By Tim Johnston
Washington Post Foreign Service
BANGKOK, Jan. 7 -- Three decades to the day after the fall of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge regime, the country finally received word of a possible starting date for the trial of one of its key leaders.
International co-prosecutor Robert Petit said that Kaing Khek Iev, who was better known as Duch when he headed the Tuol Sleng torture center in Phnom Penh, will probably go on trial in March. But he said four other defendants, all in their 80s, are unlikely to take the stand until 2010.
The trial process, which has so far cost $50 million, has been marred by delays, controversial defense motions, accusations of corruption and, most recently, a public dispute between Petit and his Cambodian co-prosecutor, Chea Leang, over future prosecutions.
Petit wants to file charges against an additional five or six former Khmer Rouge members, but Chea Leang has objected, saying that the court should concentrate its limited resources on the cases on hand. She has also cited a need to focus on national reconciliation.
The court's pre-trial chamber is due to rule on the disagreement.
As many as 1.7 million Cambodians -- roughly one-fifth of the population -- were killed or succumbed to disease, malnutrition or overwork during the four years the Khmer Rouge were in power before they were removed by Vietnamese forces in 1979.
Human Rights Watch has long been critical of the court's inability to bring the perpetrators of the Khmer Rouge's brutal rule to justice.
"After 30 years, no one has been tried, convicted or sentenced for the crimes of one of the bloodiest regimes of the 20th century," said Brad Adams, who is Asia director for Human Rights Watch. "This is no accident. For more than a decade, China and the United States blocked efforts at accountability, and for the past decade, [Cambodian Prime Minister] Hun Sen has done his best to thwart justice."
For many Cambodians, Jan. 7 is a bittersweet date: It marks their deliverance from the Khmer Rouge but also the beginning of a 10-year occupation by Vietnam.
Hun Sen, who came to power 23 years ago under the aegis of the Vietnamese, has no time for such ambivalence.
"Whoever is against the day of victory is either Pol Pot or an animal," he told a crowd Tuesday.
International co-prosecutor Robert Petit said that Kaing Khek Iev, who was better known as Duch when he headed the Tuol Sleng torture center in Phnom Penh, will probably go on trial in March. But he said four other defendants, all in their 80s, are unlikely to take the stand until 2010.
The trial process, which has so far cost $50 million, has been marred by delays, controversial defense motions, accusations of corruption and, most recently, a public dispute between Petit and his Cambodian co-prosecutor, Chea Leang, over future prosecutions.
Petit wants to file charges against an additional five or six former Khmer Rouge members, but Chea Leang has objected, saying that the court should concentrate its limited resources on the cases on hand. She has also cited a need to focus on national reconciliation.
The court's pre-trial chamber is due to rule on the disagreement.
As many as 1.7 million Cambodians -- roughly one-fifth of the population -- were killed or succumbed to disease, malnutrition or overwork during the four years the Khmer Rouge were in power before they were removed by Vietnamese forces in 1979.
Human Rights Watch has long been critical of the court's inability to bring the perpetrators of the Khmer Rouge's brutal rule to justice.
"After 30 years, no one has been tried, convicted or sentenced for the crimes of one of the bloodiest regimes of the 20th century," said Brad Adams, who is Asia director for Human Rights Watch. "This is no accident. For more than a decade, China and the United States blocked efforts at accountability, and for the past decade, [Cambodian Prime Minister] Hun Sen has done his best to thwart justice."
For many Cambodians, Jan. 7 is a bittersweet date: It marks their deliverance from the Khmer Rouge but also the beginning of a 10-year occupation by Vietnam.
Hun Sen, who came to power 23 years ago under the aegis of the Vietnamese, has no time for such ambivalence.
"Whoever is against the day of victory is either Pol Pot or an animal," he told a crowd Tuesday.
5 comments:
What khmer should do right now? why we need to look back ? what we should
create to improve cambodia work well like other countries nears us?
Chea Leang concerning the budget for the prolong trial while the money is provided by donor countries, Cambodia gov’t does not pay for it. It is sound ridiculous excuse to me.
She is worry about reunion, stability and peace for the country and its people. Sounds reasonable pretext to me. But the issue is as the following:
Will be there insecurity in Cambodia again if additional members of former KR be brought to trail?
In the event of civil war again, will it be the UN responsibility and step in to intervene or that would be leave up to Cambodia to solve?
In my view, the trial should be proceeding with no charge to additional members of former KR just for now rather than nothing.
What good is a trial date when there is no end in site?
Pouk Ah Scam Rainxy is trying to pull our leg again.
pol pot is better than hun sen.In pol pot time there is no corruptions,no 5 millions youn living in Cambodia countrolling hun sen, no lost land to vietcong,no vast deforestation ,no land evictions..ect.
2 millions Khmer lives were perished by vietnam secret agents in pol pot's regime
1:07PM please be more precise about the fact of 2 millions Khmer lives. You’re making your own assumption base on your own believe and fiction which is not a convincing account.
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