Justice
Denied
The
U.N.-sponsored tribunal established to prosecute those responsible for the
Khmer Rouge’s crimes is in shambles, and the United Nations doesn’t have a clue
how to fix it.
BY DOUGLAS
GILLISON | NOVEMBER 23, 2011
Due to the UN’s failure to act, ECCC is in shamble, and the UN still has no clue how to fix it
NEW
YORK/PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — In the evening hours of a sweltering Friday at the
end of April, a team of U.N. lawyers in Cambodia alerted Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to a crisis at a tribunal built to serve the millions of
victims of the Khmer Rouge, arguably the most important court functioning in
the world today.
That day, the
lawyers' bosses -- a judge from Germany and a prominent Cambodian appeals judge
-- had shut down an investigation of two Khmer Rouge military
leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity before it had even really
begun.
"It is
our duty to notify you that we consider, as a matter of law and procedure, that
the co-investigating judges did not conduct a genuine, impartial or effective
investigation and as such did not discharge their legal obligation to ascertain
the truth," the lawyers wrote. "In our view, the decision to close
the investigation at this stage breaches international standards of justice,
fairness and due process of law."
The families
of countless victims in the case would be denied justice. The leaders of Pol
Pot's navy and air force -- accused among other crimes of eliminating more than
4,500 of their subordinates -- would never be held to account for their alleged
involvement in torture, executions and forced labor.
And this
would undoubtedly appear to have been done under
pressure from the Cambodian government, which had publicly announced that the case, as well as another larger investigation, was not "allowed."
The team told
Ban that it was writing "to seek your guidance on how to proceed in these
circumstances."
In
the seven months since the letter was written, the United Nations has not
offered a substantive answer to these problems. Indeed, as
matters continued to worsen, officials at headquarters in New York determined
that their hands were tied, leaving matters to deteriorate to
the point of scandal.
It wasn't supposed
to be this way. In 2006, the United Nations and the Cambodian government
jointly established the court, known officially as the Extraordinary Chambers
in the Courts of Cambodia, to deliver justice for the crimes of a regime that
had left up to 2.2 million Cambodians dead between 1975 and 1979 and devastated
an entire nation. The trials were to consider the greatest number of victims of
any since Nuremberg, a half century earlier.
Opening
arguments began on Nov. 21 in the court's second case, a landmark of
international law involving senior leaders of the former regime charged with
crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes for their alleged roles in a
revolution that caused mass movements of millions of people at gunpoint,
enslaving virtually all Cambodians in a regime of forced labor, imprisonment,
hunger, torture and execution. Only three accused are likely to stand trial, as
trial judges declared that a fourth defendant, former Social Action Minister
Ieng Thirith, is mentally unfit (though prosecutors are appealing).
The leader of
Pol Pot's secret police, Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, was convicted
in 2010 in the court's first case of crimes against humanity, for
overseeing the brutal extermination of an estimated 14,000 people.
But as the
court came to two other politically sensitive cases at the end of
last year, Dr. Siegfried Blunk,
hand-picked by the United Nations to serve as one of two co-investigating
judges, began a crude attempt to whitewash five suspects accused in the deaths
of hundreds of thousands of people, including immediately telling his staff to
seek new employment and that their office would likely close by the end of
2011.
In addition
to
the case closed in April, Blunk all but publicly announced his
intention to dismiss a fourth case in which prosecutors said three
mid-level officials were tasked with a wave of criminality that swept Cambodia
in 1977 as the regime began to falter, resulting in forced labor, genocide and
an estimated number of executions that added up to between 250,000 and 300,000
people killed.
Blunk
remained equally opposed to a thorough investigation in this case, too, confining
his inquiries to a handful of witnesses per suspect, whom he interviewed
personally instead of delegating this task to investigators, and taking the
unusual step of using the word "insolent" twice in a confidential
order refusing a request from U.N. prosecutors to put evidence on file. One
witness interviewed by Blunk described conditions that appeared less than
likely to elicit candor -- he was conspicuously summoned to testify in front of
local government officials and denied knowledge of any crimes, before changing
his story when private researchers visited him later.
Blunk
resigned in October
this year amid calls for an investigation into allegations of his own
misconduct. Judge Laurent
Kasper-Ansermet, a Swiss financial crimes investigator, is now preparing
to take office as his replacement. But he inherits an office now
deserted by its legal staff and a situation in which all sides have dug in
their heels for more than three years.
Court
officials and observers say that, rather than strengthening the rule of law and
holding the Khmer Rouge accountable for their crimes, the U.N.-sponsored effort
has risked reinforcing the notion that powerful people can dictate the law.
"This is the worst possible example that we can set here. If you have the
right judge, you can secure impunity," a U.N. staff member who worked
under Blunk told me. "We came here to do exactly the opposite."
"No one
believed what we were saying ... until the whole thing blew up."
===
===
Khmer Rouge
War Crime Tribunal Judge, Siegfried Blunk, Resigns
SOPHENG
CHEANG 10/10/11 01:03 PM
PHNOM PENH,
Cambodia — A German judge responsible for indictments of Khmer Rouge war crimes
suspects at Cambodia's U.N.-backed tribunal has resigned, alleging government
interference in the investigation of new cases.
Judge
Siegfried Blunk had come under fire from rights groups for failing to fully
investigate new suspects for the court
Last week, Human Rights Watch called for Blunk to resign
for failing to conduct genuine and impartial investigations into suspects
beyond one convicted last year and four others set for trial.
Prime
Minister Hun Sen has also openly opposed expanding the trials with additional
indictments of former Khmer Rouge figures, some of whom have become his
political allies
Cambodian
Information Minister Khieu Kanharith denied that the government was interfering
with the court.
U.N. deputy
spokesman Eduardo del Buey said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had received
Blunk's resignation "and thanked him for his service."
Human
Rights Watch also called last week for a second judge responsible for indictments on the court
– You Bunleng of Cambodia – to step down.
Controversy
over the two co-investigating judges' actions began in April, when
they announced that they had concluded their investigation into what is known
as Case 003. The judges' move also
triggered criticism from several of the tribunal's U.N.-appointed legal staff,
who complained in a private letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that
the move represented a failure of justice.
The tribunal,
which has faced lengthy delays throughout its history, reached its first
verdict last year, sentencing former prison chief Kaing Guek Eav to 35 years in
prison for war crimes, crimes against humanity and other offenses.
the
list of suspects
Still facing
trial are Khieu Samphan, the former Khmer Rouge head of state; Nuon Chea, who
was leader Pol Pot's No. 2 and the group's chief ideologist; former Foreign
Minister Ieng Sary; and his wife, Ieng Thirith, who was minister for social
affairs. All are in their 70s or 80s.
Associated
Press writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
