Khmer Rouge Trials The saga of the Khmer Rouge trials continues--slowly, the way the government wants it--and there is a lot of interesting news to report. My previous format was inconvenient to update and read, however, so I am introducing a new format that will allow easier insertion of daily events. A backlog of items starting in May will be posted first to catch up to the present day. The previous items already posted on the other older page can still be viewed: Introductory KR section May to December, 2006 articles (This page) January to December, 2007 articles

29 December 2006 Recently researchers did a study of the attitudes of the victims of the Khmer Rouge, a quarter century later. According to the Cambodia Daily: Victims of the regime who are educated and financially better off generally tend to harbor less feelings of revenge against the Khmer Rouge, focusing instead on forgiveness and reconciliation; in contrast, the poorer and less educated survivors often still want to get even with their former persecutors, the researchers found. And in terms of support for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia set up to try former Khmer Rouge leaders next year, the people who still want vengeance are more willing to back the tribunal than those learning toward reconciliation.

26 December 2006 Many, many school-age children in Cambodia have little idea of the events and tragedies of the Khmer Rouge era.  Children from the rural provinces especially lack awareness of that period of history, mostly because of lack of eduction, researchers from the Documentation Center of Cambodia have discovered, although a thorough understanding and appreciation of those days is not widespread even in the urban areas.  Another factor is a generational divide. Children today have grown up with generally enough to eat and those who have also been able to go to school find it hard to believe the dark stories of their parents about living in the forest and surviving on insects and snakes and wild plants. Recently the Documentation Center arranged a field trip for 350 high school students and their teachers to the killing field outside of Phnom Penh, the first such trip since 1979.  For many of the students seeing the piles of skulls in the memorial was a real eye-opener and gave them a new perspective on what before may have been only like some make-believe horror story.  Educators are hoping that a new textbook being prepared by the Documentation Center will bring a greater level of awareness and understanding to Cambodia's young people.

14 December 2006 30 years after they were forced to marry each other by the Khmer Rouge, 10 couples renewed their wedding vows in a traditional ceremony with all the time-honored Khmer rituals and customs which the Khmer Rouge regime had tried to eliminate. From 1977 to 1979, young couples, in a five-minute ceremony, were forced to hold hands and pledge to live together and love each forever. Then a week later the Khmer Rouge split up the couples who were allowed to see each other only once every ten days. According to researchers who have studied these forced marriages, about 5% ended in divorce or separation when the Pol Pot regime collapsed, but perhaps surprisingly the majority of the forced marriages have proved more stable than marriages contracted after the war. In an interview the couples spoke of commiting to each other because of their children, working for their mutual survial, and a real attachment that developed through their mutual suffering.

8 December 2006 Victims of the former Khmer Rouge regime will be essential participants in the tribunal proceedings, both as the ones who file complaints to bring the KR leaders to trial and as witnesses in the court proceedings.  Under present Cambodian law, the only way for victims to participate is to go to the prosecutor's office and speak to staff there. Victims who now live in other countries may find this impossible. This could be changed by the internal rules of the tribunals, but these are the rules that rights organizations charge are being obstructed by the Cambodia government. So far less than a dozen individuals have filed complaints although more than half of the 4,000 victims interviewed over the years have stated they want to file charges. The office of the prosecutors has just three researchers, however, and its head has said that they couldn't even respond to a few thousand complaints, much less investiage them. It is important to remember that perhaps as many as two million people were killed by the KR so there are a lot of surviving relatives who want to see justice done.

7 December 2006 Human Rights Watch has alleged that government officials are interfering in the Khmer Rouge tribunal process after a plenary session to establish the internal rules by which the ECCC (Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia) will operate. The organization stated that government officials had told Cambodian ECCC members to delay the adoption of the crucial rules without which the trial cannot proceed. The tribunal has been staffed with representatives loyal to the Prime Minister, a major Cabinet Minister, and the National Police Chief.

