The Responsibility of Interested States to Fund and Monitor the ECCC

The Responsibility of Interested States to Fund and Monitor the ECCC

Anne Heidel
Documentation Center of Cambodia

The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (“ECCC”) is currently undertaking a funding drive to secure around 45 million US dollars to meet unanticipated costs and to provide for the Court’s operation through 2010. States such as the United States are considering whether or not to contribute funding for the first time. Some say that any new donations should be conditioned on the meeting of benchmarks demonstrating improvement in Court management. This raises the question of what role current Court backers should play in making the ECCC more accountable and convincing new states to provide funding.

State sponsors of U.N. resolutions, such as the one approving the Framework Agreement for the ECCC, seem to have no formal duties and only one implied task: to help the resolution get passed. After a tribunal is created, they have no clear obligations to provide funding or to encourage other states to fund. According to former US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crime David Scheffer, sponsorship only indicates “a willingness to be approached to press others to fund.” Others, however, say that states may have a “moral” obligation to ensure that an institution they helped create is able to function properly.

In practice state sponsors of tribunals often do provide funding and make at least hortatory efforts to encourage other states to do the same. For example, in General Assembly discussions on the ECCC Framework Agreement, the representative of Japan, the largest ECCC donor, stated “that the international community had a great stake in ensuring the success of the Extraordinary Chambers” and that, “[a]s a sponsor of the draft resolution, his delegation hoped that Member States … would provide financial and other support for implementation of the draft agreement.”[1]

One commentator has described the haphazard efforts to secure voluntary funding for tribunals in these terms: “the country making the request [to establish the tribunal] picks up part the bill and whichever other states have an interest make the balance.”[2] This is why state sponsors often form a “Group of Interested States” (“GIS”) to coordinate support after a new tribunal is established. For example, an informal GIS was formed as part of discussions on the implementation of the Security Council resolution on the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL). Important state contributors and “activist” countries among the GIS, together with a representative of the U.N. Secretary General, then formed a Management Committee. The Management Committee leads SCSL efforts to seek additional funding. Additionally, it oversees the court’s non-judicial operations, reviews and adopts its budget, provides policy advice, and acts as a facilitator between the court and the larger GIS.[3] One commentator has called this Committee “an advocacy base within the U.N. system.”[4]

The ECCC also has a GIS, which met for the first time in 2004. Additionally, state donors, with France and Japan acting as co-chairs, meet regularly in Phnom Penh as “Friends of the ECCC” for updates on the Court’s progress. However, unlike the SCSL Management Committee, this group does not actively assist the ECCC’s efforts to find new donors or provide budget advice or oversight. With many states questioning why they would want to get involved with a court plagued by accusations of corruption and mismanagement, it may be time for the Friends to assume this “moral” responsibility and assure potential donors that the ECCC is a worthwhile investment.

Protest march urges quick trial of Khmer Rouge leaders in Cambodia

Protest march urges quick trial of Khmer Rouge leaders in Cambodia

The Associated Press

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: Some 600 hundred protesters, including Buddhist nuns and Cambodian Muslims, marched in the capital Tuesday to urge a speedier trial for former leaders of the murderous Khmer Rouge.

A long-delayed, United Nations-backed tribunal is seeking accountability for atrocities during the Khmer Rouge's 1975-79 rule, under which an estimated 1.7 million people died from starvation, disease, overwork and execution.

The marchers, with students and Buddhist monks also among them, walked some five kilometers (3 miles) to the tribunal's office on Phnom Penh 's outskirts.

"If the process of the trial continues to be too slow, then the aging former Khmer Rouge leaders will be die before facing trial," said Yin Kean, a 72-year-old nun. "I wish to see these leaders taken to court soon so that they will reveal who is responsible for the deaths of Cambodians under their regime."

The genocide trials are scheduled to begin next year. Five high-ranking former leaders are in detention after being charged with crimes against humanity and other charges.

Tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath welcomed the marchers.

"Their presence here is a very significant step, showing that this court has received support from the entire Cambodian population," he said.

