“Not My Business”: Nuon Chea Continues His Testimony

by Christine Evans, Clinical Fellow, Center for International Human Rights, Northwestern University School of Law (JD and LLM)
— 14 Dec, 2011

Wednesday’s hearings in Trial 002 at the ECCC brought another subdued session focused on the continuation of the drawn-out testimony of accused Nuon Chea and prosecution witness Long Norin. As with the previous session, today’s proceedings were sparsely attended at first, and the audience consisted mostly of civil parties brought in from their villages in the morning. A large number of secondary school students, however, did help to fill the public gallery by the afternoon.

Despite an entire day of testimony, what actual progress was made in these examinations is not clear. Throughout much of his testimony, which occupied a large portion of the proceedings, Nuon Chea emphasized the centralized and compartmentalized nature of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), stating often that the details of the roles and actions of other party members, including Ieng Sary and Khieu Samphan, was none of his business. As for Long Norin, his testimony continued to be hampered by the memory lapses and lack of knowledge that has been readily apparent throughout his questioning. Whether counsel for any of the parties will be able to extract further information from these two witnesses when their testimony continues remains to be seen…

Cambodia Tribunal Monitor’s Trial Observer posts are written according to the personal observations and opinions of the writer and do not constitute a transcript of ECCC proceedings or the views of Cambodia Tribunal Monitor and/or its partners. Official court transcripts for the ECCC’s hearings may be accessed at the ECCC website.