Khieu Samphan's appeal against pre-trial detention

So Socheath, wife of a former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan, walks into the court room for a hearing at the U.N.-backed genocide tribunal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Friday, April 3, 2009. The U.N.-backed genocide tribunal on Friday opens a hearing of the pre-trial detention of Khieu Samphan who was charged of war crime and crime against humanity. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith, Pool)
Former Khmer Rouge President Khieu Samphan sits in the dock before Cambodia's genocide tribunal rules on an appeal against his third pre-trial detention, on the outskirts of Phnom Penh April 3, 2009. Khieu Samphan is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity.
REUTERS/Heng Sinith/Pool
Khieu Samphan, a former Khmer Rouge head of state, looks on during a hearing at the U.N.-backed genocide tribunal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Friday, April 3, 2009. Khieu Samphan is charged with war crime and crime against humanity. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith, Pool)
Khieu Samphan, a former Khmer Rouge head of state, touches microphone as he sits in a dock during a hearing at the U.N.-backed genocide tribunal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Friday, April 3, 2009. The U.N.-backed genocide tribunal on Friday opens a hearing of the pre-trial detention of Khieu Samphan who was charged of war crime and crime against humanity. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith, Pool)
French lawyer, Jacques Verges, lawyer to Khieu Samphan, a former Khmer Rouge head of state, looks on during a hearing at the U.N.-backed genocide tribunal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Friday, April 3, 2009. The U.N.-backed genocide tribunal on Friday opens a hearing of the pre-trial detention of Khieu Samphan who was charged of war crime and crime against humanity. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith, Pool)

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Tribunal Administrator Answers Allegations

Sean Visoth, the chief administrator of ECCC, is now on medical leave. (Photo: AP)

By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
02 April 2009

With corruption allegations continuing to hound the Khmer Rouge tribunal and with the Cambodian side of the courts continually cash-strapped, the chief administrator said in a rare interview Wednesday the allegations leveled against his office were products of ulterior motives, politics, and even “destructors.”

The man at the center of the court’s corruption woes is Sean Visoth, the director of administration for the tribunal. He has not been to work in four months, even though the tribunal has begun its first trial, of prison chief Duch. He spoke to VOA Khmer by phone from Phnom Penh.

“I can say that this is a power struggle,” he said of allegations his office had mismanaged the tribunal and that Cambodian staff have been forced to pay kickbacks in order to work at the tribunal. “Who controls this court? This issue is what is causing this problem. All these elements are politically motivated.”

By way of explaining, he quoted a Cambodian proverb: “If you want to get a dog killed, say the dog is mad.”

Corruption allegations have followed the tribunal from the get-go, just after the court stood up in 2006. By February 2007, the Open Society Justice Initiative had issued a statement saying its monitors were hearing about kickbacks. And in 2008, several Cambodian whistleblowers reported to the UN they were forced to pay senior officials to keep their jobs. The UN investigated but has not made those findings public.

Sean Visoth said Wednesday he had been to the United Nations in New York twice at the end of 2008, “for discussions,” but he would not elaborate. He denied any allegations of corruption in his office, and said seven different auditing teams had been unable to find evidence to support the claims.

These investigations made a clean bill of health, he said, and the so-called whistleblowers were in fact disgruntled Cambodian staff members who had moved over to the UN side of the court. He declined to say whether he could take legal action against them for their allegations, but said instead the former staff members could “only cheat children” and were “tribunal destructors.”

Meanwhile, he said, the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Service did no t have jurisdiction over his office, which is on the Cambodian side of the UN-backed tribunal.

Still, the allegations have been enough for some donors to freeze funding, and the Cambodian side of the court was only able to pay its staff for March with the help of an emergency $200,000 from Japan.

Sean Visoth said the Cambodian side has always had difficulties with funding, so it would make no difference whether he stepped down amid the allegations. He has been on medical leave since November 2008, but his doctors have not yet cleared him to return to work.