Cambodian Tribunal Needs More Money

Judges with the U.N.-backed genocide tribunal look on during
proceedings, Monday, Dec. 3, 2007, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. With five
former Khmer Rouge leaders in custody awaiting trial, three decades
after their murderous communist regime tumbled from power, Cambodia's
U.N.-backed genocide tribunal can credibly boast that it is on the
road to justice. The tribunal is appealing for more money on top of
its originally budgeted US$56.3 million (euro38 million), saying a
heavy workload means that its operation, originally meant to end in
2009, has to be extended through 2010. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)


Cambodian Tribunal Needs More Money
By KER MUNTHIT

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) -- With five former leaders of the Khmer
Rouge finally in custody awaiting trial -- three decades after their
murderous regime tumbled from power -- Cambodia's U.N.-backed genocide
tribunal can credibly say it is on the road to justice.

But its future hinges on the generosity of foreign aid donors who,
responding to reports of alleged corruption and mismanagement by
tribunal officials, are demanding greater accountability before
agreeing to give more money.

The process took a big step forward last month when Kaing Guek Eav,
the head of a notorious torture center, became the first major Khmer
Rouge figure to appear as a defendant in a public courtroom, appealing
unsuccessfully for release on bail.

He and four other suspects -- Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirith and
Khieu Samphan -- are being held in the tribunal's custom-built jail,
awaiting trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

But the tribunal says more work is needed to get to full-fledged
trials to establish responsibility for the deaths of some 1.7 million
Cambodians under the communist Khmer Rouge in the late 1970s.

The tribunal is appealing for an unspecified additional sum on top of
its budgeted $56.3 million, saying a heavy workload means that its
operation, originally supposed to end in 2009, has to be extended
through 2010.

Peter Foster, a U.N.-appointed spokesman for the tribunal, said the
present funds may run out in about six months due to unanticipated
costs.

"We're not talking about buying fleets of Mercedes and helicopters;
we're talking about essential elements of an international court," he
said.

For instance, said Helen Jarvis, the tribunal's Australian public
affairs chief, the court needs to increase the number of translators
to 40 from the current 14, and to create victim support and court
transcription services.

Donors raised concerns after two U.N. reports this year painted a
troubling picture of the tribunal's administration.

One of them, sidestepping allegations of corruption, accused the
Cambodian side of serious mismanagement.

The other found problems in sharing responsibilities between Cambodian
and foreign personnel, operating under Cambodian law.

To win more funding, the tribunal must show it can function
"efficiently and devoid of corruption," David Scheffer, a former U.S.
war crimes ambassador and a professor at the Northwestern University
School of Law in Chicago, said in an e-mail.

"The worst-case scenario is that the international staff and
administration would have to pull out and the trials would proceed in
a strictly Cambodian-staffed court," he said.

Joseph Mussomeli, the U.S. ambassador to Cambodia, said the United
States, which did not contribute to the original budget, is
considering whether to pitch in. Washington harbors widely shared
doubts about the competence and impartiality of Cambodia's courts.

"It would simply be irresponsible to suggest using American taxpayer
money until we're sure that the administrative process is also fixed,"
he said.

The corruption issue arose this year when a New York-based legal
group, Open Society Justice Initiative, alleged that Cambodians had to
pay kickbacks to government officials for tribunal jobs.

In a country where corruption is a way of life and most civil servants
earn only about $25 a month, the tribunal jobs are lucrative. Even at
half of the gross salaries earned by their U.N.-appointed
counterparts, Cambodian staffers with professional duties get $2,300
to $5,280 a month ? paid from donors' contributions.

Jarvis rejected the corruption allegations as "more of a rumor," and a
June audit by the U.N. Development Program produced no evidence of
kickbacks, though it said many Cambodian staffers had been hired
without meeting even minimum job qualifications.

Another U.N. report, also from June, charged that the dual structure
of Cambodian and U.N. administrators "serves only to constantly
hinder, frequently confuse and certainly frustrate efforts" to render
justice.

It said the relationship between officials on both sides has "somewhat
evolved into a 'we versus they camp.'"

Because the Cambodian and international staffs maintain separate
budgets, the paperwork doubles.

"When you're working on something as important as this, you don't want
to be spending your time worrying who's supposed to sign your phone
bill," spokesman Foster said.

The tribunal will approach donors with a "pretty complete package" of
progress and actions taken to fix the problems, he said. With five
suspects behind bars awaiting trial, he can't imagine the tribunal
folding for lack of funds.

"It's too late at this point, no matter what happens, to stop," he said.

Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press

Marchers demand speedier trials for Khmer Rouge tribunal

Marchers demand speedier trials for Khmer Rouge tribunal

AFP

25 December

More than 600 Buddhist monks and nuns, as well as Muslim leaders, marched to Cambodia's UN-backed genocide tribunal Tuesday to demand speedier trials of Khmer Rouge cadre.

