Go to: ICTJ Activity | Background | Resources

ICTJ Activity

More than 30 years after the end of the Khmer Rouge regime, prosecutions against the surviving leaders of Democratic Kampuchea have commenced with the establishment of the mixed national-international Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). This long-awaited and controversial institution has seen a considerable rise in public debate and activity around transitional justice issues.

The ICTJ's engagement in Cambodia dates back to September 2003 when the Center, together with the Asia Society and Human Rights Watch, co-hosted a symposium in New York on "Transitional Justice in Cambodia: Challenges and Opportunities."

Since then, The Center has continued to closely monitor the progress of the ECCC as well as examining other areas of transitional justice activity in Cambodia through regular missions to the country. For example, in early 2005 Louis Bickford, Director of ICTJ's Capacity Building and Civil Society Program co-hosted a meeting of its Documents and Confronting the Past Affinity Group in Phnom Penh, together with the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam), one of the most active NGOs dealing with the atrocities committed in Cambodia's past under the Khmer Rouge. The Center also ran a truth-seeking workshop, finding a high level of receptivity to discussion on issues including reparations, truth-seeking, memorialization, and institutional reform. DC Cam has continued to be a key member of the Documents and Confronting the Past Affinity Group, participating in all meetings of the group to date.

After a more expansive assessment mission was undertaken in mid 2005 by ICTJ Senior Associate and head of the Center's Cambodia program, Caitlin Reiger, the Center's work to date has focused on several key areas.

The first area of focus for the program has involved building capacity among local organizations to undertake independent monitoring of the proceedings and raise popular awareness of the process. In mid-2006 Caitlin Reiger conducted several workshops in Phnom Penh with local NGOs on monitoring, legacy and the extent to which trials are able to contribute to public expectations of establishing an historical record of the past. In December 2006, Ms. Reiger conducted a follow up workshop on transitional justice, hosted by the Center for Social Development for local NGOs and shared with ECCC officials key lessons from equivalent stages of development in other hybrid tribunals. Four Cambodians have participated in the Center's Transitional Justice Fellowship program in Capetown and one attended a Transitional Justice Essentials Course in Tokyo in December 2006.

The second area of policy engagement has focused on ways in which the ECCC can learn from comparative experiences, particularly with regard to victims' involvement and the potential for leaving a positive legacy for both the domestic justice system and the rule of law more broadly . Together with the Open Society Justice Initiative, Ms. Reiger has provided regular independent briefings on current ECCC developments to the Group of Interested States in New York. In early 2006, together with Rutgers University, the ICTJ hosted a symposium on balancing victims' interests and the rights of the accused in proceedings before the ECCC, and in late 2006 the Center submitted a series of written comments on the Draft Internal Rules that considered issues of trials in absentia, reparations and victim participation and accessibility of the proceedings. In mid-2006 the ICTJ provided expert technical assistance to the ECCC in relation to the development of a communications strategy and donated a collection of transitional justice materials to the court library. In 2007 ICTJ participated in the Center for Social Development's Public Forums on Justice and National Reconciliation and training of journalists on transitional justice by Internews, and published a study of accountability efforts by members of Cambodian diaspora communities.

With the increase in attention to questions of victim participation in the ECCC process and the Court's ability to award reparations to victims, in early 2008 ICTJ conducted a training workshop with the judges of the ECCC on reparations theory and comparative experiences. Similar workshops were also conducted with court staff and with civil society representatives. Current work includes ongoing analysis of memorialization efforts in Cambodia, including a preliminary survey of visitors to the "Killing Fields" site at Choeng Ek, and an overview of past transitional justice initiatives in Cambodia.

Public demand for justice in Cambodia seems to be strong-both in terms of addressing past crimes as well as of reforming the current judicial system. But local NGOs are still largely urban and civil society faces ongoing challenges, including on coordination of initiatives on tribunal outreach, public education, and training strategies. The ECCC's narrowly-defined mandate focuses on a select group of alleged ringleaders-many of whom have already died-at the expense of a more comprehensive examination of widespread complicity. While it is unlikely that there will be for further official efforts in the near future to delve into Cambodia's past, it is important that the positive opportunities opened by the ECCC are maximized, both in terms of holding the most senior leaders to account and by demonstrating that a fair justice process can take place.

