This is a transcript from AM. The program is broadcast around Australia at 08:00 on ABC Local Radio.
AM - Wednesday, 13 June , 2007
Reporter: Karen Percy
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
TONY EASTLEY: They've been waiting for 30 years but finally the victims of Pol Pot's crazy, despotic regime in Cambodia will get a day in court.
While Pol Pot died almost 10 years ago, some of his subordinates in the Khmer Rouge are still around and their victims want justice.
Later this morning in Phnom Penh there'll be a historic sitting of the international and Cambodian judges who will eventually try some of Pol Pot's henchmen.
It's a significant step forward in the legal process, but justice in Cambodia is a slow business.
South East Asia Correspondent Karen Percy reports.
KAREN PERCY: Three decades of pain, years of international lobbying, nine months of legal wrangling: today marks an important milestone for the extraordinary chambers in the courts of Cambodia, or what's been dubbed the Khmer Rouge Trials.
Nineteen international and Cambodian judges have finalised a detailed set of rules, combining international and Cambodian laws, as well as civil and common laws. And now they can get down to work.
Melbourne QC, Rowan Downing, is one of them.
ROWAN DOWNING: I think that initially it may resurrect old wounds. But we hope that there will be a general healing process as a result of this.
KAREN PERCY: The genocide was orchestrated by the Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot. He's been dead almost a decade, but his subordinates live on. Together, they were responsible for the deaths of 1.7 million people who were first imprisoned, then beaten and tortured, until they were finally taken to the so-called killing fields.
I'm here at the notorious Tuol Sleng prison. It is where thousands of Cambodians saw out there final days. It is an eerie place. There is room after room containing roughly built brick cells. Inside each cell there are the telltale signs of the metal chains and metal bars that were used to keep the prisoners in line.
For two years, Bou Meng called Tuol Sleng home. He was an artist, a painter, and when the Khmer Rouge came for him in 1977, he thought he was being taken to the local university to teach fine arts.
At least he was ultimately able to leave. As he visits today, he tells us it is painful to see the place where he last saw his wife. He keeps a small black and white photo of her in his top shirt pocket. It is a photo like so many who are caught up in the genocide: a simply framed picture, a solemn face, a number to assist the Khmer Rouge's records.
He is pleased that today the tribunal will move forward.
(Bou Meng speaking)
He wants justice, he says. But he also wants compensation. That would seem unlikely.
Judge Rowan Downing.
ROWAN DOWNING: They will have the right to present evidence, to examine parties, and to present their stories.
They will also have the right to claim moral reparation. I'm personally not sure precisely what that is, but it will be such things as an apology.
It will not, we anticipate, be by way of damages.
KAREN PERCY: While the investigative phase of the trial is set to get underway, there is still a lot of work to be done. And it would seem unlikely that anyone will face the tribunal before the end of the year.
This is Karen Percy in Phnom Penh, reporting for AM.
AM - Wednesday, 13 June , 2007
Reporter: Karen Percy
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
TONY EASTLEY: They've been waiting for 30 years but finally the victims of Pol Pot's crazy, despotic regime in Cambodia will get a day in court.
While Pol Pot died almost 10 years ago, some of his subordinates in the Khmer Rouge are still around and their victims want justice.
Later this morning in Phnom Penh there'll be a historic sitting of the international and Cambodian judges who will eventually try some of Pol Pot's henchmen.
It's a significant step forward in the legal process, but justice in Cambodia is a slow business.
South East Asia Correspondent Karen Percy reports.
KAREN PERCY: Three decades of pain, years of international lobbying, nine months of legal wrangling: today marks an important milestone for the extraordinary chambers in the courts of Cambodia, or what's been dubbed the Khmer Rouge Trials.
Nineteen international and Cambodian judges have finalised a detailed set of rules, combining international and Cambodian laws, as well as civil and common laws. And now they can get down to work.
Melbourne QC, Rowan Downing, is one of them.
ROWAN DOWNING: I think that initially it may resurrect old wounds. But we hope that there will be a general healing process as a result of this.
KAREN PERCY: The genocide was orchestrated by the Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot. He's been dead almost a decade, but his subordinates live on. Together, they were responsible for the deaths of 1.7 million people who were first imprisoned, then beaten and tortured, until they were finally taken to the so-called killing fields.
I'm here at the notorious Tuol Sleng prison. It is where thousands of Cambodians saw out there final days. It is an eerie place. There is room after room containing roughly built brick cells. Inside each cell there are the telltale signs of the metal chains and metal bars that were used to keep the prisoners in line.
For two years, Bou Meng called Tuol Sleng home. He was an artist, a painter, and when the Khmer Rouge came for him in 1977, he thought he was being taken to the local university to teach fine arts.
At least he was ultimately able to leave. As he visits today, he tells us it is painful to see the place where he last saw his wife. He keeps a small black and white photo of her in his top shirt pocket. It is a photo like so many who are caught up in the genocide: a simply framed picture, a solemn face, a number to assist the Khmer Rouge's records.
He is pleased that today the tribunal will move forward.
(Bou Meng speaking)
He wants justice, he says. But he also wants compensation. That would seem unlikely.
Judge Rowan Downing.
ROWAN DOWNING: They will have the right to present evidence, to examine parties, and to present their stories.
They will also have the right to claim moral reparation. I'm personally not sure precisely what that is, but it will be such things as an apology.
It will not, we anticipate, be by way of damages.
KAREN PERCY: While the investigative phase of the trial is set to get underway, there is still a lot of work to be done. And it would seem unlikely that anyone will face the tribunal before the end of the year.
This is Karen Percy in Phnom Penh, reporting for AM.
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