7 February 2007
Time Running Out for
Cambodia Genocide Trials
PHNOM PENH — International judges for the coming
Khmer Rouge genocide trials in Cambodia have warned that time is running out
to resolve deep disputes with their local colleagues and get the tribunal
started.
The public trials for leaders of the Maoist regime, which
left up to two
million people dead in the country's notorious killing fields in the late
1970s, were due to begin in the middle of this year.
But more than seven months after being sworn in, the 29 judges on the joint
UN-Cambodian court still have not agreed on more than 100 rules that spell
out how the tribunal will work from day to day.
"It doesn't seem realistic to hope for the first public hearing before
early
2008, but beyond that I can't be very precise," said Marcel Lemonde of
France, one of the 14 foreign jurists who will take part.
"There is one point on which the international judges are unanimous—these
trials should take place quickly or not at all," Lemonde said.
Some of the issues still to be ironed out are central questions about the
court's authority—including independence of the judges and the role of
foreign defence counsels, he said.
"In principle, everyone accepts participation by foreign lawyers. It's the
conditions under which they can intervene that need to be clarified.
Defendants should be able to freely choose them, and (the lawyers) should be
able to intervene freely," Lemonde said.
requires a payment of 2,000 dollars. Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith
said the international lawyers have agreed to register, but not to pay the
fee.
"These things always take time, especially when we're starting not
necessarily from scratch, but from less of a clear background than we've had
in other tribunals," said one of the two prosecuting judges, Robert Petit
of
"We're all professionals, we're all grown-ups, and I think we're all aware
of the importance of what we're here to do," he said. "We're the only
chance
for these people to have any measure of justice."
government—which includes some former Khmer Rouge members—has broken
off talks with the
United Nations over the court more than once.
The two sides did not reach agreement until 2003, and the court was then
held up further because Prime Minister Hun Sen was reluctant to commit money
to finance it.
"Who delays the process? The Cambodian government is the one who proposed
the tribunal," Khieu Kanharith said. He called the disputes an "issue
of
procedure."
He also denied that the government was intentionally slowing the process, in
the hope that the ageing Khmer Rouge leaders now in their 70s and 80s would
die before facing trial.
Concrete steps toward making the tribunal operational were taken in November
and January, but the Cambodian and international judges need to iron out
their differences at a crucial committee meeting in March, Lemonde said.
The entire tribunal would then adopt the rules at a plenary assembly in
April.
"If we have another failure at the plenary assembly this time, it would
probably be the death of the tribunal," Lemonde said.
He refused to rule out the possibility that the 14 international judges
would collectively resign from the tribunal if they fail to reach agreement
on the rules with their Cambodian counterparts.
"We are taking a positive approach, but if the question ever comes up, I
hope that the prevailing opinion would be to avoid at all cost individual
resignations," he said. "That would be the worst solution."
Copyright 2007
Agence France-Presse