The group marched silently to the courthouse, with the clergy in white robes, carrying banners that read "reconciliation" and "the tribunal is a remedy for the cycle of vengeance."

"We are marching because we want peace and justice to be rendered in the Khmer Rouge cases," Buddhist nun Chou Salean told AFP.

"We want the court to speed up the prosecutions because we have been waiting for nearly 30 years," said the 60-year-old woman, who said she lost seven relatives under the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s.

Many of the nuns said they had hoped to see the five suspects who have been arrested by the tribunal.

"The marchers support the court. The court will try its best to respond to the demands of the victims under the regime," said tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath, who greeted the march.

Up to two million people died of starvation and overwork, or were executed under the Khmer Rouge.

The Khmer Rouge emptied Cambodia's cities, exiling millions to vast collective farms in a bid to forge an agrarian utopia during its rule.

Established in July 2006 after nearly a decade of negotiations between Cambodia and the United Nations, the joint Cambodian-UN tribunal seeks to prosecute crimes committed by senior Khmer Rouge leaders.

Five top Khmer Rouge leaders have been detained to face charges for crimes committed by the regime's brutal 19975-79 rule. Trials are expected to begin in mid-2008.

All the defendants claim to be suffering from serious health ailments, causing concern among those hoping to find justice for Cambodia's genocide victims before the alleged perpetrators die.

Cambodia: Ensure Safety of Buddhist Monks

For Immediate Release

Cambodia: Ensure Safety of Buddhist Monks

Prosecute Police Involved in ‘Burma-Style’ Crackdown

(New York, December 21, 2007) – The Cambodian government should ensure the safety of Buddhist monks whom police attacked during a peaceful protest, Human Rights Watch said today.

On December 17, riot police violently assaulted with wooden and electric shock batons a group of 47 Khmer Krom Buddhist monks – indigenous ethnic Khmer from southern Vietnam – when they attempted to deliver a petition protesting the imprisonment of monks in Vietnam to the Vietnamese Embassy in Phnom Penh. Phnom Penh Police Commissioner Touch Naroth announced that authorities are investigating all of the monks who protested in order to find the “fake monks who instigated the violence.”

“These Khmer Krom monks have suffered police abuse in Cambodia and face imprisonment and torture if they’re sent to Vietnam,” said Sophie Richardson , Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch . “The Cambodian government shouldn’t emulate Burma’s generals by brutally cracking down on monks who peacefully protest. They are Cambodian citizens who deserve protection, not more mistreatment, from the Cambodian government.”

Human Rights Watch is concerned that Cambodian authorities will now arrest, defrock, and forcibly send the monks who protested to Vietnam, where they could face severe reprisals. Vietnam has a policy of imprisoning peaceful critics of the government, including Catholic priests, Buddhist monks, human rights lawyers, and trade union activists (http://hrw.org/doc?t=asia&c=vietna).

The Cambodian government has “returned” Khmer Krom to Vietnam, even though international law prohibits the expulsion without due process of persons from a country where they legally reside.

For example, in June 2007, Khmer Krom monk Tim Sakhorn, a longtime abbot in Cambodia, was defrocked by Cambodian authorities and sent to Vietnam, where he was sentenced to prison on charges of violating Vietnam’s national unity policy because he had allegedly distributed bulletins about Khmer Krom history and politics and sheltered monks fleeing from Vietnam.

In February 2007, Vietnamese authorities arrested, defrocked, and imprisoned Khmer Krom monks in Soc Trang province, Vietnam, for peacefully protesting in support of religious freedom. Five monks were sentenced to prison in Vietnam on charges of disrupting social order. Afterwards, dozens of Khmer Krom monks fled from Vietnam to Cambodia, where they conducted protests in February and April to call for the release of the five monks.

“There is real concern for the safety of Khmer Krom who protest in either Cambodia or Vietnam,” said Richardson.

After Khmer Krom monks protested outside the Vietnamese Embassy in Phnom Penh on February 27, 2007, one of the monk protesters was found dead in his pagoda, with his throat repeatedly slit. Police labeled the killing a suicide, ordered his immediate burial, and prohibited monks from conducting funeral proceedings.

