KI Media: “Open letter from the Cambodian Center for Human Rights to the Secretary General of the UN congratula​ting him on his re-electio​n and calling on him to review the nature of the UN’s relationsh​ip with Cambodia” plus 24 more

The Cambodian Center for Human Rights ("CCHR") today, 30 June 2011, releases an open letter written by CCHR President Ou Virak, in his capacity as a civil society leader and as a victim of the Khmer Rouge, to the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, congratulating him on his re-election and calling on him to review the nature of the UN's relationship with Cambodia.

Please find attached this open letter in English. A Khmer translation will follow shortly.

For more information please contact CCHR President Ou Virak at +855 12 40 40 51 or

ouvirak@cchrcambodia.org

More than 30 disabled veteran soldiers from four districts in Siem Reap province continued protests on Tuesday in front of the provincial department of Social Affairs, Veterans, and Youth Rehabilitation, demanding pension payments they claim have been frozen since 2007.

Iet Sivlong, provincial investigator for rights group Licadho, said on Tuesday that the protest began on Monday but dispersed temporarily after the department's director promised to distribute the last six months' worth of overdue payments. The protest resumed after no money was disbursed.

Phea Sophat, director of the provincial Social Affairs Department, said that in 2009 the Interior Ministry had deemed about 2,000 disabled veterans in Siem Reap eligible to receive government pension payments.

"I owe about 2,000 disabled soldiers eight billion riel (US$1,942,219) since 2008. I wrote a letter to the Ministry of Economy and Finance through the Ministry of Social Affairs, but the money is yet to be delivered," he said.

Lim El Djurado, spokesman for the Social Affairs Ministry, said: "The finances are late, requiring [the soldiers] to wait."

He confirmed that the veterans had the requisite documents to receive their payments, and assured them that the Ministry would deliver the pensions soon. "No Ministry officials have exploited that money," he added.

According to a report from the Social Affairs Ministry in March this year, 28,590 disabled soldiers nationwide were receiving government pensions, among a total of 94,169 veterans living in Cambodia.

The British Embassy announced on Tuesday that it would fund two projects to bolster governmental accountability and democracy in Cambodia. The embassy disbursed US$51,537 to the Advocacy and Policy Institute, which will use the money to promote open dialogue between civil society and governmental officials in specific issues areas. A total of $65,392 was also given to the Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia for use in improving the transparency of Cambodia's voter registration process.

On the 4th day of the KRT preliminary hearing held on 30 June 2011, Nuon Chea's defense lawyer informed the court that his client asks that the judges investigate Vietnam's role before and during the Democratic Kampuchea (DK) regime era and not just during the 1975-1979 era alone.

Nuon Chea's lawyer raised the necessity for this investigation because numerous decisions made by the DK regime were taken because of Vietnam's policy.

Nuon Chea said that the bombing [on Cambodia] must be investigated also in order to learn clearly about food [shortage] problem prior to 1975. If it was true, what is its effect on the Cambodian people? Does the DK regime have the ability to resolve this issue or not?

Nuon Chea's lawyer indicated that it is also necessary to investigate the KR army commanders from the eastern zone who [claims that] the cadres have no role to exercise their power.

Nuon Chea also asks for an investigation into Duch's statement claiming that he (Nuon Chea) was savage in the crimes perpetrated in the Tuol Sleng jail.

Khieu Samphan also protested to the hearing chamber saying that the names of his witnesses do not appear the tribunal's roster, but the majority of the prosecution's witnesses are listed. He added that there were some names of his witnesses, but they turn out to be prosecution witnesses for questioning instead. Khieu Samphan promised that he will turn in his list of witnesses in writing one more time. He asked the hearing chamber to listen to his side also if it wants to know clearly because in the past people talked too much about him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9LcraYKyBLU

The Nobel peace laureate and human rights campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi spoke yesterday in a BBC lecture of the vital role played by communications technology in modern democratic uprisings and said she was not morally opposed to the use of violence in exceptional circumstances.

The Burmese opposition leader and general secretary of the National League for Democracy (NLD) has recorded two speeches for the annual BBC Reith Lectures, which were smuggled out of Burma last week.

In the first, which will be broadcast on Radio 4 next Tuesday, Ms Suu Kyi compared the 23-year struggle to win democracy in Burma to the fast-moving revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt and said that the widespread availability of internet-based technology in the Arab world had been a crucial factor in the success of those movements.

The lecture was broadcast yesterday to an invited audience at Broadcasting House in London. Afterwards, speaking from a secret location in Rangoon, Ms Suu Kyi told presenter Sue Lawley that, just as Nelson Mandela had altered his position on political protest, "it's possible" she might change her longstanding commitment to non-violence.

