Cambodia at loggerheads with UN over Khmer Rouge trials

Appeal … Kaing Guek Eav, who ran the Tuol Sleng prison, in which ''enemies'' of the state were tortured and killed. Photo: AP

Lindsay Murdoch
The Sydney Morning Herald
February 3, 2012

PHNOM PENH: One of the worst mass murderers of the 20th century will learn his fate today at a controversial war crimes tribunal convened to investigate allegations of genocide and other crimes against former leaders of the Khmer Rouge, which ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979.

However, proceedings have thrown the United Nations and the Cambodian government into dispute and hundreds of staff have not been paid for months.

The UN, which wants to prosecute more alleged perpetrators of crimes against humanity, says it is being blocked from doing so by the government.

The decision on an appeal against the 19-year jail sentence for Khmer Rouge executioner and torturer Kaing Guek Eav - better known as ''Duch'' - will be handed down today in the Courts of Cambodia, where the UN-appointed Swiss judge, Laurent Kasper-Ansermet, has been prevented from assuming his official duties.

The judge has been accused of commenting on Twitter about cases the government in Phnom Penh does not want to proceed.

Despite the tribunal costs blowing out to more than $150 million, many of its 300 Cambodian staff have not been paid since October and no money will be available for any of them until at least the end of February, possibly even longer, officials say.

The stand-off over the appointment of the judge has prompted speculation that the UN could withdraw from the proceedings before the trials of three other ageing Khmer Rouge leaders are completed. Including Duch, only four members of the Khmer Rouge government have been charged with any crimes. The UN is insisting that Mr Kasper-Ansermet push on with other prosecutions, including against the former naval commander Meas Muth and former air force chief Sou Met. Meas Muth is now believed to be a high-level adviser to the Cambodian government.

David Scheffer, an American appointed by the UN to advise the tribunal, said Mr Kasper-Ansermet ''has clear authority to fulfil his duties and we look forward to him doing so''.

The Cambodian Prime Minister, Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge cadre, has repeatedly demanded the tribunal undertake no new prosecutions, warning of civil war if more indictments are issued.

The Information Minister, Khieu Kanharith, said on Tuesday that if the UN withdrew from the tribunal, Cambodia would appoint its own judges to hear the remaining cases against the Khmer Rouge's chief ideologue Nuon Chea, the former head of state Khieu Samphan, and the Khmer Rouge foreign minister Ieng Sary.

The 19-year sentence Duch, 69, received after his trial in July 2010 angered many victims of the Khmer's Rouge's rule, during which an estimated 1.7 million people were executed or died from starvation or disease.

But Duch, the head of Tuol Sleng prison, claimed during an appeal hearing last year he would not have survived the brutal regime unless he ''respectfully and strictly followed orders''.

Hundreds of victims have registered to witness the appeal verdict at the tribunal on the outskirts of Phnom Penh and then attend a ceremony later today at the nearby Choeung Ek ''killing fields'' where the Tuol Sleng victims were buried.

Prosecutors have argued the jail term imposed on Duch, which took into account time already served, should be increased because of the shocking crimes he was responsible for and because he had shown no remorse.

Trial observers say it is unlikely that Duch will go free.

Since he was found working as a Christian aid worker in the Cambodian jungle in 1999 he has repeatedly admitted his role at Tuol Sleng, also known as S-21.