Bernie Krisher’s halo

One day Tibor Krausz will look back on this story and wonder what evil spirit possessed him to get on his knees for Bernie Krisher.

You start off a meeting with Bernard Krisher looking for his halo. The philanthropist’s reputation is that glowing. But the only esoteric accessory this retired journalist – whose indoor pallor and slight stoop is testament to years spent hunched over scoops on his typewriter – turns out to have is the fleet feet of Mercury. If you want to keep pace with him, you better be a long-distance runner – and an early bird, too.

Back for two weeks recently in his adopted country – “adopted” as in him being a self-appointed foster parent – the former Newsweek foreign correspondent has the schedule of a visiting head of state: Tuesday, Mr. Krisher inaugurates a new school he’s started for the children of illiterate rice farmers. Wednesday, he escorts King Norodom Sihamoni – shaded under a ceremonial royal umbrella – around a free hospital for Cambodia’s desperately poor that Krisher launched a decade ago. Friday, he welcomes US Ambassador Joseph A. Mussomeli to the groundbreaking of a dormitory for gifted but destitute children. Monday and Thursday, he exhorts Minister of Education Kol Pheng for more textbooks for rural schools, and badgers foreign nongovernmental organizations for their support.

In between, he checks on his fundraising campaign for mosquito nets for villagers at risk from malaria. And he inquires about the sale of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” which he printed last year after persuading author J.K. Rowling’s publisher to let him offer Cambodian kids the book in Khmer for 50 cents a copy.

And on and on it goes like that for another 1,000 words, Bernie’s good deeds piled high on top of Bernie’s good deeds. You start to wonder if Krausz asked for Krisher’s autograph when the interview was over.

Raped at Angkor Wat

This is truly appalling.

Relatives of a European teenager who reported in March that she had been robbed, violently attacked and raped inside Angkor Archaeological Park expressed dismay Wednesday that police have concluded the assault never happened.

Tan Chay, chief of Siem Reap’s heritage police, said Tuesday that the girl’s rape claim has been discounted as there were too many tourists and police in the area for it to have occurred.

“Medical records prove the beating up and rape, and DNA samples were taken to help identify the perpetrator,” the victim’s aunt, who lives in Phnom Penh, said on condition of anonymity Wednesday. The medical evidence of the rape was compiled in Phnom Penh and Cambodian police were made aware of it, she said.

A ‘rape test’ has to be done soon after an attack occurs, but if done in time, the test’s conclusions are rarely, if ever, disputed. That police would try and deny the attack ever occurred even in the face of such evidence really is baffling.

Even more disturbing, though, is that this kind of thing happens to local women way more often than anyone dares to admit. And in those cases, there is no rich family to pay for expensive tests, or to try and drum up media support or community outrage.

Higher than a kite

The Cambodia Daily must have caught Khieu Kanharith during a particularly blistering happy hour session, because nothing else could possibly explain the sheer ridiculousness of his quote in today’s front page story about police giving the boot to a freedom-of-expression demonstration.

More than 100 armed police blocked NGO workers and lawmakers from flying kites in front of the National Assembly on Monday morning claiming the colorful demonstration could have interrupted air traffic or hoisted airborne explosives.

The officers, many armed with riot shields, electric batons, AK-47 assault rifles and tear gas, confiscated some 70 kites from the peaceful protestors who were trying to highlight the need for freedom of expression.

“We are afraid for the security of airplanes,” government spokesman and Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said of the police crackdown on the kites.

The spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior, presumably sitting on the next bar stool and smoking from the same pipe, went one step further and revealed his fears of kite-wielding terrorists with a plan to attack the National Assembly building.

Interior Ministry spokesman Lieutenant General Khieu Sopheak said the kite posed threats to more than just aircraft. Rogue elements could have attached grenades to the kites and staged an attack on parliament, he declared.

“We are afraid of grenades on the kites because that area is a protected area.”

A Cambodian rabbi

Arie tells the relatively amazing story of Hanh Nen, believed to be Cambodia’s only rabbi.

