UN reform must include resignations BLUNK and ROSANDHAUG , Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Mr. Knut Rosandhaug is a mindless bureaucrat of the worst kind for victims of the Khmer Rouge mass crimes. He drove away the first and best possible chief of the ECCC Victims Support Section, Cambodian Keat Bophal, a woman of deep experience (hailed from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights), caring personality and other stellar professional, educational credentials. He masterminded the mindless co-lead lawyers’ scheme of civil party representation which strips away every meaningful participation of victims as “historic” civil “parties”. After this scheme, a victim as “party” now exists on paper, as the actual rights of his/her party status are almost less than those of a “witness”. At least a witness has a direct voice in the criminal proceeding detailing substantive facts; whereas now, a civil “party” is limited to testifying on the impact of the substantial facts.
It’s difficult to divine Judge Siegfried Blunk’s state of mind for his fantastic arrogance and ignorance of 21st-century Facebook-Twitter-KI-Media proportion in thinking he can hide securely behind the impenetrable veil of confidentiality and ignore his duty to keep the public and victims informed. How is the constant refrain of “Confidential” reasonable in light of the inactivity and silence of the last 20 months? He has failed the reasonableness test, the integrity test and the justice test. It is high time for both of them to go.
These men have soiled the ideals of truth, justice, reconciliation for the Cambodian victims in their anti-victim actions and policies. Their actions will further imbed the already deeply ingrained cynicism of the Cambodian population, the worst legacy imaginable for this fragile society of great distrust and trauma, as we struggle in the process of healing.

- Theary C. Seng, president Association of Khmer Rouge Victims in Cambodia