Playing Defence

World Politics Watch has a nice little piece profiling one of the researchers working with the Prosecution. The full article can be found here: (http://www.worldpoliticswatch.com/article.aspx?id=292)

The story of the researcher is interesting, but there are also some choice bits about the Tribunal that are worth highlighting;

"Potential defense lawyers, seeking to make names for themselves, are already conducting forays into Cambodia and preparing an initial strategy based on attacking the validity of the evidence and the legality of the court itself, as well as seeking to throw doubt on reports that genocide occurred."

A strong defence will be a shock to the average Cambodian. The backlash against the Tribunal when it 'allows' defence arguments will be tough to manage. There is apparently no shortage of challenges that could be raised;

"Unlike the physical evidence produced at the Rwanda, Sierra Leone and former Yugoslavia war crimes tribunals, the remains that lie in the 20,000 uncovered mass graves that dot Cambodia's picturesque landscape have been exposed to decades of human intervention and erosion by violent tropical storms.

Grave robbers seeking gold teeth and valuables stashed on body parts and in clothes of the dead have also taken a toll. The pillaging has not helped the prosecution's case.

This contamination of evidence is expected to underpin the defense case and could prove pivotal as to whether the defiant Khieu Samphan, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary and his wife, Ieng Thirith, live out their twilight years as free citizens or as felons behind bars."

This story is from months ago, before the Tribunal was up and running, and before the subject of the piece was employed by the ECCC- but the problems have not gone away with time.