Ad Hoc International Criminal Tribunals
CAMBODIA: Khmer Rouge leaders Im Chaem and Meas Muth charged with crimes against humanity
The international judge at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) Mark Harmon, has charged in absentia former Navy Commander Meas Muth with homicide, crimes against humanity and war crimes (case 003), and Im Chaem, a former district official of the Khmer Rouge regime with crimes against humanity and homicide (case 004). The decision, which would only lead to a formal indictment if sufficient evidence is gathered, was not signed by the Cambodian judge in the tribunal or forwarded to the police. Following a policy of non-cooperation in these cases, as announced by Prime Minister Hun Sen, the police have also reportedly refused to act on Harmon’s charges. ECCC spokesperson Lars Olsen said it has not been possible to get an arrest warrant for the two accused, who have been under investigation for more than six years. Human Rights Watch has forcefully denounced that the Cambodian government has been obstructing the tribunal for years, and has asked the UN to withdraw its participation from the court and the international donors to end their funding if the Cambodian government does not act on the charges. Prime Minister Hun Sen has justified the Government’s lack of cooperation with the tribunal alleging that further indictments could lead to a civil war in the country, though some link his reluctance to the fact that many of the officials in Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) were Khmer Rouge leaders. Since the establishment of the tribunal in 2006, which to date has cost 205 million dollars, only three people have been convicted. The Khmer Rouge regime (1975-1979) caused the death of between 1.4 and 2.2 million Cambodians and others, the vast majority due to extrajudicial executions, torture, starvation, and disease. (AFP, 03/03/15; Phnom Penh Post, 13/03/15; (HRW, 22/03/15)