Kaing Guek Eav, who headed a torture center, will probably go on trial in March.Boston.com
January 8, 2009
BANGKOK - Three decades to the day after the fall of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge regime, the country finally received word of a possible starting date for the trial of one of its key leaders.
International co-prosecutor Robert Petit said yesterday that Kaing Guek Eav, who was better known as Duch when he headed the Tuol Sleng torture center in Phnom Penh, will probably go on trial in March. But he said four other defendants, all in their 80s, are unlikely to take the stand until 2010.
The trial process has been marred by delays, controversial defense motions, accusations of corruption and, most recently, a public dispute between Petit and his Cambodian co-prosecutor, Chea Leang.
Petit wants to file charges against an additional five or six former Khmer Rouge members, but Chea Leang has objected, saying that the court should concentrate its limited resources on the cases on hand. She has also cited a need to focus on national reconciliation.
The court's pre-trial chamber is due to rule on the dispute.
As many as 1.7 million Cambodians were killed or succumbed to disease, malnutrition or overwork during the four years the Khmer Rouge were in power before they were removed by Vietnamese forces in 1979.
Human Rights Watch has long been critical of the court's inability to bring the perpetrators of the Khmer Rouge's brutal rule to justice.
"After 30 years, no one has been tried, convicted or sentenced for the crimes of one of the bloodiest regimes of the 20th century," said Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Rights Watch. "This is no accident. For more than a decade, China and the United States blocked efforts at accountability, and for the past decade, (Prime Minister) Hun Sen has done his best to thwart justice."
January 8, 2009
BANGKOK - Three decades to the day after the fall of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge regime, the country finally received word of a possible starting date for the trial of one of its key leaders.
International co-prosecutor Robert Petit said yesterday that Kaing Guek Eav, who was better known as Duch when he headed the Tuol Sleng torture center in Phnom Penh, will probably go on trial in March. But he said four other defendants, all in their 80s, are unlikely to take the stand until 2010.
The trial process has been marred by delays, controversial defense motions, accusations of corruption and, most recently, a public dispute between Petit and his Cambodian co-prosecutor, Chea Leang.
Petit wants to file charges against an additional five or six former Khmer Rouge members, but Chea Leang has objected, saying that the court should concentrate its limited resources on the cases on hand. She has also cited a need to focus on national reconciliation.
The court's pre-trial chamber is due to rule on the dispute.
As many as 1.7 million Cambodians were killed or succumbed to disease, malnutrition or overwork during the four years the Khmer Rouge were in power before they were removed by Vietnamese forces in 1979.
Human Rights Watch has long been critical of the court's inability to bring the perpetrators of the Khmer Rouge's brutal rule to justice.
"After 30 years, no one has been tried, convicted or sentenced for the crimes of one of the bloodiest regimes of the 20th century," said Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Rights Watch. "This is no accident. For more than a decade, China and the United States blocked efforts at accountability, and for the past decade, (Prime Minister) Hun Sen has done his best to thwart justice."
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