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Contributions from
the Column
Tribune
Shared responsibility – or
rhetoric
“Faces turn to stone”
Holding the provate
sector accountable
04/2006
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[ Dealing with the past ]
“Faces turn to stone”
There have been calls for years for a tribunal to pass judgement on the crimes of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. Their regime
of terror claimed two million lives between 1975 and 1979. Coming to terms with such serious crimes is important for fragile
states. Apparently, there is finally some momentum in the matter. Wolfgang Meyer, the country representative of the Konrad Adenauer
Foundation in Phnom Penh, elaborates on the situation.
[ Interview with Wolfgang Meyer ]
It was decided last year to set up a tribunal to try those responsible for the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge regime.
For a long time, that tribunal was not initiated. Why not?
You cannot say that nothing has happened since last year. It was decided that $ 56 million would be needed – $ 43 million to
be put up by the United Nations and $ 13.3 million by the Cambodians. The UN contribution has largely been financed, mostly with
money from Japan. Now, the Cambodian government is refusing to stand by the agreement. It says it can only deploy 1.5 million of
its 13.3 million share and that the rest should be paid by the international community. That is the main reason for the lack
of progress. However, it now appears likely that the “Extrarodinary Chamber in the Courts of Cambodia” will start collecting
evidence this year and proceedings in 2007. It is no longer being heard that Cambodia cannot fund the tribunal.
Was the delay due to political pressure on the Cambodian government? An open debate on China’s support for the murderous
Pol Pot regime is probably not what Beijing is interested in.
From what politicians are saying, it seems the Cambodian government itself does not rank the tribunal among its top priorities.
But the political decision has been taken. The country is ready to conduct this tribunal. So the long-held impression that the tribunal is
unwanted in Cambodia itself needs to be qualified at least. The Cambodian government could have pressed for the tribunal at any time since
1993, but it never did so. It is mostly international pressure that has put the tribunal on the agenda. Whether foreign pressure has also
played a role in holding up its implementation is a matter for speculation. The Chinese certainly have considerable influence on
the Cambodian government. But the Vietnamese are also reported to have strong influence – and they are not likely to be interested
in delaying or blocking the tribunal. After all, it was the Vietnamese, who liberated the country from the rule of the Khmer Rouge.
And how strong is the influence of the donor countries?
The donor countries are in constant contact with the Cambodian government. How much influence they have as a group, or as individual countries,
is hard to say. I presume that pressure is applied but I don’t think their influence is decisive. Japan is the biggest donor, the French play a major
role and Germany’s commitment is also substantial. But I do not see the donor side crucially influencing the tribunal’s progress.
How much progress has been made on the long-controversial matter of the appointment of judges?
You have to remember that tribunal officials need to come from both Cambodia and abroad. Judges, too, have to be recruited from inside and
outside the country, with a Cambodian majority. The United Nations has now invited applications for seats on the tribunal and it can assure
that the positions will soon be filled. The Cambodian government says it has also started recruiting staff and is making intensive efforts in
that direction. The names that have been mentioned so far in the public debate have drawn very loud criticism, however. There is some doubt
at present that any broadly acceptable, high-calibre Cambodian judges are being appointed.
After decades of lawlessness and authoritarian rule, can Cambodia provide a legal base for the tribunal?
Cambodia’s legal system is still woefully underdeveloped. The problem is that different bodies of law overlap. To a certain extent, colonial
law is still being applied and some courts even enforce regulations from the period of Vietnamese dominance in the 1980s. Since 1993, when
the first free elections took place, part of the law has undergone revision, but a new criminal code has yet to be enacted. It still exists only in
draft form.
Does the country have enough qualified lawyers?
There are said to be only around 100 judges in the whole country, along with a similar number of public prosecutors and 250 attorneys. Not
all of the hundred judges have studied law. A number of them are lay judges, with another professional background. Judges are not independent
of the executive; they are appointed by the Ministry of Justice. I have been told by many Cambodians that the practice of “buying” a position in
public service is widespread. That means that admission to the bench can be subject to an admission “charge”, an “investment”, as it were, that
needs to be recouped – which further restricts the independence of the judiciary. Dispensation of justice based on clear laws implemented by an
independent judiciary is thus ensured only up to a point in Cambodia at present. So apart from foreign assistance, there is a need for qualified
international judges to create a tribunal with a high degree of judicial independence.
How important is the tribunal in the eyes of the Cambodian people?
Last year, the “Khmer Institute of Democracy”, which is supported by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, conducted a survey in the country. What it
showed is that the vast majority of Cambodians are in favour of the tribunal and want it conducted as quickly as possible. They thus want those who
were responsible for the atrocities – and are still alive today – to be finally brought to justice.
But the tribunal will open up old wounds. Nearly every Cambodian family suffered under the murderous regime.
Even a quarter of a century on, an icy chill still descends around anyone who broaches the subject today. You see faces turn to stone. People are still
traumatised by what happened – and by the deep divisions that tore many families apart. Most not only had victims in their ranks – but perpetrators,
too. According to a study by the Transcultural Psychosocial Organization, 28 % of all Cambodians suffer from post-traumatic stress: recurring
nightmares, lack of concentration, sleep disorders and signs of clinical depression have become part of their everyday life.
How do you assess the human rights situation in Cambodia?
In November 2004, the US development programme USAID published a study on corruption in the country. It concluded that corruption plays a
dominant role at all levels of government and pushes constitutional standards into the background. Austrian-born Peter Leuprecht, in his last
report as the United Nations special representative for human rights in Cambodia, described numerous shortcomings in the country. But Cambodia
is not a place where large numbers of people are jailed on dubious grounds or murdered en masse for political reasons. Politically motivated murders
are reported in the media but the number of cases is relatively small. However, people are seriously affected by the weakness of the legal system.
The poor have virtually no access to the courts; they cannot afford legal representation. And the rich are widely believed to be able to simply buy
court rulings in their favour.
Please give some examples.
One big problem in Cambodia is “land-grabbing”, illegal land seizures. Potentates lay claim to the land of poor farmers and cannot be effectively
challenged because land records are still incomplete in the wake of the Pol Pot regime. A USAID report estimates that around 20 % of the land is
now registered in the names of one percent of the population. These are moves that can be described as violations of human rights. What is more,
freedom of assembly and freedom to demonstrate are severely restricted. The parliamentary opposition is frequently obstructed.
Questions by Robert Luchs.
Wolfgang Meyer
is the Konrad Adenauer Foundation’s country representative in Phnom Penh.
wolfgang.meyer@kas-cambodia.com
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