PHNOM PENH (AFP) - Foreign and Cambodian judges reached a key agreement Friday on procedures governing Cambodia's long-stalled Khmer Rouge tribunal, its officials said.
The rules cover every aspect of the country's genocide trials, and are necessary for the prosecutions of former regime leaders to go forward.
But a row over the role of international defence lawyers still threatens to sink the tribunal, officials said at the end of 10 days of talks.
Cambodia's Bar Association, which must approve all foreign defence counsel, is demanding that international lawyers wishing to participate in the trials pay fees amounting to some 4,900 US dollars a year.
Foreign tribunal judges, however, say the requirement jeopardises the rights of the accused to choose their defence, and that official adoption of the rules by a full plenary of jurists is not possible if the Bar does not reconsider.
"The judges are ready to hold a plenary at the end of April. For the international judges, this will be possible only if a satisfactory resolution of this issue is reached," a tribunal statement said.
"In order to find a solution that is acceptable to all parties so that the plenary can proceed on, the (Bar) is invited to reconsider its position as soon as possible."
The judges were meeting Friday for the third time to negotiate the rules after attempts in November and January failed.
The first public hearings were expected this year, but repeated delays mean trials will not likely start until early 2008, officials say.
Rights groups and legal advocates have called for swift trials amid concerns that aging Khmer Rouge leaders will die before being brought to justice for one of the worst genocides of the 20th century.
So far, only one possible defendant is on custody.
The only other person arrested for crimes committed during the Khmer Rouge's 1975-79 rule, military commander Ta Mok, died in prison last July. Several others live freely in Cambodia.
Up to two million people died of overwork, starvation and execution under the Khmer Rouge, which abolished religion, property rights, currency and schools.
Millions more were driven from the cities onto vast collective farms as the ultra-Maoist regime sought to create an agrarian utopia.
Bar Association president Ky Tech said earlier Friday he did not see any more obstacles to the start of trials.
"I don't want to see any more delays," he said, but added that he was still concerned foreign lawyers would be paid more than their Cambodian counterparts, saying this inequality justified the fees being demanded by the Bar.
A coalition of non-governmental organisations, including legal groups, said, though, the fees demanded by the Cambodian Bar were "exorbitant" and would discourage foreign lawyers from participating.
After seven years of tough negotiations, Cambodian and the United Nations agreed in 2003 to a joint tribunal framework.
But efforts to make the trials a reality have since bogged down several times amid accusations of foot dragging by the government, which includes many former Khmer Rouge.
The European Parliament said late Thursday that there was no guarantee "of the judiciary's ability to conduct the trials of the Khmer Rouge leaders ... without political interference."
The rules cover every aspect of the country's genocide trials, and are necessary for the prosecutions of former regime leaders to go forward.
But a row over the role of international defence lawyers still threatens to sink the tribunal, officials said at the end of 10 days of talks.
Cambodia's Bar Association, which must approve all foreign defence counsel, is demanding that international lawyers wishing to participate in the trials pay fees amounting to some 4,900 US dollars a year.
Foreign tribunal judges, however, say the requirement jeopardises the rights of the accused to choose their defence, and that official adoption of the rules by a full plenary of jurists is not possible if the Bar does not reconsider.
"The judges are ready to hold a plenary at the end of April. For the international judges, this will be possible only if a satisfactory resolution of this issue is reached," a tribunal statement said.
"In order to find a solution that is acceptable to all parties so that the plenary can proceed on, the (Bar) is invited to reconsider its position as soon as possible."
The judges were meeting Friday for the third time to negotiate the rules after attempts in November and January failed.
The first public hearings were expected this year, but repeated delays mean trials will not likely start until early 2008, officials say.
Rights groups and legal advocates have called for swift trials amid concerns that aging Khmer Rouge leaders will die before being brought to justice for one of the worst genocides of the 20th century.
So far, only one possible defendant is on custody.
The only other person arrested for crimes committed during the Khmer Rouge's 1975-79 rule, military commander Ta Mok, died in prison last July. Several others live freely in Cambodia.
Up to two million people died of overwork, starvation and execution under the Khmer Rouge, which abolished religion, property rights, currency and schools.
Millions more were driven from the cities onto vast collective farms as the ultra-Maoist regime sought to create an agrarian utopia.
Bar Association president Ky Tech said earlier Friday he did not see any more obstacles to the start of trials.
"I don't want to see any more delays," he said, but added that he was still concerned foreign lawyers would be paid more than their Cambodian counterparts, saying this inequality justified the fees being demanded by the Bar.
A coalition of non-governmental organisations, including legal groups, said, though, the fees demanded by the Cambodian Bar were "exorbitant" and would discourage foreign lawyers from participating.
After seven years of tough negotiations, Cambodian and the United Nations agreed in 2003 to a joint tribunal framework.
But efforts to make the trials a reality have since bogged down several times amid accusations of foot dragging by the government, which includes many former Khmer Rouge.
The European Parliament said late Thursday that there was no guarantee "of the judiciary's ability to conduct the trials of the Khmer Rouge leaders ... without political interference."
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