Originally published on the CGS blog on October 12, 2007.
So there’s good news and bad news about the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia’s efforts to bring surviving members of the Khmer Rouge to justice for the heinous crimes they committed from 1975-1979.
The good news is that several weeks ago Nuon Chea (aka Brother Number Two ) was finally arrested and brought into the custody of the ECCC. If you’re unfamiliar with Brother Number Two, he was Pol Pot’s right hand man in a regime that murdered over 1 million of its own citizens.
The bad news is that two separate yet equally stark UN reports found severe mismanagement problems in the tribunal.
Oct. 6, 2007 – The long overdue trials of surviving Khmer Rouge leaders now appear to be threatened by defects in the United Nations-backed tribunal set up last year in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The court, dubbed the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), suffers from leadership and management problems so severe that the UN should either take much firmer control or consider getting out entirely. That, at least, was the conclusion of two stark assessments one by the U.N. Development Program (UNDP) and the other by two UN experts that became public in the last two weeks, putting the cash-strapped tribunal under increasing pressure to reform.
For the sake of all those who died or suffered under the Khmer Rouge, it’s imperative that Cambodia, the United Nations, and the entire international community work together to make the ECCC fair and effective.
