On April 4

On this day in ...
... 1976 (35 years ago today), the man who'd been a "virtual prisoner" since the Khmer Rouge takeover the previous year, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, was forced to resign his position as Cambodia's head of state. Within days Khmer Rouge leader Khieu Samphan (right) would be named "Chairman of the State Presidium," and his colleague, Pol Pot, Prime Minister. As IntLawGrrls have posted in our Khmer Rouge accountability series, Pol Pot is dead, but Khieu Samphan awaits trial before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. (photo credit)

(Prior April 4 posts are here, here, here, and here.)

This Month at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal

February has seen several interesting developments at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), which is finally beginning to look like a serious court, with hearings and investigations, and . . .
Defense Tactics

Just yesterday, Jacques Verges (aka the "Devil's Advocate") announced that his client Khieu Samphan, the president during the Khmer Rouge regime, will no longer cooperate with the court. Samphan is apparently refusing to speak to court officials until the thousands of pages of evidence against him -- presumably written in his native tongue, Khmer -- are translated into French, the language spoken by Verges. This is perhaps the ultimate irony from Samphan, the head of a regime that killed those who spoke a foreign language because such individuals were viewed as "class enemies." Moreover, Verges demanded a translation of the court documents, which are in English, into French, so that he can adequately defend his client.

Victim Participation

In a more heartening development, for the first time in any international criminal proceeding, victims participated as civil parties in the public hearing of the pre-trial detention of Nuon Chea, head of the Khmer Rouge security committee. Theary Seng (pictured at right), who at age 7, along with her 4-year-old brother, was "shackled and held under inhumane conditions in a Khmer Rouge prison", confronted Chea in court, asking him who was responsible for these abuses and the deaths of her parents. Under the ECCC's internal rules, civil parties have the right to participate in the investigation, be represented by a lawyer, call witnesses and question the accused at trial, and claim reparations. Victims can also participate in more traditional roles -- as witnesses and by providing the prosecutors with factual information. The court is currently processing over 500 complaints providing volumes of information for the investigatory phase of the trials.

Expanded Budget

But of course, with this progress comes the request for more funds. While capping the number of expected prosecutions at eight, the court has tripled its budget estimate, seeking to extend the lifespan of the court from December 2009 to March 2011 and to nearly double its staffing levels to 530 people. While the court seems to be moving past the delays that plagued its early years, it still suffers from past allegations of corruption, and additional funding proposals will need to provide thorough and convincing explanations of how the court will avoid such problems in the future.

See you in court!

This week, almost 30 years after the end of the Khmer Rouge regime, the co-prosecutors for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) announced the filing of their introductory submission to the co-investigating judges. While the exact contents of the submission are confidential, the prosecutors revealed that they had identified five suspects responsible for atrocities including crimes against humanity, genocide, murder, and torture. Given that the court's scope is limited to senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge, there are four likely candidates: Nuon Chea, a.k.a. "Brother Number Two", Pol Pot's right-hand man and the alleged architect of Khmer Rouge ideology; Khieu Samphan, the head of state and spokesperson for the Khmer Rouge; Ieng Sary, the Khmer Rouge Minister of Foreign Affairs; and Kaing Khek Iev, a.k.a. Duch, the head of the Khmer Rouge's main torture center, Tuol Sleng. What is their response to the upcoming trials? Chea claims that, as president of the National Assembly, he did not know what the government was doing and had no intention to kill his people. Asserting that the tribunal members couldn't know what happened because they weren't there and that it's hard to remember what happened 30 years ago, Chea chuckled and said, "See you in court." Similarly, Samphan has asserted that he was a leader only in name and never conspired to kill the Cambodian people -- and that his mind is confused. He has reportedly signed on his old friend Jacques Verges, with whom he studied at the Sorbonne, to defend him. Sary also refuses to acknowledge his responsibility for the crimes of the Khmer Rouge, claiming that he did not know about the killings and "was only in charge of foreign affairs." Faced with over 14,000 pages of documentary evidence, it may be difficult for these three to maintain their claims of ignorance for long. Duch, who has been in prison since 1999, may be the only one of the four who welcomed the news of the trial. A warmer welcome, of course, came from Cambodians who suffered under the Khmer Rouge regime, including one who stated, "I am delighted they will be brought to trial, because they have caused the death of more than 30 of my relatives." Given the deaths of Pol Pot, a.k.a. "Brother Number One" and Ta Mok, a.k.a. "the Butcher", the identity of the fifth suspect is not yet clear.