Nuon Chea: Only the croc’s body is brought to trial, not its head and tail

Nuon Chea, also known as Brother No. 2, the former deputy leader of the Khmer Rouge regime, attends the second day of a trial of the former Khmer Rouge top leaders in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Tuesday. (Mark Peters/Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia/AP)

22 Nov 2011
By S. Botum
Free Press Magazine Online
Translated from Khmer by Soy
Click here to read the original article in Khmer

Without any fear, Brother No. 2 sternly attacked the KR Tribunal (KRT), saying that the KRT only brought in the body of the crocodile to try, but it left out the head and the tail of the croc, i.e. the KRT only arrested his group and brought them to try without paying any attention to the genesis of the KR regime itself.

Starting with his greetings to the monks, to the nationalists from all eras who lost their lives to defend and preserve Cambodian land up until now, Nuon Chea, the former president of the National Assembly of the Democratic Kampuchea (DK) regime, clearly stated that: “If my health allows me, I will try to provide clarifications to a just history, not a political history. I think that this tribunal is not fair to me ever since from the beginning because it only brings to trial some of the problems. [What] I am saying is that, for an entire crocodile, it [KRT] only talks about the [croc’s] body, but it left out the head and the tail which play an important role in the [croc’s] daily activities, or to say it differently: the root [cause] and the consequence … this court will not reflect about them.”

At the same time, 86-year-old Brother No. 2 rejected all the crime against humanity accusations leveled by the prosecutors [against him], saying that it is not true and, in turns, he blamed the responsibility to foreigners, in particular, he stressed that Vietnam [is to be blamed].

Khmer Rouge tribunal problems, again

Chea Lean (Xok An's niece), Bandit You Bunleng and Herr Doktor Siegfried Blunk

21 June 2011
By Milton Osborne
The Interpreter

Only dedicated followers of events associated with the Khmer Rouge Tribunal (officially the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, ECCC) will have kept track of the maneuverings of the past six months in relation to the possibility of bringing additional defendants before the court.

As matters stand, there has been the one conviction, of Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, in Case 1, while four defendants are due to face court later this month in Case 2: Khieu Samphan, the former Khmer Rouge head of state, aged 79; Nuon Chea, the KR chief ideologue, aged 85 (pictured); Ieng Sary, the KR foreign minister, aged 85; and Ieng Tirith, Sary's wife and former minister for social affairs, aged 79. (The court has been in existence since July 2006, and Case 2 is expected to run for many months, if not years.)

As long ago as 2009, Prime Minister Hun Sen made it abundantly clear that he would not permit the tribunal to operate beyond Case 2. But the international co-prosecutor, Andrew Cayley, is pressing for additional defendants to be examined, while his opposite Cambodian number, Chea Leang, has opposed this suggestion — she is a niece of the Cambodian deputy prime minister, Sok An.

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: Two Clowns (aka Clowns-In-Justice robe, i.e. CIJs)

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Ban Ki-moon sides with the Clown-in-Justice robes?

"The Co-Investigating Judges are not under an obligation to provide reasons for their actions at this stage of the investigation in Case 003"

http://www.box.net/shared/olyejiztzp0n5ipv8n3r

Disorder in the court

Bandit You Bunleng and Herr Doktor Siegfried Blunk

Monday, 13 June 2011
James O'Toole
The Phnom Penh Post

“The concern is very much widespread, and I would think that it all seems to revolve around this one person, Judge Blunk – nobody seems to understand what’s driving him,” the source said.

The investigating judges at the Khmer Rouge tribunal have acknowledged that staffers have left their office amid discontent over their handling of the court’s controversial third case.

The admission follows the abrupt closure of the Case 003 investigation in April, and confirms rumours of discord within the Office of the Co-Investigating Judges. The judges closed their Case 003 probe despite the fact that they had yet to examine a number of alleged crime sites in the case, or even to question the suspects, fuelling allegations that they had deliberately scuttled their investigation under pressure from the Cambodian government.