4 November 2006 In early November the Khmer Rouge tribunal published for public comment the proposed internal rules for guiding the work of the tribunal. The announcement said that the legislation, necessary for investigations and indictments, should be ready by November 25th. The public were invited to submit comments by November 17th.

2 August 2006 A small battle has been waged over Ta Mok's artificial leg in the days since he died. As he was being buried, his coffin was opened for grandchildren to take a last look, and one of them removed his artificial limb, made in Thailand to replace the leg lost in the guerilla conflict against the Cambodian government troops. His attorney, Benson Samay, ended up with the prosthetic device, but gave it up upon demands of the family who have plans to build a display case for it in a Khmer Rouge museum. He did not explain why he had wanted the leg--except to say that he had never been paid for his work for Ta Mok--but others wanted it because there have been rumors for many years that it contained gold and diamonds. Family members denied those claims and said that the leg had little value except as a symbol of the man whose loyal followers saw him as a hero of nationalism rather than a mass murderer.

31 July 2006 Mysterious pamphleteers struck again this week, distributing in a district of Phnom Penh an anti-government pamphlet blaming Prime Minister Hun Sen for the death of Ta Mok and alleging that the government is plotting to get rid of the other top level Khmer Rouge cadres still alive. The anonymous source accuses the government of trying to destroy crucial evidence that would be used in the Khmer Rouge trials. Incidents like this exercise the government mightily and the police huff and puff about it a lot. They announced today that when the pamphleteers are caught, they will be presented to the public at a press conference. That's nice. Why?

29 July 2006 Only a short time after Ta Mok died and was buried in Anlong Veng in remote northern Cambodia, there are already plans to commercialize his burial site. Local people are hoping to make a profit from Cambodia's tragic past and the infamy surrounding Ta Mok, the only rebel who refused to surrender and rejected all government offers of amnesty. The government itself has for a few years had plans to develop tourism with a focus on the area where the Khmer Rouge regime spent its last days. Pol Pot's grave, homes of the KR leaders, and a munitions warehouse are some of the places mentioned for development as attractions to bring in tourists.

28 July 2006 The death of Ta Mok has put the spotlight on others who would prefer not to be noticed. A son-in-law of Ta Mok is Meas Muth who served as military chairman in the district where Ta Mok is secretary. In one book about the genocide, he was the subject of 14 of 110 pages because of his activities. Those mentioned in the book add a second tier of leadership of the Khmer Rouge that could be prosecuted by the tribunal, and keep alive the question of just how far the investigations and indictments will extend. Meas Muth is described as cagey and he tries to keep attention from falling on himself. When pressed about the atrocities of the Pol Pot era, he is unfazed: "It's the nature of human beings--one, to die by nature, two, to die because other human beings kill them," he said, and he avowed that he had no regret for the actions and decisions of Ta Mok who is blamed for tens of thousands of deaths in the zone where Meas Muth was a young officer.

26 July 2006 As part of an education program about the Khmer Rouge tribunals for local level leaders, 512 commune chiefs were brought to the US ambassador's residence where the ambassador spoke to them. Referring to the recent death of Ta Mok, he said: "Death, which had already stolen from so many Cambodians their lives and their happiness, has now stolen from them a chance for justice."  He also defended the cost of the genocide trials which recently had been criticized by retired King Sihanouk as a waste of money which could better be used to address problems of poverty. The Documentation Center of Cambodia began training Ministry of Interior police to investigate the special crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge. They are being taught how to investigate, how to interview victims and suspects, and how to examine graves. Regarding the investigations, the head of a rights NGO said that the ECCC should send international observers and investigators with their Cambodian counterparts so that people would trust and cooperate with the investigations.  "If there are foreigners with [the police] it will help to encourage victims, witnesses, and suspects.  If we had confidence in the Cambodian courts, we would not need foreign prosecutors and judges.  It is the same with the Cambodian police."  An Interior ministry official downplayed his concerns, saying that Cambodian police are of upright moral character.  [The next article in the newspaper was headlined "Licadho: Prosecute More Police for Torture"].

