Cambodian activist says UN risks failing Khmer Rouge victims

Phnom Penh - A Cambodian rights activist warned the United Nations on Wednesday it would fail the victims of the Khmer Rouge unless it ensured that two controversial cases at the war crimes tribunal were properly investigated.

Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, made his comments in a public letter to Clint Williamson, who acts as liaison between UN headquarters and the government, during his trip to Phnom Penh.

Ou Virak's comments come amid fears the UN is working to shut down the third and fourth cases at the behest of the government. Prime Minister Hun Sen has long said he would not permit either case to go to trial, citing a risk of civil war.

Ou Virak, whose father was killed by the Khmer Rouge, warned against any decision to close the UN-backed tribunal at the conclusion of its second case, which is due to start on June 27.

'If such a decision is indeed effected, it will fatally undermine the integrity of the (tribunal) and the justice which it seeks to dispense in all cases, including Cases 001 and 002,' he wrote.

In its first case, the tribunal last year convicted the Khmer Rouge's head of security, Comrade Duch, of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The court's second case is against four senior surviving leaders of the movement.

The next two cases reportedly involve five former members thought responsible for tens of thousands of deaths during 1975-79.

But observers have said political opposition and UN inaction mean they have little chance of getting to trial.

Ou Virak singled out the tribunal's international investigating judge, Siegfried Blunk, a German national, whose office closed the file in the third case last month without interviewing the suspects or investigating alleged crime sites.

Subsequent public comments by the international prosecutor, Andrew Cayley, seemed to confirm long-standing rumours that Blunk's office had done little work on the case.

Ou Virak said that while the government's opposition to cases three and four was well-known, Blunk's role as the international investigating judge 'is a matter of utmost concern.'

'(Blunk's) actions raise the question of whether the United Nations has conceded to the demands of the (Cambodian government) and is now acting to prevent any further cases from going to trial and to ensure the closure of the (tribunal) with the conclusion of Case 002,' he wrote.

Both the tribunal and UN headquarters have refused to answer questions about the controversial cases. When asked earlier this month whether the court was trying to bury cases three and four, Blunk, who took up his post in December, responded with a threat.

'The use of the word 'bury' is insolent, for which you are given leave to apologize within two days,' Blunk wrote in an email without specifying a penalty.

Blunk has since refused to answer any questions from the German Press Agency dpa.

The UN has also repeatedly refused to answer any questions on the next cases.

Case Four is still with the investigating judges' office, which is led jointly by Blunk and Cambodian judge You Bunleng.

More than 2 million people are thought to have died during the Khmer Rouge's rule of Cambodia.