Cambodia’s UN-backed war crimes court was rocked yesterday by the second resignation of an international judge in recent months amid a row over whether to pursue more former regime members.
The situation is completely blocked
Swiss co-investigating judge Laurent Kasper-Ansermet said that his authority to investigate possible third and fourth cases at the tribunal had been constantly thwarted by his Cambodian counterpart.
“The situation is completely blocked,” Kasper-Ansermet told AFP.
In October, German judge Siegfried Blunk quit the court, blaming government interference in two potential new cases, in which five mid-level Khmer Rouge members face a string of allegations including mass killings and forced labour during the regime’s 1975-1979 reign of terror.
The UN named Kasper-Ansermet, the reserve judge, as Blunk’s replacement. But Cambodia refused to recognise the appointment, prompting an unprecedented row and forcing the Swiss to work without the support of his Cambodian counterpart You Bunleng.
The judge will stay in his role until May 4. It is unclear whether the UN has a replacement ready, but observers said any future judge would likely face similar difficulties.
“I’m surprised by the resignation but I’m not surprised at what has led to it,” said tribunal monitor Clair Duffy from the Open Society Justice Initiative.
“The UN and donors have to address the heart of the problem: that the Cambodian government is trying to control who this court investigates and prosecutes.”
The court, set up to find justice for the deaths of up to two million people under the hardline communist Khmer Rouge regime, has for years been dogged by claims of political meddling.
The Cambodian government, which includes many former Khmer Rouge members, strongly opposes pursuing more suspects of the regime beyond the current second trial.
The tribunal has so far completed just one trial, sentencing former prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, to life in jail on appeal last month for overseeing the deaths of some 15,000 people at a torture prison.
Duch told the court yesterday that he would help to discover “the truth” in an ongoing second trial against the regime’s three most senior surviving leaders who are accused of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.