26 July 2006 There has been much reaction internationally to the death of Ta Mok, "The Butcher," before he could be brought to trial. Two editorial perspectives, one from The Wall Street Journal and the other from The Boston Globe: Editorial, The Wall Street Journal "Some people, even evil ones, get lucky. On Friday, Cambodia's Ta Mok joined the ranks of Adolf Hitler, Mao Tse-tung, Idi Amin, and other nasties by passing away before atoning for his sins. Like his boss Pol Pot, the 'Butcher,' as he was popularly known, died before he could be brought to justice. The one-legged former Khmer Rouge commander was charged with playing a key role in the genocide that sent more than 1.7 million Cambodians to die in the killing fields between 1975 and 1979. In the following decades, he conducted guerrilla raids against the government until his capture in 1999, when he was jailed without trial. Ta Mok pleaded his innocence until the end. By failing to prosecute Ta Mok in a timely fashion, Cambodia's government missed a chance to give its people closure on an era in which virtually every Cambodian lost a family member...." Editorial, The Boston Globe "...Hun Sen, who was placed in power by the Vietnamese, was never eager to have an independent tribunal document the crimes of his former Khmer Rouge comrades. China, which backed the Khmer Rouge even after it was chased from power by the Vietnamese, was no less reluctant to remind the world of the horrors perpetrated by its Cambodian proteges. And, after 1979, Washington collaborated with Beijing in backing the out-of-power Khmer Rouge as the legitmate government of Cambodia--a perversity rooted in a reflexive will to spite Hanoi. The geopolitics of Cambodia's genocide made strange bedfellows.

25 July 2006 Ta Mok, known to the West as "the Butcher," was buried yesterday in a small village near the base of the Dangrek Mountains in northern Cambodia. About 300 people attended, many of them speaking kind words of this Khmer Rouge leader as they followed his body being carried on the back of a white pick-up truck. The march started when an old man with an artificial leg lit a skyrocket that soared upwards. Few spoke about the Pol Pot era in which Ta Mok is accused of killing hundreds of thousands of people, but rather many remembered good deeds he had accomplished. As his coffin was being placed in a stupa behind a Buddhist wat (temple), some men opened the casket for a final look and one of his grandchildren took Ta Mok's articial leg from the body and spoke of putting it on display.

24 July 2006 Two days after his death in custody, Ta Mok's body was brought back to his home in a remote village near the Thai border in northern Cambodia. About 60 villagers were waiting for him, some weeping, some remembering him as their military commander whom they still respect. His last seven years had been spent in a Phnom Penh prison after he was lured from the jungles with false promises of amnesty and then arrested. But today a military ambulance delivered his body to the simple home of his daughter were it was placed on a wooden bed outside the house, to await burial.

22 July 2006 Ta Mok, the former Khmer Rouge leader known as "The Butcher," died yesterday. He was one of two of senior Khmer Rouge leaders in detention awaiting charges and a trial for genocide and crimes against humanity. His death caused expressions of outrage and disappointment that still another leader of the Pol Pot regime had died without being tried. Ta Mok had refused offers of amnesty and had taken over leadership of the Khmer Rouge from Pol Pot. He was captured in 1999 and had been detained ever since then. During the war he gained a reputation for brutality and ruthlessness and was held by many to be responsibile for massacres and purges. However, to the end, he maintained his innocence, saying he had never killed anyone.

18 July 2006 Former King Norodom Sihanouk resigned from his position as monarch in 2004 but is still a considerable force in the life and politics of Cambodia. One of his influential voices is his website, which he frequently updates with statements and comments. Last week he announced there that, although he has condemned the KR tribunal in the past because it will not prosecute enough of those responsible for the Khmer Rouge atrocities, he would be willing to testify before the court. He noted: "My family, my wife's family, and many other people who supported me were tortured and killed by the Khmer Rouge."

