By Ker Munthit
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, AP
With the death of former Khmer Rouge military chief Ta Mok, new worries have arisen over whether a U.N.-backed trial will be able to deliver justice for victims of the communist regime's brutal rule in the 1970s.
As Ta Mok's body was being prepared Sunday for interment at his northern Cambodia home, human rights advocates, who have long pressed for a tribunal, feared that other aging and infirm senior Khmer Rouge leaders may die before they can be called before a judge.
Cambodian and foreign judges and prosecutors were sworn in this month for the U.N.-backed trials, expected to begin in 2007. Cambodian and U.N.-appointed prosecutors have begun gathering evidence before determining whom to indict.
Ta Mok died Friday at 80, after suffering from high blood pressure, tuberculosis and respiratory problems.
He had been considered a prime candidate for prosecution for his role in atrocities during the Khmer Rouge's 1975-79 reign of terror, in which an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died of starvation, overwork, diseases or execution.
Top surviving leaders who are likely legal targets are Nuon Chea, the defunct group's chief ideologist; Khieu Samphan, its nominal head of state; and Ieng Sary, its foreign minister.
All three are now in their late 70s. Nuon Chea and Ieng Sary frequently receive medical treatment for various ailments in neighboring Thailand.
"Who else may die after Ta Mok? It's quite worrying that this tribunal would be less meaningful if those remaining senior leaders die," said Thun Saray, president of the nonprofit Cambodian human rights group Adhoc.
The tribunal was established by a Cambodia-U.N. agreement in 2003 -- 24 years after the Khmer Rouge fell, and following drawn-out negotiations that began in 1999 with barely concealed reluctance on the part of Prime Minister Hun Sen's government.
Critics have blamed the long delay on the government's lack of political will.
Brad Adams, head of the Asia Division of U.S.-based group Human Rights Watch, said Hun Sen's government has "never had interest in justice for its own sake."
Ta Mok, a prisoner since his arrest in 1999, and Kaing Khek Iev, alias Duch, who headed the Khmer Rouge's notorious S-21 torture center in the capital, Phnom Penh, have been the group's only two senior members to be jailed -- and await trial -- on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.
"Why have Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea been allowed to be free? There is ample Cambodian law to hold them," Adams said.
Kek Galabru, president of the nonprofit Cambodian human rights group Licadho, noted that the government has always said it wanted to seek justice for the people through a tribunal.
"It's a good statement, but in practice it has always comes up with all sorts of pretexts preventing the tribunal from taking up shape soon enough," she said.
She described Ta Mok's death as "an omen" that other Khmer Rouge leaders could die before facing justice.
Information Minister and chief government spokesman Khieu Kanharith dismissed such comments, calling critics "real hypocrites."
He said the international community had ignored Cambodia's quest for justice when former Khmer Rouge top leader Pol Pot was still alive, and asked why critics at home and abroad regretted the loss of Ta Mok -- "who was just a minor person."
Pol Pot died in 1998 -- when, Khieu Kanharith said, the demand for a tribunal had been strongest. Pol Pot died while a prisoner of Ta Mok, who had seized from him leadership of the disintegrating Khmer Rouge.
Thun Saray of Adhoc said Ta Mok's death raises concern, but should also be a "factor encouraging the tribunal to move forward swiftly, and achieve its goal before these senior leaders die."
Adams of Human Rights Watch said it was regrettable that one of the best-known potential defendants had died ahead of a trial that was meant, to some extent, to expose the Khmer Rouge's misdeeds.
As Ta Mok's body was being prepared Sunday for interment at his northern Cambodia home, human rights advocates, who have long pressed for a tribunal, feared that other aging and infirm senior Khmer Rouge leaders may die before they can be called before a judge.
Cambodian and foreign judges and prosecutors were sworn in this month for the U.N.-backed trials, expected to begin in 2007. Cambodian and U.N.-appointed prosecutors have begun gathering evidence before determining whom to indict.
Ta Mok died Friday at 80, after suffering from high blood pressure, tuberculosis and respiratory problems.
He had been considered a prime candidate for prosecution for his role in atrocities during the Khmer Rouge's 1975-79 reign of terror, in which an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died of starvation, overwork, diseases or execution.
Top surviving leaders who are likely legal targets are Nuon Chea, the defunct group's chief ideologist; Khieu Samphan, its nominal head of state; and Ieng Sary, its foreign minister.
All three are now in their late 70s. Nuon Chea and Ieng Sary frequently receive medical treatment for various ailments in neighboring Thailand.
"Who else may die after Ta Mok? It's quite worrying that this tribunal would be less meaningful if those remaining senior leaders die," said Thun Saray, president of the nonprofit Cambodian human rights group Adhoc.
The tribunal was established by a Cambodia-U.N. agreement in 2003 -- 24 years after the Khmer Rouge fell, and following drawn-out negotiations that began in 1999 with barely concealed reluctance on the part of Prime Minister Hun Sen's government.
Critics have blamed the long delay on the government's lack of political will.
Brad Adams, head of the Asia Division of U.S.-based group Human Rights Watch, said Hun Sen's government has "never had interest in justice for its own sake."
Ta Mok, a prisoner since his arrest in 1999, and Kaing Khek Iev, alias Duch, who headed the Khmer Rouge's notorious S-21 torture center in the capital, Phnom Penh, have been the group's only two senior members to be jailed -- and await trial -- on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.
"Why have Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea been allowed to be free? There is ample Cambodian law to hold them," Adams said.
Kek Galabru, president of the nonprofit Cambodian human rights group Licadho, noted that the government has always said it wanted to seek justice for the people through a tribunal.
"It's a good statement, but in practice it has always comes up with all sorts of pretexts preventing the tribunal from taking up shape soon enough," she said.
She described Ta Mok's death as "an omen" that other Khmer Rouge leaders could die before facing justice.
Information Minister and chief government spokesman Khieu Kanharith dismissed such comments, calling critics "real hypocrites."
He said the international community had ignored Cambodia's quest for justice when former Khmer Rouge top leader Pol Pot was still alive, and asked why critics at home and abroad regretted the loss of Ta Mok -- "who was just a minor person."
Pol Pot died in 1998 -- when, Khieu Kanharith said, the demand for a tribunal had been strongest. Pol Pot died while a prisoner of Ta Mok, who had seized from him leadership of the disintegrating Khmer Rouge.
Thun Saray of Adhoc said Ta Mok's death raises concern, but should also be a "factor encouraging the tribunal to move forward swiftly, and achieve its goal before these senior leaders die."
Adams of Human Rights Watch said it was regrettable that one of the best-known potential defendants had died ahead of a trial that was meant, to some extent, to expose the Khmer Rouge's misdeeds.
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