In a statement released late yesterday afternoon, co-investigating judges Siegfried Blunk of Germany and You Bunleng of Cambodia acknowledged frustrations among former investigating staff, though they remained defiant in asserting their responsibility over the case.

“In view of questions by the media regarding recent attempts by certain OCIJ staff members who have obtained new jobs outside of OCIJ to portray their departure as ‘resignation’ in protest over the CIJs’ decision to close investigations in Case 003, the CIJs emphasize that they welcome the departure of all staff members who ignore the sole responsibility of the CIJs in this issue,” the judges said.

UN staff quit war crimes court as fallout continues over third case [-Ban Ki-moon and the UN in collusion with the dismissal of Case 003?]

Bandit You Bunleng and Herr Doktor Siegfried Blunk

Jun 13, 2011
DPA

Phnom Penh - At least five United Nations staff in the investigations office at the UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal have quit their posts since April, national media reported Monday.

The Cambodia Daily newspaper said four full-time staff and one consultant had left following disagreements over the April 29 decision by the investigating judges to close the tribunal's highly politicized third case without allegedly properly investigating the charges.

On Sunday, the Office of Co-Investigating Judges (OCIJ) - Germany's Siegfried Blunk and Cambodia's You Bunleng - released a statement saying they 'welcomed' the departure of their staff since they had questioned the judges' authority to decide on the case.

'In view of questions by the media regarding recent attempts by certain OCIJ staff members who have obtained new jobs outside of OCIJ, to portray their departure as 'resignation' in protest over the CIJs' decision to close investigations in Case 003, the CIJs emphasize that they welcome the departure of all staff members who ignore the sole responsibility of the CIJs in this issue (...)'

The Cambodia Daily quoted the May 5 resignation email from consultant Stephen Heder, an expert on the Khmer Rouge movement.

Injustice, Deceit at Two-hundred-million-dollar Court for KR Victims

Injustice, Deceit at Two-hundred-million-dollar Court for KR Victims

Theary Seng with her four brothers and their mother in Phnom Penh, most likely in 1974.  In early 1978 for a period of 5-6 months, all six of them and their paternal grandfather were imprisoned in Wat Tlork Security Center and later transferred to Boeung Rai Security Center where the Khmer Rouge killed their mother Seng Chan Eat.

Boeung Rai Security Center where the Khmer Rouge imprisoned Theary Seng and her family and killed her mother, Seng Chan Eat.  Among the 30,000 skulls, these are the only ones remaining:  over the years, the villagers have been taking the skulls at liberty to grind them into traditional medicine.  The bones are still in the mass graves in and around the pagoda and the nearby prison.  This government has done absolutely nothing to preserve the other 200 security centers around the country, besides Tuol Sleng which came into being as result of January 1979 politics.   Theary Seng, as the only civil party accepted in Case 002 for the Boeung Rai Security Center, is still awaiting the response of the Co-Prosecutors to be on their witness list. (Photo: Theary Seng, 4 Sept. 2010).

Monday, May 09, 2011
Letter to The Phnom Penh Post

On Sunday, May 8, the Americans celebrated Mother’s Day.  We, Cambodians, can join them in honoring our mothers and grandmothers by demanding greater, more dignified justice from the Khmer Rouge Tribunal.
 

The Khmer Rouge created over 1,200,000 orphans of whom I am one of them when they extinguished 1,700,000 lives including those of my father and mother.  The last words of my mother—My daughter, go back to sleep—continue to haunt me, as she lulled me in her arms the night of her violent death in Boeung Rai Security Center whose mass graves contained 30,000 skulls.  

My parents and those of the 1,200,000 other orphans’ were flesh and blood—with a name, a history, a family—and not some statistics or legal theories to be conveniently disposed of—again!—by the Tribunal. 

We honor them by demanding justice.  Whatever justice may be—legal, social, restorative, etc.—it must include TRUTH.  TRUTH IS A PRE-CONDITION OF JUSTICE.  Truth involves who speaks and who gets heard.  In extinguishing Cases 003 and 004, the Tribunal extinguishes truth; it extinguishes justice; it extinguishes the voices of victims—those who died and those who survived—and our right to REPARATIONS.

