Can Cambodia's flimsy judiciary effectively try Khmer Rouge?

Can Cambodia's flimsy judiciary effectively try Khmer Rouge?

By Chris Decherd

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP): Sok Sethamony studied law by night.
By day he meted out justice as a Phnom Penh city judge. He
finally got his university law degree in January -- six years
after being appointed to the bench.

Sok Sethamony and a few other judges who studied law while
working are the exceptions in Cambodia's tattered judiciary. Most
court officials are untrained and unqualified in a legal system
that is a hodgepodge of socialist and communist theories and 19th
century French and 20th century Anglo-Saxon laws.

But ready or not, Cambodia's judges and prosecutors will play
a central role in a United Nations-assisted tribunal that is to
try former Khmer Rouge leaders on charges of genocide and crimes
against humanity.

In a way, it will be apt justice. In its bloody campaign to
impose an agrarian utopia on Cambodia, the communist Khmer Rouge
dismantled the legal system and killed nearly every judge and
lawyer during its 1975-1979 rule.

But is Cambodia's justice system capable of trying its
destroyer?

"There is not one judge or prosecutor capable of contributing
to an international tribunal," said Sok Sam Oeun, director of the
Cambodian Defenders Project, a non-governmental group that
provides legal assistance to the poor.

"They lack education and training ... the system they work in
hasn't allowed them any experience in an independent court
system," he said.

Critics say corruption is institutionalized and judges
routinely take instructions from powerful politicians on how to
rule on cases, an observation repeated by the U.S. State
Department in its latest report on human rights around the world.

According to Justice Ministry records, more than half of
Cambodia's 120 judges haven't finished high school. Only 15 have
law degrees, mostly from former Soviet bloc countries.

Of the nation's 55 prosecutors, fewer than 10 have been to law
school. Many others were unable to finish high school during
Cambodia's wars.

Sok Sethamony, 40, earned a bachelor's degree from the Faculty
of Law and Economics' night program, but admits it's a challenge
to manage everyday justice in Cambodia.

"We're trying to be better," he said in an interview in his
cramped, windowless office at the Phnom Penh court, where he is
one of a dozen judges. "Before I used communist theory for my
decisions, but Cambodia has changed from a communist system to a
democratic one, and I need to learn about capitalist law."

Recovering from the Khmer Rouge decimation has been a long
struggle for the judiciary.

After the Vietnamese defeated the Khmer Rouge in 1979, it was
discovered that less than a half dozen law school graduates had
survived.

The new government installed by the Vietnamese put unskilled
people in charge of the courts in a rush to re-establish legal
authority across a devastated land. Many of those 1980s
appointees remain on the job.

The president of the Bar Association of Cambodia, Ang Eng
Thong, said court officials appointed in the 1980s were simple
communist party cadre, most of them former school teachers.

"The new regime didn't think about knowledge; they put people
in court positions who were loyal to the party," he said.

Among those slotted for legal careers by the Vietnamese-allied
government was Sok Sethamony, who survived the Khmer Rouge's
"killing fields" period as a farmer and laborer. In 1986-1988, he
received socialist legal training in Vietnam, and came back to
work as an administrative aide and a law clerk at the Ministry of
Justice.

Shortly after being appointed judge in 1995, he started taking
night classes to improve his skills and to retain the post.

At least six judges and prosecutors have completed law degrees
at the university's night program in the past two years.

Government officials agree the justice system needs reform,
but argue it won't be difficult to find qualified people for the
Khmer Rouge tribunal.

"It's not difficult to find good ones, people with education,"
said Ly Vuoch Leng, chief justice of the Appeals Court. "Many
have experience gained over many years."

Under legislation passed recently, 12 judges and three
prosecutors from Cambodia will sit on the tribunal with nine
judges and three prosecutors appointed by the international
community. The draft law is now under review by the government,
but Prime Minister Hun Sen has said the court could begin work by
the end of the year.

The plan was pushed by the United States despite concerns
about Cambodia's courts.

Local and international human rights groups, including Amnesty
International, fear the tribunal will be vulnerable to political
sabotage, incompetence and money-driven corruption -- problems
that plague the Cambodian court system every day.

For these reasons, the United Nations had originally wanted
the tribunal to be held in a third neutral country but Hun Sen
refused.

U.S. officials express confidence that checks and balances
will be written into the final trial plan guaranteeing just
proceedings.

The prime minister's formerly communist Cambodian People's
Party remains in control of the court system. It has been wary of
forming a special tribunal, in large part because its leadership,
including Hun Sen, are former Khmer Rouge cadre who split from
the group in 1977 or 1978.

"The Cambodian people have lost faith in the legal system and
they will trust only an international tribunal," said Kek
Galabru, founder of the Cambodian League for the Promotion and
Defense of Human Rights.

Lawyer Bun Honn, secretary general of the bar association,
said some judges haven't grasped the concept of justice.

Bun Honn recalled a 1998 trial when he was delivering his
closing arguments for a client charged with kidnapping. Ignoring
Bun Honn, the judge talked on his mobile phone for several
minutes.

Bun Honn said that when he objected, the judge replied:
"Please, silence. You have no right to say this."

The judge was Sok Sethamony, the recent law school graduate.