Among
the 4 purposes of the United Nations, under Article 1 of the Charter, maintaining
international peace and security and taking effective collective measures for
the prevention and removal of threats to the peace should not have been
overlooked by people of great mind and intellect when they debate issues
concerning Cambodia, in particular the issues of “the pursuit of justice and
national reconciliation, stability, peace and security.”
It
took many years of negotiations between the Cambodian government and the United
Nations, out of great concerns of fragile peace achieved in the early 90’s and
strong possibilities of the renewal of war between the remnant elements of the
Khmer Rouge forces and the government armed forces, until the two parties have
agreed on the establishment of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of
Cambodia (ECCC) signed on 6 June 2003 and ratified by the Cambodian
National Assembly on 19 October 2004. The mission of the ECCC is to bring
justice to millions of Cambodian people, killed or starved to death by the
Khmer Rouge regime while maintaining peace, security, political stability in
the country.
The
ECCC is a Cambodian court established pursuant to an agreement between the
Royal Government of Cambodia and the United Nations to try senior members of
the Khmer Rouge for serious violations of Cambodian penal law, international
humanitarian law and custom and violation of international conventions
recognized by Cambodia during the period between 17 April 1975 and 6
January 1979.
The
United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution of 18 December 2002 “recognized
the legitimate concern of the government and people of Cambodia in the pursuit
of justice and national reconciliation, stability, peace and security.”
It
is clear from the UNGA resolution, that “the government and people of Cambodia”
must determine the case(s) for trial by the ECCC, not the other way around.
Faithful to the UNGA resolution “The government and people of Cambodia”
have determined that case 001 and case 002 are the subjects of trial by the
ECCC. The judicial process begins with the investigation pertaining to those
cases and followed by due processes established by the ECCC.
The so-called case 003 and case 004
could have been the results of manipulation, pressure and possibly compromise
at the ECCC, which are not in conformity with the UNGA resolution of 18
December 2002. If “the government and people of Cambodia” have never determined
that case 003 and case 004 are subjects of trial by the ECCC, then there are no
case 003 and 004. They are like “virus” that spoils the computer and the whole
system. If this was the case, the debate surrounding judge Blunk resignation,
and the allegation that the Cambodian government is putting pressure on the
ECCC judicial processes are futile exercise of human’s stubbornness of a
certain number of people, lawyers, academicians, leaders of NGOs, who pretend
to seek justice for Cambodian people, but in reality they have the villain
agenda to discredit and to fault the Royal Government of Cambodia. The UNGA
resolution of 18 December 2002 is the bedrock of the ECCC.
The reputation of the ECCC as a
“model court” is well established with case 001 and case 002, and the integrity
of the ECCC has been demonstrated by the conduct of the ECCC in case 001 and
certainly in case 002, which will begin in late November this year.
Lim
Viranary
Cambodian
affairs analyst
Cambodian
Peace and Reconciliation Institute