In 1981, Hanh moved to Sihanoukville. One day, he fell very ill. He saw doctors, but no one could heal him. Near death, he once again prayed to a higher power to save him. This time, God came to him in a dream and told him that if he wanted to recover, he should seek the red bible. Hanh realized that the bibles distributed by Mormon missionaries had red sides. In another dream, God explained that he was infected with a great evil, and it was time for him to choose between the great evil and Israel. Hanh chose Israel.

God explained to Hanh that he was now one of the Jewish people. God told him of the rituals and customs of Jews and of the Jewish holidays. God also told Hanh that just as he had renamed Jacob “Israel” when Jacob joined the Jewish people, so too would Hanh now be known as Adollah. Henceforth, Adollah would be God’s rabbi in Phnom Penh.

The burning question, of course, is where does the rabbi eat? Because if there’s anything that would appear to be missing from Phnom Penh’s abundant culinary landscape, it’s good Jewish food. But if there’s a Cambodian version of Katz’s Deli, Arie and the rabbi aren’t sayin’.

The ambassador’s new home

VIA Curbed: Cambodia’s ambassador to the UN, Chem Widhya, is leaving behind Queens for decidedly more upscale digs on the city’s East Side.

How bad did Cambodia’s U.N. ambassador want his country to buy celebrity photographer Ormond Gigli’s east side townhouse? Not only did he convince the kingdom to plunk down $5.5 million for it, but he also got them to pay a potential buyer $300,000 not to purchase the home before they did. Why the effort? The dude’s stuck living in Forest Hills right now, and you know that ain’t nothing to brag about in the U.N. cafeteria.

If it makes you feel any better, Curbed actually got it wrong. According to the New York Times, the Gigli’s were asking for $5.5 million, but the ambassador, no doubt a seasoned bargainer, apparently haggled them down to $5.1 million.

He should get an award for saving the government money.

Bad Billy does Cambodia

VIA ABC: American presidential bad boy Bill Clinton is scheduled to arrive in Phnom Penh on Friday.

Former United States president Bill Clinton is expected to arrive in Cambodia this week for talks on how the country is tackling HIV and AIDS.

The prime minister of Cambodia, Hun Sen, says Mr Clinton will visit the country ahead of World AIDS Day this Friday.

Last year the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative opened an office in Cambodia, working to improve facilities and training for medical personnel, and increasing access to anti-retroviral therapy for children.

Cambodia has the highest prevalence of HIV and AIDS in the region.

Few people living with the virus have access to affordable treatment and are increasingly the target of discrimination.

[Insert you own brothel joke here.]

History reprints itself

Don Bong over at Phnom Penh Confidential — the x-rated blog of a Phnom Penh bar fly –  passes on the rumor of a new, 144-page color magazine soon to appear on news stands.

As a new full color ad supported magazine gets ready to hit town, people in the biz question the wisdom of spending a ton of cash in a limited market with relatively high printing costs. The 144 page intro issue is generous but how long can you keep that up? Start at 144 pages and you’ll need to stay there or readers will think your going down the tubes. In the end, how much is there to write about living here? (I tell you everything you need to know anyway) More importantly – can they sell that many high-priced ads? Do they have the pockets to employ the writers and photogs to keep it worth reading??

All very sound questions. But then a few sentences later, as if his own logic had gone missing in an alcoholic stupor, Bong asks this question:

Why is it such a hassle to get a decent magazine or paper going here?

The answer, of course, is that it’s not. The problem, as Bong himself strongly suggests, is that most people who start publications in Cambodia are either clueless or stupid. Anyone who would consider starting a 144-page color magazine in this market is clearly both.

Rather than admit this, however, Bong takes the fashionable and intellectually effortless way out. He blames NGOs, in particular the Cambodia Daily. But the suggestion that Cambodia’s utterly lame English-language magazine scene is the result of predatory pricing by the Cambodia Daily is completely laughable. All those publications that failed over the years did so not because they couldn’t compete with the Daily, but because they were run by clueless dimwits with zero understanding of the publishing game or the market in which they were operating.

It’s the corruption, stupid

Cambodia has opened its arms to Thai investors.

Cambodia’s Senior Minister and Minister of the Ministry of Commerce, Mr. Jom Prasit, indicated that the national tax privileges and the readiness of the national economic and political situation will attract Thai investors to invest in Cambodia.