"I have said in the lectures I do not hold to non-violence for moral reasons but practical and political reasons," she said. She said Mahatma Gandhi, the "father of non-violence", had "said that between cowardice and violence he would choose violence any time".

Ms Suu Kyi, who was 66 last Sunday, the first birthday she has celebrated as a free woman in nearly a decade following her release from house arrest last November, said the Burmese people wished to emulate the success of Arab democratic movements.

"The similarities between Tunisia and Burma are the similarities that bind people all over the world who yearn for freedom," she said. But two key differences had ensured that "the outcomes of the two revolutions have been so different", she added.

"The first dissimilarity is that while the Tunisian army did not fire on their people, the Burmese army did. The second, and in the long run probably the more important one, was that the Tunisian revolution enjoyed the benefits of the communications revolution and this not only enabled them to better organise and co-ordinate their movements, it kept the attention of the whole world firmly focused on them. Not just every single death but every single [person] wounded can be made known to the world within minutes."

Speaking from a simple room decorated with a single vase of flowers and wearing an orange-coloured blouse, she said that "in Libya, in Syria and in Yemen now, the revolutionaries keep the world informed of the atrocities of those in power" and that "communications means contact".

During the Q&A, she said the Burmese uprising of 1988 might have been successful if the world had seen what was happening. "The communications revolution made a lot of difference [in Tunisia]," she said, noting that although the Burma uprising was "much worse" in terms of violent repression, it had gone unreported.

"The shooting and the lack of images throughout the whole world had a lot to do with the way which our revolution has been going on for such a long time," Ms Suu Kyi said.

In Tunisia and Burma, young people had played a pivotal role in the uprisings, she said, applauding the influence of "young rappers" in Burma. "For those who believe in freedom, young rappers represent a future unbowed by... oppression and injustice."

During the live session, Aung San Suu Kyi was in the company of the BBC World Affairs Editor John Simpson. She said that in making her broadcasts she was "exercising my right to freedom of communication".

She spoke on the nature of being a dissident and talked with fondness of her colleagues in the NLD headquarters. "Their weapons are their faith, their armour is their passion," she said. Dissidents had chosen their path, she said, but "it's not a decision made lightly – we do not enjoy suffering, we are not masochists".

In a passionate address she quoted Czech dissident Vaclav Havel, the English poet William Henley and the Russian poet Irina Ratushinskaya, finishing with lines from Rudyard Kipling's The Fairies' Siege. In the second lecture, which will be broadcast on 5 July, Aung San Suu Kyi will speak of the forces aligned against her National League for Democracy.

Burma's national hero and democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has called the protests sweeping the Arab World an "inspiration" to the Burmese people.

"The universal human aspiration to be free has been brought home to us by recent developments in the Middle East. The Burmese are as excited by these events are as people elsewhere," Suu Kyi said in a BBC radio interview to be broadcast Tuesday, AFP reports.

The interview is part of a series of BBC Reith lectures that Suu Kyi has given.

"Unable to broadcast in Burma, she agreed to meet a small team of BBC journalists and engineers who entered the country illegally in order to record her two lectures and smuggle out the tapes. These were played to a small invited audience in London last week, and at the end Aung San Suu Kyi answered questions live by satellite phone, installed by BBC News," the Guardian reports.

Burma, also known as Myanmar, has been ruled by a dictatorship since 1962.

In the interview, Suu Kyi compared the battles in the Middle East against oppressive, authoritarian regimes to her own people's efforts to overthrow their government.

Burmese took to the streets in 1988 and again in 2007 to demand political reform and regime change. Both times, government forces gunned down peaceful demonstrators.

"Why is the Arab Spring an inspiration to the Burmese? Because we have lived it ourselves," the Nobel laureate said in the interview. "We in Burma envy Egypt's quick and easy revolution."

In the interview, Suu Kyi, 66, makes comparisons between Tunisia's December revolution that overthrew its government, and Burma's protests in 1988, Reuters reports. She said both started with small, seemingly unimportant events that turned into national calls for freedom.

A major difference, she said, is that the Tunisian army did not fire on its own people, whereas the Burmese one did. Tunisia also had more advanced communications.

"The second [difference], and in the long-run probably the more important one, is that the Tunisian revolution enjoyed the benefits of the communications revolution.

"This not only enabled them to better organize and coordinate their movements. It kept the attention of the whole world firmly focused on them," she said.

Suu Kyi also makes the point in the interviews that she does not hold her supporters to non-violence, the Guardian states.

The Guardian reports that Suu Kyi may be using these BB lectures to inject new energy into her supporters in Burma and abroad.

HONG KONG—Former Bond girl Michelle Yeoh, who plays Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in an upcoming biopic, says she is "saddened" by her recent deportation from the country. 

