FOUR SENIOR KHMER ROUGE LEADERS INDICTED, THE CIVIL PARTY PARTICIPATION

Terith Chy

I am writing to congratulate the Extraordinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia (ECCC) for finally issuing the long awaited closing order, indicting the most senior surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge, namely Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirith, Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea, for crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide and offences under the 1956 Cambodian Criminal Code. The issuance of the closing order means that the trial is forthcoming, which is tremendously important for survivors. For this case the ECCC has already built a 350,000-page case file, and also conduct a demographic survey, establishing a more accurate death toll of between 1.7 and 2.2 million, including an estimated 800,000 violent deaths.

While congratulating the ECCC, I am concerned about the enormous number of civil parties participating in the trial. The ECCC press release of 16 September 2010 says that 2,123 out of 3,988 civil party applications have been declared admissible thus far. The sheer number of victims applying for civil party status shows that victims have a huge stake in the proceedings. Having said that, managing this number of participants will not be an easy task for the Victims Support Section (VSS), compared to the 90-civil party applicants in Case 001.

So far, VSS has been the face of the ECCC internationally. The success of this unit means the success of the ECCC as well as victim participation in international justice forums generally. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that VSS can succeed in handling this huge number of civil parties. To do so, the VSS, I believe, needs enormous support from multiple donors and the ECCC itself. So far, Germany has been the only direct donor to this unit. To be prepared for handling this enormous and significant task, VSS requires support from other donors as well. During case 001, the unit experienced several ups-and-downs. Case 002 is VSS’s most significant chance, if not its last, to prove to victims that it was established for them.

Necessary assistance and resources have to be prioritized and committed to at a minimum these 2,123 civil parties. VSS’s burden is now even more pressing, given the fact that NGO resources that have provided assistance to victims in the past are now scarce. VSS needs more than one donor to deliver meaningful participation for civil parties and complainants alike.

Terith Chy
Team Leader of Victim Participation Project at the Documentation Center of Cambodia


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