Inter Press Service
BANGKOK , May 13 (IPS) - Chandra Nihal Jayasinghe chooses his words carefully to match the difficult task before him. He has just been named as one of the international jurists to preside over the special tribunal in Cambodia to try the surviving members of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime.
''This is actually a new dimension in the judicial endeavours that I have been engaged in,'' Jayasinghe, 62, a Sri Lankan supreme court justice, said to IPS in a telephone interview from his home in a Colombo suburb.
The confirmation of his name by Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni, this week, along with the list of other international and Cambodian judges, marked another milestone in the long and tortuous journey to establish this war crimes tribunal.
Jayasinghe, in fact, is the only jurist from a developing country nominated by the United Nations in its list of 13 international judges and prosecutors to play a role in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), as this special tribunal is officially called. The others are from New Zealand, France, Austria, Japan, Poland, Australia, the Netherlands and the United States.
But the announcement of the judges' names has only added to the many controversies that already dog the ECCC, starting with the generally hostile attitude displayed towards it by the Cambodian government of Prime Minister Hun Sen.
Both local and international human rights groups have fired broadsides at Phnom Penh's choice of Cambodian judges, named this week, to participate in this unprecedented legal exercise. Particularly troubling to Human Rights Watch (HRW), a New York-based rights watchdog, is Ney Thol's name among the 17 Cambodian jurists.
Ney Thol, who is an army general and president of Cambodia's military court, ''has a bad record on human rights,'' Sunai Phasuk, HRW's researcher in Thailand, told IPS. ''In one recent case, he denied the right of the defence to call his own witnesses and to cross-examine the prosecution's witnesses.''
Hun Sen's reaction to such criticism has been predictable. On Thursday, in a speech delivered to a gathering of law students, he attacked those who questioned Cambodia's choice of the local judges for the ECCC. The prime minister ‘'likened his critics to perverted sex-crazed animals, among other things'', states the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission, a regional rights lobby.
‘'This tribunal is very important for the Cambodian people who suffered so much during the Khmer Rouge period,'' Ny Chakrya, a ranking member of the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association, a Phnom Penh- based non-governmental group, told IPS. ‘'They want to see a fair and transparent tribunal.''
And Ny Chakrya is hoping that such will be the case when the next and the most important step of this tribunal, the work of the investigating judges begins.
The current developments come after a 10-year-long bitter debate between the U.N. and Hun Sen's regime about the setting up of this tribunal, which is a unique body unlike the special tribunals established to try the accused for the crimes against humanity committed in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.
The Cambodian tribunal will have a mix of international and local judges, with the latter in the majority, unlike the tribunals for Rwanda and Yugoslavia, which had only international jurists to ensure high standards of justice.
This war crimes court, being set up in a complex that has over 100 offices on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, will have three chambers: the pre-trial chamber, the trial chamber and the supreme court chamber. In addition, there will be a team of investigating judges and prosecutors.
‘'We are expecting the judges to come to Cambodia for a meeting in late June,'' Helen Jarvis, chief of public affairs at the ECCC, said during a telephone interview from Phnom Penh. ‘'Then the co-prosecutors will begin their preliminary examinations to issue preliminary indictments.''
Thereafter, the investigating judges begin work to examine the evidence for the cases ahead, she added. ‘'We are hoping that the trials will begin in early 2007.''
And while the trial will help Cambodian victims of Khmer Rouge brutality to finally get justice, its is also expected to revive political history embarrassing to the U.N., the U.S. China and the regional grouping Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines were leading members at that time. Some of them helped the rise to power of Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge, while others propped him up after his regime was driven out of power by the Vietnamese army.
During the reign of terror by the Maoist Khmer Rouge from 1975-79, close to 1.7 million people were executed or died of forced labour and famines in Cambodia. This South-east Asian country, one of the region's poorest, currently has a population of 11.5 million people.
Pol Pot died in 1998 but other leaders involved in acts of genocide have survived. They include Ta Mok, the one-legged military chief who is known as ‘'The Butcher', and Kaing Khek Lev, or ‘Duch', who headed the grisly Toul Sleng interrogation centre in Phnom Penh, where 14,000 people accused of being ‘'enemies of the state'' died and only 12 inmates survived. Both men are in jail after being accused by a military court, of war crimes and genocide.