18 July 2006 Youk Chhang is the director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, and in the last ten years he and his staff have collected and archived hundreds of thousands of pages of documents which have been transferred to 524 rolls of microfilm. Yesterday these documents were turned over to the prosecution staff of the Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia as the basis for their investigations and anticipated indictments of former Khmer Rouge leaders. Contained in the collection are 600,000 pages of prisoner confessions; telegrams; minutes of meetings and memos; maps of 20,000 mass graves, 189 prisons and 80 memorials; 6,000 photographs from the Pol Pot era; 200 documentary films; and 4,000 transcribed interviews with former Khmer Rouge soldiers.

17 July 2006 Twenty-seven years after the collapse of the Khmer Rouge regime, only two of the former KR leaders have been arrested and are still in detention. One of them is Ta Mok, known as "the Butcher" for his role in the bloody purges during the nearly four-year reign of the Khmer Rouge. Now there is fear that he will die before he can be tried. An article in Bangkok's The Nation reports: A rights group yesterday called on Cambodia and the United Nations to provide better medical care to former Khmer Rouge military leader Ta Mok, who has been in a coma for the past few days. The Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee said Ta Mok, 80, could die without ever going on trial for genocide, and the loss of the much-feared military chief would affect the UN-Cambodian Khmer Rouge tribunal "negatively." ...Ta Mok,...was taken to a military hospital in Phnom Penh on June 29 due to heart, lung and respiratory problems. But his condition has worsened since then and the one-legged former commander has been in a coma for the past few days, according to his niece Ven Dara.

13 July 2006 Former Khmer Rouge leader Nuon Chea, known as Brother Number Two, said that he and another former leader, Khieu Samphan who was head of state for the KR, are not planning to flee to escape prosecution in Cambodia as some newspapers had reported. He said that the reports of his movements were inaccurate, and that although one newspaper said he had traveled to Battambang on the weekend, he had actually been at home watching the World Cup.

12 July 2006 Less than two days after the prosecution began initial investigations into the Khmer Rouge atrocities, potential witnesses have started disappearing. From Bangkok's The Nation newspaper: Likely key witnesses to Cambodia's Khmer Rouge tribunal have gone into hiding amid fears of inadequate protection and confusion over the prosecution's scope, a top genocide researcher said yesterday. Two former prison guards have left their homes, while three others are reluctant to discuss their role at Tuol Sleng, the Khmer Rouge's main torture centre, said...[the] director of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia. The guards have all spoken in the past with the centre, which is compiling evidence of Khmer Rouge atrocities. News also emerged yesterday that former Khmer Rouge Khieu Samphan had left his home in the former rebel stronghold of Pailin near Thailand early yesterday morning for an unspecified destination in Cambodia.

11 July 2006 On his official site, resigned King Norodom Sihanouk has come out against the Khmer Rouge tribunals. Now living a large part of the year in Pyongyang and Beijing for health reasons, the former king is still a force in the life and politics of Cambodia, especially through his writings on his website. The 83-year old former monarch said that because it will prosecute too few of the former Khmer Rouge leaders and because it will cost so much money, he opposes the EOCCC. Rather than try only "fix or six Khmer Rouge individuals," he wrote, the millions of dollars should be spent to alleviate the extreme poverty and suffering of the Cambodian people.

10 July 2006 Today two prosecutors, one Cambodian and the other an international jurist, began the prosecution phase of the Khmer Rouge trials, starting investigations aimed at bringing indictments against former KR leaders. "Many believed the trials would never take place. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, once a low-ranking Khmer Rouge member, was reluctant to commit resources to the tribunal and the government was blamed for trying to derail the proceedings," according to The Nation newspaper from Bangkok. "But, after six years of stumbling negotiations between the government and the United Nations, hopes are high in a country where the effects of Khmer Rouge genocide are still felt every day."

