Blog entries from Elena

Transitional Justice event at Columbia

Elena Lesley — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 01:51:50 +0100

For those of you in the New York area, a series of panels on justice issues in Southeast Asia will be held at Columbia University this coming Friday and Saturday. A Saturday afternoon panel will focus on Cambodia and feature presentations from Sophal Ear (U.S. Naval Postgraduate School), John Ciorciari (University of Michigan), Alex Hinton (Rutgers University) and Lorraine Paterson (Cornell University). More information is available here.

Cayley highlights criticism of OCIJ; presents prosecutorial strategy for Case 002

Elena Lesley — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 18:10:44 +0100

International Co-Prosecutor Andrew Cayley gave an interesting presentation at Rutgers on Wednesday, but unfortunately, he did not want to comment on the record about allegations of political interference at the tribunal (particularly in relation to Cases 003 and 004). It would be safe to say, however, in the comments he did make, Cayley expressed "very grave concerns" about the conduct of Cases 003 and 004, as reported in today's Post.

Moreover, Cayley referenced the recent decisions b...

Defiant Co-Prosecutor to speak at Rutgers this month

Elena Lesley — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 23:00:57 +0100

Amid renewed challenges to the credibility of the Khmer Rouge tribunal, international Co-Prosecutor Andrew Cayley will be speaking at Rutgers later this month. The event is scheduled for October 26 and will take place in the Newark Center for Law and Justice. It will be interesting to see how Cayley responds to questions related to recent controversies surrounding investigation of ...

"Disloyal" ECCC staffers and the debate over additional prosecutions

Elena Lesley — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 17:00:00 +0100

Like many journalists, I received a somewhat peculiar message from the Co-Investigating Judges on Thursday. It read that the judges, "have credible information that the content of the Second Introductory Submission which is classified as confidential, has been divulged by a disloyal staff member of the ECCC," and issued a warning "that anyone publishing information from this confidential document is liable to be subjected to proceedings for Interference with the Administration of Justice purs...

New Rutgers magazine feature on ECCC

Elena Lesley — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 21:51:27 +0100

In the first issue of a new Rutgers University magazine (disclaimer: with which I am involved), an undergraduate student describes his experience working with DC-Cam's Victim Participation Team. You can read it here.

Cambodia and the tribunal will certainly be featured in upcoming issues as well, as Rutgers has an active relationship with DC-Cam and a number of students who are interested in the country. The magazine is published by the Center for the Study of Genocide, Conflict Resolu...

Remembering Reach Sambath

Elena Lesley — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 21:27:00 +0100

In light of the recent passing of ECCC head of Public Affairs Reach Sambath, I wanted to post a link to an article I wrote back after he assumed his position in 2008. You can read it here. I was extremely impressed by the effort he made to bring Cambodians to the tribunal, which had previously been somewhat sparsely attended.

I'm sure he will be greatly missed by his friends, colleagues, students and, of course, family.

At the same time, it is true that Duch has cooperated with the court, probably does not present a threat to society if ever released and most likely, given his age, will e...

Court needs to level with civil "parties," scholar says

Elena Lesley — Sat, 01 May 2010 19:50:49 +0100

I had the opportunity to attend the Rutgers Law event in early April I posted about previously, but have not had the chance until now to write about it. After a keynote speech from activist Theary Seng, several law students presented papers specifically addressing issues at the ECCC.

I was particularly interested in the paper presented by Andrew Diamond -- "Victims Once Again? Civil Party Participation Before the ECCC."

Throughout the first trial, there was a clear and constant ...

Rutgers Law event to probe ECCC

Elena Lesley — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 22:30:09 +0100

The Rutgers, Newark Law School will host a symposium this Friday, April 2, featuring an extensive panel discussion about the Khmer Rouge tribunal. Speakers will include Khmer Rouge survivor and activist Theary Seng, Fulbright Fellow Randle DeFalco, DC-Cam Legal Associates Jared Watkins and Andrew Diamond, and others.

