CHICAGO, May 5 /PRNewswire/ — The Cambodia Tribunal Monitor Web site
today posted exclusive video interviews by TV journalist, producer and former
CBS news anchor Bill Kurtis with the last three surviving prosecutors of
post-World War II trials held in Nuremberg, Germany about their perspective on
the upcoming Cambodia Tribunal. Senior officials of the Khmer Rouge regime are
expected to be tried over the next several years for atrocity crimes in
Cambodia during their 1975-79 rule. The pre-trial hearings of some of the
regime leaders are currently underway.
Kurtis interviewed prosecutors Ben Ferencz, Henry King and Whitney Harris,
asking them to reflect on the significance of the Nuremberg trials on
international law, what lessons we learned, how far we’ve come and what advice
they have for the Cambodia Tribunal currently underway in Phnom Penh.
Kurtis, with the consortium responsible for the Cambodia Tribunal Monitor
Web site, posted these exclusive interviews with the surviving Nuremberg
prosecutors on the Web site in an effort to raise awareness about the need to
punish war crimes and crimes against humanity, no matter how long ago those
crimes were committed.
Speaking about the significance of interviewing the Nuremberg prosecutors,
Kurtis said, “These are the voices of history speaking. They provide an
important historical context and precedent from the post-World War II era that
can be applied to today’s tribunal in Cambodia. I thought it was especially
important to draw from their experience and hear their perspective, as their
insights will inform the trials — and procedures of those trials — for
today’s alleged war criminals.”
When Kurtis asked if it is still worth it for Cambodia to have a tribunal
after 30 years since the crimes were committed, former prosecutor Ben Ferencz
said, “Of course it’s still worth it. Because it tells the people of Cambodia,
we have not forgotten … And we are trying, within the limits of our
capacity, to recognize that what happened to you and your people and your
loved ones and the victims was a crime, it was an outrage, and we will never
tolerate that as an acceptable human behavior.”
Henry King told Kurtis that he would offer the following advice to the
Cambodia Tribunal, “Take the long view. Be persistent. Never give up. We
didn’t ever give up at Nuremberg … Think of future generations … because
the weapons of destruction are becoming so violent that we’ll destroy
ourselves if we don’t have a rule of law in the world.”
From April 1975 to January 1979, an estimated 1.7 million Cambodian
citizens died under the Khmer Rouge regime. After nearly 10 years of
negotiations, this special war crimes tribunal has commenced. The
Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), as the special
Cambodian court is formally known, will oversee the proceedings and is a joint
partnership of the United Nations and the Royal Government of Cambodia.
Video and transcripts in English are now posted on
http://www.CambodiaTribunalMonitor.org. The media will be notified when French
voiceovers of the video and French transcripts of the interviews are available
in the coming weeks.
Biographies of Nuremberg Prosecutors:
Benjamin Berell Ferencz: Ferencz is a graduate of Harvard Law School.
Following the Nuremberg trials, Ferencz became a vocal advocate of the
establishment of an international rule of law and of the International
Criminal Court. From 1985 to 1996, he was Adjunct Professor of International
Law at Pace University.
Henry T. King, Jr.: King is a legal practitioner and an academic writer.
King received his B.A. degree in 1941 from Yale College, and his LL.B. in 1943
from Yale Law School (1943). Following his service at Nuremberg, King had a
long career as counsel for several corporations, including the TRW
Corporation. A former chairman of the American Bar Association’s Section of
International Law and Practice, he served on the ABA’s special task force on
war crimes in the former Yugoslavia and was the U.S. chairman of a joint
working group, organized by the American, Canadian, and Mexican bar
associations, on the settlement of international disputes. Currently, King
teaches International Arbitration and is U.S. director of the Canada-U.S. Law
Institute.
Whitney R. Harris: Harris is author of Tyranny on Trial (1954), a major
book about the Nuremberg Trials. In recent years he generously funded the
establishment of The Whitney R. Harris Institute for Global Legal Studies at
Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, bringing together experts
from around the world to expand understanding of real-world issues and prepare
lawyers for the professional challenges of the 21st Century. In addition to
teaching law during his post-Nuremberg career, Harris was director of the
Hoover Commission’s Legal Services Task Force; served as the first Executive
Director of the American Bar Association; and was Solicitor General of
Southwestern Bell Telephone Company in St. Louis where he practiced law until
his retirement. In 1998, Harris was a non-governmental delegate to the United
Nations-sponsored conference that resulted in the Rome Statute of the
International Criminal Court.
Background on the Cambodia Tribunal Monitor Web site:
The Cambodia Tribunal Monitor Web site is the leading independent source
of news and information on the upcoming trials of senior officials of the
Khmer Rouge regime for atrocity crimes. The Web site posts timely news updates
and guest commentaries by leading international experts on the recent history
of Cambodia, politics, human rights and international law. It also provides
background information on the history of the Khmer Rouge and ECCC and
important resources such as court documents and bibliographies of scholarly
articles and books. Complete videotaped trial footage will be available
throughout the court proceedings.
The Cambodia Tribunal Monitor was developed by a consortium of academic,
philanthropic and non-profit organizations committed to providing public
access to the tribunal and open discussion throughout the judicial process.
The academic manager and sponsor of the site is Northwestern University School
of Law’s Center for International Human Rights, joined by co-sponsors
Documentation Center of Cambodia and the Illinois Holocaust Museum and
Education Center. The prime sponsor of the site is the J.B. and M.K. Pritzker
Family Foundation.
The Web site was conceived by Illinois State Senator Jeff Schoenberg, a
Chicago-area legislator who also advises the Pritzker family on its
philanthropy. In January 2007, Schoenberg participated in a trip sponsored by
Build Cambodia, a U.S. based not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping
Cambodians build their lives and society. As a result of the experience,
Schoenberg enlisted the support of the aforementioned sponsors, and with their
assistance the Cambodia Tribunal Monitor was created.
SOURCE Cambodia Tribunal Monitor