“Since the start-up, this court has not received a big budget package,” he said. The donors “drop [funds] just like they’ve hung up an IV, drop by drop, and wait and see.”

Even in these conditions, he said, the court was able to pass its internal rules more quickly than expected, arrested five suspects in just four months, and had a lower cost and wider public participation than other war crimes tribunals

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Jon Jan Leakina

On 30th has gone to USA for showing on the stage with Mr. Thon tharit Sao Pi, president of one organization More Detail

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Ieng Sary's court appearance for bail appeal

Ieng Sary, center, a former Khmer Rouge foreign minister, stands in the dock in the courtroom for a hearing at the U.N.-backed genocide tribunal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Thursday, April 2, 2009. The U.N.-assisted tribunal represents the first serious attempt to hold Khmer Rouge leaders accountable for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians from starvation, medical neglect, slave-like working conditions and execution. (AP Photo/Chor Sokunthea, POOL)
Former Khmer Rouge Foreign Minister Ieng Sary stands in the dock for his pre-trial public hearing on the outskirts of Phnom Penh April 2, 2009. Cambodia's "Killing Fields" court charged Ieng Sary with crimes against humanity three decades after the end of a regime blamed for 1.7 million deaths. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea
Ieng Sary, right, a former Khmer Rouge foreign minister, looks through a computer as he sits in the dock in the courtroom for a hearing at the U.N.-backed genocide tribunal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Thursday, April 2, 2009. The U.N.-assisted tribunal represents the first serious attempt to hold Khmer Rouge leaders accountable for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians from starvation, medical neglect, slave-like working conditions and execution. (AP Photo/Chor Sokunthea, Pool)
Former Khmer Rouge Foreign Minister Ieng Sary stands in the dock for his pre-trial public hearing on the outskirts of Phnom Penh April 2, 2009. Cambodia's "Killing Fields" court charged Ieng Sary with crimes against humanity three decades after the end of a regime blamed for 1.7 million deaths. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea
Ieng Sary, the Khmer Rouge's foreign minister, looks on as he sits in the dock in the courtroom for a hearing during a U.N.-assisted tribunal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Thursday, April 2, 2009. Sary was charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. (AP Photo/Chor Sokunthea, Pool)

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Debt strains Cambodian New Year celebration

The Cambodian New Year parade on Anaheim Street in Long Beach is still on track for Sunday. But a celebration set for April 25 may be in jeopardy. The organizer of the two events is $40,000 in debt. Festivities from 2007 are pictured. (Jeff Gritchen / Staff Photographer)

04/01/2009
By Greg Mellen Staff Writer
Long Beach Press Telegram (California, USA)

LONG BEACH - Regardless of the weather, the Cambodian New Year parade will step off Sunday attempting to clear a financial fog that surrounds the annual event.

Just last week, the Cambodian Coordinating Council, which organizes the annual parade and a separate New Year's celebration at El Dorado Park on April 25, put the finishing touches on a multi-year payment plan to make up a shortfall of about $40,000. The group has already made a $5,000 payment.

How organizers ended up $40,000 in debt for an event that costs about $40,000 in city fees and for which there are sponsors, fundraising, and - in the case of the El Dorado Park event, a hefty admission charge - depends on whom one asks.

And then there are the looming costs.

In the wake of the economic downturn, leaders of this year's parade and celebration say they are somewhere between $10,000 and $20,000 short of the money they need.

Although the parade is good to go, the April 25 celebration is still in limbo, although leaders assure it will happen.

Much of the parade and celebration leadership this year is new and the group says these board members are bringing new vitality and business acumen to the group. They are promising to open their books and be "transparent," but not quite yet.

Parade organizers say the city boosted its fees for the event last year from about $25,000 to $40,000 and they never recovered. Some say the city never adequately explained why the costs rose so sharply or gave them fair warning.