The 48-year-old Malaysian actress arrived in the country's main city, Yangon, on June 22 and was deported the same day because she was on a blacklist, a government official said Tuesday.

In her first comment on the deportation, Yeoh said in a statement Thursday that she was "shocked and terribly saddened by the action." She said she harbors no ill will and remains fond of Myanmar and its people.

Yeoh said she was treated "cordially" by immigration officials in Yangon but wasn't given a reason for her deportation. Myanmar's repressive government has rejected visa requests from journalists and perceived critics for years.

The star of films such as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," "Memoirs of a Geisha" and the James Bond movie "Tomorrow Never Dies" was making a "private trip as a tourist," assistant Kit Wong told The Associated Press in an email.

"I continue to cherish hopes to see this country continue its progress toward peace and democracy and to be able to return soon," the Malaysian star said in her statement.

Yeoh visited Myanmar in December to meet with Suu Kyi but her portrayal of the democracy icon in the Luc Besson picture "The Lady" was shot in Thailand. The movie is scheduled to be released later this year.

Suu Kyi, 66, spent most of the last two decades detained by the former military junta. She was released last year, just days after elections that her party boycotted and in which she was barred from being a candidate.

The elections were the nation's first in 20 years, and in March, the junta handed power to a nominally civilian government. But critics say little has changed and the new government is merely a front for continued rule by the army, which took power in 1962.

Seven Khmer Kampuchea Krom asylum seekers who were deported to Cambodia last week by Thai immigration authorities left temporary shelter at an NGO in Banteay Meanchey province on Monday in order to seek work.

"Three people went back to work in Thailand, three ... in Phnom Penh and one person went to Pailin," Chea Sokun, provincial secretary general for NGO Independent Democratic of Informal Economic Association, said yesterday.

He said last week that the seven were part of a group of 57 Khmer Krom asylum seekers deported from Thailand in 2009 while waiting for their refugee applications to be processed.

"Khmer Krom" or "Khmer Kampuchea Krom" are terms for ethnic Khmers who live in or have roots in Southern Vietnam.

Deportee Yang Son told The Post last week that the seven had crossed into Thailand because the Cambodian government had yet to award them citizenship.

Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker Yont Tharo, who is also president of the Khmer Krom Cultural Centre, said yesterday that he had not met with the deportees.

Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak could not be reached for comment by The Post.

The number of the critically endangered vultures in Cambodia has declined 7.6 percent to 267 in June this year from 289 at this time last year, according to the vulture census released on Thursday.

The census was conducted by Cambodia Vulture Conservation Project (CVCP) in cooperation with the ministries of environment and agriculture.

Song Chansocheat, the manager of CVCP, said the census had been done simultaneously on June 10 and 20 in seven different jungles in the provinces of Preah Vihear, Stung Treng, Mondolkiri and Rattanakiri, where the vultures are living.

The vulture census was held by lying out cattle carcasses for vultures to eat and then the vulture population had been counted.

"The census is not 100 percent accurate; however, we can conclude that the number of vultures has been declining in Cambodia," he said.

In an effort to save this critically endangered bird in Cambodia, the CVCP has killed a cow in each of the seven places every month in order to feed those vultures, he added.

Reporter: Robert Carmichael

Speakers: Michael Karnavas, defence lawyer for Ieng Sary; William Smith, deputy international prosecutor; Clair Duffy, observer for Open Society Justice Initiative.

CARMICHAEL: In 1996 the Khmer Rouge foreign minister Ieng Sary defected to the Cambodian government. His move precipitated the end of the Khmer Rouge movement.

Ieng Sary's decision was timely -the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 meant that proxy players in the Cold War struggle, such as the Khmer Rouge, ran out of patrons like the United States. Ieng Sary had seen the writing on the wall.

His defection was sweetened by the Cambodian government. Ieng Sary received a royal pardon for the death penalty that a 1979 tribunal in Phnom Penh had handed down to him in absentia. That tribunal had been established in 1979 by the new Cambodian government just months after it drove the Khmer Rouge from power.

The remnants of Pol Pot's movement had fled west to the Thai border, where they found sanctuary and support during the final decade of the Cold War.

As part of that 1996 deal, Ieng Sary received a second sweetener an amnesty from prosecution under a law that made membership in the Khmer Rouge a criminal offence.

This week the international tribunal where Ieng Sary is on trial with three other surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge movement for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, heard arguments for and against that amnesty.

Ieng Sary's defence team argued that the UN-backed court was essentially a national court, and therefore had to abide by the law that granted his client that amnesty.

Michael Karnavas is Ieng Sary's international defence lawyer.

