November 16, 2006
Khmer Rouge Trials Enters
Crucial Phase
Presenter/Interviewer: Tom Fayle
Speaker: Youk Chhang, director of Documentation Centre of
In
murderous Khmer Rouge regime has entered a crucial phase. Years of
documentation and research is being turned into evidence by prosecutors,
building a case against those responsible for the deaths of an estimated two
million Cambodians.
FAYLE: The chatter of birds in the
grounds of the former
school now known as Tuol Sleng. Thousands of people from all walks of life
were brought here from all over the country. Held in miserable conditions—
often for months—they were tortured, taken to the killing
fields and
executed, only a handful are known to have survived.
Everyone, as they say in Cambodia, is a victim, with a quarter of the
population perishing in often terrible circumstances in the three years,
eight months and 20 days the Khmer Rouge held power in the latter half of
1970s
Now, nearly three decades on, the building blocks for the mixed Cambodian-
international court are in place and the detail of just how
the trials will
be conducted is being thrashed out. A more than 80-page draft of the court's
internal rules has recently been released for public comment.
CHHANG: Right now it's a crucial
stage for the investigation and I think the
office of the prosecutors have been very active, they've been working very
hard. Not just with us but also with other civil societies and other
individuals in terms of gathering information for evidence and hopefully
that it can turn the evidence to become a legal case.
FAYLE: Youk Chhang is the director
of Documentation Centre of Cambodia,
which for years has been in the forefront of preserving the history of the
genocide. Agreement to hold the special United Nations-backed Khmer Rouge
tribunal took years of tortuous negotiation…but even today, it's still not
clear whether the indictments will be limited to a few high profile leaders
of the former regime or the net will be spread more widely.
CHHANG: This is the job of the
co-prosecutor. We shall give them some time
on this issue. And I think also it would be unfair for us to point a finger
at certain individuals at this stage.
FAYLE: You've been studying this
issue for years and so have many others.
You must have an idea as to who you think is going to be in the frame when
the time comes.
CHHANG: Well I know who these people
are. I know who's the driver, who's the
clerk, who's the chief of unit but you know I'm not a lawyer, I'm not a
co-prosecutor so it's not my role to say this or that should be prosecuted.
But we have that information which has also been available to co-prosecutors
in the last several months and we've been supplying all kinds of
information, photos, documents, sounds, you name it, location of massacre.
So it's up to them to decide who among these people should be prosecuted.
FAYLE: Give me your best guess as to
when you think proceedings will kick
off.
CHHANG: I think it's too soon to say
January 2007 but I think between April
and June because they need a couple of months to settle down between the
investigator and the co-prosecutors. So I hope maybe April or June 2007.
FAYLE: The process is expected to
cost well over 50 million US dollars and
some question the usefulness of the exercise, arguing that while it may be a
preoccupation of NGO groups and international lawyers the bulk of
young population now has other priorities.
Copyright 2006
Australian Broadcasting Corporation