David Ashman, manager of special events in the city, said in the first few years of the parade the city "capped" its fees. Also, then-6th District City Councilwoman Laura Richardson's office was able to provide help and the parade had several major donors, including Sound Energy Solutions, which has left Long Beach.

"We capped city costs and absorbed costs to help them get on their feet," Ashman said of the first three years. "It was a different time and we could afford to do that."

With the city's burgeoning budget deficit, Ashman says the city can no longer take on those costs, especially in areas such as public safety, public works and traffic management.

"We're under a directive to recover the full costs for those," Ashman said.

Still, the question of how a $15,000 increase in costs translates into a $40,000 deficit is unclear.

Late last year, the city began negotiating the debt with the Cambodian Coordinating Council and settled on the current payment plan.

Some organizers said they had to keep some money in their account for operating expenses and emergencies and they are still working on the books to figure out where the rest went.

Others say money had to be paid up front to put on this year's parade and celebration.

Ashman says about $13,000 has been paid in advance for a traffic vendor and other costs.

Anthony Kim, who is now heading finances, says about $20,000 has been raised this year.

When asked if he worries the celebration may not happen, Kim is adamant.

"It never crossed my mind," Kim says.

Kim and others on the finance committee are trying to raise the needed money and promise they'll get there.

One initiative they are particularly hopeful about is the One Dollar Donation Campaign. They say if every resident went online to their Web site, www.cam-cc.org, and donated $1, the group would be flush.

The cost of putting on the events this year was originally estimated at $44,000, but the Department of Parks, Recreation and Marine has waived a number of rental and application fees and helped organizers find a variety of cost-cutting measures that reduce the bill.

Also, post-parade activities have been moved from MacArthur Park to an empty Redevelopment Agency lot on Anaheim Street and Walnut Avenue to pare costs.

Phylypo Tum said the new board debated whether to drop the parade because of the added costs, but couldn't do it.

"The board decided we owe it to the community. We said, `We'll stick together no matter what it costs."' Tum said.

greg.mellen@presstelegram.com, 562-499-1291

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“Duch must not be sentenced”: Kar Savuth, Duch’s lawyer

Kar Savuth (Photo: ALG, Cambodge Soir Hebdo)

30 March 2009
By Ky Soklim and Adrien le Gal
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Luc Sâr
Click here to read the article in French

According to the Cambodian defense lawyer of the former S-21 boss whose trial is opening on Monday 20 March, it is “impossible” that a sentence could be handed down to his client.

Cambodge Soir Hebdo: How is your client feeling?

Kar Savuth: When his trial started, Duch was very happy and he was not worried at all. He knows that if the tribunal is fair, he will be freed because he is not part of the high-ranking KR officials who should be the only ones to be tried by the KR Tribunal (KRT).Is there still an uncertainty on the sentence that will be handed over to him?

It is possible that there will be sentence. It’s the law. Duch should not be in jail. He did not want to be the chief [of S-21], he wanted to do something else, but he was not allowed to. He told me clearly that he never wanted to be in charge of this place where people were being killed. Who wants to kill human beings? No one! But, what could he do? If he refused to obey the orders, he would have been killed also.

The civil parties want to re-open the investigation to determine if Duch was involved in forced marriages…

It’s too late, the investigations are closed. In any case, forced marriages were done everywhere under the KR regime. They should not accuse Duch who is only obeying his bosses.

You fought so that Duch is not charged with “participation in joint criminal enterprise”…

This charge is not right. In any case, there were 196 jails in the country. It is unfair to accuse Duch. In his center, 12,381 people died, whereas in other jails, more than 150,000 died… We seek justice. Duch is a scapegoat, others who killed are still roaming free.

You were Hun Sen’s lawyer… How do you get along with François Roux who, in France, defends civil disobedience followers?