Others like Nuon Chea, Pol Pot's deputy, known as ''Brother Number Two'', Khieu Samphan, former head of state during the Khmer Rouge years, and Leng Sary, the former foreign minister, are enjoying a free life following an amnesty from Hun Sen.
The Prime Minister, himself, carries the taint of that brutal regime. He was a member of the Khmer Rouge till he defected to join forces with Vietnamese troops that drove Pol Pot out of power in 1979. (END/2006)
''This is actually a new dimension in the judicial endeavours that I have been engaged in,'' Jayasinghe, 62, a Sri Lankan supreme court justice, said to IPS in a telephone interview from his home in a Colombo suburb.
The confirmation of his name by Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni, this week, along with the list of other international and Cambodian judges, marked another milestone in the long and tortuous journey to establish this war crimes tribunal.
Jayasinghe, in fact, is the only jurist from a developing country nominated by the United Nations in its list of 13 international judges and prosecutors to play a role in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), as this special tribunal is officially called. The others are from New Zealand, France, Austria, Japan, Poland, Australia, the Netherlands and the United States.
But the announcement of the judges' names has only added to the many controversies that already dog the ECCC, starting with the generally hostile attitude displayed towards it by the Cambodian government of Prime Minister Hun Sen.
Both local and international human rights groups have fired broadsides at Phnom Penh's choice of Cambodian judges, named this week, to participate in this unprecedented legal exercise. Particularly troubling to Human Rights Watch (HRW), a New York-based rights watchdog, is Ney Thol's name among the 17 Cambodian jurists.
Ney Thol, who is an army general and president of Cambodia's military court, ''has a bad record on human rights,'' Sunai Phasuk, HRW's researcher in Thailand, told IPS. ''In one recent case, he denied the right of the defence to call his own witnesses and to cross-examine the prosecution's witnesses.''
Hun Sen's reaction to such criticism has been predictable. On Thursday, in a speech delivered to a gathering of law students, he attacked those who questioned Cambodia's choice of the local judges for the ECCC. The prime minister ‘'likened his critics to perverted sex-crazed animals, among other things'', states the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission, a regional rights lobby.
‘'This tribunal is very important for the Cambodian people who suffered so much during the Khmer Rouge period,'' Ny Chakrya, a ranking member of the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association, a Phnom Penh- based non-governmental group, told IPS. ‘'They want to see a fair and transparent tribunal.''
And Ny Chakrya is hoping that such will be the case when the next and the most important step of this tribunal, the work of the investigating judges begins.
The current developments come after a 10-year-long bitter debate between the U.N. and Hun Sen's regime about the setting up of this tribunal, which is a unique body unlike the special tribunals established to try the accused for the crimes against humanity committed in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.
The Cambodian tribunal will have a mix of international and local judges, with the latter in the majority, unlike the tribunals for Rwanda and Yugoslavia, which had only international jurists to ensure high standards of justice.
This war crimes court, being set up in a complex that has over 100 offices on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, will have three chambers: the pre-trial chamber, the trial chamber and the supreme court chamber. In addition, there will be a team of investigating judges and prosecutors.
‘'We are expecting the judges to come to Cambodia for a meeting in late June,'' Helen Jarvis, chief of public affairs at the ECCC, said during a telephone interview from Phnom Penh. ‘'Then the co-prosecutors will begin their preliminary examinations to issue preliminary indictments.''
Thereafter, the investigating judges begin work to examine the evidence for the cases ahead, she added. ‘'We are hoping that the trials will begin in early 2007.''
And while the trial will help Cambodian victims of Khmer Rouge brutality to finally get justice, its is also expected to revive political history embarrassing to the U.N., the U.S. China and the regional grouping Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines were leading members at that time. Some of them helped the rise to power of Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge, while others propped him up after his regime was driven out of power by the Vietnamese army.
During the reign of terror by the Maoist Khmer Rouge from 1975-79, close to 1.7 million people were executed or died of forced labour and famines in Cambodia. This South-east Asian country, one of the region's poorest, currently has a population of 11.5 million people.
Pol Pot died in 1998 but other leaders involved in acts of genocide have survived. They include Ta Mok, the one-legged military chief who is known as ‘'The Butcher', and Kaing Khek Lev, or ‘Duch', who headed the grisly Toul Sleng interrogation centre in Phnom Penh, where 14,000 people accused of being ‘'enemies of the state'' died and only 12 inmates survived. Both men are in jail after being accused by a military court, of war crimes and genocide.