KARNAVAS: Mr. Ieng Sary has abided by all of the conditions of the amnesty, and the amnesty itself as I have indicated brought fruit the very fruit that it was intended to bring - Peace to Cambodia - because as after that, the rest either put down their arms or just gave up.

CARMICHAEL: Ieng Sary's defence team said their client's 1996 defection was contingent upon no further prosecutions - and therefore he should not be on trial. Karnavas also cited the example of Sierra Leone in support of amnesty. He said the United Nations had not objected to amnesties agreed in that West African state when it established a tribunal for crimes against humanity committed there.

KARNAVAS: And I mention this and I highlight this because it demonstrates that even for the crimes for which Mr Ieng Sary is charged, even for these sorts of crimes national jurisdictions are permitted to grant amnesties and there is no international prohibition, or customary international law, prohibiting this.

CARMICHAEL: Unsurprisingly, the prosecution disagrees. Deputy international prosecutor William Smith listed a number of reasons why Ieng Sary's amnesty was invalid, adding that international precedent compelled that the judges set it aside.

In summary, said Smith, the 1996 deal was never intended to provide an amnesty for genocide and other serious crimes.

SMITH: Again for arguments sake, if your honours found it did, this chamber has the discretion to reject such an amnesty on the basis that it did not comply with international treaty obligations and customary international law on the issue. It should also be rejected because of this court's obligation as an internationalized court to uphold principles in treaties and conventions, the purpose of which is to protect humanity.

CARMICHAEL: Clair Duffy, who monitors the trial for the Open Society Justice Initiative, said the prosecution's arguments against the amnesty were compelling.

DUFFY: The full reason that we set up courts like this is to end impunity for international crimes. And from what we've seen, many other courts have read these kinds of amnesty provisions down for that very reason.

CARMICHAEL: The UN-backed tribunal estimates that between 1.7 million and 2.2 million people died during the Khmer Rouge's rule of Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. The three other accused in the dock with Ieng Sary are party ideologue Nuon Chea, known as Brother Number Two; former head of state Khieu Samphan; and the former Social Affairs minister Ieng Thirith.

This week's hearings are preliminary, and are dealing with procedural issues approving witness lists, for instance, and determining various other aspects of the trial such as the validity of Ieng Sary's amnesty. Later this year, the court will issue its decisions ahead of the start of the trial proper - with witnesses and evidence. The chances are that Ieng Sary will be back in court. This is Robert Carmichael in Phnom Penh.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- The Khmer Rouge's former head of state told a court trying him for genocide and other crimes Thursday that he is keen to tell all he knows about Cambodia's 1970s regime – though in the past he has claimed to be "out of touch" with its atrocities.

Khieu Samphan told the U.N.-backed tribunal trying him and three other Khmer Rouge leaders Thursday that he did not know all details of what Pol Pot's government did but would try his best to cooperate with the court.

In two books and interviews since he surrendered to the current government in 1998, Khieu Samphan has insisted he was unaware of and not responsible for the estimated 1.7 million deaths from executions, medical neglect, overwork and starvation under the 1975-79 regime. But some scholars have challenged his assertions.

Khieu Samphan has previously offered an apology for the Khmer Rouge's actions but never accepting responsibility. As head of state of what the Khmer Rouge called Democratic Kampuchea, he served as the group's smiling, polite figurehead.

In addition to Khieu Samphan, 79, also on trial are Nuon Chea, 84, who was Pol Pot's No. 2 and the group's chief ideologist; Ieng Sary, 85, the former foreign minister and his wife, Ieng Thirith, 79, who was minister for social affairs. The charges against them include crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide, religious persecution, homicide and torture.

This week's sessions are strictly procedural; testimony and presentation of evidence is expected to begin in August or September, 32 years after the Khmer Rouge were ousted from power in 1979 with the help of a Vietnamese invasion.

A 2004 report by Cambodia scholar Steve Heder and international humanitarian law expert Brian Tittemore included three of the current defendants among seven senior Khmer Rouge who deserved be prosecuted.

It said Khieu Samphan had "encouraged low-level party officials to execute victims," while Nuon Chea "devised and implemented execution policies" and Ieng Sary "publicly encouraged and facilitated arrests and executions within his ministry."

"I think it is very important for me and for my fellow Cambodian citizens who are hungry for understanding what happened between 1975-79. I personally have been waiting this moment for so long," Khieu Samphan told the court Thursday. "I will contribute to the best of my capacity, of course to the bottom of my heart, to assist or cooperate with the work of the court."

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AdvertisementHe said he did not have full knowledge of every matter but he would do his best to ascertain the truth to the fullest extent possible.

In 2001, he wrote an open letter with an apology for the widespread killings and atrocities under the Khmer Rouge but claimed that he had no hand in them.

