PHNOM PENH (Feb. 25) -- After several months of anticipation and a decade of negotiations, initial hearings were held last week in the first trial to be heard by the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, or KRT, in Cambodia. Legal monitors with the Asian International Justice Initiative who are attending the proceedings of this unique hybrid tribunal of the U.N. and Cambodian national courts report that, although the two-day hearings focused largely on procedural issues in the case against Kaing Guek Eav, alias 'Duch,' who has admitted that he ran the Khmer Rouge's notorious S-21 torture center, "the hearings were extremely well attended, with the symbolic opening of the trial garnering exceptional amounts of media attention and attendance by people of all ages and walks of life.
"Perhaps because of this," the monitors state in their first report on the proceedings, "lawyers for the prosecution, defense and civil parties seemed to pepper discussions on largely administrative matters with arguments that invoked the underlying significance of the transitional justice process underway. The court's role in creating history and inspiring reconciliation, as well as ensuring proceedings remained between vengeance and forgiveness, were all considered at points during the debates."
The tribunal monitoring program is a project of the Asian International Justice Initiative, or AIJI, a collaboration between the East-West Center and the War Crimes Study Center at UC Berkeley. Prior to the start of the trial, the AIJI conducted extensive legal trainings for the officers of the court, as well as a public education campaign that included several informational films that were shown on Cambodian television and at screenings throughout the country. Major funding for the project has come from the British Embassy in Phnom Penh.
Now that the tribunal's first trial is getting underway, AIJI monitors will be issuing regular reports, which can be found at http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~warcrime/KRT_reports.html
In their first report, the monitors state that the majority of the discussion at the preliminary hearings in Duch's trial centered on the parties' proposed witness lists. "Civil party lawyers tended to dominate the proceedings, with the four teams responsible for the current 28 accepted victim participants both raising and rebutting the bulk of issues," their report states. "Key issues discussed during the proceedings included the proposed addition of videotape evidence recently discovered by the Office of the Co-Prosecutors. The video in question allegedly shows scenes from the S-21 interrogation center just three days after Vietnamese forces entered Phnom Penh in April 1979.
"Cambodian defense lawyer Kar Savuth argued extensively that the video was political and there was no way of determining its authenticity. A related issue discussed was whether Khmer Rouge child survivor, Mr. Norng Chan Phal, should be allowed to join the proceedings as a civil party. Mr. Phal, who missed the deadline to lodge a civil party application, is reportedly the first known child survivor of S-21. His story surfaced shortly after the previously unseen video footage was released. As with many of the issues tabled during the hearing, the Chamber determined it would decide these matters after further submissions and consideration."
Download the full report at: http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~warcrime/documents/KRT%20Monitor_Report%201.doc
Substantive proceedings in Duch's trial are now scheduled to begin on March 30.
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The Asian International Justice Initiative (AIJI) is a collaboration between the East-West Center and the U.C. Berkeley War Crimes Studies Center. AIJI builds on four year's experience in which the two Centers have worked closely to establish justice initiatives and capacity-building programs in the human rights sector in Asia. The two Centers continue to focus on projects and activities that combine their primary strengths: the regional expertise of the East-West Center and the transitional justice training and research capabilities of the War Crimes Studies Center.