4 July 2006 In an event described as "...the milestone officially marking the beginning of a long process," 17 Cambodian and 10 UN-appointed judicial officials took part in a swearing-in ceremony held in the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh. According to a tribunal spokesman, the ceremony "erases the negative speculation people have had in the past that there won't be any trial."

3 July 2006 International judges and court officials arrived in Cambodia today ahead of tomorrow's swearing in ceremony at the Silver Pagoda in the Royal Palace. Cambodia's highest legal body, the EOCCC (Khmer Rouge tribunal) will have 17 Cambodian and 13 international judges and prosecutors. Ta Mok, a Khmer Rouge commander, is one of only two of the leaders of the Pol Pot regime who is being held in detention. Now 84, "The Butcher," as he is known for his bloody purges, has been hospitalized because of high blood pressure and back and stomach problems, but is said to be recovering. The other former KR leaders live freely in Cambodia although all are elderly and ill. There is fear they will die before the KR tribunal ever has a chance to prosecute them.

27 June 2006 From a Project Syndicate commentary, by Dina Nay and James A. Goldston, in the Bangkok Nation: ...For reasons of history and as a matter of law, both the Cambodian government and the international community share responsibility for making this [Khmer Rouge trial] court a success. To do so, they must address several major challenges. First, unlike hybrid tribunals in East Timor, Kosovo, and Sierra Leone, international judges are a minority.... There are good reasons why mixed tribunals should have substantial national components. Nonetheless, this arrangement poses particular challenges in a country where the quality and independence of judical decision-making have long been questioned. Second, the length of time that has passes since the crimes--more than 30 years, in some cases--far exceeds that for any comparable proceeding....  Cambodia's long delay complicates the task of preserving evidence, including human memory, that is so essential to proving guilt. Third, the court site is located in a military compound far from downtown Phnom Penh. If ordinary people are to observe this historic event, buses will have to transport them.  The proceedings should be broadcast....  Creative outreach strategies...[are needed] to target the predominantly rural population to ensure that all Cambodians have the opportunity to understand these proceedings.... Part 2 Fourth,...opposition leaders and human rights activists have been subjected to criminal charges for speech critical of the government. Draft legislation seeks to make criminal defamation a permanent fixture,and includes new provisions making it an offense to criticise a court ruling. ...Cambodian survivors of the Khmer Rouge recall the daily fear of criticizing that regime; it would be especially tragic if Cambodians did not feel free to express their views of the Extraordinary Chambers.... Fifth, Cambodia has a shortage of highly qualified lawyers, because the legal profession was nearly wiped out by the Khmer Rouge. Yet, contrary to the practice in other international and hybrid war crimes courts,local law permits only Cambodian lawyers to represent the accused.... Finally, having generously contributed most of the tribunal's funds, donor governments cannot just sit back and watch. ...They may have to provide additional resources. The court's bare-bones budget of US$56 million over three years does not cover basics such as a safe house for protected witnesses, transcripts of court testimony, or a library. It would help if the United States, which has yet to contribute to the Extraordinary Chambers, were to do so.

23 May 2006 Many of the officials newly appointed to the Khmer Rouge tribunal have been criticized for their strong ties to the ruling political party, the Cambodian People's Party. Here are some comments from a Cambodia Daily article: In a rare and unusual meeting of minds, several ex-Khmer Rouge officials joined local and international human rights groups in questioning the selection of judges and prosecutors for the long-awaited tribunal that will prosecute their former leaders. ...A former Khmer Rouge military division commander who took orders directly from Pol Pot said that courtroom appointees with political leanings could not judge impartially. ...If the judges are members of Prime Minister Hun Sen's ruling CPP, as legal analyst Lao Mong Hay claimed last week, they would not be impartial as the CPP fought against the Khmer Rouge.... He added that the tribunal should also hold to account the foreign countries that supported the warring sides in the Cambodian conflict. "I want to have a real court and judges in order to find the real killers and countries that were involved in the Cambodian disaster. It was not only Khmers who killed Khmers." The last point, about also prosecuting countries which supported the Khmer Rouge, is a sensitive one because the United States and China led that support, maintaining the KR representative as the legitimate representative of Cambodia at the United Nations, even after it became obvious of the tragedy occurring within Cambodia. Many would argue that Henry Kissinger should be tried alongside Pol Pot's henchmen.