Others like Nuon Chea, Pol Pot's deputy, known as ''Brother Number Two'', Khieu Samphan, former head of state during the Khmer Rouge years, and Leng Sary, the former foreign minister, are enjoying a free life following an amnesty from Hun Sen.
The Prime Minister, himself, carries the taint of that brutal regime. He was a member of the Khmer Rouge till he defected to join forces with Vietnamese troops that drove Pol Pot out of power in 1979. (END/2006)
7 comments:
Up to 1969, the KR were nothing more than a handfull disgruntledleftists, hiding in the forests or in the mountains. The menu-bombings and other air attacks gave the KR an unexpected momentum. The people that joined were not all communists, they turned to the KR because that was the only group fighting the US attackers. Rather than being communists, they were nationalists fighting for their country against the attackers.
After the KR defeated the archi-corrupt Lon Nol regime, they started their terror regime. When at a certain moment, the began a purification of their ranks, eliminating those who joined for the wrong reason, a number of people fled to Vietnam, because that was the only country that did not support the KR and with Vietnamese support defeated the KR regime. For 10 years after this defeat, the UN, US, Thjailand and China continued to support the KR, thus prolonging the civil war in Cambodia.
Your accusations against Hun Sen and the CPP overlook these historical facts and oversimplify the course of the events. This can be bad faith from your side or just a matter of listening to the wrong propaganda.
If you want to accuse these people from complicity in the crimes of the KR, then you must be able to give facts that support your accusations. If you have no such facts, please refrain from continuing to spread these unfounded rumours and gossip.
To my knowledge, there are no historical facts supporting your claim. If there are, I would be grateful to learn them.
Still, don't you think its more than a bit hypocritical of Hun Sen to say that the UN lacks legitimacy to be part of the tribunal because it recongized the KR, when he was actually a member of the KR????
To reply to the first comment, you must be a CPP member. Sound like you support the current government. First of all, whose is at fault for Cambodia country??? As we all know, whose is side with the communist at that time? Sihanouk sides with the Chinese and Vietnamese. He supports these countries until now. Is he a communist? Of course. If he sided with American, he didn't lose his palace. The French also made Cambodia into Communist. How many Cambodian students went to French for education and came backe to be KR members? The bottom line is Sihanouk is the one that made Khmer people suffered while he enjoys his life abroad. Whoever are in charge of the country up to now are all responsible for Khmer people death.
Look at history and find the fact.
Where is the king father now, North Korea....
Don't be blind and think about it.
Come on Hun Sen.
First the viet Namese then Call Viet Cong ( All The Viet are bad)cone into Cambodia. poeple from the border run to Phnom Penh in 1970 that start the up rising in Cambodia and Lon Nol take over.
You stupid! Hun Sen Group go to Viet Name befor American and Thai support the resistant. How can you go to get away from one communist goverment to anothe communist country, Hun Sen should go to Free Country, It smell bad right here. for Hun Sen to run to communist Viet Name , he must be the insider, may be he the black hand of the Viet Namese. Since the Viet Namese try to occupied Cambodia that wy the world (UN)have to come to help people of cambodia. The Khmer rouge just happen allong the way, and the world have to take care of them one by one you stupid! That why we call for Khmer rouge court, and all the Khmer rouge head runto stay with Hun Sen, you Viet Namese killer!
Viet Name, Vith Minh, Viet Cong, or aa Katop Youn"
1)Viet shit Khmer Viet Minh (Soeung Ngock Minh)1940 to 50.
We kick their heads back to their mother worm.
2)1975 Viet Shit Khmerrouge (Pol Pot Eang Sary)killing khmer. Afraid of the wold know their evil act. start war that kill no evil but Cambodian.
3) than the Viet shit out Hun Sen to protect them (Viet Name, China, and Khmerrouge)
Don't you know a kwack uou use to work foe Pol Pot and you call a Eang sary Uncle?
Now do I have fact? but you dump to learn stupid Viet Namese head
what is the out come of the trail, We cambodian know who those killers in our hearth.
Yep...we all knew the killers are...eeyore..and they're all on top of you!! eeyore!!
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