By M.E. Dodge
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia
PHNOM PEHN, Cambodia — Amidst the trial of Khmer Rouge prison commander, Comrade Duch,the difficulty of such an undertaking in a country with a reputation for corruption and a compromised judiciary is apparent.
Kang Kek Ieu, referred to as Kaing Guek Eav in tribunal filings, but better known by countrymen as, Comrade Duch, was responsible for running ehe infamous prison. At the site, Duch oversaw 15,000 supposed enemies of the revolution. It was at the camp where the inmates were tortured before being executed in the nearby “killing fields.”
At trial, Duch expressed enthusiasm for the job at the notorious S-21 prison, and argued that he and his family would have been killed had he not carried out his superiors’ orders.
For nine months, French lawyer Francois Roux crafted a defense strategy of admission and apology that implied the team would seek a lenient sentence. But in the trial’s final moments, Duch and his Cambodian lawyer, Kar Savuth, broke with this posture, disputing the legitimacy of the court and calling for Duch’s immediate release. Even though the tribunal promised a more inclusive approach than its counterparts at the International Criminal Court at The Hague, instead, the trial ended with strike among Cambodian and foreign defense counsels. The disagreement signifies the difficulty and challenges of carrying out international standards of justice, especially in a country with a reputation for corruption and a deeply compromised legal system.
Over the last two years, claims of governmental interference and kickbacks have underscored the disadvantages of holding the tribunal in Cambodia. The turbulent negotiations in bringing about former Khmer Rouge leaders to justice began in 1997. By 2003, former-U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the extreme politicization of Cambodia’s judiciary required that the tribunal be held outside the Cambodian system. After much deliberation, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia was developed as a local tribunal, namely running under local laws, with the United Nations playing the role of a minor partner. After implementing this model, it is said that, “No one in the U.N. or elsewhere will ever copy the Cambodian model,” said Brad Adams, Asia head of Human Rights Watch. “It’s the lowest standard the United Nations has been willing to go.”
For more information, please see:
The Boston Globe – Cambodia and its War Tribunal – December 6, 2009
Los Angeles Times – Cambodia’s first war crimes trial marred by flaws – December 6, 2009
KI Media – KR Tribunal to instigate civil war in Cambodia?”: CWCI – December 6, 2009