22 May 2006 During the 4+ years of the Pol Pot era, 81 percent of the Cambodian population then are thought to have experienced violence, and a quarter of the population, about 1.7 million people, perished.  Today, about 3.3 million people of the present 13 million population still suffer from the effects of their experiences.  The common symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder--sleep problems, nightmares, difficulty concentrating, depression, blackouts, vertigo, headaches, intestinal problems, violent behavior--are part of daily life for these people. A researcher noted in the Cambodia Daily  "Many psychologists believe that the high rate of violence in Cambodia today, as well as its inability to recover economically, can be attributed to the effects of this trauma, which has left many people unable to cope with stress in their daily life. "Most Cambodians lack access to professional mental health care; the country has only 26 trained psychiatrists and perhaps a hundred general practitioners who have received about twelve weeks of mental health training.  PTSD victims have had little choice but to seek help from traditional healers, herbalists and fortune tellers.  Few understand the causes of their problems.  Many people in this predominantly Buddhist country have attributed their sufferings to karma."

19 May 2006 A medium named Prum Phally was responsible for the hour-long ceremony in which the spirit of Lokta Dambang Dack was summoned into his concrete statue at the KR tribunal headquarters last week. Witnesses will be required to swear before the statue to tell the truth. Afterwards, Prum Phally said he saw the spirit writing on the statue's back: "People who do good deeds will receive good things. People who do bad deeds will receive bad things." Some are criticizing the choice of Lokta Dambang Dack as the figure for the statue, saying that Yama, the Hindu god of death, would be a better choice. A Fine Arts professor from the Royal University was paid $300 to create the statue of the man whose tradition dates to pre-Angkor Wat times.

17 May 2006 Recently criticized for their Soviet-bloc education and lack of credentials, some of the judges and prosecutors for the Khmer Rouge tribunal have defended their reputations while saying that they do need more training. The United Nations Development Program has sponsored two training sessions but some have criticized them as dealing too much with theory and not enough with the practice of Cambodian law which will be the basis for the tribunal deliberations. One area that is particularly contentious is that of defense counsel. International legal assistance will be provided for the prosecution but not for the defense because of lack of funds.

16 May 2006 The question of the legal education of those chosen to be Cambodian judges of the KH tribunals continues to be a matter of concern and debate. Of the 17 Cambodian judges, 4 received their legal education in Cambodia; 4 in Kazakhstan; 3 in the USSR; 3 in Vietnam; 2 in East Germany; and 1 in France. One judge said "I believe that all places are the same. The law is the law. Communist or democrat, the law is the law." Others have a different opinion. One Cambodian legal expert said that Soviet education emphasized loyalty to the party, adding that the courts operated under the assumption that defendants were guilty until proven innocent. The American Bar Association said in a 2004 report: "The Soviet Union knew no rule of law as we conceive of it today...unfortunately, the Kazakh judiciary throughout its young history has remained largely within the control of the executive. In Vietnam, according to the US State Department "in practice [the Communist Party of Vietnam] controls the courts at all levels, selecting judges, at least in part, for their political reliability."

13 May 2006 A statue of Lokta Dambang Dack was officially inauguarated on the grounds of the Khmer Rouge tribunal located right outside of Phnom Penh. Officials of the court, called the EOCCC, played traditional music, lit incense, and left gifts of cigarettes, fruit, and boiled chicken before the statue whose name translates as "Grandfather with the Iron Staff." Witnesses who will testify at the tribunal will be brought before the statue to swear to tell the truth. Oddly, suspects will not need to do this.

