KR Tribunal
What's the merit of staging a mocked trial of the KR with the majority of Khmer judges? Is it to find closure for the victims or enrich the players? Yes spending $56 million to bring only some old former KR leaders to trial will not give justice to the victims. If they want to show justice to the people, all the KR involved in the killings must stand trial including those in power today.
posted by Proleung at
8:19 AM
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The Straits Times
Singapore
Sunday, January 30, 2005
At long last, a time for healing
By Verghese Mathews, For The Straits Times(The writer, a visiting research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian
Studies, was Singapore's ambassador to Cambodia from June 2000 to July 2004
when much of the negotiations for the KR Tribunal took place.)
CAMBODIANS have not failed to notice that while the international community
rightly poured out its heart and its resources to assist victims of the
tsunami disaster, the same community has been largely blind, indifferent
and uncaring when it comes to victims of the Cambodian genocide.
This stark message jumps at you from the pages of a new book on Cambodia's
quest for justice following the three years, eight months and 20 dark and
terrifying days of the Khmer Rouge (KR).
Authored by British journalist Tom Fawthrop and Australian academic Helen
Jarvis, Getting Away With Genocide? Elusive Justice And Khmer Rouge
Tribunal is a detailed insider account of the tortuous process of bringing
the Khmer Rouge leaders to justice.
Fawthrop has covered the region for leading newspapers, including The
Straits Times, for the last 25 years. Jarvis, previously with the
University of New South Wales and documentation consultant for Yale
University's Cambodian Genocide Programme, has, since 1999, been an adviser
to the Cambodian Task Force on the KR Trials.
The plaintive cry in the book is why, after a quarter of a century
following the 1979 ouster of the Pol Pot regime by invading Vietnamese
forces, none of the perpetrators has been brought to court to answer for
the crimes which led to the death of an estimated 1.7 million people, a
quarter of the then population of Cambodia.
Fawthrop and Jarvis, both of whom I know personally, hold very strong views
on this unacceptable delay. They point to the 'abysmal record' of the
United Nations, the 'bitter record of neglect' of the international
community and the 'dismal record of complicity' of certain countries with
the KR, all of which the authors declare delayed justice.
The writing in this book is opinionated, but this should not detract from
its evident and immense scholarship and research.
My quarrel with the authors is that in their almost evangelical criticism
of the attitude of the UN and the international community in preventing the
then newly installed Phnom Penh government from taking over Cambodia's seat
in the UN, and in their disappointment that no western country so much as
sent a fact-finding mission to Phnom Penh following the ouster of Pol Pot,
they have failed to give adequate expression to the complex international
and regional dynamism which drove the then bipolar world.
There is mention, in passing, that for the United States the choice was
simply between moral principles and international law and that the scales
weighed in favour of the latter because it served US security interests.
But the brevity of the comment suggests that it was included merely to give
the appearance of a balanced criticism.
That aside, the authors are right in their anger and disappointment that
the KR Tribunal, when it finally takes place probably some time this year,
will mark one of the longest struggles to bring genocide perpetrators to
justice.
But it is a case of better late than never, though only six or seven are
expected to appear in court. The legal text agreed between Cambodia and the
UN states that the Tribunal is expected 'to bring to trial senior leaders
of Democratic Kampuchea and those who were most responsible for the serious
crimes and violations of Cambodian penal law, international humanitarian
law and custom, and international conventions recognised by Cambodia that
were committed during the period' from April 17, 1975 to Jan 6, 1979.
Still, there is sufficient latitude in the law for justice to be finally
served. The authors rightly point out that 'one of the great expectations'
of the Cambodian people is that the Tribunal will serve not only to mete
out punishment, but also help to provide answers that bring collective
healing and closure.
Unfortunately, some of the people who could have provided answers are gone.
Pol Pot, Brother No. 1, died unceremoniously in April 1998. Son Sen, his
defense minister with responsibility over the infamous Tuol Sleng Prison,
is likewise dead.
Among their senior colleagues still alive, most are suffering from some
ailment or another.
The fear is that these potential witnesses might die before the Tribunal.
Of these, the most senior is Nuon Chea, Brother No. 2, believed to have
been the most powerful official after Pol Pot. He surrendered to the
government in 1998 and lives quietly in the former KR stronghold of Pailin.
Also living freely and much more comfortably is Ieng Sary, well known
internationally as the deputy prime minister and minister for foreign
affairs. He defected to the Hun Sen government in 1996 and brought with him
several thousand guerillas, effectively breaking whatever strength there
was left in the KR.
Then there is Khieu Samphan, who held several senior positions including
that of PM and party president. He defected together with Nuon Chea in 1998
and lives modestly in Pailin close to Nuon Chea's house.
In prison are two notables who were captured by the security forces. One is
Ta Mok, who in a leadership tussle in 1997 wrested control from Pol Pot but
was forced to flee a year later when he was himself challenged. The other
is the infamous Duch, who ran the secret police. Duch has just been taken
from his cell to a government hospital for prostate surgery.
Ta Mok and Duch have much to tell and some commentators believe that they
will. We will have to wait to see if this will come to pass, hopefully not
for too long.
Fawthrop and Jarvis have contributed an extremely well-researched and
fascinating book which is a welcome addition to the existing body of
literature on contemporary Cambodia. With the date for the Tribunal getting
closer, this work will prove to be a most useful resource.[End]
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