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‘The Contemptible Mr Beard’, aka Dutch
International criminal lawyer, Michiel Pestman, reflects on his year in
Cambodia, defending Brother Number Two at the Extraordinary Chambers in
the Courts of Cambodia.
By Lorenza Bacino
Michiel Pestman’s knowledge of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge atrocities
were, by his own admission, confined to the 1984 film, The Killing
Fields. In 2007 that began to change when he was offered the chance to
defend Nuon Chea, otherwise known as Brother Number Two, at the
Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. This joint
Cambodian-UN tribunal was set up nearly a decade ago, to prosecute those
responsible for the deaths of almost two million Cambodians in the
1970s.
It took till 2011 for trial 002 to get underway, and Pestman moved to
the capital Phnom Penh with his family to take up the challenge. But
it’s only upon his return to Amsterdam that he feels free to speak about
the experience.
Hybrid court
The Cambodian regime is able to interfere with and sabotage proceedings to an exasperating degree, precisely because the tribunal is a hybrid court comprised of Cambodian and international staff and rules of procedure.
The Cambodian regime is able to interfere with and sabotage proceedings to an exasperating degree, precisely because the tribunal is a hybrid court comprised of Cambodian and international staff and rules of procedure.
‘Within two weeks of being there I realised the trial was never going
to be over within the six to nine months I’d been promised. All these
trials are the same’, he says wearily. ‘They always last longer than
everyone thinks and they are never as efficient as everyone promises.’
Judicial snake-pit
Since the beginning, the court has been plagued by a series of high-profile resignations, political set-backs and myriad controversies, including questions about who exactly should be prosecuted. An issue not helped by the fact that the leaders of today are barely discernible from the Khmer Rouge leaders of that time. Current leader, Prime Minister Hun Sen is a case in point. He’s dominated the political scene in Cambodia for the past three decades and his leadership has often been shrouded by controversy. Notwithstanding, Pestman insists he went with an open mind. But almost immediately, he was hit with the realisation he’d landed in a snake-pit.
Since the beginning, the court has been plagued by a series of high-profile resignations, political set-backs and myriad controversies, including questions about who exactly should be prosecuted. An issue not helped by the fact that the leaders of today are barely discernible from the Khmer Rouge leaders of that time. Current leader, Prime Minister Hun Sen is a case in point. He’s dominated the political scene in Cambodia for the past three decades and his leadership has often been shrouded by controversy. Notwithstanding, Pestman insists he went with an open mind. But almost immediately, he was hit with the realisation he’d landed in a snake-pit.
He says his client was constantly prevented from speaking, witnesses
were threatened and not allowed to appear in court and the clients are
now so old and frail that it’s unlikely they’ll ever see the end of the
trial.
‘I had no idea before I got there that it was such a repressive
regime’, he says. ‘I have always lived in democracies and I have to say
that even when I worked at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, it was a
haven of free speech compared to what I encountered in Cambodia..’
Veiled threats
The level of government interference had a direct impact on Pestman’s ability to do his job.
The level of government interference had a direct impact on Pestman’s ability to do his job.
‘I was so frustrated at the lack of progress in my case that I
decided to speak out. I filed a criminal complaint at the local court in
Phnom Penh against people in the court and in the government. But I
very quickly received a letter warning me to back off. A judge in the
court came up to me and told me I shouldn’t cycle to work anymore,
because if I got hit by a car, how would they know it was an accident?’.
This was a worrying turn of events, as his family was living there
with him during this time. But he says that as a foreigner, he felt
protected.
‘Hun Sen restrained himself where I was concerned, but he has made
public statements about me personally, and I’m known as ‘the
contemptible Mr Beard’. Pestman explains this could be considered a very
threatening use of the word contemptible as that’s how the Khmer Rouge
referred to their enemies at the time.
Infectious atmosphere
In the wake of events, Pestman has decided to quit. He says he’s struggled right from the start. And although he agrees that the idea of trying people is a positive move to establish accountability and to help the victims, he says the Cambodian regime has too much influence.
In the wake of events, Pestman has decided to quit. He says he’s struggled right from the start. And although he agrees that the idea of trying people is a positive move to establish accountability and to help the victims, he says the Cambodian regime has too much influence.
‘There’s this one-party state and this towering figure of Hun Sen
who’s been in power since the Khmer Rouge regime ended in 1979. Everyone
is terrified of him. He has not shied away from killing members of the
opposition in the past, so it’s not a pleasant atmosphere. I’m not sure
if the court infects Cambodian society or whether society infects the
court - either way, it’s not a shining example for the Cambodian people
and it’s unlikely to have a positive legacy’.
1 comment:
Thank you, Mr. Michiel Pestman. You have done a very good job. We know so well what had been behind the Killing Fields from 1975 to 1979 coming from the Communist Yuon-Yieknam (Communist Vietnam). Those Vietnamese/Yuon folks settled in Cambodia illegally from the beginning and before the war-torn Cambodia under the secret Yuon/Vietnamese hidden agents among Khmer Rouges led by Pot Pot. During the Killing Fields, secret Yuon/Vietnamese agents from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh have been rooting every corner of Cambodia and Cambodian/Khmer society. KR Trial under Yuon/Vietnamese CPP regime control by Vietnamese dog/puppet Hun Sen and his Yuon/Vietnamese masters in Hanoi is always getting the Chinese case or Khmer Rouges instead.
Yuone/Vietnamese CPP killers including the master-minded killers from Hanoi have been still at large or roaming free. It has been wasting millions of dollars to trial the Khmer Rouges by blaming Khmer Rouges and Chinese Communist instead of the real killers coming Khmer Vietminh (Ho Chi Minh) and Yuon/Vietnamese secret agents / Cadres along with the Khmer/Cambodian teenagers (who were brainwashed by Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh masters and master-minded killers.
The UN, EU, USA, Canada, Japan, and more other countries of International Communities have been fooled and misinformed by fake Khmer killers who are secret Vietnamese/Yuon killers (who could speak, write and read Cambodian/Khmer languages so well). Their goal is put Cambodia as a province of Indochina under the Control of Communist Vietnam. That is their mission for many decades or years to come.
Khmer victims of the Killing Fields.
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