The UN expressed disappointment Friday that the draft law to try former leaders of the Khmer Rouge will have to go through the National Assembly and Senate for a second time, which will further delay the creation of a tribunal.
“It seems like we are now starting at the bottom of the ladder again.” UN spokesman Fred Eckard told reporters in New York on Friday. “It’s a setback, time-wise”
However, Eckard said having the parliament reconsider the measure could present an opportunity for lawmakers to address concerns raised by UN legal expert Hans Corell.
“It opens opportunities to bring it in strict conformity with the UN requirements,” Eckard said.
But the government’s decision to send the draft law back to parliament is only intended to allow for the reworking of a single flawed provision in the draft law, Cambodian officials and observers said.
Instead of in parliament, the UN and the government will address the concerns raised by Corell in a separate agreement, US Ambassador Kent Wiedemann said.
“They are two separate questions,” he said. “There is no need to address Hans Corell’s concerns” in an assembly special session.
In a Jan 9 letter, Corell said his main concern was that the draft law not contain any ambiguity over the tribunal’s authority to prosecute any former Khmer Rouge leader. That includes former Khmer Rouge deputy premier Ieng Sary, who was granted amnesty in 1996 for a 1979 death sentence.
Om Yentieng, senior adviser to Prime Minister Hun Sen, confirmed that only concerns expressed by the Constitutional Council will be addressed by parliament.
“They always teach us to do things by the law, and we are abiding by the law,” he said. “The process is being implemented properly.”
The Constitutional Council cited a technical error in the legislation that makes reference to the 1956 penal code, which contains the death penalty. But the Constitution bans the death penalty.
Hun Sen said Friday the Constitutional Council’s Feb 14 decision to send the draft law back to the National Assembly made it necessary for both houses to again review the law that would govern the UN-assisted trials of former Khmer Rouge leaders.
Some lawmakers and others disputed the Constitutional Council’s findings, saying the council may have misinterpreted the reference to the 1956 penal code.
Sean Vissoth, a legal adviser to Cabinet Minister Sok An, said the Khmer Rouge law already makes it clear that the death penalty cannot be used as punishment, so there is no need to amend the legislation.
“We clearly spoke in Article 38 of the law that there would be no death penalty,” Sean Vissoth said.
Article 38 of the draft law states that “all penalties shall be limited to imprisonment.”
National Assembly Legislation Commission Chairman Monh Saphann also said that the Constitutional Council may have misinterpreted the draft law, since Article 38 already leaves out the death penalty as an option. He said reconsidering the law could take some time.
Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, said he hopes the decision to send the law back through parliament will not present a set back to the Khmer Rouge tribunal process.
“I hope that this is…to perfect the law,” Youk Chhang said. “I think it makes sense. Any chance there is to perfect the law, the people should consider.”
(Additional reporting by The Associated Press)