François Roux and I, we have the same strategy. But, it is wrong to say that I defend only people close to power. I am interested in important affairs, and I defended the KR since 1982. Duch must have heard about me, and that’s why he chose me. The other people charged were also interested [in me], but we can only defend one of the accused.

As Cambodian, do you consider yourself a victim of the KR regime?

Yes, I am victim. But, I don’t have a grudge against Duch, nor the other four who were charged. I am not angry against the minor officials, I am angry against those who issued orders, i.e. Pol Pot. The others were only following orders.

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Khmer Rouge prison chief on trial

30 March 2009
AFP

PHNOM PENH : The Khmer Rouge regime's prison chief finally stood trial on Monday for Cambodia's "Killing Fields" atrocities, accused of overseeing the torture and execution of 15,000 people three decades ago.
Former teacher Kaing Guek Eav -- better known as Duch -- appeared before a UN-backed war crimes court set up to deal with senior members of the 1975-1979 communist movement which killed up to two million people.

Wearing a white striped shirt, the frail 66-year-old heard charges that prisoners at the notorious Tuol Sleng prison he ran were subjected to beatings, suffocation and electrocution before being killed.

"I have already been notified of the charges against me," Duch told the court in response to initial questions, after greeting judges in the traditional Cambodian manner of putting his hands together.

"Before I was arrested by the military court, I was a teacher."

Duch sat in the dock while a clerk read the order charging him with war crimes, crimes against humanity, premediated murder and torture relating to his time as head of Tuol Sleng, also known as S21.

He faces life in prison if found guilty.

"Several witnesses said Duch was feared by everyone at S21. He enforced both the general rules of the (Khmer Rouge) in relation to the security police, as well as strict rules which he devised for the operation of S21," the clerk said.

"In addition to executing prisoners condemned in advance as traitors, an overriding purpose of S21 was to extract confessions from prisoners in order to uncover further networks as possible traitors."

The clerk said Duch permitted his staff to use torture techniques including beatings, electrocutions, placing plastic bags over prisoners' heads or pouring water into their noses.

Prosecutors and defence lawyers will make their opening statements for the trial on Tuesday and Duch is expected to apologise in court later this week. The trial is expected to last several months.

"It's certain that he will use the opportunity given to him to speak to the judges, to the victims and, beyond that, with the Cambodian population," Duch's French lawyer Francois Roux told AFP.

But many of the hundreds of Khmer Rouge survivors who watched the hearing behind bulletproof glass in an auditorium appeared reluctant to forgive the past.

"I am angry because they killed my wife, and I am happy because I have the court to try Khmer Rouge leaders," said Bou Meng, one of the handful of people who survived Tuol Sleng because his artistic skills were useful to the regime.

Duch, who became a born-again Christian while in hiding in the 1990s, previously told investigators that the decision to arrest people and send them to Tuol Sleng was made by the Khmer Rouge central committee.

He also denies personally torturing or executing prisoners, although he has consistently accepted responsibility for the atrocities at Tuol Sleng.

Many Cambodians believe the controversial tribunal, established in 2006 after nearly a decade of negotiations between Cambodia and the United Nations, is the last chance to find justice for the Khmer Rouge's crimes.

The joint trial of four other leaders of the 1975-1979 regime is set to start later this year after Duch's trial is completed, although no date has yet been set.

Tuol Sleng was at the heart of the Khmer Rouge's security apparatus and thousands of inmates were taken from there during Duch's tenure for execution at nearby Choeung Ek, an orchard now known as the "Killing Fields."

Many were allegedly forced to confess that they were spies for the US Central Intelligence Agency, the Soviet KGB or for neighbouring Vietnam.

Led by Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge wiped out nearly a quarter of the population through starvation, overwork and execution as they tried to take society back to a rural "Year Zero" in a tragic spin-off to the Vietnam War.

Pol Pot died in 1998.

Duch has been detained since 1999, when he was found working as a Christian aid worker in the jungle, and was formally arrested by the tribunal in July 2007. He was indicted last year.

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