Khmer Rouge tribunal

Amnesty International has responded to the resignation of German judge Siegfried Blunk by calling on the UN to seek guarantees that Phnom Penh will not interfere in the work of the tribunal in the future. Human Rights Watch called on the world body to conduct a "full investigation" into allegations of political interference. But the judges themselves have been sharply criticized. Last week the US-based group Human Rights Watch called on both Blunk and his co-judge You Bunleng, to resign, saying they had "egregiously violated their legal and judicial duties."

Siegfried Blunk took up the post of international co-investigating judge in December 2010. Since that time he and his Cambodian co-judge You Bunleng have been slammed by the media and rights groups and have been accused of bowing to political pressure from the Cambodian government to undermine two cases – known as Cases 003 and 004 – that the international prosecutor sought to bring against five former Khmer Rouge members.

Mounting pressure to resign

In the last few months the two judges have battled on, seemingly oblivious to their many critics. But on Monday, in a surprise decision, Blunk appeared to buckle under the mounting pressure and announced his resignation. He blamed a series of statements from senior Cambodian government officials that he said could be perceived as interference in Cases 003 and 004. According to Blunk, the last straw came when the Cambodia Daily published a story on October 5 that quoted Foreign Minister Hor Namhong as saying that the decision on whether to arrest more former Khmer Rouge members "is a Cambodian issue (and) must be decided by Cambodia." Earlier this year the Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith had already gone so far as to say that foreigners who wanted to investigate Cases 003 and 004 should "pack their bags and leave."

Blunk claimed he would not let himself be influenced by such statements, but admitted that his "ability to withstand such pressure by (Cambodian) government officials and to perform (my) duties independently could always be called in doubt, and this would also call in doubt the integrity of the whole proceedings in Cases 003 and 004." The Cambodian government has long made clear its position on Cases 003 and 004. In fact just weeks before Blunk took up his position, Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen told visiting UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that he would not allow the court to pursue either case.

Reflecting on these events Blunk said on Monday that he had expected at the time that Hun Sen's comments "did not reflect general government policy." In retrospect this would appear to have been a miscalcuation on the part of the United Nations and Blunk himself.

Interference by the Cambodian government

Late on Monday Ou Virak, the president of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR), said Blunk's resignation "ends any doubt" that the Cambodian government is interfering with the investigations into Cases 003 and 004. "The charade must end," Ou Virak wrote in a statement. "The time is nigh for the UN to re-examine its seemingly compliant relationship with the (Cambodian government)." Ou Virak said if the tribunal door closed "without a full and frank investigation into Cases 003 and 004, the UN will have failed the victims of the Khmer Rouge."

Clair Duffy, a tribunal monitor with the Open Society Justice Initiative, agrees that Blunk's statement clearly pointed the finger at the Cambodian government. "But let's not forget that Judge Blunk himself has been highly implicated in these issues as they've unfolded since he took office last year," she says. From Duffy's perspective the judges "have repeatedly rendered decisions that nobody understands, that are contrary to every legal rule in the book and consistently so – people have walked out of their office left, right and centre." She says a number of questions still need to be answered around what happened in the investigating judges' office. Indeed, criticism of Blunk and You Bunleng has intensified since their April decision to close Case 003 without interviewing the two suspects or most of the witnesses, and without visiting the alleged crime scenes. "How do we secure some hope that these investigations will ever be conducted genuinely and independently even if different judges are appointed into those roles?" Duffy asks.

For its part the UN has consistently declined to say whether it will carry out an investigation into the way the case has been conducted. Martin Nesirky, who is Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman, says "The United Nations has consistently emphasised that the (tribunal) must be permitted to proceed with its work without interference from any entity, including the (Cambodian government), donor states or civil society." He added that the United Nations wanted to ensure that the reserve co-investigating judge – Swiss national Laurent Kasper-Ansermet – was available "as soon as possible." The speed with which this announcement was made does however suggest that the UN was not surprised by the Judge Blunk's decision to quit. There has been no further comment from the United Nations on the way the tribunal has conducted itself.

Author: Robert Carmichael
Editor: Grahame Lucas