While some of the defrocked monks who fled to Cambodia from Vietnam earlier this year were subsequently re-ordained by Cambodian abbots, many have not yet been granted “chaiya,” or official monk identification cards, by the Cambodian Ministry of Cults and Religion. This enables the Cambodian authorities to dispute their legitimacy as monks, using this as grounds to arrest them as “fake monks” and forcibly send them to Vietnam.

The December 17 Protests

Around 8 a.m. on December 17 a group of 47 Khmer Krom monks gathered at the Vietnamese Embassy in Phnom Penh to submit a petition calling for the Vietnamese government to release six Khmer Krom monks from prison, resolve land conflicts arising from post-1978 confiscation of Khmer Krom farmland in Vietnam, and respect the rights of indigenous people.

The written demands of the Khmer Krom monks demonstrating on December 17 did not call for return to Cambodia of the territory known as Kampuchea Krom, which the French turned over to Vietnam in 1949. The monks asked for resolution of land conflicts arising from land grabs by Vietnamese authorities and ethnic Vietnamese citizens of land belonging to Khmer Krom people in Vietnam, particularly since 1978, when the Vietnamese government forcibly relocated Khmer Krom away from their farmland near the Cambodian border in the face of cross-border attacks by the Khmer Rouge.

Several dozen riot police carrying shields, and wooden and electric shock batons – and some with assault rifles and revolvers – cordoned off the area around the Vietnamese Embassy, blocking a long stretch of Monivong Boulevard during the morning rush hour. The police photographed all of the monks as well as United Nations and Cambodian human rights monitors. More riot police soon arrived, until there were more than 60 at the scene.

After negotiations between the police and the monks, five monks were allowed to approach the embassy gate to deliver the petition. At 8:40 a.m., when no one from the embassy came out to receive the petition, the larger group of monks began to press closer to the embassy entrance. The police used their shields to push the monks back, and one monk was hit on the head. Some scuffling ensued.

As the monks made their way through police lines and walked toward the gate of the embassy, the commanding officer, a deputy police chief, shouted an order for the police to shoot the “stubborn-headed monks” if they continued to advance toward the embassy. About 10 police officers moved their AK-47 assault rifles, which had been slung over their shoulders, to their hands and others unsnapped the holsters to their revolvers. The order was not carried out, however, despite the deputy police chief repeating several times: “Shoot! Shoot!” Instead, the riot police regrouped, positioning themselves in front of the monks and blocking them from proceeding. They loaded batteries into their electric batons and began testing them.

The monks sat down on the sidewalk and began to chant Buddhist prayers. Around 9 a.m., eight more anti-riot police arrived, some carrying AK-47 rifles and pistols. They merged into the front lines of the police and aggressively cursed and taunted the monks, some of whom insulted the police back.

Around 9:30 a.m., the monks stood up, saying they were returning to their pagoda, though it was apparent that some intended to try to move toward the embassy again. Eight anti-riot police then used their shields and wooden batons to beat the monks on their heads, arms, groins, and shoulders; shocked them with the electric batons; hit them with their fists; and kicked them with their boots. The monks tried to defend themselves using their hands and their feet – clad only in plastic sandals – and threw their plastic water bottles at the police. Some swung their cloth shoulder-bags at the police.

The monks then turned and fled. The police chased them for four blocks, kicking and beating the monks along the way, as well as one young boy who attempted to retrieve the sandals and bag of a monk who had been knocked down. The police shouted to startled passers-by as they chased the monks through the streets that “these are not real monks that we are beating.”

Six monks were severely injured, including one with a large contusion on his head, one who fell unconscious after being hit with an electric baton, and several who had leg and knee injuries. Some of the police officers suffered minor scratches and bruises.

Human Rights Watch called on the Cambodian government to promptly and impartially investigate the police’s use of force against the monks and prosecute all those responsible for using unnecessary or excessive violence.

The UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials provide that law enforcement officials, in carrying out their duty, shall as far as possible apply nonviolent means before resorting to the use of force. Whenever the use of force is unavoidable, law enforcement officials must use restraint and act in proportion to the seriousness of the offense. The legitimate objective should be achieved with minimal damage and injury.

“The police continued to beat the monks even after they had moved away from the embassy, well after the protest was dispersed,” said Richardson. “They were not chasing the monks to carry out lawful arrests, but to beat them.”

