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Cambodia case: Lawyer wants genocide trialAuthor(s): Nancy BlodgettSource: ABA Journal, Vol. 71, No. 11 (November 1985), p. 31Published by: American Bar AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20758428 .
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Cambodia case
Lawyer wants genocide trial
An American lawyer is leading a battle to get the International Court of Justice to try the Khmer Rouge regime in Cam bodia for genocide it allegedly committed between 1975 and 1978.
About 2 million of 8 million Cambodi ans allegedly were killed by the Khmer Rouge, some murdered and others dying from slave labor, malnutrition and forced evacuations.
"Some people might say it's passe to be concerned about genocide that occurred so long ago," said Gregory Stanton, di rector of the Cambodian Genocide Proj ect and chair of the ABA Young Lawyers Division Committee on Human Rights. "But in a legal sense, it isn't any more
passe* than investigating someone's mur
der. And for the future, it's also impor tant because the Khmer Rouge are now
fighting in the mountains of Cambodia and they could conceivably regain power," he said.
The project's purpose is to gather evi dence of genocide committed by the com munist Khmer Rouge government and
give it to a signer of the Genocide Con vention to institute a case in the World Court. Under the convention, approved in 1948 by the United Nations General
Assembly, genocide includes killing members of a group "with the intent to
destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group." Eighty-four nations have ratified the con vention. The United States has not, but the convention, with some reservations, is before the Senate.
Several countries have told Stanton they would help start the case, he said, but none of them have made a firm commitment at this time. Members of relief organizations in
Cambodia are sending the project evi dence of genocide against minority groups such as the Cham, Thai and Viet namese. In addition, an Australian histo
rian and his wife, a Khmer economist, are
gathering information to support the case.
Stanton says he has received thousands of pages of documents, including so called confessions from people who admit to having worked for the CIA or KGB, and pictures of victims before and after death.
A professor at Washington and Lee University School of Law in Lexington, Va., Stanton is receiving legal advice
from My res McDougal, past president of the American Society for International Law, and Yale Law School professor Michael Reisman. Stanton is a graduate of Yale Law School as well as Harvard
Divinity School. If a case is brought before the World
Court against the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot, its former leader, it would be the first use of the Genocide Convention. But Stanton is optimistic. He hopes that in the wake of a trial, the court could issue an order encouraging Genocide Conven
tion signers to try individuals under their own laws. This would mean that if those
responsible for the genocide set foot in one of the cooperating countries, they could be arrested on criminal charges, Stanton said.
Stanton also envisions that the court could order perpetrators of genocide to pay reparations to victims. "But the pos sibility of enforcing this is another ques tion," he said.
The people who directed the alleged genocide in Cambodia are part of the coalition government that continues to
represent the nation in the U.N., Stanton said. He hopes a trial will also result in these representatives losing their seats.
This winter, Stanton plans to go back to what is now called Kampuchea to
gather evidence against the Khmer Rouge. He also is soliciting contributions to the Cambodian Genocide Project, a
tax-exempt organization. Most of the
$20,000 it has raised since being estab lished last year has been spent.
Stanton's interest in Kampuchea stems
from serving as director of Church World Service relief efforts in Phnom Penh in 1980, shortly after the Khmer Rouge were driven out of power by Vietnamese backed forces. "I saw firsthand the mass
graves," he said. "I felt a strong duty to do something."
Stanton and his wife, Mary Ellen, have adopted two Cambodian children. This also reinforces his commitment to bring ing Khmer Rouge criminals to justice. "I have a special mission for my children," he said. "They survived, but how many others didn't?" ?Nancy Blodgett
The Stanton family (left to right): Chantana, 5; Mary Ellen; Gregory; and Theodore, 3.
It was official Khmer Rouge policy to eliminate ethnic minorities. Thousands of bodies have been uncovered in mass graves near what were once Cham villages.
November 1985 . Volume 71 31
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