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Khmer Rouge Trials 'On Back Burner' - Global Policy Forum: International Justice Khmer Rouge Trials 'On Back Burner'
By Kay Johnson
South China Morning Post
August 10, 2000
With just two weeks left in its regular session, parliament has failed to schedule debate on holding trials for Khmer Rouge atrocities, prompting accusations of foot-dragging in ratifying a deal with the United Nations. It now seems impossible for the National Assembly to approve the plan for a mixed tribunal before its session ends on August 23. Assembly President Prince Norodom Ranariddh has said he might call a special session to debate the legislation if necessary - but first the measure must make it through the committees where it has been stalled for weeks.
A month has passed since the top United Nations legal counsel, Hans Corell, left Phnom Penh with a tentative agreement with the Government to set up an unprecedented jointly run court to try leaders of the 1970s Khmer Rouge regime.
None of the architects of the "killing fields" that led to an estimated 1.7 million deaths has ever stood trial. All that remains before a formal deal is signed is for the National Assembly to pass a law setting up the court. But the minister in charge of the tribunal process, Sok An, cancelled a scheduled meeting on Tuesday with the legislation committee that must approve the measure before it can be placed on the full Assembly's debate agenda. "Sok An is avoiding the National Assembly on the Khmer Rouge tribunal," ran the headline of an opposition newspaper yesterday.
Mr Sok An denied yesterday that there were any unnecessary delays. He said he was still discussing technical aspects of the UN's draft memorandum of understanding with parliamentarians from his own party. He could not say when he would be ready to brief the parliamentary committee, saying only that the day "is not far off". "We will try to work this as soon as possible, but it is not easy," he said.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged Cambodia to have at least started the debate before the UN General Assembly meeting in mid-September. The UN has threatened to pull out of the deal if Cambodia delays too long, but has not set a firm deadline.
Critics of the Government have raised suspicions that parliament - dominated by the party of Prime Minister Hun Sen - may either reject the trial plan or make so many changes to it that the UN will pull out of the process. Delaying the debate past the UN General Assembly would spare Mr Hun Sen harsh questions if the tribunal plan, which was painstakingly negotiated after a year of wrangling, is rejected.
There have been doubts about whether Mr Hun Sen truly wants UN involvement, because it would make it harder to spare from trial top leaders of the Khmer Rouge who have defected to the Government in recent years. Analysts speculate that hardliners in the Prime Minister's Cambodian People's Party oppose the plan because of fears an independent trial might highlight their own Khmer Rouge background. Virtually every politician in Cambodia was at one time either part of or allied with the Khmer Rouge guerillas.
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