"For those compatriots who lost their loved ones during that period, I apologize," he wrote. "My mistake was that I was too naive and was out of touch with the real situation." He said he never expected the Khmer Rouge rule to "lead to killings."

Again, in a 2004 memoir, he claimed that he was not aware of the killings carried out by the Khmer Rouge, saying his role was largely ceremonial.

Although head of state, his responsibility was simply that of an "office employee," said Khieu Samphan. He said he was subject to "ideological education instructed by peasant-cadres."

He described as the "hallucination of a sick mind," statements by some scholars suggesting he was implicated in several arrests carried out during the Khmer Rouge's bloody internal purges.

"My work had nothing to do with affairs of ... the military, and the Khmer Rouge leaders had no need to seek my opinion about the sweeping up (of the regime's enemies) or about the arrest of this or that cadre at all. Nor did they see the necessity for me to participate in those affairs with them," he said.

Thailand announced its departure from the World Heritage Convention with‬ ‪immediate effect on Saturday, after the World Heritage Committee failed to heed its request seeking postponement of the Cambodia's unilaterally-proposed Preah‬ Vihear Temple management plan, as Thailand fears that it may threaten national sovereignty.

Thailand's Natural Resources and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti, leading the Thai‬ delegation at the 35th session of the WHC meeting in Paris, earlier notified Mr Mounir‬ Bouchenaki, director-general of International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and‬ ‪Restoration of Cultural Property, who represents the director-general of United Nations‬ ‪Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation UNESCO, that Thailand would leave the World‬ Heritage Convention and would also withdraw from the 21-member World Heritage Committee as the‬ body continues to ignore any negative consequences which may arise from the consideration of the temple management plan which he said overlooks sensitive issues which could adversely affect Thailand's sovereignty and territory.‬

However, the withdrawal was not fully backed by the Foreign Ministry, a government source said.

Officials from the Foreign Ministry who attended the meeting together with Suwit in Paris were satisfied with their negotiations with the Cambodian delegation on the draft of the World Heritage Committee's decision.

The Thai business opportunities in Cambodia in the long-term inevitably will be harmed if the border conflict persists.

Suwit, who led the Thai delegation to the World Heritage Committee meeting in Paris last week, reported to the Cabinet on his decision to walk out of the session and the announcement of denunciation. The action is to protect Thai sovereignty over the territory adjacent to the Preah Vihear Temple, Panitan quoted Suwit as telling the Cabinet.

Abhisit backed Suwit's decision and most of ministers in the Cabinet agreed with him, but the caretaker government decided not to carry out the procedure of denunciation, Panitan said.

‪Mr Suwit also said the World Heritage Centre, instead of revising the wording of the draft, decided to put it on the agenda of the WHC meeting in Paris, despite Thailands request to have the plan deferred, pending border demarcation with Cambodia. ‬‪Thailand is opposed to the terms of "urgent repair and restoration" but preferred using the wording "protection and conservation" in the draft.‬ ‪The head of the Thai delegation also said the pullout means that any WHC resolution will not be binding to Thailand.‬‪

The withdrawal has resulted in the Director General of the Fine Arts Department, Mrs Somsuda Leyavanija, one of 21 members of the WHC, to leave her post.‬‪ Mr Suwit earlier posted a message on his Twitter account late Saturday night saying, "Thailand has no choice but to withdraw as the meeting has resolved to put the issue on agenda."‬

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Tuesday said the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Director-General Irina Bokova has sent a letter expressing her regret over Thailand's decision to withdraw from the World Heritage Convention.

Director-General Irina Bokova has sent a letter expressing her regret over Thailand's decision to withdraw from the World Heritage Convention.

Mr Abhisit, before the weekly cabinet meeting, showed reporters a letter from the UNESCO chief and said briefly that he would address a news conference on Thailand's stance after today's Cabinet meeting.

National Resources and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti, as head of the Thai delegation to the World Heritage Committee meeting in Paris, will report the issue to the Cabinet and agencies concerned will study the implication of the UNESCO agency's resolution on Cambodia's management plan for Preah Vihear after Thailand leaves the convention.

In her letter dated June 26, Ms Bokova has expressed deep regret with Mr Suwit's declaration on the Thai intention to leave the 1972 World Heritage Convention.

"The World Heritage Committee did not discuss the management plan of the Preah Vihear temple nor did it request for any reports to be submitted on its state of conservation. Moreover, it needs to be clarified that UNESCO's World Heritage Centre never pushed for a discussion of the Management Plan by the Committee," Ms Bokova said in the letter.

Speaking after a cabinet meeting yesterday, Mr Suwit denied he would benefit from the decision to withdraw from the convention.

