CANBERRA -- The U.N. Secretariat's Feb. 8 announcement ending further cooperation with Cambodia on jointly run Khmer Rouge trials has set off a round of international commentary, mostly unfavorable to Cambodia. Here is an attempt to set the record straight, based on reliable public sources.
Responsible governments that make up Cambodia's donor community do not accept U.N. legal chief Hans Corell's unilaterally announced closure as the end of the matter. The United States, European Union, Japan and Australia have all protested to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. These governments -- which gave Cambodia $540 million aid last year -- will not stand by and let a poorly resourced Cambodian judiciary attempt this important task alone. Large efforts have gone into assembling evidence for an internationally credible Khmer Rouge trial. It would break Cambodian hearts around the world if this trial is abandoned or mishandled.
Donor governments know that Corell's stated reasons for ending cooperation lack merit. Corell's main complaint was that Cambodia had rejected the U.N. demand that the Cambodia-U.N. Memorandum of Understanding, or MOU, on cooperation in the trials prevail over the Cambodian Khmer Rouge Trials Law, or KRTL, if any disagreement arises between the two documents. Actually, both the KRTL and the MOU were drafted under U.N. legal guidance, and there was agreement on both draft texts when Corell visited Phnom Penh in July 2000.