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DAME SILVIA SHORTLISTED FOR CAMBODIA WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL(New Zealand Press Association Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)Auckland, March 10 NZPA - Governor-General Dame Silvia Cartwright has been further shortlisted by the United Nations as a potential judge at a Cambodian war crimes tribunal. The United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan submitted a list of seven international judges to Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen for nomination to the tribunal yesterday. Dame Silvia's name was first on the list, which included nominees from Austria, Sri Lanka, the United States, Poland, France and Japan. Cambodia's Supreme Council of Magistracy will choose five judges from the list. Based in the capital Phnom Penh, the Khmer Rouge Tribunal will investigate the ageing former leaders of the 1975-79 regime accused of horrific crimes, including mass killings of an estimated 1.7 million people through execution, starvation and disease. The leader of the Khmer Rouge regime, Pol Pot, died in 1998, but up to 10 of his cadre are still alive. Dame Silvia travelled to UN headquarters in New York for an interview, along with 11 others in early December last year. A former district and high court judge for 20 years, she was appointed Governor-General in 2001. Her role ends in August this year. Dame Silvia told NZPA in November last year that sitting on the tribunal would fulfil a goal that has been pressing on her conscience since turning down a chance to try Rwandan war criminals in 1995. ``I felt then that it was something I should be doing, but I couldn't for a whole lot of reasons. It has lurked in the back of my mind ever since.'' Her previous international experience includes eight years on a UN committee set up to eliminate discrimination against women. The UN is helping Cambodia set up and fund the special mixed court. The three-year budget for the trials is about $US56.3 million ($NZ88.25m). Donor countries have contributed $US43 million ($NZ67.40m) to the tribunal via the UN, and the remaining $13.3 million ($NZ20.84m) will come from the Cambodian government. The Trial Chamber will comprise three Cambodian judges and two international judges, and the Supreme Court Chamber will have four Cambodian and three international judges. Human rights groups fear the Cambodian government's ability to impose its will on the Cambodian judges will pose an obstacle to justice. One of the main tasks for the international judges will be to make sure the trial is fair and independent. The successful candidates will spend at least a year in Cambodia as the trials play out. NZPA AKL jlh ob nb |