2. What should the UN do to ensure that the Tribunal fulfills its mandate of prosecuting those "most responsible"?

3. What, in your eyes, is the biggest challenge for the tribunal in coming months?

4. If case 003 and 004 do not go ahead, is this justice for the people?

No.  We the victims are not naive in demanding perfect justice.  I liken "justice" and "international standard" of justice to "wine".  We are not demanding the high-end Chateau Margaux; we would have been satisfied with table wine.  But don't try to give us the chemical mixture Randonal and tell us it is wine.  Besides condescending, it's outright deceit.

The KRT is already so limited in its scope, even without all the political foul play.  It has tried one man who time and again confessed, in addition to the mounds of evidence against him (both human and documentary).  Case 002 is a fraction of a fraction of the original indictment (closing order), that only of Phase I Movement.  Without investigations into Cases 003/4 (or the sealing of existing documents on Cases 003/4), the Cambodian people/victims will be the losers.  Even if the cases don't move forward after its investigations due to political obstacles, at least the UN should push for them (as part of the withdrawal strategy) so that in the future we have public access to the documents in our educational outreach with the population.

And if this is case, which is turning into the case, we the Cambodian victims will be left with political propaganda.  What is propaganda?  Crumbs of truths (benefits) manipulated for a larger political narrative.  At this moment in time, there is only one narrative, and that is one the government controls.  Everything else cannot compete with the resources and the momentum given by history to the official narrative, which is this political propaganda.

Is there anything the UN can do to restore its legitimacy?

In the interim, push for as many benefits and protect those benefits so we can mine them after the withdrawal, e.g. in pushing for investigations into Cases 003/4, we will have the benefits of their investigations and the existing documents will be freely public, rather clandestinely public as they are now.

Another example is the fragmented information coming out of 002 hearings on Phase I Movement.  And of course, before UN withdrawal, SECURE THE ECCC INVENTORY worth in the millions for the VICTIMS. We can use the hundreds of computers, laptops, printers, desks, chairs, tables, vehicles--the fact that they're used in one sense works to our advantage in their non-intimidation when in the provinces for rural villagers.

. . .

Duch Final Decision

Friday, 3 February 2012

Final Pronouncement of Supreme Court Chamber of ECCC

(Theary C. Seng's interview with a prominent international news company)

I just returned from the ECCC to attend the final appeal pronouncement of the Duch sentencing (I purposely avoided the word "verdict" because the whole of Case 001 has been on sentencing and not on whether Duch is guilty or not, as he confessed time and again).

The ECCC's final pronouncement on Duch was extremely disturbing! I agree with the life sentence as that accords with the gravity of his crimes. That is not the issue.

But what I find extremely disturbing are several things:

One, the majority of the judges (4 Cambodian + one Japanese) overturned the Trial Chamber's acknowledgement of Duch's confession and cooperation as well as his illegal pre-trial detention by the Cambodian Military Court. That is to say, this final verdict failed to account for his genuine confession, his consistent cooperation, and his illegal detention by the Military Court in 1999 until his pre-trial detention by the ECCC in 2007.

The legal implication carries dangerous consequences for the Cambodian national court system in the embedding of persistent violation of fair trial rights and due process, especially on the violation of pre-trial detention rights which is an abhorrent and pervasive problem in the national court system that we want change in our society.

Two, the sentencing appeases the emotional sentiments of victims in handing out the most extreme sentence ("extreme" not in being giving "life" which is appropriate but with no acknowledgment of important mitigating factors, e.g., confession, cooperation, illegal detention), which aligns with political will of this current Cambodian government, that is to make Duch, a small fish (not a senior KR leader) who would be the star witness in Case 002, the sole scapegoat of this KR regime. In light of extremely delayed, extremely fragmented condition of Case 002, involving the 3 senior KR leaders, which is the heart of the KR crimes and justice, Duch will effectively be the sole scapegoat of all KR crimes and atrocities.

I am extremely disturbed because today's final closure on one case involves a man who was not a senior KR leader; Duch was the director one prison, among 200 KR prisons. Where I was detained as a child of 7 years old, DC-Cam estimated 30,000 were believed to have been killed there, including my mom. But this and similar other prisons will never get a hearing!

Also the fact that this minor case of Duch (in comparison to case 002 involving 4 then 3 senior KR leaders and in light of the 5 charged persons in cases 003/4) took 6 years, almost all the resources and attention is extremely disturbing in its furthering of this current regime's propaganda to re-write history according to its resources and brute power, that is, to be known as the regime which put the KR on trial and in the process whitewash its own KR history and crimes.

Very, very disappointing and extremely upsetting by the political outcome.

May I add that the majority of judges' decision to leave the illegal detention to the national court system is quite baffling and abdication of responsibility, as what's then the point of having the ECCC??? After $200,000,000??? After years of negotiation with UN??

We already know about the problems laden with the national system!!!

- Theary C. Seng, 3 Feb. 2012