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JANUARY 28, 2000 VOL. 26 NO. 3
In Search of Due Process
Little movement in the U.N.-Cambodia deadlock
By DOMINIC FAULDER
When Japanese Prime Minister Obuchi Keizo, along with his Cambodian counterpart Hun Sen, detonated explosives at a mock minefield near Siem Reap on Jan. 12, he was dispatching more than landmines carefully prepared for the occasion. Was Obuchi signalling the end of Japan's postwar history of diplomatic reticence. His three-day visit to Cambodia was the first by a Japanese leader in 43 years and was part of a landmark tour of Southeast Asia, including Laos and Thailand. During the visit, Obuchi indicated that Japan was now prepared to take on a more positive leadership role in the region and act as a standard-bearer for Asian interests.
The new approach appeared to bear fruit even before Obuchi finished his tour. Emerging from talks with the Japanese PM, Hun Sen announced that he would make another concession in the ongoing wrangle with the United Nations over the Khmer Rouge tribunal - namely, that the number of investigating judges in the trial would be raised to two, with one of them being a foreigner. Whether the U.N. accepts the concession - cosmetic in the eyes of many - remains to be seen, but Hun Sen's action marks a small movement in what has become a political and diplomatic quagmire. (Indeed, this month both sides could not even agree on whether further talks to break the deadlock should be held in New York or Phnom Penh.)
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The U.N., which rightly views Cambodia's judiciary as corruption-ridden and controlled by Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party, is demanding an at least equal role in the process. But however much it would like to be involved, the U.N. cannot lend its name to proceedings if there is any risk of a sham. A particular concern is that Khmer Rouge leaders who have come over to Hun Sen's side - former foreign minister Ieng Sary, for one - might escape indictment.
For his part, Hun Sen, whose disdain for the world body is rooted in its failure to sanction the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s and '80s, is resistant to any arrangement that might compromise his nation's sovereignty and his control over the process. "They are just too far apart," comments one foreign observer. Julio Jeldres, official biographer to Cambodia's King Norodom Sihanouk, offers a gloomy prediction: "The international-standard tribunal that we all want will not happen."
On Jan. 6, Hun Sen's cabinet endorsed a draft law for the tribunal that contained some concessions. Cambodian judges would have a simple majority in the courts, but all decisions would require their full agreement, plus that of at least one foreign judge. More significantly, the law allows for two prosecutors - one Cambodian, one foreign - both of whose assents would be required when determining who should be indicted. (The original draft presented to U.N. officials last year did not provide for a foreign prosecutor.)
The concessions do not go far enough for the U.N.; for one thing, it wants each of the two prosecutors to have the power to indict. But even if the U.N. rejects Hun Sen's package, all is not lost. The draft law, which is to be presented to Cambodia's National Assembly shortly, leaves the door open for foreign judges to be supplied on a bilateral basis by concerned powers. The U.N. could still lobby for distinguished foreign jurists to be enlisted, without the danger of its name being sullied should the tribunal go off the rails. Experts from France, India, Russia, Australia and the U.S. have already had some discreet involvement outside the U.N. framework without undermining it.
The determining element in the fairness and credibility of the trial will be Hun Sen himself. He craves and needs international credibility - and he must be well aware that a farcical tribunal will forever deny him any realistic chance of attaining it.
>> Click here for the exclusive interview with Hun Sen
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