The films – produced for a prime-time Cambodian television audience, with English subtitles added – endeavor to explain the complex legal proceedings in an accessible and informative manner through the use of trial footage, expert commentary and interviews. Also available on the “Time for Justice, Cambodia” site are written reports on the tribunal sessions prepared by legal monitors from the Asian International Justice Initiative, or AIJI .
After several months of anticipation and a decade of negotiations, the first trial to be heard by the Khmer Rouge Tribunal is now underway in the case against Kaing Guek Eav, alias “Duch,” who has admitted that he ran the Khmer Rouge’s notorious S-21 torture center.
AIJI engaged Cambodia’s premier television production company, Khmer Mekong Films, to produce the half-hour weekly TV shows recapping the most recent trial proceedings. The programs are being shown on local television station CTN to an audience of approximately 2.5 million Cambodians, as well as being available online for easy viewing worldwide.
“We consider these films to be a vital tool in helping the Cambodian public and the world at large better understand the complex issues involved in these groundbreaking trials,” said AIJI Director David J. Cohen. “The goal is to help make the trial proceedings accessible to everyone in the interest of furthering the process of international justice.”
The AIJI is a collaboration between the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, and the War Crimes Study Center at UC Berkeley in California. Prior to the start of the trial, the AIJI conducted extensive legal trainings for the officers of the court, as well as a public education campaign that included several informational films that were shown on Cambodian television and at screenings throughout the country. Major funding for the project has come from the British Embassy in Phnom Penh.
Now that the tribunal’s first trial is underway, the AIJI has drawn upon five years of experience by the War Crimes Studies Center in conducting human-rights trial monitoring in Sierra Leone, East Timor, Rwanda, and Indonesia to establish a regionally based monitoring program for the duration of the Khmer Rouge trials.
In addition to a permanent AIJI monitor, the monitoring team for the trial of “Duch” will comprise young lawyers and advanced law students from Cambodia, Singapore, Indonesia, China, Japan, Switzerland, Germany and the U.S. The project is working with educational, professional and non-government organizations in these countries to provide monitors and develop funding sources for their participation.
Individual monitors will write reports on the proceedings for dissemination in their countries and posting on the web. The team will also produce periodic analytical assessments of the trials.
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The EAST-WEST CENTER is an education and research organization established by the U.S. Congress in 1960 to strengthen relations and understanding among the peoples and nations of Asia, the Pacific, and the United States. The Center contributes to a peaceful, prosperous and just Asia Pacific community by serving as a vigorous hub for cooperative research, education and dialogue on critical issues of common concern to the Asia Pacific region and the United States. Funding for the Center comes from the U.S. government, with additional support provided by private agencies, individuals, foundations, corporations and the governments of the region.