During Thailand-Cambodia conference on investment cooperation today, Mr. Jom revealed that Cambodia is ready to open up its arm if Thai businessmen are interested in expanding their businesses in its Poipet Special Economic Zones. Poipet of Cambodia is near Thailand’s border and this will facilitate the transportation between the two countries. In addition, Cambodia’s telecommunication is ready for the economic growth of the areas. He said that Thai investors will be allowed to rent the land at a very low rate.

Thai investors have answered “Thanks, but no thanks.”

Despite sound investment incentives and healthy economic growth in Cambodia this year, Thai investors claim the neighbouring country’s unstable political situation and broken bureaucracy make it too risky to invest in.

Cambodia’s incorruptable judiciary

Only a fool would say such a thing:

Speaking to reporters at the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh, Dr. Steven D. Roper, associate professor at the Department of Political Science of Eastern Illinois University, says that “no one is going to be able to bribe the Cambodian judges”.

Dr. Roper was, of course, speaking about the Cambodian judges for the Khmer Rouge Tribunals. Unless he meant that the wheels are coming off, and that there will be no court or trials or judges to corrupt, then Roper must be absolutely beside himself that not only such a foolish thing came flying from out of his mouth, but that it so flew in the presence of reporters.

Angelina Jolie visits Pailin

Angelina Jolie choppers in to Pailin, presumably on the case of her missing money.

Jolie paid a brief visit to officials in Pailin, a former Khmer Rouge stronghold in northwestern Cambodia, said Keut Sothea, a deputy governor for Pailin municipality.

He said Jolie had a brief discussion about a forest conservation project near Pailin with Ieng Vuth, another municipality deputy governor and the son of former Khmer Rouge Foreign Minister Ieng Sary.

Kong Duong, the head of Pailin information office, said Jolie and her party arrived on two helicopters.

“They came very briefly before flying out. They seemed not to have much time for us,” he said, declining to elaborate.

Trials and tribulations, act MMMXXCCVII

Trials and Denials gives an update on the latest machinations of the Khmer Rouge court. It’s not good.

According to some well informed sources the Plenary session ended in chaos today when the senior international Judge, S. Cartwright, circulated a letter to all the Cambodian judges on behalf of all the international judges. The letter accused the Cambodians of refusing to respect international standards and of refusing to work with their international colleagues. Worse, the letter threatened to inform the UN that further progress was not possible and that the UN should withdraw its funds and staff from the process. Unknown if this ‘letter’ is going to be released to the press- but if true, it could signal the total collapse of the court.

Apparently, all the drama stems from differences in negotiating tactics. In general, Cambodian officialdom doesn’t so much negotiate as it stonewalls. To the uninitiated such tactics tend to look like deliberate attempts to gum up the works.

It is possible that Madame Cartwright’s laying down of the law will get things unstuck, but even if it does, it is extremely unlikely to prove more than just a temporary respite. This is how things work in Cambodia, at maximum inefficiency, and all the threats in the world are unlikely to make much of a meaningful difference.

The tourist hordes

CNN reports that the tourist hordes, once believed to be Cambodia’s saviors, are now overwhelming Siem Reap’s underdeveloped infrastructure and threatening the area’s tenuous prosperity.

Culture shock aside, the health and quality of life of many of [Siem Reap's] 120,000 residents is imperiled by the boom, as is plain to see when traffic snarls the roads and streets get flooded by rain because of clogged sewers.

“This tremendous growth added to population increase has been exacerbating pressure on infrastructure,” said a World Bank report on Cambodia’s tourism sector last year. “Energy, water, sewage and waste are all significant problems.”

It noted that hotels are not legally required to have sewage treatment facilities, though larger ones do have their own plants.

“But most guesthouses reportedly dump used water directly into the river, causing noticeable river pollution,” it said, adding that E. coli, the bacteria found in human feces, has reportedly begun seeping into local wells.

At least as threatening over the long run is the uptake of water, with unrestricted pumping from the water table underlying the area.

“Water is being drawn from 70-80 meters (230-260 feet) underground by hotels and treated for use,” warned the World Bank, noting that no one was quite certain how this affects the aquifers, or underground layers of rocks and sand, from which it is pumped.