In the past, Khmer Krom monks have been able to freely cross from Vietnam without visas to study Buddhism at Pali Schools in Cambodia. Since the February 2007 crackdown in Vietnam and the demonstrations by Khmer Krom monks in Phnom Penh, however, Cambodian authorities have made it more difficult for monks from Vietnam to obtain permission from Buddhist authorities to stay in pagodas in Cambodia while studying there.

In addition, Cambodian authorities have threatened Khmer Krom monks in Phnom Penh, Banteay Meanchey, and Kompong Speu provinces with expulsion from temples or being forcibly sent or returned to Vietnam if they meet with Khmer Krom groups, distribute Khmer Krom bulletins covering cultural, religious and political affairs, or participate in protests.

In June, the Cambodian Ministry of Cults and Religion issued an order banning Buddhist monks from participating in demonstrations.

“The Cambodian government should uphold its commitment to free assembly and expression enshrined in Cambodia’s constitution and the many human rights treaties it has signed,” said Richardson.

For more information, please contact:

In Washington, DC, Sophie Richardson (English, Mandarin): +1-917-721-7473 (mobile)

In New York, Elaine Pearson (English): +1-646-291-7169 (mobile)

Peace and Justice March

Peace and Justice March

December 25th
A Project of DC-Cam's Student Outreach and
the Association of Nuns and Laywomen of Cambodia

The majority of survivors of the Cambodian genocide are women. Many of
these women lost their husbands and children during the genocide that
lasted from 1975-1979. Since the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime, these
women have been the driving force behind the rebuilding of Cambodia,
socially, economically, and spiritually.

The Documentation Center of Cambodia in cooperation with the
Association of Nuns and Laywomen of Cambodia will hold a march to
promote peace and national reconciliation on Tuesday, December 25,
2007 in Phnom Penh. The project is funded by the Danish government
with core support of DC-Cam from the Swedish government and USAID. The
City municipality and the Ministry of Interior of the Royal Government
of Cambodia support the event.

The event will begin at 6:30 a.m. with a rally at Wat Phnom. At 8 a.m.
the group will travel to Dang Naingkoal, near the entrance of the
Phnom Penh Airport, where participants will set out on a march to the
ECCC (Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia).

The Association of Nuns and Laywomen of Cambodia will be represented
by 500 nuns from 14 provinces. Also attending will be monks, Cham
Muslim religious leaders (toun, mei toun and hakem) and hundreds of
local higth school students. They will march under the banners: ?The
ECCC is a Remedy for the Cycle of Vengeance,? and ?We Work Together
for Peace and Reconciliation.?

The objective of the march is to give members of the religious
community and students an opportunity to participate in the Khmer
Rouge Tribunal and raise public awareness on the upcoming trials of
senior Khmer Rouge officials. The march aims at promoting peace and
national reconciliation, reducing violence, and strengthening the
solidarity of the Cambodian people during the long and difficult
process of achieving genocide justice.

The Peace and Justice March also symbolizes the hopeful future that
Cambodia will embark upon in the new year. As 2008 approaches, DC-Cam
would like to take this opportunity to thank all the individuals,
governments and organizations in Cambodia and around the world that
have supported us throughout the years. It is through their
generosity, knowledge, and encouragement that the work of DC-Cam has
been able to succeed. We hope that this collaboration will continue
into 2008 so that the goals of peace, justice, and reconciliation will
become a reality in Cambodia.

If you are interested in receiving more information or participating
in the march, please contact Sayana Ser at:

Email: sayana_ser@yahoo.com
Phone: 023-211-875

WORLD-WIDE ASIAN-EURASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS FORUM

World People's Blog
WORLD-WIDE ASIAN-EURASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS FORUM
Chea Vannath - Cambodia
Written on December 19th, 2007 in World People one

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

Chea Vannath (born 1948) is President of the Center for Social Development CSD, which promotes school curricula on transparency, monitors the courts and parliament and organizes public debates on the Khmer Rouge tribunal, corruption and other issues. After the Khmer Rouge seized power in 1975, Chea was forced to work in labor camps before escaping to Thailand and on to the US. After living as a refugee in America for more than ten years, she returned to Cambodia in 1992 to participate in rebuilding her country.

She says: "Not anymore will I allow only one party to lead my country".

She says also: ""He (my father) was committed, had tremendous energy and effort, and possessed a progressive vision. He did not blame others. When he talked, he made me think. Once he was asked by other villagers while we were forced to work in the field by the Khmer Rouge, how it feels to not be rich anymore, and he replied that he still felt very fortunate. He did not pay attention to money but to human beings".

