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Article
on the Victim Participation Project
Farina So
& Sarah Thomas
Introduction to Victim Participation
The
Internal Rules of the Extraordinary Chambers (the “ECCC”) provide
for the participation of survivors of the Democratic Kampuchea
regime in the upcoming tribunal proceedings. This provision for
victim participation is to be applauded, as it allows survivors to
play an active role in the process of achieving justice through
assisting the ECCC in its task of trying senior leaders and those
most responsible. This opportunity will, hopefully, provide
survivors with peace of mind and help the healing process continuing
in Cambodia to this day. Elaborating on the Internal Rules, on
October 5th, 2007, the ECCC issued a Practice Direction
on Victim Participation. It provides for the participation of
survivors in three ways: (1) by volunteering to be witnesses
(namely, by giving live testimony about crimes suffered or
witnessed); (2) by filing complaints (namely, by providing the
Co-Prosecutors with factual information to aid prosecution); and (3)
by applying to become civil parties (namely, by applying to join the
proceedings as a party and to claim collective or moral
reparations).
The
Practice Direction contains a Victim Information Form (the “Form”)
for survivors to submit to the ECCC Victims Unit. Using this Form,
survivors may provide inter alia their personal information,
details of crimes suffered or witnessed, and their preferred mode of
participation in the proceedings (as a witness, complainant and/or
civil party). In addition, survivors applying to be civil parties
may propose their preferred form of “collective and moral”
reparations. Appropriate proposals include creating a national
memorial, establishing a mental health clinic for victims, or
printing commemorative banknotes. The Practice Direction requires
the Co-Prosecutors to contact every complainant informing them of
their decision whether to accept or reject the complaint within 60
days of registration. There is, however, no clear requirement that
the Victims Unit or the Co-Investigating Judges contact voluntary
witnesses and/or civil party applicants. The ECCC Rules and
Procedure Committee should consider an amendment to the Internal
Rules to rectify this discrepancy.
The
Center considers it very important that survivors assist the ECCC in
its task of trying senior Khmer Rouge leaders by completing the
Form. Furthermore, by contributing to the ECCC’s archives,
survivors can participate in the creation of a vast historical
record of the crimes of the Democratic Kampuchea regime. This will
help improve understanding of the period and create a valuable
resource for future generations. Survivors should be aware that the
ECCC will select only a small number of survivors to participate in
the trials. If you choose to complete the Form and the ECCC fails
to select you, this does not mean that it does not believe or value
the information that you have provided. The ECCC has limited
resources, a short time frame, and focuses on senior Khmer Rouge
leaders and those most responsible for crimes from 1975-1979.
Therefore, the ECCC may not have the resources or the power to
charge the person responsible for the crime against you or may only
charge the responsible person in relation to crimes committed
elsewhere or at another time.
Overview of the Center’s Recent Activities Relating to Victim
Participation
Despite
the issuance of the Practice Direction less than two months ago, the
Documentation Center of Cambodia has already commenced efforts to
promote the participation of survivors in tribunal proceedings. The
Center has hosted a conference on victim participation and conducted
a number of field trips to inform remote and impoverished
communities of their rights. The Center does, however, play only a
limited role in victim participation in tribunal proceedings. We
are not a victims’ rights association and we cannot provide
legal representation to survivors. We seek only to inform
survivors of their participation rights and to assist them in
completing and filing the Form with the ECCC Victims Unit. We have
considerable experience in doing so, having already assisted more
than 500 survivors. Due to our established contacts with survivors
of the Democratic Kampuchea regime and possession of the Renakse
Petitions, we believe that the Center has an important part to play
in assisting victim participation. Examples of past and ongoing
efforts are detailed below.
From
October 24th to 26th, the Center hosted 280
Cham Muslim hakems (judges) and tuans (religious
teachers) in Phnom Penh for a Conference on “The Progress of the
ECCC and Victim Participation.” This Conference formed part of the
Center’s Cham Muslim Oral History Program, convened by Farina So.