Already though, “one of Angkor’s temples is reportedly falling into a sinkhole, suggesting that the underground aquifers may be rapidly disappearing,” said the report.

The Cambodian government in general, and the Apsara Authority in specific, should be embarrassed that for all the kagillions of dollars that Angkor Wat brings in, the people running the show have been so busy stuffing their pockets that nobody has bothered to give even a passing thought toward the well-being of the family business.

Korean diplomacy

The Cambodia Daily and several other news outlets are reporting that South Korean President Rok Moo-Iyun has asked the Cambodian government to help broker a lasting peace on the Korean peninsula.

It remains unclear whether Roh was dizzy from jet lag or just drunk.

King Father Norodom Sihanouk keeps a palace in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, and the royal family’s relationship with the bat-guano crazy leader of reclusive North Korea is reported to be familial. The South Korean President, however, met with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, whose relationship with the royal family could be called hostile at best.

Asking Hun Sen to be the delivery boy for a diplomatic message to Sihanouk could not have gone over well.

How to be Cambodian

VIA Mongkol: If you got a few minutes and a bit of bandwidth to burn, Mongkol links to some rather funny video that documents Jim the “white-washed Asian” as he gets skooled in the rules of being “Khmai men ten,” which  among other things, apparently, means eating rice with everything, including Rice Krispies.

Obscure Cambodian music downloads

Well, not Cambodian music, exactly, but music for Cambodia, as The Lost Turntable explains.

Benefit concerts were all the rage in the late 70s and early 80s – I guess if there’s going to be fad in pop music it might as well be one that can help people. This one was for the victims of Pol Pot in Cambodia. Recorded in 1979 it features quite the unusual line-up, with 70s megastars like The Who sharing the stage with The Pretenders and Ian Dury. There were in fact four seperate concerts held, but this LP only features a few songs from each night. The selections are a little odd though, while The Who get an entire side (as they should), Queen and The Clash only get one song each. Fuckin’ Wings, on the other hand, get half of the last side

There is a link to a zip file, which is presumably all or part of the album. But Wings is quite possibly the worst band ever, and certainly something that no good bandwidth should ever go toward downloading. Others may disagree.

Man in the mirror

Of all the problems facing Cambodia as a country, most observers would cite corruption as the one most in need of tackling. Included with that would go Cambodia’s climate of impunity — rich people rob, steal and kill without worry because they can afford to pay off or intimidate the country’s weak and massively corrupt judiciary.

If this status quo is ever to change, the men leading the country will need to show the way.  While there is enormous cultural and religious pressure to remain passive, true leaders can rise to the challenge, as the Cambodia Daily this morning reports.

A senior Kratie provincial police officer has arrested his 20-year-old son for allegedly walking into his high school Friday and shooting a rival student in the leg, police said Sunday.

Khou Sunnary, provincial police finance bureau chief, seized his son Khou Sovandeth and his friend Yiv Rothya, 19, in the province’s Chhlong district Friday evening hours after they had fled the scene of the shooting, said Provincial Police Chief Chuong Seang Hak. The two men were handed over to the provincial police the same night, he said.

It’s hard to underestimate the courage it took Khou Sunnary to arrest his own son. Whether the son actually gets prosecuted and sentenced, though, remains to be seen.

The Battambang job

This is unbelievable.

An anonymous army official from the Battambang military zone, told RFA by phone on Friday afternoon that an amount 2 billion riels (more than $500,000) which was transported from Phnom Penh to pay the spouses and families of soldiers who died on duty in the Battambang military zone, disappeared along with the drivers.

Surely there is more to the story?

UPDATE: The Cambodia Daily on Monday follows up with this:

Kroeng Vanna, an RCAF captain, and his brother-in-law Khim Bic, a customs officer at the Poipet border checkpoint, were apprehended by border police while trying to cross through to Thailand, said Roth Sreng, Banteay Meanchey province military police chief.

