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UN Human Rights Chief Blasts Cambodian Judiciary
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http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=124829F:3919ACA Louise Arbour
calls shortcomings in Cambodia's judicial system 'single most
important area' in which country needs to make progress  The United
Nations human rights chief has added more ammunition to a war of words
between the U.N. and Cambodia, issuing a strong indictment of the
country's judiciary.





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Louise Arbour speaks at a press conference in Phnom Penh, May 19,
2006Louise Arbour, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, calls
shortcomings in Cambodia's judicial system the "single most important
area" in which the country needs to make progress.

In comments wrapping up this week's visit to Phnom Penh, Arbour said
Friday that the Cambodian judicial system suffers from corruption,
inadequate training, and lack of independence and professional
integrity.

Despite such comments, her talks in Phnom Penh were aimed at repairing
strained relations between the U.N. and the Cambodian government.

Those relations have been tense since March, when Yash Ghai, the U.N.
secretary-general's special envoy for human rights in Cambodia,
blasted the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen for its "iron-fisted"
leadership and suppression of dissent.







Hun Sen (file photo)Mr. Hun Sen responded by calling Ghai "deranged"
and calling for his dismissal. But during Arbour's visit, he promised
not to close the U.N. human rights office in Cambodia.

Ou Virak, spokesman for the Cambodian Center for Human Rights in Phnom
Penh, said this promise showed the value of Arbour's visit.

"With the visit, it shows that the U.N. Human Rights Commission is
paying close attention to the developments in this country, and it is
also very important because recently, the prime minister threatened to
close the U.N. office in Cambodia, and now we heard that the
government is going to allow the U.N. office to be open," said Ou
Virak.

Concerns about Cambodia's judiciary have come to the fore as the trial
finally approaches of the leaders of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime.

An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died during the Khmer Rouge's four
years in power in the 1970s. Seventeen Cambodian judges and
prosecutors have been appointed to join 13 international jurists in
the U.N.-sponsored tribunal that will try the regime's surviving
leaders.


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