The Phnom Penh Post

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.

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 pursuant to Internal Rule 35."

As James O'Toole explains in today's Post, this warning came in response to an article from the Christian Science Monitor that quoted extensively from the 2008 document. In the document, prosecutors outline allegations against former Khmer Rouge navy commander Meas Mut and air force commander Sou Met. The Monitor article also contends that the leaked document casts doubt on the court's ability to operate independently and suggests that the investigation of Case 003 was inadequate.

After dissemination of the memo related to the "disloyal staff member," activist Theary Seng issued a statement praising the ECCC employee's actions. On behalf of the Association of Khmer Rouge Victims in Cambodia, she wrote:

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 Resolution and Human Rights.

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.

Dr. Francis Deng, Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide, and Benny Widyono, former Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Cambodia, will discuss the implications of the tribunal's second case this Thursday at Rutgers University, Newark. Detailed information about the event can be found here. I plan to attend and will report highlights of the conversation.

In the wake of Duch’s verdict, commentary has been pouring in about the appropriateness of the sentence and future of the tribunal itself. I believe much of the outrage surrounding the sentence underscores conflicting expectations regarding the tribunal’s mission: While it has a relatively limited prosecutorial mandate, the court has been tasked, in the minds of many observers and victims, with helping complete a more truthful narrative of the Khmer Rouge period and with fostering national reconciliation. Yet these are objectives that no court can truly attain given the gravity of the crimes committed.

As scholar Peter Maguire wrote in Wednesday’s International Herald Tribune, “the biggest problem facing the ECCC is living up to its own hype. Claims that such trials can lead to healing, closure, truth and reconciliation are speculative at best. How does one measure ‘healing, closure and reconciliation?’ While most Cambodians would like to see the Khmer Rouge leaders punished, they’ve grown used to seeing common thieves and their government’s political opponents suffer far worse punishment than that meted out to Duch.”

Yet, Duch is only one person – a relatively low-ranking Khmer Rouge cadre at that – and nothing done to him can make up for the thousands of lives lost. As television news director Huy Vannak told the New York Times, “even if we chop him up into two million pieces it will not bring our family members back.”

Today’s historic verdict for Kaing Guek Eav, also known as "Comrade Duch," will no doubt generate debate. A reduced sentence of 19 years, for a man responsible for the deaths of thousands of people, will anger many – especially those who wanted him to face the death penalty (which is illegal in Cambodia).

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 end up serving a life sentence anyway. Moreover, as the Cambodian Center for Human Rights pointed out in reaction to the verdict, it was not unreasonable of the court to take into account the years Duch was illegally detained by the Cambodian military.

“The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that ‘all members of the human family’ have ‘equal and unalienable rights.’ This necessarily includes senior members of the Khmer Rouge, who are viewed by many as indefensible,” according to a CCHR press release. “It is for this reason that the CCHR welcomes the reduction in Duch’s sentence as the result of the  ‘violation [of his rights] occasioned by his illegal detention by the Cambodian Military Court between 10 May 1999 and 30 July 2007.’”

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 the Law in Asia."

More information about the symposium is available here. If you are interested in attending, RSVP to ruils@pegasus.rutgers.edu. 

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 University of California, Berkeley.

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.

For starters, he thinks corruption problems at the court are currently "under control" and pointed out that a court administrator had been removed from his post due to these concerns. (By this, I can only assume he was referring to Sean Visoth, former administration head, who went on extended sick leave and never returned.)

He went on to describe the tribunal as having "more of an impact on the population than any court that has been created." Williamson said that 15,000 Cambodians thusfar have attended proceedings and the ECCC has introduced a whole new generation of Cambodians to their history. While handing out Khmer Rouge textbooks on a recent trip, he said, "the kids couldn't take their noses out of the books."