Canadian prosecutor at Khmer Rouge genocide tribunal resigns

[Coventina]

Source: Canadian Press (AP)

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — The Canadian prosecutor at the genocide tribunal trying Cambodia's Khmer Rouge announced Tuesday he is resigning, citing personal and family reasons.

Robert Petit said in a statement that his resignation will become effective September 1, three years after he joined the United Nations-backed tribunal, which is currently holding its first trial.

"It has been the greatest privilege of my career to have the opportunity to bring some justice to the victims of the crimes of the Khmer Rouge," Petit said.

"I remain convinced that Cambodias hopes for a better future lie, in part, on true accountability for crimes."

The Khmer Rouge are believed responsible for the deaths of 1.7 million people from forced labour, starvation, medical neglect and executions when they held power in 1975-78.

It was not clear how Petit's resignation will affect the tribunal's work. The statement said the process of finding his replacement had already begun.



Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5hjRN2xwNzWezVJOxs7ziGWbAfFZA

---

I hope this will not negatively impact the process.

[WriteDown]

1. This is odd to say the least. n/t

[Gman]

2. I'm just afraid that Cheney, with all his heart problems

won't live long enough to be prosecuted for his war crimes. Even Bush would be in his 90's in 30 years. It shouldn't take that long as it did with Cambodia. But it just appears there will have to be a few years go by before the war crimes trials for the Bush years take place.

[David__77]

3. I still am not clear on the rationale for foreign jurists trying Cambodian citizens.

Cambodia has its own sovereign judiciary. Why did they agree to this? I cannot seem to find the reasoning for it. Was it something the UN really pushed for?

As terrible as the DK/KR crimes were, I do not see that they were a transnational issue in the broad sense. If we were to have a real reckoning of all the foreign players, then the Vietnamese, Chinese, and Americans would be sitting on trial as well.

[Swede]

4. It may be that because 1 in 5 Cambodians died at their hands,

they wanted to have total impartiality to legitimize these trials. Just a guess.

[David__77]

5. Why can't Cambodian judges be "impartial?"

Are you saying that they are not capable?

Besides all this, the outcome of these trials is a foregone conclusion anyway. It's really a show trial because we all know the verdicts.

[Coventina]

7. By calling them "show trials" are you saying they are not legit?

Were the Nuremberg trials "show trials"? How about The Hague?

Just because some defendants are clearly guilty does not make their judicial process an empty show.

[Swede]

8. Chances are a judge had a close friend or relative murdered.

At 20% of the population.

[grantcart]

6. Because all of the Cambodian jurists were killed by the Khmer Rouge

While Cambodia has some newly trained judges they don't have the expertise in this very arcane speciality.


It was also done for political domestic reasons. Current Cambodian politicians include many former Khmer Rouge commanders (who left the KR and then latter fought against it).


A full and complete prosecution of KR is not considered pratical because it would mean that roughly 1/3 of the country would face charges. Rather than have a large unending domestic prosecution it was decided to invite the ICJ to have jurisdiction and prosecute a limited number of senior leaders.