He said the decision was not premature and was intended to protect the country's dignity and territorial integrity.

During the past three years he had done everything he could to lobby and convince member nations that the management plan was a sensitive issue and that approving the plan could lead to problems.

He said a resolution relating to Preah Vihear adopted at the Paris meeting of the World Heritage Committee had allowed Cambodia to carry out maintenance and repair work for Preah Vihear and the areas surrounding it and to seek financial assistance from Unesco.

Mr Suwit said he found the resolution unacceptable because it could lead to the loss of Thai territory.

If Thailand had accepted the resolution, it would have given Cambodia a chance to use it to fight at the International Court of Justice for ownership of the disputed areas around the temple.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- A U.N.-backed court in Cambodia has begun its initial hearings into war crimes allegations with mixed success and predictions of a long and bumpy road ahead for a tribunal described by legal experts as more complex than the Nuremberg trials held immediately after World War II.

Its importance was underscored by the United States ambassador at large for war crime issues, Stephen Rapp, who called the Khmer Rouge tribunal "the most important trial in the world."

Rapp, in Phnom Penh for the start of the proceedings, drew parallels between the Khmer Rouge tribunal and the trials of former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic and former Liberian President Charles Taylor, as well as the arrest warrants issued this week for Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi and his family.

"It's still a process that is not yet complete," Rapp said. "When Milosevic was indicted in May 1999, no one ever thought he would face justice, but that day arrived. When Charles Taylor was indicted in March 2003, no one thought the day would arrive when he would face justice. And I think the same is true here." In Cambodia, he added, "It's not a question of if, it's a question of when."

For survivors in Cambodia, the trial has been a long time coming.

At the Extraordinary Chambers for the Courts in Cambodia (ECCC), located on the outskirts of the capital, Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot's ever-loyal No. 2, Nuon Chea, stole the early limelight. Nuon Chea persistently interrupted the court, declaring he "was not happy with the tribunal," before ultimately staging a dramatic walkout.

Former head of state Khieu Samphan also intended to walk out but apparently had a change of heart. His lawyer surprised the packed gallery, saying his client had decided to cooperate with the court and would remain in the chambers if his health permitted.

Former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary and his wife, ex-Social Affairs Minister Ieng Thirith, sat impassively in the dock as the defense and prosecution began their opening arguments.

The four defendants are the final links in a chain of command that formulated and deployed government policy based on ultra-Maoist political leanings. Under their rule, Khmer culture was obliterated and Cambodia's cities emptied, as millions were forced-marched into the countryside to work as slave labor.

The four are charged with crimes against humanity, genocide against ethnic Vietnamese and Muslim Chams, and a string of other charges -- including murder, torture and religious persecution -- in relation to the deaths of up to 2.2 million people between April 1975 and January 1979.

Security outside the ECCC this week was tight, with long lines forming shortly after dawn. Inside the court, Buddhist monks in orange saffron robes sat side-by-side with Muslim Chams and schoolchildren, cramming the public gallery.

"I think it's gotten off to a relatively straightforward start," said Clair Duffy of the George Soros-funded Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI). "What happened with Nuon Chea is relatively normal, and it was dealt with appropriately. Defendants can choose to what extent they participate."

She said the rights of the defendants had been respected, although this had upset the victims. "There's a need to get the message out that this is going to be a long process and that international standards have to be applied. The victims have to understand this."

The proceedings, known as Case 002, follow the conviction of Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, in Case 001 last year. Duch ran the infamous death camp S-21, where mutilation, electric shocks and water torture were common. Significantly, Duch was the first successful prosecution for the ECCC, but the early stages of that trial were marred by allegations of corruption among Khmer staffers and kickbacks for jobs.

More recently the ECCC has also been hit with allegations from nongovernmental organizations of political interference in regard to investigations into lower-ranking officials and whether or not they should also face charges. Reports say the court's Case 003 involves Sou Met, a former commander of the Khmer Rouge air force, and Meas Mut, commander of the navy. The government of Prime Minister Hun Sen has made it clear it does not want to see trials at the ECCC expanded.

In reality, it's not quite that simple. A report prepared by the OSJI -- following claims the investigative process into Cases 003 and 004 had not been full and comprehensive -- found that the court's actions suggest the cases' outcomes have been predetermined. It also said that judges have refused to gather evidence or investigate facts, possibly in response to repeated and publicly expressed demands by senior political leaders. Such egregious misconduct would violate the core principle of judicial independence.

Duffy maintained that, "Cases 001 and 002 will be measured in their own right." Nevertheless, she acknowledged that if future cases do not proceed because of political reasons, it would "cast a shadow over the court."

