Checking in with the Khmer Rouge Tribunal

by Kate Cronin-Furman

categories: Cambodian Genocide, Peace & Justice

Published October 22, 2009 @ 08:00AM PT

What hasn't gone wrong at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal*?  No, seriously.  It's pop quiz time:

Which of the following didn't happen over the last year?

(a) A corruption scandal over allegations that local staffers were forced to kick back portions of their salaries to senior tribunal officials;(b) Statements by Prime Minister Hun Sen suggesting (threatening?) that attempts to expand the the list of indictees were likely to produce another bloody civil war;
(c) Tribunal cursed to seventh circle of hell by very angry defendant;
(d) International Co-Prosecutor's resignation in protest after being mauled by Prime Minister's pet tiger;
(e) a and b.
(f) a, b, and c.
(g) I'm pretty sure all of that happened, even the totally ridiculous thing about the tiger.

The correct answer is (f).  (Hun Sen does not, to my knowledge, have a pet tiger, but Ieng Thirith definitely cursed the whole enterprise during a hearing earlier this year.)  And things show no sign of improvement, given the recent reaction to a summons for six senior government officials to appear as a witnesses in the Tribunal's second case.  Hun Sen would apparently prefer they not testify.  His argument?  That the role of the officials in the process of overthrowing the Khmer Rouge and, nearly 30 years later, setting up the Tribunal, renders them ineligible to testify because "turning the plaintiffs into witnesses would doom the accused."

Quick show of hands:  Who's convinced by this sudden interest in fair trial rights for the accused?  I'm not, but I suspect that the defendants will be spared the presence of the ministers anyway.  One of them has already indicated that he will likely be washing his hair that day.

The Tribunal's troubles are not only a problem for the victims, who have waited a really long time for justice, but also for the advancement of international criminal law.  The Phnom Penh Post reports that a number of victims have raised allegations that they were subjected to forced marriages.  Earlier this year, the Special Court for Sierra Leone handed down the first ever convictions for forced marriage as a distinct crime under international law.  A decision by the Cambodian Tribunal's Trial Chamber to add forced marriage to the list of crimes against humanity under its jurisdiction could be an important step in the growth of this emerging legal norm.  But it's hard to take seriously a court that is so obviously beholden to political imperatives, and the ongoing corruption issues will seriously hamper the Tribunal's ability to contribute to the development of international law.

[Photo by Albeiro Rodas, Wikimedia Commons: Rests of victims of the Khmer Rouge in the Kampong Trach Cave, Kiry Seila Hills, Rung Tik (Water Cave) or Rung Khmao (Dead Cave), 45 kilometers at the east of Kampot City, south of Cambodia. Although the goverment gathered most of the rest in the late 1990's, still some of them in the cave.]