By KER MUNTHIT
Associated Press
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - Cambodian and foreign judges announced rules Wednesday clearing the way for a U.N.-assisted genocide tribunal to begin investigating Khmer Rouge leaders in the deaths of 1.7 million people during their 1975-79 communist regime.
The top Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998. Ta Mok, the Khmer Rouge army chief, died last July while in detention pending trial by the special tribunal. He was believed to be 80.
Their senior-level colleagues, Nuon Chea, the movement‘s chief ideologue; Ieng Sary, the former foreign minister; and Khieu Samphan, the former head of state, live freely in Cambodia but are in declining health.
Cambodia and the United Nations created the genocide tribunal last year under an agreement they reached in 2003. The 17 Cambodian and 12 foreign judges and prosecutors have spent the last six months in sometimes rancorous disagreement on guidelines for the trials.
"Now that the rules have been adopted we can move forward," Kong Srim, a Cambodian judge with the tribunal, read from their statement.
He said investigating judges will begin the judicial process as soon as they receive their first case from prosecutors.
The tribunal is an unprecedented hybrid. It will operate under the Cambodian judicial system often criticized as weak, corrupt and susceptible to political manipulation. Decisions require support from a majority of the Cambodian judges, backed by at least one U.N.-appointed judge.
The tribunal "can only bring justice to the people of Cambodia, if the trials ... are fair, impartial and open," Skilbeck said in a statement.
However, the judges were sworn in last July and the delays have meant that one year already has been lost without anyone even being charged.
Hopes of convening the trials this year have been dashed by disputes over, for example, the high legal fees Cambodia imposes on foreign lawyers taking part in the tribunal. That issue was resolved in April.
On Wednesday, neither the Cambodian nor the foreign judicial officials would give details about their cases or reveal names and the number of potential suspects. But a U.N.-appointed judge said recently that more arrests could follow.
"I‘m very elated that the rules are now official and now the Khmer Rouge tribunal has a green light to go ahead," said Theary Seng, director of the nonprofit Center for Social Development, which monitors Cambodia‘s court system.
But she added that there are still deep concerns whether the tribunal — known officially as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia — will be able to execute its mission without political interference from the government.
There are still going to be other challenges and obstacles for the tribunal, but the adoption of the rules shows that there is political will at the highest level of the Cambodian government to proceed, said U.S. Embassy Spokesman Jeff Daigle.
Japan, the largest financial contributor to the tribunal‘s budget, said in a statement that the rules represent "an important step to accelerate the process of the trials."
The top Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998. Ta Mok, the Khmer Rouge army chief, died last July while in detention pending trial by the special tribunal. He was believed to be 80.
Their senior-level colleagues, Nuon Chea, the movement‘s chief ideologue; Ieng Sary, the former foreign minister; and Khieu Samphan, the former head of state, live freely in Cambodia but are in declining health.
Cambodia and the United Nations created the genocide tribunal last year under an agreement they reached in 2003. The 17 Cambodian and 12 foreign judges and prosecutors have spent the last six months in sometimes rancorous disagreement on guidelines for the trials.
"Now that the rules have been adopted we can move forward," Kong Srim, a Cambodian judge with the tribunal, read from their statement.
He said investigating judges will begin the judicial process as soon as they receive their first case from prosecutors.
The tribunal is an unprecedented hybrid. It will operate under the Cambodian judicial system often criticized as weak, corrupt and susceptible to political manipulation. Decisions require support from a majority of the Cambodian judges, backed by at least one U.N.-appointed judge.
The tribunal "can only bring justice to the people of Cambodia, if the trials ... are fair, impartial and open," Skilbeck said in a statement.
However, the judges were sworn in last July and the delays have meant that one year already has been lost without anyone even being charged.
Hopes of convening the trials this year have been dashed by disputes over, for example, the high legal fees Cambodia imposes on foreign lawyers taking part in the tribunal. That issue was resolved in April.
On Wednesday, neither the Cambodian nor the foreign judicial officials would give details about their cases or reveal names and the number of potential suspects. But a U.N.-appointed judge said recently that more arrests could follow.
"I‘m very elated that the rules are now official and now the Khmer Rouge tribunal has a green light to go ahead," said Theary Seng, director of the nonprofit Center for Social Development, which monitors Cambodia‘s court system.
But she added that there are still deep concerns whether the tribunal — known officially as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia — will be able to execute its mission without political interference from the government.
There are still going to be other challenges and obstacles for the tribunal, but the adoption of the rules shows that there is political will at the highest level of the Cambodian government to proceed, said U.S. Embassy Spokesman Jeff Daigle.
Japan, the largest financial contributor to the tribunal‘s budget, said in a statement that the rules represent "an important step to accelerate the process of the trials."
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