Accountability and Takeaway Points By Commissioner Paul Hoffman

What are the key points – the main “takeaways” that have emerged from the work of the Commission of Inquiry for Cambodia over the past eighteen months, and that you, the viewers and listeners of our hearings, and other interested members of the Khmer and international communities, should be most mindful about? 

1. Most important, is the sad reality that the evidence is overwhelming and impossible to refute, that the Hun Sen government, over the past 37 years, has been engaging in a long-standing, widespread and systemic campaign of increasingly harsh repression against the Cambodian people. In the course of that campaign of repression, Hun Sen has violated numerous rules of law, human rights and international standards with impunity. 

2. Especially in recent months and years, the principal target of these highly repressive abuses has been the main political opposition party, and other potential critics of the government. The Mass Criminal Trials that currently are taking place, the court order declaring the principle political opposition party to be illegal, and to force it to cease operations, the closing down of independent media outlets, and the string of arrests, imprisonments, beatings and assassinations aimed at “criminalizing” and eliminating all forms of meaningful alternative voices and civil society activities, all of these major abuses are designed to keep Hun Sen in power and to eliminate the availability and effectiveness of alternative voices.  

3. Thus far these major abuses and violations of international law have been carried out by the Hun Sen government with substantial impunity – with no negative consequences – despite the fact that numerous rule of law and human rights standards have been violated. 

4. There are growing signs and indicators that this widespread and long-standing pattern and practice of abuse, without effective responses from the Khmer and international communities, may be changing. This past year there has been a series of hopeful indicators that meaningful and effective change is possible, that Hun Sen can and will be held accountable for his major violations of international law. They include: a) Theary Seng’s dramatic and outspoken refusal to be another “silent victim of abuse,” when, in her own words delivered just hours before her arrest and imprisonment on the trumped up charge of “treason” in the Mass Criminal Trials, she recorded testimony before the Commission of Inquiry for Cambodia that spelled out in dramatic detail why the Mass Criminal Trials violated numerous rule of law standards, and did not deserve to be given credence and support by the international community. Her testimony showed all of us the model that we must take to challenge the legality of the Hun Sen government’s actions and to demand effective reform and change; b) A French Criminal Court just a few months ago issued a criminal indictment against Hun Sen and some of his leading generals and found probable cause to believe that they were criminally responsible for carrying out the 1997 Grenade Attack in Freedom Park at a political rally of the main opposition party that killed sixteen participants and injured over a hundred more. They noted that Hun Sen enjoys what the courts call “head of state immunity” from criminal prosecution while he remains in office. But this decision was nevertheless an important first step in holding the Hun Sen government responsible and accountable for their abuses; and, c) Members of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, on the last day of their March periodic compliance review session on Cambodia, took the highly unusual step of categorically rejecting Hun Sen’s claims that his government was democratically elected, reflecting the will of the people to have a one-party-state, and that the Mass Criminal Trials and other arrests and criminal prosecutions of political opponents and critics should be considered valid and lawful because they are carried out through the courts and the law enforcement system. The UN noted that the “cloak” of court action does not make lawful, policies and actions that violate core rule of law and human rights standards. 

5. The upcoming Cambodian national elections scheduled for mid-2023 will be a critical indicator of whether Cambodia will become even further entrenched as an autocratic dictatorship and major human rights violator or can move in a more positive direction towards the democracy and human rights standards that the Paris Peace Accords adopted for Cambodia thirty years ago. If the elections are held under the current framework, with the principal political opposition party ruled illegal and disbanded and its leaders subjected to massive arrests and criminal prosecutions, then the results of those elections must be rejected by the international community and by all foreign governments. The alternative and more positive path begin with an end to the massive repression of the political opposition and other critics and a movement in the direction of meaningful democratic reform. 

6. An autocratic government that takes or retains power by eliminating all meaningful forms of political opposition, closing down the independent media, and by “criminalizing” any form of free and independent expression and criticism of the government does not deserve to be given recognition and support by foreign governments and the international community. Unless and until truly free and fair elections are held in Cambodia under international supervision, the results of the 2023 national elections must be dismissed as invalid and not given recognition as legitimate. 

7. With regard to its future directions and work, the Commission of Inquiry for Cambodia is in the process of completing its fact-finding mission, with its session in early 2023 focused on the national election process. Then we will be giving a new focus for our efforts. We will be focusing on accountability issues and approaches, building on the recent French Criminal Court decision, and moving towards the drafting of a broader and more comprehensive criminal indictment along the lines of the French model but dealing with a wider range of major criminal and human rights abuses. 

8. We recognize that the Commission of Inquiry for Cambodia has only a limited ability to achieve the goal of obtaining meaningful accountability for the Hun Sen government. We cannot do everything that is needed by ourselves. But, working with the French Criminal Court, the United Nations Human Rights Committee, and other important international forums and voices, we can and will move the accountability needle forward as the principal goal of our work in the coming months. 

ACCOUNTABILITY SUMMARY 

Today the Commission of Inquiry for Cambodia announces an important shift in strategy and emphasis. Up until now, for the past 15 months or so, we have concentrated on a fact-finding mission – pulling together the facts and documentary support that demonstrates very powerfully and irrefutably how and why the Hun Sen government has imposed a 37-year campaign of harsh repression over the Cambodian people in order to eliminate any meaningful political opposition and critical civil society voices, so as to remain in power. In the process, he has violated numerous internationally recognized rule of law and human rights standards. That sad picture and reality has now been well established. With the Mass Criminal Trials now in process epitomizing the depths and international law violations that Hun Sen has been willing to go to keep his government in power on an uncontested basis. So it is time for the Commission of Inquiry, and for Cambodia and the international community to move to a new phase of operations and to take on a new mandate – that is, to move in the direction of accountability for the Hun Sen regime. Holding them responsible in a meaningful and effective way for their gross and long-standing violations of international law. The French Criminal Court case of a few months ago shows us the way, and provides a model on how to make that happen. That French Court decision found that there was probable cause for holding Hun Sen and his leading Generals criminally responsible for the 1997 Grenade Attack against the opposition political party rally in Freedom Park. That approach now needs to be extended and expanded to cover the much wider range of major rule of law and human rights abuses that the Hun Sen government has been engaged in for so many years. Working together with other international forums and voices, the Commission of Inquiry will now be moving in that direction – helping to hold Hun Sen and his government accountable for their crimes. That is the new ‘accountability phase” that the Commission of Inquiry enters into as of today.”