The panel ("The ECCC: The Issues and Challenges of Prosecuting the Senior Leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime") is part of the larger event "Human and Economic Dimensions of...

Armenia and the ongoing genocide debate

Elena Lesley — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 19:47:43 +0100

Those interested in the ongoing debate surrounding the Armenian Genocide (as well as its implications for modern relations between Armenia and Turkey) would benefit from an event being held at Rutgers Thursday evening. The Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights will launch its Armenian Genocide Project with a lecture from John Evans, former U.S. Ambassador to Armenia.

Armenia has been back in international headlines recently with the recommendation from the U.S. House Foreig...

High-tech court

Elena Lesley — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 02:10:51 +0100

A very exciting development for those of us trying to keep up with ECCC developments from abroad: the tribunal has launched a “virtual court.”

"The Virtual Tribunal will be a groundbreaking way for the [tribunal] to digitally make available to the public all trial related materials such as decisions, filings, trial transcripts and video of the court proceedings," according to Voice of America.

U.S. univerities partnering with the effort include Stanford and the...

Ambassador says tribunal "worth saving"

Elena Lesley — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 21:06:34 +0100

Last week, I had the opportunity to hear Clint Williamson, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for war crimes issues, speak to a crowd of Rutgers students and professors about international justice efforts in a number of different countries. While it wasn't the sole focus of his presentation, Williamson did discuss the Khmer Rouge tribunal, and I was pleased with what he had to say.

Americans not following tribunal developments, according to NY Times

Elena Lesley — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 03:33:29 +0100

A recent commentary in the New York Times describes the general lack of attention the Khmer Rouge tribunal has received in the United States. I have to say that, sadly, since I returned to the U.S. in August, I have found this largely to be the case.

It is particularly inexcusable considering the role America played in decimating the country and creating circumstances that allowed the Khmer Rouge to come to power in the first place.

As Richard Bernstein writes, the lack of atten...

New Granta piece on the tribunal

Elena Lesley — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:10:50 +0100

My second piece for Granta.com about the tribunal was recently posted online. You can read it here. It discusses the scope of culpability for Khmer Rouge atrocities and includes an interview I conducted with former S-21 guard Him Huy (pictured at left) before I left Cambodia.

The recent lecture at Rutgers was a great experience and the students had a number of interesting...

Upcoming Rutgers lecture

Elena Lesley — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:25:04 +0100

For those of you in the New Jersey area, I will be giving a lecture at Rutgers University, Newark on Thursday about the Khmer Rouge tribunal. The event is part of a speaker series hosted by the university's Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights. You can find information about the talk here.

I believe most of the students who will be attending are enrolled in a seminar that examines the role of perpetrators in genocidal violence. Part of their course involves studying Comrad...

Khmer Rouge survivors in Oregon can offer evidence to tribunal

Elena Lesley — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 03:10:00 +0100

The Cambodian Diaspora Victims' Participation Project will be holding workshops in Portland this weekend to show Khmer Rouge survivors how they can file testimony with the tribunal. More information can be found here. The workshops will be held Saturday and Sunday, from 9:30am to 3pm at 10301 NE Glisan St. in Portland.

A forum for healing in Portland, Ore.

Elena Lesley — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 03:22:58 +0100

I have been on the road for awhile, so this post is late in coming, but I wanted to make note of a wonderful event that was held last month in Portland, Ore.: a "Collective Sharing and Healing Forum" sponsored by the Cambodian-American Community of Oregon. It is the second event of its kind in Portland and happened to coincide with a trip to my hometown.

I have to admit, before I...

Blog changes

Elena Lesley — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 18:40:00 +0100

After nearly a year and a half in Cambodia, the time has come for me to return to the U.S. While I certainly plan to come back to Cambodia in the future, it most likely won't be before the trial of Comrade Duch has wrapped up. Luckily, a talented journalist at the Post has offered to help me maintain the blog.

Robbie Corey-Boulet received an M.S. in journalism from Columbia University and wrote for publications in India and Seattle before coming to the Phnom Penh Post. A strange coinci...