Victims Complaints Delayed, Groups Say

By Mean Veasna, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
30 May 2008

Khmer audio aired May 29 (1.05MB) - Download (MP3)
Khmer audio aired May 29 (1.05MB) - Listen (MP3)

The submission of victim’s complaints has been slow in being processed by the Khmer Rouge tribunal, a leading rights group said.

“We sent 77 complaints, among the more than 330 complaints we received, to the Victim’s Unit,” said Hisham Mousar, a tribunal monitor for Adhoc, said. Those have been delayed in being sent from the unit to judges, he said.

Adhoc has been helping victims compile complaints for the court since December 2007, and the delay has caused the group to suspend collecting more.

But Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, said delays at the tribunal should not lead to such cessation of collection, as the collection lends “value to history.”

Tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath said the Victim’s Unit of the courts had received 1,281 complaints from alleged victims of the Khmer Rouge regime, and he conceded the courts have been slow in processing them.

The Victim’s Unit was only recently established and is short-staffed, he said. Besides, the tribunal must be budget-conscious and save the maximum amount of money possible for the time being, he said.