PRESS BRIEFINGS BY SECRETARY-GENERAL'S SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVES FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN CAMBODIA, INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS

Press Briefing

PRESS BRIEFINGS BY SECRETARY-GENERAL'S SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVES FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN CAMBODIA, INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS

At press briefings at Headquarters today, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for human rights, Thomas Hammarberg, and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for internally displaced persons, Francis Deng, briefed correspondents on their work.

Mr. Hammarberg said the international community must respond constructively to the request of the two Cambodian Prime Ministers for help in establishing legal proceedings to hold the Khmer Rouge accountable for serious human rights violations committed between 1975 and 1979. During that time, an estimated 1.7 million people died. It would be difficult to establish respect for human rights in Cambodia and to combat the phenomenon of impunity if nothing was done, he added.

He stressed that the phenomenon of impunity continued to be a problem in Cambodia. None was held accountable for criminal acts, in particular those related to human rights. Information had been submitted to the Second Prime Minister about the arrest and execution of military personnel connected with the royalist party, and about instances of torture documented by the United Nations human rights office in Cambodia. He had promised a serious investigation, but four months later that report had not been started. In another incident, at least 16 people were killed and more than 100 injured when a peaceful demonstration on Easter Sunday morning in Phnom Penh was attacked with hand grenades. Again, there had been no investigation or prosecution. There had been a series of smaller political actions involving murder, attempted murder and attacks against newspaper offices, none of which had been seriously investigated. The phenomenon of impunity in cases of political violence was seriously affecting the creation of an atmosphere conducive to free and fair elections next year in Cambodia.

He said there should be a legal framework to guarantee free and fair elections. A truly independent election commission should be established to conduct elections in a manner that would allow all parties to have a say in the campaign. Moreover, there should be equal and free access by the political parties to the media. The media picture today was not conducive to fairness in the election -- all five television channels were dominated by one political party. Channels and radio stations connected to the other part of the political spectrum had either been closed down or taken over by the other party. That had to be rectified.

Continuing, he said the headquarters and residences of the leaders of some parties had been raided by soldiers of the United National Front for an Independent, Neutral, Peaceful and Cooperative Cambodia (FUNCINPEC) and the Khmer National Party (KNP) and their party registers and archives confiscated. That had to be resolved and the archives and registries given back. In addition, there was a dispute between party factions about who had the right to bear the name and symbol of the party. That had to be resolved fairly. Political prosecutions and sentences had to be reviewed independently so that those entitled to take part in the elections would have chance to do so.

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Internally Displaced Persons, Francis Deng, said the internally displaced were refugees within their own country. They were people who had been uprooted by internal conflicts, systematic violations of human rights, and sometimes man-made and natural disasters, the response to which was complicated by political differences. While refugees outside the country were protected by the international refugee system, the internally displaced were still in the framework of the problems that had uprooted them in the first place. Those problems were often created by and resulted in crises of national identity. People who would normally be considered citizens were seen as enemy or part of the enemy and denied protection.

He said his mandate, created in 1992, was to study the problem, look at the international legal framework and standards to deal with the problem and the degree to which they provided protection and assistance to the displaced, to look at institutional arrangements and make recommendations for improving international response. The work focused on the development of legal standards, beginning with a compilation and analysis of existing standards to identify the gaps in the system and to make recommendations for improving international legal protection. He had been working on a set of guiding principles that would restate the law and clarify certain grey areas.

There was no institutional system for protecting the internally displaced and no desire to designate an international organization to assume full responsibility, he said. The problem was monumental and beyond the capacity of one organization. Today there were between 25 and 30 million displaced persons. As the number of refugees went down, the number of internally displaced persons increased. The number of internally displaced persons far exceeded the number of refugees. All agencies and organizations whose mandate and scope of activities touched on the internally displaced should work together to enhance international protection and assistance.

He said his work encompassed visits to countries that were affected so as to engage governments and other authorities on behalf of the internally displaced. He was guided by the principle that the problem fell within the sovereignty of the State, but the exercise of that sovereignty carried with it the responsibility of protecting and assisting citizens. By living up to

Cambodia Briefing - 3 - 13 November 1997

minimum standards of responsibility, governments could safeguard their own sovereignty.

At the Brookings Institution, where he is a Senior Fellow, he had undertaken a comprehensive study of the entire problem, including numbers, distribution, needs and how they were being met, what gaps existed, the legal dimensions, and possible strategies for a more comprehensive response from the international community to the problems of the displaced. The Brookings Institution would publish two volumes -- a global overview and the analyses of 10 case studies. The crisis of the internally displaced was not simply a crisis of a humanitarian nature. It symbolized a crisis situation in nation building. The internally displaced were a microcosm of the larger community and represented the first step leading to the outflow of refugees. Once that occurred, it affected regions and caused destabilization and ultimately threatened regional and international peace and security.

Responding to a question, Mr. Hammarberg said it would be unwise and quite risky for the United Nations to offer advice to Prince Norodom Ranariddh and other top officials on whether to return to Cambodia. They must make that decision themselves. The United Nations had reached an agreement with the government in Phnom Penh, which promised safety and protection for those who wished to return. The United Nations would have monitors to accompany them and monitor their protection as well as assess the possibilities for them to restart political activities. If that process broke down, the omen for the election was quite negative.

Also in response to a question, he said the Second Prime Minister had criticized the human rights office in Phnom Penh and asked that some of the staff be dismissed, but he insisted that they would not negotiate personnel policy with governments. The Second Prime Minister had accepted that.

Responding to a question about the return of Khmer Rouge leader Heng Samrim to Phnom Penh, he said he was worried that current and former Khmer Rouge leaders, who might be responsible for grave human rights violations, would be allowed back onto the political scene without any clarification of their personal responsibility for the violations. It was not just Pol Pot but a whole group that needed scrutiny.

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