Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
the Khmer Rouge. The summonses were all ignored, and Lemonde's Cambodian coun-
terpart, You Bunleng, refused to put his name to the documents.
All this was a prelude to the ECCC's most explosive dispute: whether to pursue in-
dictments beyond the five defendants already in custody. The final ECCC Agreement had
defined its jurisdiction as being over “senior leaders” of DK and “those most respons-
ible” for atrocities and other serious crimes. It was a vague formulation and both sides
had differing interpretations. As before, UN staff saw the final number of defendants as
a question to be determined by the evidence, while Hun Sen decided that the trial would
end after Case 002. Moving further, he said repeatedly, risked plunging the country back
into “civil war.”
A return to war was never likely, of course. Most Khmer Rouge fighters had long put
down their weapons and returned to rural life. But Hun Sen's rhetoric signaled his con-
tinuing discomfort at the prospect of a court process that could roam freely. None of the
Case 003 and Case 004 suspects was indispensable; after all, Hun Sen had turned over
the Case 002 suspects, backtracking on earlier assurances that they would never face trial.
But some of the new suspects held roughly equivalent ranks to sitting members of gov-
ernment. If the trials moved their focus downward, what was to stop them from moving
sideways?
The first disagreements over the new cases had arisen in late 2008, when Robert Petit,
then international co-prosecutor, submitted six additional names to the court for invest-
igation. Petit's Cambodian counterpart Chea Leang, a niece of Deputy Prime Minister
Sok An, objected, in language that closely mirrored Hun Sen's views on the matter. The
dispute between the two prosecutors was forwarded to the Pre-Trial Chamber, which
split along national lines—the foreign judges in favor of the new cases, the Cambodians
against.
According to the court's rules, the lack of a supermajority decision in the Pre-Trial
Chamber meant the new cases could proceed. In September 2009, Cases 003 and 004
were forwarded to the co-investigating judges. Named in the submissions were five sus-
pects, including Meas Muth, and an impressive array of evidence that they orchestrated
vast purges of the DK apparatus. For a moment it looked as if the system was working:
despite opposition from the Cambodian judges, the case had moved forward. But the dis-
agreement over the new cases had merely been kicked down the hall. As the investigation
opened, Hun Sen made his opposition clear and again warned of civil war. “I will not let
anyone, either Cambodian or foreigner, ruin this peace,” he said.
22
Following the prime minister's lead, Cambodian judges found excuses to slow progress
on the new cases to a halt. You Bunleng refused to take part in the Case 003 investiga-
tions, and Judge Lemonde proceeded alone. There were few complaints to be heard from
the UN and the ECCC's foreign donors. They were more concerned about pushing for-
