A breakthrough in efforts to try surviving Khmer Rouge leaders for the deaths of up to 2 million people emerged yesterday with the UN holding out an olive branch to the Cambodian government.
A breach in the four-month impasse followed an offer by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to re-open tribunal talks if he receives a mandate from the UN Security Council or the General Assembly.
Government officials, tribunal advocates and diplomats welcomed the offer signaling justice might yet be found for those who perished under Pol Pot's 1975 to 1979 regime through alleged genocide and starvation.
"I think that this is a fresh opening after a long delay," said Prince Norodom Ranariddh, head of the royalist FUNCINPEC party.
The offer came in a letter to Prime Minister Hun Sen and was made public by Annan as the UN's top human rights chief, Mary Robinson, arrived here.
Senior diplomats were hopeful the offer would end bitterness between Phnom Penh and the UN, sparked on Feb. 8 when the UN broke-off four years of negotiations with the Cambodian government aimed at staging a trial.
Then, the UN cited this country's inability to hold objective and impartial hearings. But it later emerged the chief sticking point centered around who would ultimately control the trial process, Cambodia or the UN.
Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which has spent seven years compiling evidence of atrocities committed by the ultra-Maoists, welcomed the decision saying only China posed a potential obstacle.
"It's the kind of gesture that's creating a position to collaborate so it's a positive step but now it's up to the government to take action and seek that mandate and convince the UN that they are serious," he said.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)