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Khmer
Rouge Tribunal: Will Justice be Served 30 Years After?
2007 Journalism Fellowship
Human Rights Versus a Culture of Impunity in Southeast Asia
Jakarta, Indonesia
May 1st 2007
By Dara P. Vanthan
Ladies and Gentlemen:
I am honored to be here and share with you my experience in
combating impunity in my country, the Kingdom of Cambodia.
Last month, 32 years ago the Khmer Rouge marched into Phnom Penh,
the capital city of Cambodia, victorious over the U.S. backed Lon
Nol regime. A few hours later, on April 17, 1975 the Khmer Rouge
started to evacuate people forcibly from the cities and towns to
live in the countryside and implement their agrarian policy. People
who refused to leave got killed suddenly. Months later, the Khmer
Rouge formed a government officially called Democratic Kampuchea
under the leadership of senior communist leaders such as Pol Pot,
Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary and Khieu Samphan. After 3 years 8 months and
20 days, the regime caused the death of an estimated 2 million
people, a quarter of the population, due to starvation, over work,
torture and execution. The Khmer Rouge was ousted from power in
earlier 1979. The survivors are mostly widows and children.
However, Cambodians weren’t able to find peace and justice after the
fall of the Khmer Rouge or even after the 1993 U.N sponsored
election. The Khmer Rouge continued to wage a guerilla war until the
mid 1990s, terrorizing the countryside and preventing the country
from moving forward. Today, senior Khmer Rouge leaders walk freely
in the country and deny all the crimes that happened during their
rule. This sort of attitude toward victims is viewed as a mockery
that is unacceptable in the society as well as in the international
community.
In the meantime, a decade ago, the Documentation Center of Cambodia
(DC-Cam) was established as part of the Cambodia Genocide Program of
Yale University, which was funded by the U.S State Department, in
order to collect, catalogue research and investigate the most
notorious crimes committed under the leadership of the senior Khmer
Rouge leaders. In January 1997, DC-Cam gained independence but still
continued the same work.
Furthermore, DC-Cam has published what we have collected and
researched, generated the debate about the memory of the Khmer Rouge
history and justice in the hope that one day the notorious Khmer
Rouge leaders will be brought to trial. In lien of our goals, we
have provided training to Cambodian officials, professors, lawyers
and journalists on Khmer Rouge regime, genocide, crimes against
humanity, war crimes and other related crimes; and international and
customary laws, international human rights and humanitarian laws.
Fortunately, in June 1997, an important movement that Cambodian
victims have awaited for finally came to the stage. With an official
letter from Royal Government of Cambodia requesting assistance from
the United Nations to bring to trial Khmer Rouge leaders for crimes
committed during the period of Democratic Kampuchea between 1975 and
1979, a “mixed” tribunal was set up after over 8 years of
negotiation between Government of Cambodia and the United Nations on
issues such as how the tribunal should be operated, who should be
brought to trial, and other matters.
In June 2003 Cambodia and UN reached an agreement which is called
“the Agreement between the United Nations and the Royal Government
of Cambodia Concerning the Prosecution under Cambodian Law of Crimes
Committed during the Period of Democratic Kampuchea.” The tribunal
is officially called “the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of
Cambodia for the Prosecution of Crimes Committed during the Period
of Democratic Kampuchea (ECCC) or the Court.”
The tribunal has two Chambers: The Trial Chamber with 3 Cambodian
and 2 international judges; and the Supreme Court Chamber with 4
Cambodian and 3 internationals judges. The Court’s jurisdictions
deal with domestic crimes such as homicide, torture, and religious
persecution; and international crimes of Genocide, Crimes against
Humanity, War Crimes, Destruction of Cultural Property, and Crimes
against Diplomatically Protected Person. As for whom the court has
power to prosecute, the Law on the establishment of the
extraordinary chambers in the courts of Cambodia (ECCC Law) covers
only two categories of persons: senior Khmer Rouge leaders of
Democratic Kampuchea and those most responsible for the crimes
committed between 17 April 1975 and 6 January 1979.
According to the ECCC, the first trial is expected to take place
late this year. However, the Internal Rules of the ECCC that governs
the procedure and other issues which parties are bound by, has not
been adopted yet because of the current issue of international
lawyers’ participation in ECCC, and the Cambodian Bar Association
specifications for the participation of these international lawyers.
A day before my departure, I was told that the problem will be
solved and that the Internal Rules will be adopted in the next
plenary cession very soon.
So far, many NGOs have been helping the ECCC in terms of outreach
activity in which the victims were informed and explained about the
progress of the ECCC. DC-Cam has also conducted extensive outreach
work and has been the leader in terms of providing evidentiary
documents to ECCC. Since the Co-Prosecutors launched their
investigations in July last year, DC-Cam has provided upon their
request hundreds of thousand of pages of evidentiary documents in
the form of original, photocopy, scanned and microfilm. Moreover,
thousands of interview transcripts of potential witnesses, hundreds
of documentary films, photos and DC-Cam’s publications were also
provided to ECCC free of charge. DC-Cam is also providing these
kinds of documents to the Investigating Judges and Defense Support
Section upon their request, also free of charge.
Finally, what I would like to say is that the majority of
Cambodians, after nearly 28 years have passed, still want to see the
Khmer Rouge leaders brought to trial. This will not be enough for
the victims however. One more thing is needed: the chance to
reconcile victims and former Khmer Rouge cadres in addition to Khmer
Rouge reconciling themselves. Why is this so? Because there are
still victims and perpetrators living side by side in the same
villages, where they maintain an uneasy truce.
Thank you for your attention. |