...

Chea Vannath - Cambodia

She works for the Center for Social Development CSD.

A daughter of a jeweler, Vannath grew up in a secure and elegant environment. As a girl, she went to school in a chauffer-driven car. Vannath speaks three languages fluently: Khmer, English and French. After getting her diploma in public financial management, she worked as a fiscal officer in the treasury department. She married a physician, a major in the Cambodian army. They have one son.

Then came the Khmer Rouge in April 1975. Vannath's life would never be the same again.

From "year zero", as the Khmer Rouge regime called their reign of terror, Vannath along with her parents and her husband and son were forced to leave home and made to work the fields in several provinces along with millions other Cambodians. In three years and eight months, together with many other people, she moved to different places, wherever the Khmer Rouge needed forced labor. She got up at four in the morning to pick tobacco, and saw men being taken away never to be seen again.

Vannath witnessed, for the first time, death, torture, and misery. In short, human suffering. From these experiences, she learned to understand life and suffering, life as ever changing and not permanent.

Under the regime's reign of terror, two million Cambodians were reported killed. In 1980, facing the threat to her family, Vannath, her husband, and their son escaped to Thailand. They stayed in a refugee camp in Chon Buri province for three months then left for the Philippines for another six months. After finding a sponsor in America in 1981, Vannath's family set off for San Francisco, then settled in Oregon.

Buddhism has helped her through difficult times. Many Cambodians traumatized by the war react differently. Some of them lost their identities. Vannath clung to Buddhism and kept her balance.

"Some Buddhist Cambodians said they were Christian in order to get assistance while in America. But I don't want to say that just to get assistance," says Vannath, recalling her experience as a refugee in America from 1981 to 1990.

Vannath was introduced to Buddhism since when she was young. As a child living with her parents in Pursat province, Vannath developed a strong and loving relationship with her grandmother, Touch Ky. So when her parents moved to Phnom Penh in the 1950s, she did not want to
leave her grandmother."My first thought was always with my grandma. I remember very well helping her carry the betel nuts basket to the pagodas (temple) and several Buddhist religious ceremonies. I always observed these ceremonies." Vannath learned to pray twice a day.

Before the Khmer Rouge, she avoided political activity. But the regime changed her from a gentle woman unconcerned about the state or the administration, to an activist. "It changed me," she says, with no hint of resentment. It led her to ask the question: "Why did the Khmer Rouge happen?" The answer, she says, is that she was not an active member of society. She decided to change herself, to be engaged in political affairs. Not anymore will I allow one party to lead my country," she said.

She got involved, first, as coordinator for all organizations assisting refugees in America. She worked as a board member of the Cambodian Network Council to preserve the homeland's traditions and culture. From 1981 to 1990, she became program monitor for the International Refugee Center of Oregon and the Southeast Asian Refugee Federation in Oregon, and later the program coordinator for the Early Employment Project of the Metropolitan Community Action in Portland.

Later, she became program specialist for the Oregon State Refugee Program, Department of Human Resources. She also continued her studies and obtained a master's degree in Public Administration (with awards for achievement) from the Portland State University in Oregon in 1991.

In 1992, she was back in Cambodia working as a translator for the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) to prepare for the UN-sponsored general election in 1993. Later, she worked for The Asia Foundation ? Cambodia, funded by the US Agency for International Development, as head of the Financial Review and Compliance Unit. In 1996, she was vice president of the Center for Social Development (CSD) before becoming its president in 1998.

Established in 1995, the CSD is a nationwide institution focusing mainly on the elimination of corruption, development of accountability and the implementation of transparency especially in the publicsector, as well as the promotion of human rights, good governance and democracy. These issues are pertinent to Cambodia (a country where the average monthly income of civil servants ranges from US$20-40 and where some 36 per cent of the population live below the poverty line), where the availability of funds and international aid are fertile ground for abuse. In addition, a research study conducted by CSD in 1998 on the Cambodians' attitude towards corruption showed that a majority of the people accept corruption as part of the normal way of life in Cambodia. To counter this, the CSD decided to launch a project called Transparency Task Force, which aims for attitudinal and behavioral changes towards corruption among primary and secondary level students.