However, while legal experts and human rights activists are taking into account the broader ramifications of the trial process, most Cambodians are still firmly focused on Case 002 and what Pol Pot's surviving lieutenants did to 2 million Khmers.

THE old and withered man, adorned in what looked like an oversize tea-cosy and sunglasses, seemed an unlikely mass-murderer when he appeared in court for the first time on June 27th. That is often the way with people brought to justice long after their alleged crimes were committed. In this instance, the accused was Nuon Chea, second in seniority only to Pol Pot as a former leader of the Khmer Rouge, the Maoist movement responsible for the deaths of as many as 2m people after it seized power in Cambodia in 1975 and attempted to implement its crazed notions of Utopia. However eccentric Mr Nuon Chea looked in court, age and captivity have not softened his resolve. He remained defiant throughout, refusing to recognise the legitimacy of the court and walking out after only a brief attendance. His attire, as it turned out, was well chosen—the tuque to stave off the chill from the air-conditioning, the dark glasses to shade him from the glare of the lights.

His day in court saw the beginning of the second trial of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (to give the tribunal prosecuting former members of the Khmer Rouge its full title). The trial will surely be a long and controversial one. One prosecutor working for the UN-backed court calls it the most "complex" since the Nuremberg hearings at the end of the second world war.

The first trial, which closed last year, was comparatively straightforward. The sole accused, Kaing Guek Eav, better known as "Duch", was contrite and pleaded guilty to charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes, committed while he ran Tuol Sleng, a notorious prison at a former school in the middle of Phnom Penh, the capital, to which 17,000 of the regime's victims were taken to be tortured and killed—only seven came out alive.

This time four defendants are on trial. All reject the charges against them and all bar one, Khieu Samphan, refuse to co-operate with the court. All were senior cadres of the Khmer Rouge. Ieng Sary was the regime's foreign minister; his wife, Ieng Thirith, served as social affairs minister; and Mr Khieu Samphan was the former head of state. Mr Nuon Chea says that the Khmer Rouge was only defending Cambodia against foreign forces. An imperialistic United States and an expansionist Vietnam were the main culprits, in his view, and caused most of the bloodshed. Lawyers for Mr Ieng Sary argue simply that he has already received a royal pardon.

Prosecutors face the daunting task of linking them directly to specific killings. This week's proceedings were only the start of the legal skirmishing; substantive hearings are not expected to begin until September. Since all the accused are in their late 70s or early 80s, even if convicted they are unlikely to serve very much of their sentence—that is, assuming they outlive the trial.

Nonetheless, supporters of the court passionately believe that the trial marks a profound moment in modern Cambodian history. Pol Pot himself died in 1998, so these four are the most senior members of the regime left alive. It is therefore the only chance for the leaders to be held accountable for the mass-killings that occurred during nearly four years of Khmer Rouge rule. One human-rights activist, Theary Seng, acknowledged outside the court on June 27th that its work amounted to "only selective and symbolic justice". There were "extreme limitations" to the process, she said; but the goal should be the highest quality of justice within them.

However, what makes this trial especially charged is the knowledge that there may be no more. Future possible cases have become mired in the politics of the court, and in Cambodian politics more generally. The prime minister, Hun Sen, is clear that he wants this trial to be the last. He argues that more prosecutions could spark civil war or, slightly less spuriously, that they might undermine hard-won efforts at reconciliation.

Critics allege that the government has ulterior motives. Many high-ranking people in government and business had ties to the Khmer Rouge, which might be another reason why the government has tried to limit the scope of the court's investigations. Mr Hun Sen himself was a young Khmer Rouge military commander before defecting in 1977.

Either way, because the court is a hybrid, composed of both foreign and Cambodian lawyers, it cannot escape this domestic political context and exercise real independence. Such politicisation has led to many ruptures during the tribunal's life and, recently, to resignations. In April the bench ruled that the next case, known as 003, should be dropped altogether. But an international prosecutor later complained that the judges had not even questioned the suspects, let alone visited the scenes of the alleged crimes. For now, case 002 proceeds as planned, even if there will never be a successor.

First Army Region Commander Lt Gen Udomdej Sitabutr on Wednesday dismissed reports that Thai troops will attack Cambodia on July 1.

He said the Thai military has a clear stance that it will not invade other countries. "We will retaliate only after being attacked first."

Gen Udomdej said the Cambodian military has moved infantry units closer to the border province of Sa Kaew, but there has been no report of reinforcement of armoured vehicles or heavy weapons.

However he has ordered his troops to step up security measures including a strict check on people and vehicles which approach the border checkpoint and sought negotiation to ease problems such as talks by the regional border committee earlier scheduled in April.

