National Peace Essay Contest Week '98

Welcome Saturday, June 20 Sunday, June 21 Monday, June 22 Tuesday, June 23 Wednesday, June 24 Thursday, June 25 Photo Album

Description of the Simulation on Cambodia Within each of the three simulations, the students are divided into two groups. The students in the first group (Group A) represent negotiators to a peace settlement conference in Cambodia. Students are given a scenario of events leading up to the summit. (The events are imaginary and were created for the purposes of the simulation only.) Violence has erupted in Cambodia during the latter half of 1998. Due to international pressure, a weakened government led by Hun Sen has agreed to negotiate with opposition leaders about a peace settlement. Much of an agreement has already emerged; so, for the simulation, only the question of implementation and the problems of past accountability, genocide and war crimes remain. The negotiators, which include Prime Minister Hun Sen and the main opposition leader Prince Norodom Ranariddh as well as other Cambodians and interested outside parties must reach several conclusions. What is the best way to implement the settlement? How should Cambodia address the issues of past war crimes and human rights violations? These negotiations will take place for the first half of the simulation. To help the negotiators with these questions, a task force (Group B) has also been established. It will meet during the first half of the simulation and make a recommendation to the negotiators for how to proceed with the war crimes and human rights issues. This task force is charged with giving the negotiators (Group A) a concrete recommendation on how to address the issues of accountability and reconciliation for Cambodian society. The range of possible recommendations includes convening war crime tribunals, either an ad hoc international tribunal or prosecution before the Cambodian courts, calling for a limited or blanket amnesty, or establishing a truth commission or commission of inquiry. The task force members should address the question of whether putting war criminals on trial is necessary for the healing of the country, or whether it would create another round of radicalism and undermine the negotiated settlement. During the second half of the simulation, the task force in Group B will come together with the negotiators from Group A to present their recommendation. They will stay with the Group A members to answer questions about their rationale for the recommendation, as well as provide their input as to the future of the settlement coupled with the issues of accountability. This will be not only a discussion among the members of Group A, but an interactive dialogue between all simulation participants. It is expected that the task force members will lobby hard for their individual perspectives in attempting to convince the negotiators of their position. Group A is comprised of negotiators from different factions in Cambodian politics as well as three outside parties who have helped to mediate the conditions for a settlement. Final agreement of the settlement depends on whether these negotiators can agree on how to deal with the issues of war crimes, genocide and human rights violations as well as how to handle refugees and implementation of the peace agreement.   Group A Roles • Hun Sen, the current prime minister of Cambodia • Ieng Mouly, currently one of three Deputy Prime Ministers of Cambodia and Cambodia's former Information Minister. • Prince Ranariddh, former co-prime minister, was in exile in Thailand until he was pardoned in March 1998 and then shuttled back and forth between Thailand and Cambodia. • Sam Rainsy, considered by many as Cambodia's leading dissident, is the founder of the Khmer Nation Party (KNP). He was a businessman and financial analyst for various banks in Paris before returning to Cambodia in 1992 • Rodolfo Certeza Severino, ASEAN Representative. The current ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Secretary-General. A Filipino with his masters degree in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University, Severino wants to lead ASEAN in assisting the UN's monitoring of the situation in Cambodia. • Ambassador Charlotte Tormey, Representative of the United States Government. • Ambassador Wai Cheng, Representative of the Chinese Government. One of the top female Chinese diplomats, Ambassador Cheng is China's ambassador to Laos, having served in the embassy in Phnom Penh as a junior diplomat in the mid-1970s.   Group B Roles Group B is a task force that will bring a recommendation to Group A regarding how the final peace settlement should deal with the issues of war crimes, genocide and human rights violations. A specific proposal is expected that can be incorporated into the peace agreement itself, if accepted by the negotiators. Members of the task force are: • Ka Chon, representative, Cambodian Mothers for Justice. Ka Chon is a member of Cambodian Mothers for Justice. This woman has seen the horrors inflicted on her country by Pol Pot and his regime. • Arn Sudvay, Buddhist Monk. As a persecuted religious minority during the years of the Khmer Rouge, Buddhist monks like Arn Sudvay experienced firsthand the persecution and horrors of life during the Civil War. As a monk, Arn Sudvay stresses forgiveness. • Chea Chorn, representative of Cambodian refugees. Chea Chorn and hundreds of thousands like him have lived as refugees for over two decades. Mostly these people have fled the violence and killing. Almost all have lost family members and friends. • Hu Vet, Member of Cambodians for Justice. Hu Vet is an ethnic Chinese woman whose family ran a small dry goods store in Lomphat, a medium-sized town in Northeast Cambodia. As ethnic Chinese and small shopkeepers, the Khmer Rouge singled them out as enemies of the Khmer people. A girl of ten in 1975, Hu Vet never saw her family again. She was beaten and left for dead by a group of Khmer Rouge. She walks with a noticeable limp, lost an eye and has severe scars from that beating. When the Vietnamese ousted Pol Pot, a Vietnamese official came to her orphanage where she was singled out as the best student. She was one of the few to get an opportunity for higher education, spending a few years in Vietnam and then in Thailand studying law and economics. • Ieng Yat, Cambodian judge. The Khmer Rouge had essentially purged all judges and lawyers, so the Hun Sen regime rounded up some of the surviving lawyers and judges and put them on the bench. Ieng Yat, had been a relatively junior professor of law in Phnom Penh and had once studied law for two years in France. Having been brutalized by the Khmer Rouge, Judge Yat was distrustful of the government and he ruled from the bench in whatever way he thought would satisfy the government so as to keep his family and himself out of harm's way. • Toch Nim, retired Army General. General Nim had just become a captain when General Lon Nol took power in Cambodia. While loyal to the Cambodian military Nim was personally distressed by Lon Nol's seizure of power because he strongly feels that the military must remain removed from or above politics. He also felt that Lon Nol was greatly manipulated by the United States and that the Khmer Rouge was subsequently manipulated by the Chinese. As a result, he is very distrustful of outside powers • Quan Pong, World Health Organization. Dr. Quan Pong is a Cambodian doctor with the World Health Organization. She came from a prominent family of doctors and intellectuals in Phnom Penh, most of whom were killed by the Khmer Rouge in 1975. Dr. Pong began her medical work in refugee camps in Thailand in the mid-1970s after returning from the United States where she received her medical training (and where she escaped the killing fields).