NEWSAHEAD
The trial of five aging Khmer Rouge leaders is due to begin. The charges relate to the deaths and suffering of millions of Cambodians under the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. The autumn start date is far from certain. After almost a decade strongman Prime Minister Hun Sen and the United Nations are still wrangling about the scope of and funding for the hybrid Cambodian-UN tribunal. The approach of the 30th anniversary of the end of the regime, in Jan 2009, could function as pressure on the negotiations.
Some two-thirds of the tribunal's budgeted three-year mandate have passed since it was set up in Aug 2006, and the delays are widely seen as foot-dragging by Hun Sen, who was a member of the Khmer Rouge as a very young man.
The Khmer Rouge "liberated" Phnom Penh on 17 Apr 1975. Forcing the population out of cities, it tried to establish an agrarian state and killed an estimated 1.7 million people through starvation, disease or execution in the process. Survivors were traumatized in ways that still haunt this country.
Hundreds of people have applied for official recognition as Khmer Rouge victims and to bring parallel civil cases against the five. Regime leader Pol Pot escaped justice: he died in 1998 without being brought to trial. As civil parties, the victims will have standing comparable to those of the accused, including the rights to participate in the investigation, to be represented by a lawyer, to call witnesses and to question the accused at trial. Jun/08.
The trial of five aging Khmer Rouge leaders is due to begin. The charges relate to the deaths and suffering of millions of Cambodians under the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. The autumn start date is far from certain. After almost a decade strongman Prime Minister Hun Sen and the United Nations are still wrangling about the scope of and funding for the hybrid Cambodian-UN tribunal. The approach of the 30th anniversary of the end of the regime, in Jan 2009, could function as pressure on the negotiations.
Some two-thirds of the tribunal's budgeted three-year mandate have passed since it was set up in Aug 2006, and the delays are widely seen as foot-dragging by Hun Sen, who was a member of the Khmer Rouge as a very young man.
The Khmer Rouge "liberated" Phnom Penh on 17 Apr 1975. Forcing the population out of cities, it tried to establish an agrarian state and killed an estimated 1.7 million people through starvation, disease or execution in the process. Survivors were traumatized in ways that still haunt this country.
Hundreds of people have applied for official recognition as Khmer Rouge victims and to bring parallel civil cases against the five. Regime leader Pol Pot escaped justice: he died in 1998 without being brought to trial. As civil parties, the victims will have standing comparable to those of the accused, including the rights to participate in the investigation, to be represented by a lawyer, to call witnesses and to question the accused at trial. Jun/08.
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