Gov’t, UN Set Agenda for KR Trial Talks

As a UN delegation on Thurs­day arrived with what they called a “positive spirit” that a deal could be reached on how to try former Khmer Rouge leaders, sources said the government remains irked with the UN and that Prime Minister Hun Sen spent this first crucial day of talks in Vietnam.

UN Undersecretary General for Legal Affairs Hans Corell began the weeklong visit on Thursday with brief comments, saying he does not want to “negotiate through the media.”

But he reiterated the importance of this visit to finalize how those responsible for more than 1 million deaths from 1975 to 1979 will be tried in what is known as a “mixed” tribunal with both Cam­bo­dian and UN-appointed judges.

“Cambodia has a chance to make history this week,” Corell told reporters Thursday morning at Pochentong Airport.

He later met one-on-one with Minister of Cabinet Sok An in the minister’s office for nearly two hours. The two emer­ged saying they had set the week’s agenda. Corell, however, said he was unsure whether he will meet with Hun Sen after the premier re­turns from Vietnam this evening.  “I don’t know yet….I think we will see when he comes back,” Corell said.

Government protocol and Vietnamese Embassy officials confirmed that Hun Sen indeed left for Vietnam on Tuesday for what one authority deemed a “courtesy visit” with his family.

“He did not travel with officials. It was just one helicopter,” said Monh Sam Ath, chief of protocol for the government cabinet.

Several Cambodia-based diplomats, however, expressed concern with the message the premier’s trip sends to the UN delegation.

They acknowledged that his visit was no slight in the formal sense—it would have been if he had put off the UN’s top man, Secretary-General Kofi Annan. But one Asian diplomat said it was no coincidence the premier left Cambodia when he did.

“This is his way of staying tough with the UN,” he said.

Another Asian diplomat postured that, just like immediately before the July 1997 factional fighting that eventually put Hun Sen into sole power, the premier might have gone to neighboring Vietnam for “counseling” during this critical time.

The ruling parties in Vietnam and Cambodia long have been allies since Hun Sen and other  officials defected to the neighboring country and helped topple the Khmer Rouge in 1979.

Om Yentieng, a senior aide to Hun Sen, blasted the idea that Hun Sen would seek advice on the Khmer Rouge trial.

“You can’t control people’s expressions. Let them say what they want to say. But the reality is not like this,” he said, insisting that Hun Sen visited Vietnam for a “medical check-up.”

Om Yentieng also denied reports that the government has its guard up with the UN—despite comments from a handful of observers close to the negotiations who said government officials were annoyed that the UN waited until the last minute to alert them of this week’s visit.

“The government wants to get this trial resolved. But they’re tired of this messing around. If it doesn’t happen this time, they will go it alone,” one negotiator said.

High among the government’s concerns, analysts said, is that the UN up to now has not exercised its best diplomatic efforts and often has dispatched legal experts to perform political tasks.

The UN appears to have addressed these concerns by sending Shashi Tharoor, who comes directly from Annan’s office, and Lakhan Mehrotra, Annan’s former representative to Cambodia who now is posted in Jakarta.

In a recent interview, genocide researcher Craig Etcheson, who has followed the negotiations since they began over two years ago, cautioned that after 20 years of waiting, no one should expect a deal without some wrangling. In Cambodian politics, he said, “one learns to be patient.”

 

 

 

Related Stories

Latest News