In 2002, the Coalition for Transparency-Cambodia composed of monks, students, teachers, civil servants, non-governmental organizations, parliamentarians and members of the private sector was formed, with the CSD acting as its secretariat and its major sustaining force. The CSD was also the main moving force in the drafting of the anti-corruption law awaiting the adoption by the Parliament.

Since 1996, the CSD has organized public forums to tackle sensitive and explosive issues, thus, Vannath says, enabling the Center to act as a neutral and unbiased venue for people of varied backgrounds to debate within the framework of legal and democratic processes. The debates are broadcast through radio and television.

The most controversial debate was on the Khmer Rouge tribunal. At that time, details of the law establishing a Khmer Rouge tribunal were negotiated in utmost secrecy between the representatives of the Royal Government and the United Nations. The CSD felt the need to organize these debates so that the people's voices would be heard. The debates were opened to the public, which included the victims of the Khmer Rouge as well as its former members.

Vannath traveled to the former Khmer Rouge leaders' stronghold in Pailin and Phnom Malai districts of Banteay Meanchey province to invite them to participate in the forum that her Center organized in three provinces. The presence of Khmer Rouge members was controversial but Vannath believed the Khmer Rouge should have a chance to express their opinions about the tribunal. She says that from these forums, she found out that the tribunal itself is not the issue. The real issue is national reconciliation and peace. Therefore, the trial had to be looked at from the broader, more comprehensive framework of justice, national reconciliation and total healing towards the attainment of genuine peace.

Peace, Vannath says, is everything, so her work also has to deal with several issues: health, religion, gender. Once she worked to preserve the historical and cultural heritage of Cambodia, the National Olympic Stadium complex. The great obstacles to peace, however, are poverty and lack of education. Her Center signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Education to train 6,000 teachers and to integrate the concepts of transparency and accountability into the
curriculum.

Other activities of the CSD are Parliamentary Watch that monitors and acts as a watchdog of the performance of the members of the Parliament, and Court Watch that monitors and records the compliance of courts with the procedures for fair trial and due process. The CSD also publishes a monthly bulletin that exposes the performance of key players in the socio-economic and political spheres of Cambodian society.The CSD is in the line of fire for its activities and positions on various issues. Consistently, it takes the dangerous position of working for the benefit of the poor, marginalized and oppressed majority.

Vannath said she can stand up to anybody since what she is trying to do go beyond her own interests. "I do it not for myself. I do not have any expectations from what I am doing." "She is truly brave, even much more than many Cambodian men," says Mam Sonando, president of the Phnom Penh-based Radio Beehive. "She leads her life with transparency and honesty. She practices Buddhism in her work, activities and daily living. She contributes tremendously to the development of Cambodia
and attainment of lasting peace in our divided nation." Vannath was in the government's black list for many years.

Vannath says she finds her strength in the footsteps of her late father.

Vannath's comments are always sought after by the media. She is a daily commentator on the different issues in the country. She openly takes up issues specially those dealing with corruption. According to her friend, Helen Ross, an architect, Vannath seems "to have become the oracle that all journalists seek out for an answer to Cambodia's complex political, social and economic situation."

Vannath has been invited to Sweden and other countries to talk about the peace process she is advocating for Cambodia. The case study she wrote entitled "Reconciliation in Cambodia: Politics, Culture and Religion" has been used in the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance's handbook on reconciliation. Vannath sits among policy makers on peace and national reconciliation, locally and abroad.

In 2004, Vannath was selected as one of the eight outstanding women in Cambodia by the Angkor Thom magazine for her courage, achievements and pioneering efforts in the field of transparency, accountability, human rights, democracy and peace. (1000peacewomen).

Camp Catatonia.

Khmer Rouge and national reconciliation, opinions from the Cambodians.

Vannath Chea on IDEA.

Second Regional Conference on Poverty Reduction Strategies.

Peace Agreements as a Means for Promoting Gender Equality and Ensuring, Participation of Women.

And she says: "It's beyond a dream," said Chea Vannath, a leading human rights campaigner here. "I used to live under the Khmer Rouge regime, and I could never dream that those leaders would ever be brought to trial", (full text: Khmer Rouge Hearing Ends, Nov. 21, 2007).

la testimonianza di una sopravvissuta.

links:

Das Rote-Khmer-Tribunal;

Her articles on the Washingtonpost;

Securing Allegiance;

Good Governance and Behavioral Change Workshop;

Her articles on zoomInfo;

Cambodian Information Center.

Center for Social Development CSD.