VZCZCXRO3559
OO RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM RUEHNH
DE RUEHPF #0982/01 3460947
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 110947Z DEC 08
FM AMEMBASSY PHNOM PENH
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0192
INFO RUCNASE/ASEAN MEMBER COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN PRIORITY 0184
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA PRIORITY 2340
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 0459
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS PRIORITY 0657
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO PRIORITY 3238
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN PRIORITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PHNOM PENH 000982 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/MLS, D, P, IO, DRL, S/WCI 
USUN PLEASE PASS TO S/WCI AMB. WILLIAMSON 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/11/2018 
TAGS: PREL KJUS PHUM CB
SUBJECT: UN/OLA TEAM BUILDS BRIDGES WITH SOK AN TO 
STRENGTHEN KHMER ROUGE TRIBUNAL 
 
REF: PHNOM PENH 947 
 
Classified By: AMBASSADOR CAROL A. RODLEY FOR REASONS 1.4 (B, D) 
 
¶1.  (C) SUMMARY:  During talks in Phnom Penh December 9-10, a 
delegation from the UN Office of Legal Affairs (UN/OLA) led 
by ASYG Peter Taksoe-Jensen appeared to make significant 
progress with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the 
Council of Ministers Sok An on the issue of establishing an 
internatiOnal-standard mechanism to address corruption on the 
administrative side of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal (KRT).  The 
team was less successful in obtaining certain agreement to 
the departure of court administration director Sean Visoth -- 
at the center of corruption allegations -- although the UN 
team took heart in Visoth's continued absence from the court. 
 A Joint Statement issued December 10 noted the creation of a 
joint UN-Cambodian technical committee to "ensure the 
administration operates in a transparent, fair and efficient 
manner."  The committee's main mandate was to strengthen 
human resources management, including anti-corruption 
measures, while following "due process" and providing "full 
protection against retaliation."  UN/OLA will now wait for 
the results of the committee's work at the end of January. 
Taksoe-Jensen said that he believed the KRT could now develop 
appropriate anti-corruption mechanisms, and expressed the 
hope that Sok An would gauge the seriousness of the UN on the 
presence of the court director and take appropriate action. 
The talks purposely avoided discussion of new suspects in the 
tribunal (reftel).  END SUMMARY. 
 
Joint Agreement: "No Corruption" 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (C) In a briefing December 10 to eight missions and UN 
country staff, UN-ASYG Taksoe-Jensen described his two 
separate meetings with DPM Sok An as having a generally good 
atmosphere in which both sides agreed there should be no 
corruption in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of 
Cambodia (ECCC), as the KRT is called.  He reviewed a joint 
statement to be issued by the two sides later the same 
evening (Post is sending copy to the desk), noting that 
agreement on the statements on transparency and fairness and 
assurances of no retaliation marked a turning point and that 
the two sides had "come a long way" since earlier UN-Royal 
Government of Cambodia (RGC) exchanges on the subject. 
Taksoe-Jensen was accompanied by Nicolas Haysom of the UN 
Political Office, who first gave the assembled "core" friends 
meeting a blow-by-blow account of the talks with Sok An. 
 
¶3.  (C) DPM Sok An had seven RGC officials in his retinue, 
including acting ECCC Director Tony Khran, said Haysom.  It 
was therefore difficult to speak directly about the UN desire 
to see Sean Visoth depart, he said.  When pressed on the 
proposed departure, Sok An continually returned to the 
principle of "due process" -- if the UN could not turn over 
the evidence and witness testimony to substantiate the 
allegations of corruption against Visoth, the RGC could do 
nothing more.  Nonetheless, both Haysom and later 
Taksoe-Jensen (who had been detained by negotiations with Sok 
An over the joint statement) told the group that they 
believed they had conveyed the UN's seriousness of purpose 
regarding Visoth.  (NOTE:  Court sources say that Visoth had 
returned from a medical leave in Vietnam before the UN/OLA 
visit, but then went back to Vietnam again, thus being out of 
the country during the delegation's visit.  END NOTE.) The 
delegates expressed optimism about Visoth's absence but 
encouraged all sides to keep the pressure on the RGC to 
remove him. 
 
Beyond Expectations 
-------------------- 
 
¶4.  (C)  The Japanese DCM expressed a common view in the 
meeting that the UN/OLA's ability to re-engage the government 
and to get agreement on a key anti-corruption mechanism went 
"beyond expectations."  The UK Charge added that it was 
important to have the joint committee propose a solid set of 
recommendations by the late January deadline and then to act 
on them.  All parties agreed that more work needed to be done 
on the Visoth case. 
 
Comment 
 
PHNOM PENH 00000982  002 OF 002 
 
 
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¶5.  (C) We echo the Japanese sentiments and believe that the 
joint UN-RGC statement is a significant achievement, given 
the cantankerous exchanges earlier this year and the long 
history of bitter relations in the establishment of the KRT. 
But we have no doubt that more work will need to be done to 
keep the pressure on the RGC to live up to the joint 
statement. 
RODLEY