Cambodia is an increasing engagement for the Center, presenting a set of unique circumstances, a particular history, and a set of transitional justice challenges from which the ICTJ can learn a great deal. Gaining a nuanced understanding of the tribunal's work forms a crucial part of the ICTJ's increasingly specialized work on hybrid tribunals, as well as on international and domestic prosecutions.

Back to top

Background

The Khmer Rouge regime, officially called the Communist Party of Democractic Kampuchea, terrorized Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. Between 1.2 and 1.7 million people are believed to have died by execution, starvation, and forced labor-all part of a failed attempt by the regime to transform the country into a communist agrarian utopia in the course of a single generation.

Led by Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge systematically emptied urban areas and forced the entire population to work on rural collective farms. They banned familial relationships, private property and religion. Buddhist monks and members of minority ethnic and religious groups were systematically targeted, as were intellectuals, professionals, political opponents and ultimately even members of the regime itself in a series of purges. The regime was characterized by indiscriminate arrests, torture, and murder.

Following lengthy border conflicts, Vietnamese troops deposed the regime in January 1979 and installed a client government, forcing the Khmer Rouge to retreat to the western part of the country. There, Khmer soldiers continued to fight a guerrilla war against government forces for almost 20 years, ending with the death of Pol Pot in 1998 and the defection and capture of remaining Khmer Rouge leaders in 1999 in what was described as a policy of "national reconciliation". Although Pol Pot and Ieng Sary were tried and convicted in absentia for genocide before a People's Revolutionary Tribunal in 1979, the death of Pol Pot and subsequent pardon of Ieng Sary meant that neither conviction was enforced.

UN-sponsored elections in 1993 helped restore a measure of stability to Cambodia, and although the country has enjoyed a measure of development progress fuelled in part by tourism, it continues to suffer from endemic corruption and impunity, and there remain widespread popular misgivings about the impartiality and independence of the Cambodian judiciary. In 1997, a Khmer Rouge Tribunal Task Force was established to create a framework for bringing the remaining leaders to trial for crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide. After eight years of legal and financial negotiations, the UN and the Cambodian government agreed in June 2003 to establish a tribunal to try Khmer Rouge leaders. Although it was commonly referred to as the Khmer Rouge Tribunal (KRT), its official name is the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia for the Prosecution of Crimes Committed during the Period of Democratic Kampuchea (ECCC).

Located within the Cambodian judicial structure, the ECCC is a mixed or hybrid tribunal and is composed of both Cambodian and international judges, prosecutors, defence teams and administrative support through a complex dual institutional structure. It is located on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital. The ECCC is funded by voluntary contributions from states, either to the Cambodian or UN side. While the original budget for the ECCC was set at US$56 million over three years, in early 2008 the ECCC sought a substantially increased budget based on an estimate of continued operations until 2011.

The ECCC became operational in 2006, with the swearing in of Cambodian and international judges and the establishment of the court administration. Internal Rules of procedure were adopted by the judges in June 2007 which allowed formal proceedings to commence. To date, the Co-Prosecutors have forwarded the names of five suspects to the Co-Investigating judges in a first introductory submission and by the end of 2007 all five were in custody at the ECCC and the subject of formal judicial investigations: Kaing Guek Eav (alias Duch), Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirith, and Khieu Samphan have been charged with crimes against humanity and other crimes within the ECCC's jurisdiction. It is not yet clear whether further names will be forwarded for investigation by the Co-Prosecutors.

As the ECCC follows a Cambodian procedural model in which the investigation phase itself is not public, the first public hearings took place before the Pre-Trial Chamber in late 2007. Victims may participate in proceedings as civil parties, and the ECCC has the power to award such victims collective or moral reparations. The first trials are expected to commence sometime after mid 2008.

Back to top

(Updated March 08)