AFP
Judges in Cambodia's Khmer Rouge tribunal will be asked to investigate five former regime leaders for crimes including genocide, prosecutors said Wednesday after filing their first cases.
The case submissions were the biggest step yet by tribunal officials, who have been compiling evidence for a year to prosecute those responsible for one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century.
Up to two million people died of starvation and overwork, or were executed under the communist regime between 1975-79.
The Khmer Rouge abolished religion, schools and currency, exiling millions to vast collective farms with the aim of creating an agrarian utopia.
"We identified five individuals for investigation. ... This is certainly the most concrete judicial step" so far, co-prosecutor Robert Petit told AFP.
The names of the five suspects have not been made public. Apart from the genocide charges, prosecutors are also asking judges to investigate evidence of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during the Khmer Rouge's rule.
"These crimes were committed as part of a common criminal plan constituting a systematic and unlawful denial of basic rights of the Cambodian population and the targeted persecution of specific groups," Petit and his Cambodian counterpart Chea Leng said in a statement.
"The co-prosecutors have identified and submitted for investigation 25 distinct factual situations of murder, torture, forcible transfer, unlawful detention, forced labor and religious, political and ethnic persecution," they added.
The cases have to be reviewed by co-investigating judges -- one Cambodian and one foreign -- who will then recommend whether any of the suspects can be put in the dock in the tribunal's trial phase which is expected next year.
"This is a request for the judges to investigate those facts, those people and those crimes," Petit said.
"It is up to them to decide who they will talk to, what decisions they make and what they request" the prosecution do, he added.
These first files contain some 15,000 pages of evidence, based in part on 350 witness statements, Petit said.
While he said that no case was perfect, "considering the limited resources and considering all the problems, we have certainly got enough for the judges to conduct fully an investigation and hopefully get a grasp of the cases quickly."
"I'm proud of the work everbody has done. ... If this (tribunal) were to shut down tomorrow at least we'd have a record to help people better understand what happened," he added.
The tribunal's opening last year had already been delayed by a decade of often contentious negotiations between the United Nations and Cambodia, which finally reached agreement on the trials in 2003.
The repeated deadlocks raised concerns that the long-stalled tribunal would ultimately fail.
Quick trials are the last chance for Cambodians to find justice for crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge more than 30 years ago, with rights groups and legal advocates concerned that ageing former regime leaders will die before being brought to court.
So far only one possible defendant is in custody -- former Khmer Rouge prison chief Kaing Khek Iev, also known as Duch -- while several live freely in Cambodia.
Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot died in 1998.
The case submissions were the biggest step yet by tribunal officials, who have been compiling evidence for a year to prosecute those responsible for one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century.
Up to two million people died of starvation and overwork, or were executed under the communist regime between 1975-79.
The Khmer Rouge abolished religion, schools and currency, exiling millions to vast collective farms with the aim of creating an agrarian utopia.
"We identified five individuals for investigation. ... This is certainly the most concrete judicial step" so far, co-prosecutor Robert Petit told AFP.
The names of the five suspects have not been made public. Apart from the genocide charges, prosecutors are also asking judges to investigate evidence of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during the Khmer Rouge's rule.
"These crimes were committed as part of a common criminal plan constituting a systematic and unlawful denial of basic rights of the Cambodian population and the targeted persecution of specific groups," Petit and his Cambodian counterpart Chea Leng said in a statement.
"The co-prosecutors have identified and submitted for investigation 25 distinct factual situations of murder, torture, forcible transfer, unlawful detention, forced labor and religious, political and ethnic persecution," they added.
The cases have to be reviewed by co-investigating judges -- one Cambodian and one foreign -- who will then recommend whether any of the suspects can be put in the dock in the tribunal's trial phase which is expected next year.
"This is a request for the judges to investigate those facts, those people and those crimes," Petit said.
"It is up to them to decide who they will talk to, what decisions they make and what they request" the prosecution do, he added.
These first files contain some 15,000 pages of evidence, based in part on 350 witness statements, Petit said.
While he said that no case was perfect, "considering the limited resources and considering all the problems, we have certainly got enough for the judges to conduct fully an investigation and hopefully get a grasp of the cases quickly."
"I'm proud of the work everbody has done. ... If this (tribunal) were to shut down tomorrow at least we'd have a record to help people better understand what happened," he added.
The tribunal's opening last year had already been delayed by a decade of often contentious negotiations between the United Nations and Cambodia, which finally reached agreement on the trials in 2003.
The repeated deadlocks raised concerns that the long-stalled tribunal would ultimately fail.
Quick trials are the last chance for Cambodians to find justice for crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge more than 30 years ago, with rights groups and legal advocates concerned that ageing former regime leaders will die before being brought to court.
So far only one possible defendant is in custody -- former Khmer Rouge prison chief Kaing Khek Iev, also known as Duch -- while several live freely in Cambodia.
Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot died in 1998.
1 comment:
Only the foreigners care about KRT because they will get big money to come to Cambodia. They will only spend their big money on barang restaurants and hotels, then leave the country.
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