Its purpose was to inform survivors of their participation rights
and to assist them in registering with the Victims Unit. The
Conference explained the place of victim participation in the
tribunal process. Staff at the Center provided participants with a
short Victim Participation Information Sheet. Thereafter, the
participants split into groups of twenty, each supervised by a staff
member, and those who wished to complete the Form had an opportunity
to do so. The vast majority—200 of the 280—of participants chose to
complete the Form. Upon completion, staff collected the Forms and
placed them in sealed envelopes for submission to the
Co-Prosecutors. On October 26th, DC-Cam staff met with
the Co-Prosecutors to deliver the Forms.
After the
Conference, the Center contacted a number of participants to gain
feedback. Many participants expressed their satisfaction with and
enthusiasm for the Conference and its goals. After attending the
Conference, Sin Kha, 58, from Phnom Penh, told her children and
other villagers of her experiences under the Khmer Rouge and of the
ECCC’s provision for victim participation. She said: "I want to
educate the young generation about the Khmer Rouge regime, so the
old should tell them about the regime.” She expressed her joy at
the possibility of being involved in seeking justice for her brother
and victims in general. Similarly, Toloars Smael, 52, from Kampong
Cham, organized a meeting about the Conference in his mosque and
told his people about the importance of complaints filed by Cham
Muslims. Most participants did not fear filing complaints or civil
party applications and many, such as Smas Smael, 58, from Kampong
Cham, and Ker Math, from Kampong Chhnang, stated that they were
eager to appear before the ECCC, if requested.
Ongoing and Future Activities of the Center Relating to Victim
Participation
In past
weeks, the Center has been reaching out to members of other ethnic
minorities in the hope of gathering information that might support
an all-important charge of genocide. Thus far, the Co-Investigating
Judges have announced charges of crimes against humanity and war
crimes only. Although another international criminal tribunal has
stated that there is no hierarchy of international crimes—meaning
that, as a matter of law, a charge of crimes against humanity is
just as grave as a charge of genocide—the general public widely
perceives genocide to be “the crime of crimes.” According to a
recent Cambodia Daily article, many Cambodians feel anger at the
lack of a charge of genocide. To be convicted of genocide, the
accused must have committed certain acts, including killing members
of a group, “with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a
national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” As such, the Center
has made field trips to the Vietnamese community in Prey Veng, the
Chinese community in Kampot, the Stieng community in Kampong Cham,
the Mil community in Kratie, and the Prov community in Ratanakiri.
The
Center is in a unique position to assist the Co-Prosecutors in
building cases against senior leaders and those most responsible for
particular crimes, as it has been working with and interviewing a
wide variety of survivors of the Democratic Kampuchea regime for
over 10 years. Many of the Center’s interviews indicate, for
example, that the Khmer Rouge specifically targeted members of
ethnic minorities for execution and other abusive treatment, such as
prohibiting the practice of their customs. To provide an example, a
Cham Muslim hakem and farmer, 54, from Kampong Cham, tells in
his interview of how, in June 1978, the Khmer Rouge took a number of
Chams by oxcart to a port near his village in the Eastern Zone for
execution. According to the hakem, the Khmer Rouge selected
only Chams for this fate and released any claiming to be of Khmer
ethnicity. He states that in 1980, one year after the fall of the
regime, he saw the skulls and bones of those killed.
In 2008,
the Center plans to expand its efforts to promote victim
participation with the launch of a new project, the Victim
Participation Project, to assist at least 10,000 survivors of
Democratic Kampuchea in registering with the Victims Unit as
witnesses, complainants and/or civil party applicants. In
particular, the Project will focus on locating and assisting many of
the 1.1 million individuals who signed the so-called “Renakse
Petitions” in 1982-3. These petitions detailed the crimes of the
regime in an effort to persuade the United Nations to deny the Khmer
Rouge the Cambodian seat in the General Assembly. The Center
considers that such a Project will help ordinary Cambodians to
participate in the process of bringing the leaders of Democratic
Kampuchea to a formal legal accounting and in re-establishing the
less formal “truth commission” begun during the 1980s by the
“Renakse Petitions.” The experience gained by the Center’s staff in
conducting outreach activities relating to victim participation this
year should certainly provide a sound base for next year’s expanded
efforts.
Farina
So, Leader, Cham Muslim Oral History Program
Sarah
Thomas, Legal Fellow
Any
readers wishing to complete the Victim Information Form may contact
the Center for the Form and assistance in its completion.
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