By Kevin Doyle
Time Magazine (USA)
For the architects of Cambodia's Killing Fields, justice has long been delayed. A U.N.-backed tribunal was established last year to try those accused of orchestrating the genocidal rampage that killed up to 2 million between 1975 and 1979. But after years of bureaucratic snags and political foot-dragging, the number of suspects left to prosecute is dwindling. Pol Pot, leader of the Khmer Rouge regime, died in his sleep at age 73 in 1998. Ta Mok, the feared Khmer Rouge military commander, succumbed at 81 in a Phnom Penh hospital last year.
But justice is not yet denied. Shortly after dawn on Sept. 19, Cambodian police special forces and military police surrounded a small wooden home on the outskirts of Pailin town in the country's northwest and arrested Nuon Chea, the Khmer Rouge's infamous "Brother Number Two," Pol Pot's deputy. Now 82, the most senior Khmer Rouge leader still surviving in Cambodia has had years to prepare for his eventual arrest. He surrendered to the government in 1998 but had been allowed to live in quiet retirement with his wife in a region that was a communist stronghold until the mid-1990s. After being arrested and fingerprinted, Nuon Chea was helped into a helicopter as local villagers raised their arms to bid their former leader goodbye and to wish him good luck in his trial.
Nuon Chea is the second Khmer Rouge leader slated to be brought before the tribunal, a special chamber in the Cambodian courts. Authorities in July charged Kaing Guek Eav — known as Duch — with crimes against humanity for his role as commander of a Khmer Rouge prison where an estimated 14,000 people were sent to be tortured and executed. In custody since 1999, Duch said in an interview eight years ago that he was "like a water boy" for Nuon Chea.
The tribunal's judges say they have three more Khmer Rouge suspects in their sights, and a court official says that trials could begin in early 2008. In an interview with the Associated Press last year, Nuon Chea said he expected to be exonerated and that he was "glad to go [on trial], so that people in my country and other countries will know the truth of what happened." The families of millions of dead Cambodians are hoping for the same.
But justice is not yet denied. Shortly after dawn on Sept. 19, Cambodian police special forces and military police surrounded a small wooden home on the outskirts of Pailin town in the country's northwest and arrested Nuon Chea, the Khmer Rouge's infamous "Brother Number Two," Pol Pot's deputy. Now 82, the most senior Khmer Rouge leader still surviving in Cambodia has had years to prepare for his eventual arrest. He surrendered to the government in 1998 but had been allowed to live in quiet retirement with his wife in a region that was a communist stronghold until the mid-1990s. After being arrested and fingerprinted, Nuon Chea was helped into a helicopter as local villagers raised their arms to bid their former leader goodbye and to wish him good luck in his trial.
Nuon Chea is the second Khmer Rouge leader slated to be brought before the tribunal, a special chamber in the Cambodian courts. Authorities in July charged Kaing Guek Eav — known as Duch — with crimes against humanity for his role as commander of a Khmer Rouge prison where an estimated 14,000 people were sent to be tortured and executed. In custody since 1999, Duch said in an interview eight years ago that he was "like a water boy" for Nuon Chea.
The tribunal's judges say they have three more Khmer Rouge suspects in their sights, and a court official says that trials could begin in early 2008. In an interview with the Associated Press last year, Nuon Chea said he expected to be exonerated and that he was "glad to go [on trial], so that people in my country and other countries will know the truth of what happened." The families of millions of dead Cambodians are hoping for the same.
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