Military police also arrested Touch Vannarith, payroll chief of the national sub-commission for deceased soldiers, in Battambang town on suspicion of colluding with the two men to steal the cash, Roth Sreng said. …

Kroeng Vanna was suppose to be transporting the money … to Battambang … But once in Battambang, Kroeng Vanna checked into a hotel and was met by Khim Bic who then drove the two to the Poipet checkpoint … the plan was for Khim Bic to use his position as a customs officer to facilitate the border crossing.

The Daily story also says that the amount stolen was about $800,000, of which only about $575,000 had been recovered.

Pizza vs. prahok

Proof the end is near.

Many Thai women in the Northeast who have married foreigners are now keener on eating pizzas and hamburgers than somtam and prefer celebrating Western holidays like Christmas and Valentine’s Day to traditional Thai holidays, a Khon Kaen University study has found.

How far behind can Cambodia be?

Clueless in Washington

Martin Peretz of The New Republic has this to say about the Khmer Rouge Tribunals.

Cambodia is finally trying some Khymer Rouge officials in a combination of a court and truth and reconciliation process. My guess is that many, if not most of the Khymer are dead. And, as for their Cambodian victims, aside from the rough million or more they actually murdered, large numbers of them will also have died.

In addition to the completely asinine spelling of “Khmer,” Peretz is wrong on just about every account. So wrong, in fact, that it quickly becomes obvious that he has no idea what he is talking about.

There is no truth and reconciliation process. The cynical would argue that, at least at this point, there is not even an agreed set of rules for the court to work by. And while Peretz may be right when he says that some Khmer Rouge leaders are now dead, it’s also correct to say that many are not. Much the same can be said for the KR’s victims — while many have died, there are literally millions still living — as anyone who possesses even the most superficial understanding of the country could point out.

Working in mysterious ways

Each year about this time, Good Samaritan stories like this start emerging. Some group or another, usually in the United States or Australia, after hearing about the plight of Cambodia’s children, began collecting gifts and other goods to send to Cambodia in an attempt to spread a little “holiday cheer” to the kingdom’s less fortunate.

Except Cambodia is a Buddhist country. And outside a miniscule urban upper class, Christmas is virtually unheard of. Which means that, for all intents and purposes, there is no holiday, and thus no need for any cheer.

Journalists and do-gooders take note.

P.S. It seems rather unlikely that illiterate people are going to need reading glasses.

Getting tattooed

Over at Secret Gospels, Sacred Sites, Wilfredo Pascual relays the story of the time he wandered into the jungles of Siem Reap and got a tattoo, old-school style. Apparently, it hurts. A lot.

At first, I grabbed my translator/guide and gripped his hand. I told him I needed to hold on to somebody. I begged him. But the cold-hearted bastard pulled away. He said I had to take it like a man.

All in all, it’s a great story about the ways of local ink, from the family that did the tattooing to the spells behind the inscriptions, with lots of insightful and often quirky details thrown in.

Battambang prison video

In the current issue of the Phnom Penh Post, The Gecko reports that video of the Battambang prison escape and subsequent slaughter of inmates can be had at this blog post on cambodia.org. The movie comes in nine parts and contains a warning, presumably without irony, that “Some material may be inappropriate R-rate: contains violence.”

UPDATE: The movies show before and after the shooting, but not the actual shooting itself. Parts 1 to 3 show prisoners being herded around the prison yard, and 4 through 9 show the aftermath, dead bodies, crying widows and so on.

World Heritage Site status coming for Preah Vihear

Vutha today quotes sources at the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts saying that Preah Vihear will finally get christened with World Heritage Site status next year. Although Vutha offers no links, the news presumably comes from Khmer-language newspaper accounts. Preparations for the designation have been in the works since at least 2001, when Prime Minister Hun Sen officially requested Preah Vihear’s inclusion on the World Heritage Site list.

Unsurprisingly, deals to turn Preah Vihear into Angkor Wat II have been a topic of conversation in the halls of power for nearly as long. According to a 2002 story in the Cambodia Daily, petroleum giant Sokimex is a top contender to develop the site.

The Sokimex petroleum company is planning projects not only in Preah Vihear, but at the Sambor Prei Kuk temples in Kompong Thom. The Preah Vihear project would include a hotel, golf course and other facilities.

