The joint UN-Cambodian court said in a statement on Monday that Investigating Judge Siegfried Blunk from Germany had resigned as of Oct. 8, after less than a year in the job.
Senior Cambodian officials, including Prime Minister Hun Sen, have frequently expressed opposition to any further prosecutions in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), as the court is known, beyond the second trial now under way.
“Because of these repeated statements, which will be perceived as attempted interference by Government officials with Cases 003 and 004, the International Co-Investigating Judge has submitted his resignation,” the ECCC said.
The identities of the individuals in these cases have never been made public.
The court has so far spent around $100 million and handed down just one sentence, a 35-year jail term commuted to 19 years for Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, over his role in the deaths of more than 14,000 people at the notorious S-21 torture center in Phnom Penh. Many saw that as too lenient.
The current trial, sometimes referred to as 002, involves Nuon Chea, who was “Brother Number Two” in the ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge regime, former President Khieu Samphan, ex-Foreign Minister Ieng Sary and his wife, Ieng Thirith, who was social affairs minister.
They face various charges, including war crimes and crimes against humanity, among other charges.
Prime Minister Hun Sen, himself a former Khmer Rouge cadre, has made no secret of his disdain for the court and has argued that further indictments would simply reopen old wounds.
But an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians — a quarter of the population — were killed from 1975-1979, many through torture and execution, and their relatives want justice.
“We want justice. We don’t want the court to do its work with forgiveness,” said Phoeung Sophy, a 57-year-old street vendor who lost her aunt, three nieces and fiancé. “Anybody whose hands were stained with blood must be prosecuted.”
Clair Duffy, a court monitor for advocacy group Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI), said the international community had to put pressure on Cambodia to cooperate in the Case 003 and 004 investigations.
“They can’t just fix this situation by putting another international investigating judge in that position. They need to address the underlying problem first, which is the Cambodian government’s public opposition to these cases and its real control over the judicial decision,” she said.
