The Phnom Penh Post

Margo Picken, who served as director of the UN's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Cambodia from 2001 to 2007, has a lengthy essay in the New York Review of Books on contemporary Cambodian politics and the ECCC. Picken clearly takes a dim view of Prime Minister Hun Sen, arguing that he is manipulating the court to further cement his kleptocratic rule:

Taking credit for ridding Cambodia of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, Hun Sen cooperates with the trials as long as they don’t diminish his power. He talks of sustainable development and reducing poverty while he and his party have exploited the country’s resources and pocketed the payoffs. He tolerates the UN human rights presence, provided it limits itself to overcoming the legacy of Cambodia’s tragic Khmer Rouge past. He uses Pol Pot’s record as the yardstick to measure progress, thereby making failure impossible. The trials reinforce this message. No outside governments care to ask too many questions. Their economic and security interests are more important, as Hun Sen knows, and human rights are treated as dispensable.

Picken's strident tone is particularly striking given the low profile her former colleagues at UNOHCHR have kept over the past few months. The office has made no public comment on the conviction of a UN staffer earlier this month on incitement charges, nor on Hun Sen's announcement to UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon that Case 002 will be the last trial at the ECCC. During Ban's visit, Hun Sen also announced plans to close the local OHCHR office, which government officials have accused of acting as a "spokesman" for opposition parties. This issue is still unresolved, and as long as it remains so, it is perhaps to be expected that OHCHR will largely refrain from public advocacy.