Asia Times: Cambodian plan for Ta Mok trial draws more flak



	April 24, 1999	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

Cambodian plan for Ta Mok trial draws more flak
By Farhan Haq

UNITED NATIONS - Cambodia's plans to try capturedKhmer Rouge leader Ta Mok in a military court are legallyunsatisfactory and the trial will not be fair, AmnestyInternational said in a report released Thursday.

''A domestic trial will not be fair, cannot reveal the truthand does not serve the principles of justice and accountability,''the rights group declared. ''Cambodia deserves better than a showtrial, and this chance will not come again."

In its report, ''No solution to impunity: the case of Ta Mok'',Amnesty contended that the judicial process in Cambodia cannot be regarded as fair, and would deliver a verdict thatwould probably be dismissed as partisan.

Instead, it argued, the United Nations should push for a UNtribunal in a neutral country.

''Amnesty International is concerned that the likely trial ofthe suspect Ta Mok in the Military Court of Cambodia will fallshort of international standards for a fair trial, and will proveno solution to the problem of impunity in Cambodia,'' Amnestysaid.

It cited several breaches of the necessary requirements of afair trial that have already taken place, including the labelingof the suspect as ''criminal Ta Mok'' on Cambodian radio and theplan to try Ta Mok - who was not a member of Cambodia's armedforces - before a military tribunal.

Many human rights groups are worried that the Cambodiangovernment intends to focus on the trial of Ta Mok in an effort to drawattention away from plans for a UN tribunal on all KhmerRouge war crimes.

In February, a three-member panel led by Ninian Stephen warnedthat Cambodia's legal system was not able to conduct fair domestictrials of Khmer Rouge suspects, and that the United Nations shouldnot support them. Instead, the panel said, the best chance for afair trial was through a UN tribunal, possibly in a neutral Southeast Asian country.

''The Cambodian people must have confidence in the fairness ofthe process. Otherwise they will regard this as a partisanpolitical exercise,'' the Stephen panel reported. ''The group has reached the opinion that the Cambodian publicdoes not, at the present time, have such confidence in thejudiciary."

Cambodia's desire for a domestic Khmer Rouge trial received a boost on March 6,when Ta Mok - whose real name is Chhit Choeun - was captured nearthe border with Thailand.

Following the death last year of longtime Khmer Rouge leaderPol Pot, Ta Mok became the most prominent official in themovement, which is blamed for killing some two million Cambodiansduring Pol Pot's 1975-79 regime.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen - who resisted trials ofother Khmer Rouge leaders who laid down their arms - immediatelydeclared that Ta Mok would be tried for crimes against humanity,and asked for UN and international assistance.

His government also offered to allow foreign judges to sit in aCambodian court for the proceedings.

Yet while Hun Sen insisted on a domestic trial for Ta Mok, hetold UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in a letter last month thatCambodia was exploring the possibility of a South Africa-style''truth commission'' to explore other Khmer Rouge crimes.

In Ta Mok's case, the Cambodian government declared in astatement that ''the culprit is a Cambodian national, the victimsare Cambodians, the place of the commission of the crimes is alsoin Cambodia; therefore the trial by a Cambodian court is fully inconformity with the legal process."

The United Nations has not issued any public evaluation of thecredibility of a domestic trial. One UN official, who spoke oncondition of anonymity, said last month that ''the Cambodiansystem is unlikely to meet international standards of justice."

In its report, Amnesty scorned the disparity between theattempt to try Ta Mok and the treatment of other former KhmerRouge leaders who had cut deals with the government.

Ieng Sary, former foreign minister under Pol Pot, defected in1996 and was granted amnesty by Hun Sen and then first primeminister Norodom Ranariddh. Ieng Sary ''was allowed by thegovernment to live in Pailin in northwest Cambodia, in a semi-autonomous zone controlled by his supporters,'' Amnesty noted.

Similarly, the group pointed out, two senior officials whodefected last year - Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea - ''were housedin a luxury hotel at the government's expense, and Hun Sen toldthe press that 'we should dig a hole and bury the past','' it added.

(Inter Press Service)

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