I am still in two minds about all this. I mean, justice is good, but US$56 Million to bring 3 or 4 people to justice just seems absurd / bizarre / ludicrous …
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Reuters
PHNOM PENH — A lawyer defending one of Pol Pot’s surviving henchman said yesterday his client could not get a fair trial because nearly all Cambodian judges on the Khmer Rouge tribunal had lost relatives in the genocide.
Kar Savuth, lawyer for the notorious prison commander Duch, said he would boycott the trials of surviving Khmer Rouge leaders accused of responsibility for the deaths of 1,7-million people.
“How do you expect Cambodian judges, whose relatives died under the Khmer Rouge, to pass fair judgment on my client?” he said.
“Of course they will give my client severe punishment, so I will boycott the trial.”
Almost every Cambodian family lost relatives under the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge regime and none of its top leaders, some of whom are still alive, has faced trial.
Pol Pot, “Brother Number One”, died in 1998, nearly a decade after a Vietnamese invasion ousted the regime.
“Brother Number Two” Nuon Chea, former head of state Khieu Samphan, and former foreign minister Ieng Sary are living in the northwest near the Thai border.
On Monday, 17 Cambodian and 10 foreign legal experts were appointed to the tribunal and they promised to be impartial. Tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath said the Cambodian judges “will use the law to judge the Khmer Rouge, not their emotions”.
The trials could begin early next year. Only two top cadres are in custody, accused of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.
Duch ran the Tuol Sleng interrogation centre where few prisoners survived after the Khmer Rouge took power following a civil war. The other detained cadre is Khmer Rouge military chief Ta Mok.
Ta Mok’s lawyer, Benson Samay, said he was more worried about getting the trials under way than the potential bias against his client.
“Don’t wait for the Khmer Rouge to die before they get the chance to tell the court what happened,” he said.
2 comments:
Well first of all its 5-10 not 2 or 3.
Secondly 56 million for three years is a pretty cheap court. The former Yugoslavia court is spending 200million a year, Sierra Leone is spending almost 50 million each year. Or, another way to think of it is to note the US is spending 100 million every 2 days in Iraq- you tell me where the waste of money is...
Thirdly lets remember that this will be the first time that these years will be officaly brought to light. The KR period is not even taught in the schools here and there are many kids who do not believe it happened- or worse that now believe that it was all the US or the Chinese- and Pol Pot has simply been misunderstood by history.
Lastly lets also remember that this court will be a big part of the leap forward that the Cambodian judical system must take to join the modern world.
The 56 million is an investment in accountability, in rule of law, and international justice. Not a bad way to spend a fairly small amount of money I'd say.
blah blah blah.
It is not cheap, it is a joke. People staying at Raffles, 30 years after the event, a ridiculously restrictive time period under analysis (’75 to ’79 only)
Ta Mok is now dead – like your own Blog.
To little, to late.
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