funds will be used fairly with the anti-corruption mechanism.”

Established in 2006 after nearly a decade of wrangling between the UN and Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge tribunal has only now begun its first trial, for former prison chief Duch, who has been facing Trial Chamber judges over the past few weeks for his role as the head of Tuol Sleng prison.

Even with Duch’s trial underway, the Cambodian administration was only able to pay its staff salaries for March after a direct infusion of $200,000 from Japan.

Helen Jarvis, a spokeswoman for the tribunal, said the court lacked around $4.3 million for 2009. The tribunal has not called for the release of funding from UNDP, she said, as the matter was in progress.

“We are still hoping the funds will come in time,” she said.

UN To Blame for Breakdown: Official [-Hun Sen's govt assessment in stark contradiction with the UN]

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

A government spokesman put the failure of tribunal discussions talks earlier this month squarely on the United Nations, saying the Cambodian side had reached an agreement to address corruption allegations before talks broke down.

UN Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Peter Taksoe-Jensen failed to reach an agreement with his tribunal negotiation counterpart, Council Minister Sok An, in three days of talks, the third visit in four months.

A spokesman for the Council of Ministers, Phay Siphan, said that the two sides had reached an agreement in February that would have pleased international donors and addressed allegations of kickbacks and mismanagement that have left the Cambodian side of the court wanting for funding.

“It’s a draft that we agreed on in every angle in order to make administrative work at the Khmer Rouge tribunal succeed,” he said, adding that a dual mechanism agreed to on both sides, where complaints would be handled by respective sides of the hybrid courts, was also agreeable to donors.

However, observers in the US were critical of the so-called “parallel” system, saying it would not satisfy donors who have been reluctant to fund a tribunal that is not up to international standards.

That has put the UN-backed court in a position where the national side could “whither” if donors do not come forward with more money, David Tolbert, a former special adviser to the tribunal, said in Washington recently. “I am not sure what will happen. I think you have to watch how this plays out.”

No matter what happens next, he said, the UN was unlikely to pull out of the tribunal, which has begun its first trial, for prison chief Duch, and has four other former Khmer Rouge leaders in the dock.

The US, a major supporter of tribunal negotiations, has so far pledged $1.8 million, to the UN side of the court only.

Khmer Rouge court corruption issue unresolved

2009-04-10
By SOPHENG CHEANG
Associated Press

Talks between Cambodia and the United Nations on how to deal with allegations of corruption at their jointly run Khmer Rouge genocide tribunal ended without agreement, raising the possibility that donors will stop funding it despite compelling testimony that continued Thursday.

U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Peter Taksoe-Jensen and Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sok An had been meeting for three days to work out a mechanism to monitor corruption at the tribunal, which has begun trying one of five leading Khmer Rouge officials for crimes allegedly committed during the group's time in power in the late 1970s.

Taksoe-Jensen was the first to report the talks' failure when they ended Wednesday night.

Defense attorneys and human rights organizations say allegations that Cambodian staff at the court pay kickbacks to keep their jobs could sink the court's credibility if not resolved.

They also pose a financial threat since most of the foreign aid donors supporting the court refuse to pay staff salaries until the corruption questions are resolved.

Cambodian Cabinet spokesman Phay Siphan confirmed that no progress had been made in the talks.

"We did not sign any agreement with the United Nations," he said Thursday.

Phay Siphan insisted that there was no evidence of any corruption and the allegations were simply an attempt to discredit the tribunal or the government.

The talks broke down even as testimony continued in the U.N.-assisted tribunal's first trial, in which Kaing Guek Eav, 66, the chief of the group's main prison, stands charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes, as well as homicide and torture.

A Cambodian man told the court Thursday he was held captive in a deep communal dirt pit in a Khmer Rouge jungle prison for a year but survived by working for the commander digging graves for other inmates.

Ouch Sorn, 72, the first Cambodian survivor to testify, said when was let out of the communal pit he shared with about 20 men he saw inmates tied naked to poles, beaten, submerged in water during interrogation and executed by young pistol-wielding guards. He saw one woman pushed into a grave while still alive, he said.

Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, listened anxiously to the testimony and told the judges that the testimony was "not really accurate" and that the witness "spoke more than the truth."

Duch insisted that extreme torture was not used at the small prison he ran before being assigned to command Tuol Sleng, the most notorious prison in the regime, where 16,000 people were tortured before execution.

"There were no pliers, no pins and no nails were pulled," he said.

The witness said he never saw Duch execute anyone but saw him beat a woman unconscious, and "then he slapped his butt and he laughed."

Duch is the first senior Khmer Rouge figure to face trial, and the only one to acknowledge responsibility for his actions. Four more are in custody and scheduled to be tried sometime over the next year or two.

An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died under the Khmer Rouge from executions, forced labor, starvation and medical neglect.