UN ‘concerned’ over KRouge judge’s limbo

Journalists listen to former KRouge “Brother Number Two” Nuon Chea (C-top) being broadcasted as he speaks at a hearing of evidence at the Extraordinary Chamber in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) in Phnom Penh on Tuesday

The United Nations voiced concern yesterday over Cambodia’s delay in appointing a foreign judge to the Khmer Rouge tribunal, paralysing probes into two cases strongly opposed by the government.
Swiss judge Laurent Kasper-Ansermet arrived in Phnom Penh last month as the UN’s choice to replace a German judge who abruptly quit in October over government opposition to further prosecutions linked to the 1975-1979 regime.
“The United Nations has since made every effort to secure the appointment of the judge,” UN chief Ban Ki-moon’s spokesman Martin Nesirky told AFP, adding Cambodia had “an obligation” to appoint the reserve choice in the case of a vacancy.
But the government body charged with rubber-stamping the nomination has failed to meet in recent weeks, leaving the Swiss judge in a legal impasse, in the latest setback to the court.
The Cambodian justice ministry confirmed that it had received a letter from the UN requesting the council to discuss the matter, adding only they “don’t know when the meeting will take place.”
Observers from the US-based Open Society Justice Initiative said in a statement that Cambodia was stalling, “effectively leaving the judicial investigations in a state of limbo”.
Kasper-Ansermet’s Cambodian counterpart You Bunleng on Monday publicly refused to work with the Swiss, who he said was not legally accredited, while Kasper-Ansermet accused You Bunleng of blocking “important” information about the two new cases involving five ex-Khmer Rouge members accused of crimes against humanity.