Sokimex president Sok Kong says his Preah Vihear proposal was submitted on Jan 15 to Prime Minister Hun Sen. “The prime minister has agreed and sent it on to the Cambodian Development Council,” he says, declining to provide more details.

Cambodia is also seeking World Heritage status for Preah Vihear, which would typically involve strict controls on how the area could be developed. But World Heritage approval is likely several years away, and any development now would not be subject to such controls.

There are, of course, a few non-trivial stumbling blocks on Preah Vihear’s road to riches — it’s practically inaccessible from Cambodian soil and the place is buried knee-deep in landmines. But like a magic elixir, the promise of World Heritage Site status, and the virtual tsunami of tourist dollars it’s guaranteed to bring, should provide more than enough incentive for the government — or Sokimex, or whoever — to start addressing these problems sooner rather than later.

Highway to hell

John Gotti would blush.

The local firm Sarla has been accused of conspiring with Takeo provincial authorities to set up a detour to collect illegal tolls on a section of National Road 2 that stretches from the province to the Vietnamese border, newspapers report.

The company reportedly charges 2,500 riel to 10,000 riel (US$0.60 to US$2.40) based on the type of vehicle for use of a 500-meter detour it built in Lorry village, Daun Keo district, reports Kampuchea Thmey. The company has allegedly constructed a two-meter barrier on the section to force drivers onto the detour.

Hundreds of residents, businesspeople and vehicle owners have thumb printed a complaint to Prime Minister Hun Sen over the money extortion, according to the newspaper.

Drivers lament that the detour is not necessary as the government has completed renovation of the road section with a grant from the Japanese government, and that Sarla should have built the detour before the renovation, writes Samleng Yuvachun Khmer.

The newspaper describes the company as doing business like “making a cake without flour.”

The two newspapers fail to report any reactions from provincial or company officials.

Dot com dot kh

How hard could it be to get and manage a .kh internet domain name? According to Vireak, just follow his eight easy steps, pay a couple of bribes, wait a month for the paperwork to clear, and you’re all set — not hard at all!. The best part?

After the registration is done, the admin won’t allow the domain owner any control over the DNS…I’m not too pleased with this the domain owner is supposed to have control over his own domain. I got the feeling that the admin might hold the domain for ransom…and indeed it was

And no one in the government has any idea why Cambodia scores in the 93rd percentile for most corrupt countries in the world. Imagine that.

Prince Runaway

Khmer Intelligence, always good for a bit of dubious gossip, has this to say about Prince Ranariddh’s current Cambodian sojourn.

Ousted Funcinpec president prince Norodom Ranariddh is back in Cambodia for a few days to sell his assets (mainly lands and properties in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Sihanoukville) and collect cash (to be taken out of the country) before those assets could be confiscated in relation to corruption lawsuits that have been lodged against him and/or claims that his estranged wife princess Eng Marie Ranariddh could make on those assets.

Given KI’s penchant for bashing everybody that’s not His Democratic Highness of Hyperbole, it’s difficult to dismiss suspicions that this “news” is just so much vindictive rumor-mongering. “Lands and properties” are not generally things you just fire-sell off on the quick. But if it’s true, and Ranariddh really is liquidating, it would be the best signal yet that the prince has some major plans in the works. Whether that’s to stay and fight the mutiny, or take the money and run, remains to be seen.

Airport security

VIA DPA: Prime Minister Hun Sen recently ordered police to tighten security at the Kingdom’s airports. Not everyone, it appears, got the message.

Philippine airport authorities on Tuesday arrested a Filipino man for trying to smuggle three live Siamese crocodiles from Cambodia.

The crocodiles, measuring approximately 45cm long, were found in the baggage of Enrique Castillo upon his arrival at Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

The customs examiner also seized two bottles of vanda orchid cultures from Castillo’s bags, according to NAIA General Manager Alfonso Cusi.

Castillo falsely declared the contents of his baggage as live fish, Cusi said.

“We strongly remind passengers to avoid bringing in quarantine products or items as these are highly prohibited under existing laws,” Cusi said.

“All imported fruits, fresh meat products and aquatic animals are not allowed without the necessary permit from the Philippines,” he added.

Cusi said Castillo has been turned over to NAIA wildlife officers for proper disposition for violating the Convention of International Trade of Endangered Species.