We have been crudely conditioned to think of reparations mainly in monetary terms, which factor but insignificantly to what we desire of truth via reparations.  It is useful to think of reparations with these 6 Rs: 

1.  RECOGNITION.  There must be public recognition of the crimes, of the perpetrators and of the suffering of the victims.  This recognition must include obligations of the State.  Not only has the Tribunal been negligent in recognizing the suffering of the victims, it is being deceitful about its dealings of Cases 003/004.

2.     RIGHT TO REMEDY.  This includes rights of participation, of design, of citizenship.

3.     REPAIR.  Even if symbolic.

4.     REFORM.  Let’s start with the judiciary!  

5.   REAL AND REALISTIC.  The reparations offered must be tangible and practical, e.g. provincial learning centers and memorials; the physical assets of the Tribunal to furnish these learning centers and memorials.

6.     RECONCILIATION.  It is not a moment but a process; it is not a principle but a strategy.  What is happening now with regards to Cases 003/004 works against reconciliation as it works against truth-seeking.

The Tribunal (including the UN) is engaging in great deceit.  It thinks that truth is inconvenient, justice is inconvenient.  Well, so are 1,200,000 orphans living without our parents for the last 35 years.

But let me conclude not with these sordid facts but with the inspiration from the reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to raise all of us to higher grounds from the dirt of the Tribunal: “Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.”

-  Theary C. Seng, president of CIVICUS: Center for Cambodian Civic Education; president of Association of Khmer Rouge Victims of which the Civil Parties of Orphans Class is a subgroup.

Postcard from Stung Meanchey

Some Remain Skeptical of Tribunal Corruption [resolution]

By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
02 March 2009

Amid heavy allegations of corruption that are risking further funding for the joint UN-Cambodia Khmer Rouge tribunal, officials have now established a mechanism to tackle future charges. But in the eyes of some US observers, this procedure remains ambiguous and inadequate.

The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia have struggled under allegations that staff paid kickbacks to work at the tribunal, as well as mismanagement, in what worried observers claim could jeopardize justice for the victims of the Khmer Rouge.

It took two meetings between the UN’s assistant secretary-general for legal affairs, Peter Taksoe-Jensen, and Deputy Prime Minister Sok An, who is in charge of the tribunal, to establish two parallel complaints procedures—one international, one local—for handling further allegations. The UN and Cambodia will meet again before March 23 to finalize the agreement, officials said.

However, John Hall, an associate professor at Chapman University of Law, in Orange, Calif., said he was not encouraged by the new mechanism.

“The choice before the tribunal is quite clear: to proceed with the trials without adequately addressing the allegations of corruption and political influence risks tainting the entire process and casting a shadow over the trials,” he told VOA Khmer in a telephone interview. “The people of Cambodia deserve more; they deserve a court operating to international standards.”

Hall said it was “hard to say” say whether the new procedures would help the tribunal gain credibility.

“This may be the best that the UN is able to negotiate with the Cambodian government at this point, and donors will have to decide whether this new mechanism, however flawed, is adequate enough to justify greater funding,” Hall said. “I think the donors are eager for the tribunal to proceed, so will be looking for a justification to fund the trials. Should they, without a better complaints mechanism? Probably not.”

Although Cambodian officials at the Extraordinary Chambers have denied corruption exists and say the Cambodian side will not fall short on funding, donors have proven hesitant to forward money for a process perceived as flawed.

Hall made four suggestions for improving the tribunal’s credibility.

“First, limit opportunities for political interference in judicial decision-making, specifically, be open to the possibility of investigating additional suspects, not limit the number to the five defendants already named,” he said. “Second, create an independent investigation mechanism for accusations of wrongdoing. Third, ensure that human rights monitors, NGOs and reporters will be allowed to keep their whistleblower sources confidential. And fourth, ensure adequate whistleblower protections for those reporting wrongdoing.”

Only five aging leaders of the regime are so far in custody—Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirith and Kaing Kev Iev—30 years after the fall of the regime.