Thailand on Saturday announced its departure from the World Heritage Convention (WHC) at the WHC meeting in Paris, saying the World Heritage Committee failed to heed its request seeking postponement of Cambodia's unilaterallyproposed Preah Vihear temple management plan, as Thailand fears that it may threaten national sovereignty.

Ties between the neighbours have been strained since Preah Vihear temple was granted UN World Heritage status in July 2008.

Cambodia's Defence Ministry on Tuesday also denied that it has reinforced troops and weapons at the border with Thailand, China's Xinhua news agency reported.

The ministry also rejected the claim by Thailand's Army Region 2 spokesman Colonel Prawit Hookaew that there were some arms training such as grenade launcher and artillery taking place on Cambodian side.

On Monday, Col Prawit said that there was some redeployment and reinforcement of Cambodian troops along the border following Thailand's withdrawal of its membership from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Convention on Saturday.

"Royal Cambodian Armed Forces absolutely reject this badwilled fabrication by Thai troops to slander Cambodia and to prepare a scenario to intoxicate and lie to national and international communities," the ministry said in a statement. "This fabricated information by Thai troops is just a groundless argument in advance, aiming at attacking and invading Cambodian territory sometime in the future," it added.

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodian recruitment agencies have decided not to send maids to Kuwait after complaints by human rights groups of abuse by employers, a recruitment official said on Thursday.

Impoverished Cambodia is one of Asia's biggest exporters of maids abroad, a valuable source of foreign exchange.

An Bunhak, president of the Association of Cambodian Recruiting Agencies, said Cambodia had not yet sent any maids to Kuwait and the agencies had decided against so doing because of the country's record of abuse.

"We have received a report from our embassy in Kuwait about abuse of maids and also the report from Human Rights Watch," An said.

"We would only send there when there is safety," he said. "According to studies, the respect for maids has not been good so we will not send them to Kuwait and we are doing studies on another country," he said, referring to Qatar.

Human Rights Watch says domestic workers in Kuwait who try to escape abusive employers face criminal charges for "absconding" and are unable to change jobs without their employer's permission.

Indonesia, which has come under fire for its use of the death sentence, has barred its citizens from working in Saudi Arabia after an Indonesian maid was beheaded for murdering her Saudi employer.

(Reporting by Prak Chan Thul; Writing by Nick Macfie; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani; editing by Nick Macfie and Sanjeev Miglani)

http://www.videoportal.sf.tv/video?id=dbda78ef-0853-4e82-a78c-ded21965ddb0#

Defense teams for three of four jailed Khmer Rouge leaders facing trial at the UN-backed tribunal argued Wednesday that a 10-year statute of limitations under previous Cambodian law precluded their clients from trial.

The lawyers made their arguments on the third day of a preliminary hearing that marks the official beginning of the court's most important trial, as people across the country viewed the proceedings on television.

Lawyers for Khieu Samphan, the nominal head of the regime; Ieng Sary, its foreign minister; and Ieng Thirith, social minister, said the 1956 penal code of Cambodia put a 10-year limitation on trials.

"Under the penal code of 1956, the prescription of the crime is limited to within 10 years," Phat Pouv Seang, a Cambodian defense lawyer for Ieng Thirith, told the court, in arguments echoed by lawyers for the other two.

Defense for Nuon Chea, the chief ideologue of the regime, did not join the arguments.

All four have said they are innocent of the charges against them, including war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. The hearing is aimed at answering such legal questions before the trial starts in earnest later this year.

Despite the nature of the hearing, it has already provided a major boost in coverage of the tribunal process, which began in 2006 and saw the trial in 2009 of the chief of the Khmer Rouge's most notorious prison, Tuol Sleng.

National coverage of the hearing has provided a chance for everyday Cambodians to consider the crimes of the regime and the role of the UN-backed court.

Yuth Thing Dy, who is now 43 and lost five relatives under the Khmer Rouge, said from Banteay Meanchey province that he has watched the proceedings on TV and is happy a trial is moving forward, but he wants to see more people indicted.

"I just think that if the court tries only four senior-most Khmer Rouge leaders, it's not justice, because it does not reach completion, and other cases are kept secret," he told VOA Khmer.

The court is locked in debate over two more cases at the court that would require indictments for five additional senior leaders. Those two cases are opposed by Prime Minister Hun Sen and other officials, angering victim representatives who say they want the court to broaden its prosecutions.

Lao Lay Heng, 53, from Oddar Meanchey province, said he lost 13 relatives during the regime's four-year rule. He was happy that a trial for the four top leaders is making progress, he said, "and I hope that the victims will receive justice."

"I see the trial as historic, and it will be a model for young Cambodian leaders not to follow the style of the Khmer Rouge and not to carry out a dictatorship," he said.