Cambodia: Language is an issue ahead of the trial of a Khmer Rouge leader

[Harold Schiffman]

Lawyer Scolds Cambodia Tribunal Judges



By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 24, 2008

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodia's genocide tribunal abruptly
adjourned a pretrial hearing for a Khmer Rouge leader on Wednesday
after his lawyer, who is French, erupted at the judges because
thousands of pages of documents had not been translated into French.
The judges later said they would issue a warning to the lawyer,
Jacques Vergès, for courtroom conduct that caused the hearing's
postponement. Mr. Vergès, 83, who is representing Khieu Samphan, the
former Khmer Rouge president, in his appeal against pretrial
detention, has earned notoriety with a client list that has included
the Nazi Gestapo officer Klaus Barbie, the Venezuelan terrorist Carlos
the Jackal and Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav president. The
tribunal has charged Mr. Khieu Samphan with crimes against humanity
and war crimes committed when the Communist Khmer Rouge held power
from 1975 to 1979. About 1.7 million people died from starvation,
disease, overwork and execution as a result of the group's policies in
trying to build a classless society.

Mr. Khieu Samphan, 76, has repeatedly denied responsibility for any
atrocities. Mr. Vergès stormed out of Wednesday's closed-door hearing,
telling reporters that judges had asked Mr. Khieu Samphan to find a
new lawyer. "French is an official language of the tribunal," he told
the reporters, in French. "There is not one page of the case file
against Mr. Khieu Samphan translated into French." He added, "I should
be capable of knowing what my client is blamed for." After Mr. Vergès
refused to participate further, the judges suggested that Mr. Khieu
Samphan might want to appoint a new lawyer to represent him — and then
adjourned the hearing. "I have been a lawyer for 50 years; it is the
first time I have seen judges ask an accused to change his lawyer,"
Mr. Vergès said. "This is a scandal!"  One of the Cambodian
prosecutors, Chea Leang, said the court was facing difficulty
translating thousands of pages of documents for all its cases into the
three official languages used by the tribunal, Khmer, English and
French.

But she contended that Mr. Vergès's refusal to participate in the
hearing because the documents had not been translated into French was
"unreasonable" because the proceedings were not part of the actual
trial. Mr. Vergès and Mr. Khieu Samphan have said they have known each
other since they both were active in left-wing student activities in
Paris in the 1950s. Mr. Khieu Samphan has been detained by the
tribunal since Nov. 19. He is one of five former senior leaders in
custody. The long-delayed tribunal is expected to hold its first trial
this year. Many fear that the Khmer Rouge's aging leaders could die
before being brought to justice. Mr. Khieu Samphan's lawyers say that
he held no real power as the Khmer Rouge's head of state and that  he
is not guilty of the crimes with which he is charged. Mr. Khieu
Samphan has blamed the Khmer Rouge chief, Pol Pot, who died in 1998,
for the group's policies.

Expressionless before the court, Mr. Khieu Samphan stood when asked to
introduce himself Wednesday and said he lived a life of poverty after
the fall of the Khmer Rouge.
"I didn't have any job, and after leaving the jungle, I depended on my
wife, who supported the whole family," he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/24/world/asia/24cambodia.html?ref=world

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