Peter Maguire, author of "Facing Death in Cambodia," who has taught law and the theory of war, told VOA Khmer by telephone that the courts are operating under a shadow of doubt, thanks to a lack of transparency and basic budgetary accountability.

Meanwhile, continued delays could lead to the deaths of regime leaders before they go through trial, much like Slobodan Milosevic, the ex-Serbian leader who died in detention of a war crimes tribunal in 2006.

“If this court doesn’t move with a bit more urgency, they run the risk of becoming the Milosevic case No. 2,” Maguire said. “What good is procedural perfection if the defendants don’t live to see their trials? Perhaps that’s [Prime Minister] Hun Sen’s objective. Only time will tell.”

Mounting costs are hampering the credibility of the courts, along with unanswered questions over corruption, he said.

“Those in charge of the Khmer Rouge tribunal have already blown giant holes in their budget, yet expect the international community to keep writing checks,” Maguire said. “Releasing the UN’s report on corruption would be a good start [to gaining credibility], but it is already too late. Corruption, nepotism and graft are common in Cambodia. Why should the Khmer Rouge tribunal be any different?”

Tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath declined to comment on the corruption issue, referring questions to Phay Siphan, spokesman for the Council of Ministers, headed by Sok An.

“There have been four or five times for national and international inspection, but no evidence of corruption found,” Phay Siphan said. He also said the new procedures agreed on late last month will not impact the process of the courts, and he denied political interference in court proceedings.

The senior UN legal affairs official, Taksoe-Jensen, speaking by phone from New York following negotiations in Cambodia over corruption reporting, said there had been some misconception and criticism over the new mechanism, but he said the goal was to address corruption and keep the process moving forward.

The “bottom line,” he told VOA Khmer, was “to create a mechanism whereby all the members of the staff can put forward the complaint about corruption” without fear of retaliation from the court. “It’s up to the donors to decide when the situation has been established whereby funds can be sent to the court again.”

Graft could taint trials at the KRT: defense lawyers

Thursday, 25 September 2008
Written by Georgia Wilkins
The Phnom Penh Post

Nuon Chea's defence team requests details of graft claims, saying their client's right to fair trial may be in jeopardy

NUON Chea's defence team at the Khmer Rouge tribunal has demanded the disclosure of any details of court corruption allegations, saying that a graft scandal could threaten their defendant's right to a fair trial.

"We note the recent and well-publicised allegations of corruption at the ECCC and the fact that the Cambodian government has now received the United Nations assessment of the matter," the lawyers, Son Arun, Michiel Pestman and Victor Koppe, wrote in a September 19 letter to court administrators.

"Without speculating as to the veracity of the allegations, we simply wish to raise a general issue: Corruption within the tribunal may adversely affect the accused persons' right to a fair trial," the lawyers said.

The letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Post Wednesday, was addressed to ECCC administration director Sean Visoth and deputy director Knut Rosandhaug.

Even judges concerned

It cited a statement made in August by tribunal Judge Sylvia Cartwright, saying she spoke on behalf of all the judges when she said corruption was a "major issue" at the court.

"Because we have not been informed of either the extent of the allegations or the existence and/or appropriateness of the tribunal's official response to them, we are unable to properly assess the gravity of the situation from the perspective of our client's fair-trial rights," the lawyers said.

The letter also requests details of the efforts made by the UN secretary general's special representative, David Tolbert, to address the issue of corruption and "any resulting or intended ECCC remedial action" towards the issue of graft.

"We regard such information as important to ensuring the essential preconditions of a fair trial," the lawyers said.

Court spokeswoman and newly appointed ethics monitor Helen Jarvis declined to comment on the letter, but said "the amount of time the media has spent on this issue [of corruption] as opposed to the progression of the court is getting out of proportion".

She also said that she believed the letter had not yet been received by its intended recipients.

Allegations that Cambodian staff were kicking back a portion of their salary to their bosses were reviewed by a UN oversight body in New York. Court officials have yet to comment on the results, despite a government statement saying that they have seen the review.

A circular sent in August by Deputy Prime Minister Sok An indicated future graft complaints will remain confidential until reviewed by a government-led task force.