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Senate Passes Khmer Rouge Tribunal Law - International Justice - Global Policy Forum Senate Passes Khmer Rouge Tribunal Law
Associated Press
January 15, 2001
Cambodia's Senate on Monday approved a law on creating a tribunal to try Khmer Rouge leaders, and a Cabinet minister said the court will not spare any leading functionary of the murderous regime.
All 51 deputies present in the 61-seat upper house of Parliament voted to pass the UN-sponsored draft law, which lays down the formula for creating the tribunal comprising Cambodian and international judges and prosecutors.
The Senate took about two and a half to discuss and approve the 48 chapters of the draft law, which was passed earlier this month by Parliament's lower house, the National Assembly.
Monday's vote cleared yet another hurdle in bringing to justice the perpetrators of the atrocities committed during the 1975-79 rule of the Maoist movement of Pol Pot.
An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died of starvation, disease or execution during the Khmer Rouge rule, which strove to create an agrarian utopia through terror.
The law now needs the approval of the Constitutional Council and King Norodom Sihanouk. The government and the United Nations then must sign an agreement on details for the tribunal to convene.
Earlier this month, the United Nations had objected to some parts of the draft law, apparently fearing that they do not meet international standards or try to put some Khmer Rouge leaders out of the tribunal's purview. But Cabinet Minister Sok An, who heads the government's tribunal task force, assured the Senate that the law was committed to bringing all Khmer Rouge leaders to justice.
''The law doesn't list the names of the people [it will try]. The law talks about the principles and the formula [for the tribunal],'' Mr Sok An said. ''The judges will take the law and implement it. So there is no doubt that [no one will be outside the law]. Whoever must be under the law will be under the law, including the lawmakers,'' he said.
Many deputies of the ruling Cambodian People's Party including Prime Minister Hun Sen are former members of Khmer Rouge who defected before the regime was ousted by a Vietnamese invasion in 1979.
But some senators expressed misgivings. ''I think whether the law is effective or not will depend on the commitment of the government,'' said Kem Sokha, the chairman of the Human Rights Commission of the Senate. ''If the government really wants to bring the Khmer Rouge leaders to justice, then we will be fine. But I am concerned about some loopholes,'' he said.
The tribunal is not likely to target lower-level functionaries of Khmer Rouge including the current lawmakers as the draft law requires the prosecution of only those ''most responsible'' for the atrocities.
Mr Sok An said he would write to Hans Corell, the UN deputy secretary-general for legal affairs, to explain the Cambodian position. ''I will reply to him soon. And I believe the negotiations will end in an agreement,'' he said.
Mr Hun Sen has said the government is ready to apprehend anyone the court indicts, but has cautioned against prosecution of the late Pol Pot's former foreign minister and brother-in-law, Ieng Sary, saying that could lead to war.
Asked by opposition Sam Rainsy party lawmaker Kung Kam if Ieng Sary would also come under the law, Mr Sok An said: ''Sure, when the law is approved everybody must be under the law.''
Ieng Sary led the defection of some 10,000 troops and civilians, in 1996, which crippled the movement while it was fighting as a rebel group along the Cambodian border with Thailand. It collapsed in 1998. Ieng Sary was given immunity and now lives freely along with other top Khmer Rouge in their former stronghold in northwestern Cambodia.
Only two senior Khmer Rouge figures are in custody: longtime military leader Ta Mok and Kaing Khek Iev, better known as Duch, the director of the Khmer Rouge torture centre in Phnom Penh.
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