12 May 2006 The Prime Minister, Hun Sen, criticized all those who have been questioning the qualifications of the newly appointed judges for the Khmer Rouge tribunal. He has a style of making rather bizarre statements as he free-wheels through lengthy speeches and he didn't disappoint in this one, referring to the critics as animals. "They are not human. They are animals. They become animals because they don't know their own background. They even want to seduce their own parents. This is acting like animals." (I'd love to hear an explanation of what that means!) In another attack, he said: "If the Khmer Court is not capable, why have you come to live in Cambodia? If you live in Toronto, please stay there." (One legal analyst who lived in Canada until last month said he thought that was aimed at him.) The Prime Minister also railed against the United Nations and NGOs whom he accused of trying to run the government. "I will allow you to monitor but not to control the Supreme Council of Magistracy, the National Assembly, and the government. I would like to inform you that I can establish 5,000 NGOs in less than a month." Verbal threatening is a characteristic of Hun Sen's speeches, with pointed references to individuals. So much for democracy, freedom of speech, and freedom for a Cambodian citizen to live where he or she wants.

12 May 2006 Today Prime Minister Hun Sen announced that the swearing-in of the newly appointed judges for the Khmer Rouge tribunal will not happen on June 8 as previously planned. No new date for the ceremony was announced. In a speech in connection with another occasion, Hun Sen said that the delay was at the request of the United Nations and not Cambodia. The government is sensitive to the claims that it is stalling on the tribunal because it does not wish to embarrass Khmer Rouge members who have become backers of the ruling party.

9 May 2006 Letters to the Editor in the Cambodia Daily today expressed dismay about the selection of Cambodian judges for the KR tribunal. One letter writer said: General New Thol, the president of Cambodia's Military Court who was confirmed on Monday as a judge on the Khmer Rouge tribunal, shrugs off his critics by saying "the most important thing is self-confidence."... New Thol certainly acted with great self-confidence during his trial of opposition lawmaker Cheam Channy last year, in which he refused to permit the defense to call its own witnesses or to cross-examine prosecution witnesses. The European Union noted that the credibility of the trial verdict was "seriously flawed" by the failure to observe a number of Cheam Channy's legal rights. The US government also condemned New Thol's verdict, noting that "the conduct of the trial raises again questions about the competence and independence of Cambodia's judiciary."....

9 May 2006 [1] Judges -- King Sihamoni today approved the official list of judges for the Khmer Rouge trials. 17 are from Cambodia and 13 are international jurists from a variety of countries. Some groups questioned both the opaque process by which the judges were chosen and the qualifications of some of the Cambodian officials. The director of a legal aid NGO in Cambodia noted that some of the Cambodians were trained in and held law degrees from countries such as the USSR, Vietnam, and Kazakhstan. He commented: "In Soviet bloc countries, legal education is very narrow. They don't focus on evidence or the rights of the accused. They do not care. The difficulties of the state are more important than the freedom of the people." Some of the Cambodian appointees defended themselves against charges that they are unsuited for their positions. One has a high-school diploma but has worked for 17 years in the Cambodian courts. He was responsible for defamation charges, denounced by human rights groups, and the jailing of a radio station owner. He also released the former Khmer Rouge military commander accused of killing three Western backpackers, a judgment which was later overturned by another court. Another judge cleared the prime minister's nephew of all charges after a notorious case in which the occupants of a car crashed into a parked truck, killing one man, and then shot up the bystanders with an AK-47. Similar reputations overshadow other judges selected for the KR courts. [2] Media Policy -- Two days ago a new policy was instituted requiring all reporters from the English-language Cambodia Daily to submit their questions to the tribunal in writing. The rule does not apply to other media organizations. Today the Chief of Public Affairs, Helen Jarvis, refused to reply to a written request for clarification of the new policy.

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