A spirited defense

Trials and Denials disagrees with this post and says that “A prison cell with hot water is still a cell.”

And so it is. But rather than question why such cells were getting built, the post only said that such things — prison cells with air-con and hot water for KRT defendants –  were “troubling.” Obviously, you can’t hold defendants in conditions conducive to being cooked alive. You can, however, build cells with adequate ventilation so that air-con is not necessary, a practice common in modern prison construction.

The same goes for questions surrounding the number of cells getting built. The post said nothing in regards to, as T&D rather sloppily restates, “why spending so much money on a detention centre is even wise.” It questioned why the need for so many cells. Obviously, you must hold defendants somewhere. But why build cells for 12 when nobody expects the court to indict even half that number?

The road to justice

The principal defender at the Extraordinary Chambers met with about 20 potential defense lawyers Monday. The ensuing discussion touched on a lengthy list of defense concerns over the court’s draft rules.

The lead story in The Cambodia Daily today catalogues many of the defense’s major concerns. AFP delves into the witness protection issue. More stories seem certain to follow once Rupert Skilbeck, the court’s principal defender, makes his official comments on the court’s draft rules later this week.

All of these stories, in one form or another, will say this: Whatever euphoria was felt back in July when the court first convened, the thrill is now gone.

As the Daily story makes clear, the court is now bogged down with the uneasy task of retrofitting a flimsy Cambodian legal system with international-standard rules and procedures. That the local side appears unwilling to accept the need for such things only complicates matters.

High on the defense’s list of problems is the possibility of former Khmer Rouge chiefs being tried in absentia.

International and local judges on the tribunal cannot agree whether trials in absentia should be allowed, according to a footnote in the draft rules.

The international judges believe that anyone convicted in absentia should have the right to a retrial once they do finally appear in court. But this would be a problem at the ECCC, which has an official life span of only three years, and for the Cambodian judges who believe that rights to a retrial are unnecessary.

Skilbeck pointed out that in the draft rules, there is no provision to disqualify judges if they have engaged in corruption or have taken direct orders from outside parties, and said his office would push for that to be included.

The draft rules also do not contain a right for suspects to remain silent. …

Another cause for concern, Skilbeck said, would be that many procedural decisions that normally take place in public trials would be made behind closed doors by the pretrial chamber. …

A key issue is whether the bar association law will be amended to allow foreign lawyers to  practice in Cambodian courts.

The list goes on, and so far, the Cambodian side appears rather inflexible in its negotiating position.  Unfortunately, if this trial thing is ever to actually happen, someone or something has to give, and it shouldn’t be the court’s integrity.

Thai schtick

In an editorial celebrating the recent trial and conviction of Saddam Hussein, The Bangkok Post just couldn’t resist taking a few pot shots at the Khmer Rouge Tribunals.

Unfortunately, trials of Pol Pot’s supporters seem unlikely even to begin, let alone to proceed informatively and conclude with legally sustainable verdicts. For that, blame the international forces and alleged experts who have continually explained that Cambodia is incapable of conducting trials concerning war crimes and crimes against humanity. One hopes, strongly, that the former Khmer Rouge will soon appear to hear the charges against them.

The sad truth is that the hodge-podge of mixed judges and blended legal rules have created a sad situation for Cambodia. The wartime Khmer Rouge authorities are more likely to die of old age than any legal proscription. The trial of Saddam Hussein in Iraq proves that justice can be found anywhere serious and dedicated people apply and value legal principles.

The comparison, of course, is flatly ridiculous. On the one hand, you have a 30-year-old tragedy in a poor, third-world nation, one that nobody seems particularly interested in investigating, much less financing.

On the other hand, you have the United States and George W. Bush’s $4-billion-per-month war machine, with every reason in the world to not just convict Hussein but to extract as much political mileage as possible out of the whole wretched affair. Yet even with virtually unlimited American resources behind it, Hussein’s trial was still deeply flawed.

So the Post doesn’t just stop to praise the second-rate work of wickedly wealthy underachievers, it also manages to work in a couple of cheap shots at the poor people next door, all the while wagging its finger and speaking in solemn tones about justice.

Please.