The Hindu : Khmer Rouge tribunal flawed, says Human Rights Watch

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 02, 2003

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International

Khmer Rouge tribunal flawed, says Human Rights Watch

NEW YORK MAY 1. Human Rights Watch has asked the United Nations General Assembly not to approve the draft agreement with Cambodia to create a tribunal to try Khmer Rouge leaders, unless major changes are effected in the pact.

A committee of the General Assembly is expected to consider the draft later this week. Human Rights Watch, in a 13-page briefing paper, cited concerns about the Cambodian Government's interference in the work of the tribunal, confused and contradictory laws under which the tribunal would operate, and a lack of serious plans for the protection of witnesses, victims and court personnel. ``Cambodians deserve the highest standards of justice to prosecute those responsible. They deserve to know the truth about what happened, and why,'' said Mike Jendrzejczyk, Washington director of the Asia division of Human Rights Watch. "Instead, this proposal represents the lowest standards yet for a tribunal with U.N. participation.''

After almost five years of negotiations, and under pressure from France, Japan, the United States and others, the U.N. initialled an agreement with Cambodia on March 17 last. The agreement would create a "mixed tribunal'' based in Cambodia to try "senior leaders'' of the Khmer Rouge and ``those who were most responsible'' for genocide and war crimes. The tribunal would have a majority of Cambodian judges and a minority of international judges, working alongside Cambodian and international co-prosecutors. Cambodia's judiciary has been widely condemned by the U.N. and many of its member states for lack of independence, low levels of competence, and corruption.

The U.N. Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, has expressed his unease over the agreement that key U.N. member states had pressured him to sign. The Cambodian Government has also acted hypocritically, signing up to the ICC but refusing to allow ICC principles to be applied to crimes committed on its soil. Nearly two million died from disease and starvation or were executed during the Khmer Rouge rule from1975-79. Not one person has been prosecuted for these crimes. Many Khmer Rouge leaders such as Ieng Sary, Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan live freely in Cambodia as the result of political deals with Mr. Hun Sen.

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