Cambodian workers dig a ditch near a building in which a permanent U.N. administrative office for the planned genocide trial of surviving Khmer Rouge leaders is seen in the outskirts of the capital Phnom Penh February 9, 2006. (Chor Sokunthea/Reuters)By Ek Madra
Reuters
The United Nations and Cambodia said on Thursday the genocide trial of Pol Pot's top surviving Khmer Rouge henchmen, who are blamed for the deaths of 1.7 million people, should begin in earnest next year.
However, neither side set even a vague start date for the long-awaited tribunal, which has been dogged by years of tortuous negotiations and accusations of bad faith from both sides.
U.N. trial coordinator Michelle Lee, who started working in Phnom Penh last week, said both sides were in "action every day from morning until afternoon and according to my understanding the actual trial will only start next year."
"It depends upon how fast the prosecutors and investigating judges can do the case," she said.
The special joint U.N.-Cambodian tribunal, which has a three year budget of $56.3 million, still faces a funding shortfall of $9.6 million but both sides said they did not see the outstanding cash as a major problem.
"We are not allowing the current shortfall to impede the process," Lee said at a joint news conference with her Cambodian counterpart, Sean Visoth, at the designated trial venue in a military base on the outskirts of the capital.
The court's Cambodian and international judges and prosecutors would be appointed within the first half of this year and the co-prosecutors and investigating judges would start their work shortly after that, she said.
"Again, I am very optimistic that this will happen by the first half of this year, that we will be able to have a real start, a real milestone," she said.
An estimated one third of the southeast Asian nation's people died of starvation, forced labor, disease or execution during the Khmer Rouge "Killing Fields" regime from 1975 to 1979, one of the darkest chapters of 20th century history.
Almost every single Cambodian family lost relatives, but no Khmer Rouge leader has faced justice for the atrocities and critics fear they will die before their day in court arrives.
Two top cadres are in jail -- Ta Mok, the 78-year-old, one-legged military chief dubbed 'The Butcher' for his alleged role in mass killings, and Duch, the 59-year-old born-again Christian who ran Phnom Penh's Tuol Sleng interrogation center.
Ta Mok and Duch, whose real name is Kang Kek Ieu, were charged last March with war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity during the regime led by "Brother Number One" Pol Pot, who died in 1998.
"Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea, former head of state Khieu Samphan and former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary are living as free men in Cambodia.
However, neither side set even a vague start date for the long-awaited tribunal, which has been dogged by years of tortuous negotiations and accusations of bad faith from both sides.
U.N. trial coordinator Michelle Lee, who started working in Phnom Penh last week, said both sides were in "action every day from morning until afternoon and according to my understanding the actual trial will only start next year."
"It depends upon how fast the prosecutors and investigating judges can do the case," she said.
The special joint U.N.-Cambodian tribunal, which has a three year budget of $56.3 million, still faces a funding shortfall of $9.6 million but both sides said they did not see the outstanding cash as a major problem.
"We are not allowing the current shortfall to impede the process," Lee said at a joint news conference with her Cambodian counterpart, Sean Visoth, at the designated trial venue in a military base on the outskirts of the capital.
The court's Cambodian and international judges and prosecutors would be appointed within the first half of this year and the co-prosecutors and investigating judges would start their work shortly after that, she said.
"Again, I am very optimistic that this will happen by the first half of this year, that we will be able to have a real start, a real milestone," she said.
An estimated one third of the southeast Asian nation's people died of starvation, forced labor, disease or execution during the Khmer Rouge "Killing Fields" regime from 1975 to 1979, one of the darkest chapters of 20th century history.
Almost every single Cambodian family lost relatives, but no Khmer Rouge leader has faced justice for the atrocities and critics fear they will die before their day in court arrives.
Two top cadres are in jail -- Ta Mok, the 78-year-old, one-legged military chief dubbed 'The Butcher' for his alleged role in mass killings, and Duch, the 59-year-old born-again Christian who ran Phnom Penh's Tuol Sleng interrogation center.
Ta Mok and Duch, whose real name is Kang Kek Ieu, were charged last March with war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity during the regime led by "Brother Number One" Pol Pot, who died in 1998.
"Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea, former head of state Khieu Samphan and former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary are living as free men in Cambodia.
1 comment:
All these murderer are protctect by hun sen, and the communist king.
and double watch by the Vietcong and the chinese....so just wait for the magic wands, and it will not happen soon!!
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