Khmer Rouge tribunal must continue: rights group

Former Khmer Rouge prison chief Kaing Guek Eav oversaw the deaths of 15,000 people in the late 1970s

Khmer Rouge victims and perpetrators live side-by-side

Cambodia: Khmer Rouge prison chief jailed for 30 years. FLASH GRAPHIC

via CAAI

PHNOM PENH — Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court should press on with new cases against former Khmer Rouge leaders or risk a "legacy of impunity," a trial-monitoring group said Wednesday.

The tribunal, dogged by allegations of political interference, has yet to announce whether it will go ahead with two more cases against five as yet unnamed former leaders of the brutal 1975-1979 regime.

If it decides not to proceed with those new trials, "the court will be left with a legacy of impunity rather than justice," said the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) in a new report.

The court completed its first case in July, sentencing a former prison chief to 30 years in jail for overseeing the deaths of 15,000 people.

In September, it indicted four top regime leaders for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in connection with the deaths of up to two million people from starvation, overwork and execution between 1975 and 1979. Their joint trial is due to start next year.

Cambodian and international prosecutors have openly disagreed on whether the court should pursue more suspects.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen told visiting United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon in late October that a third case was "not allowed" because it could plunge the country back into civil war.

Hun Sen was himself once a mid-level Khmer Rouge member before turning against the movement.

"Such blatant political interference in the court's work is of course contrary to basic fair trial standards," said the report.

Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan called the report "an insult to the government."

Cambodia and the UN had not yet reached "an agreement" on cases three and four, he told AFP, adding that funding was a key concern. "We are worried about the budget," he said.

The cash-strapped court faces a budget shortfall of more than 40 million dollars for 2010 and 2011.

A spokesman for the tribunal said the court "was conducting its operations according to its mandate and its current caseload, which is cases one to four."

"Any deviation from this would require changes in the legal framework," Lars Olsen said, which would be a matter for the Cambodian government and the UN.

The Khmer Rouge emptied the cities and abolished money and schools in a bid to create an agrarian utopia, wiping out nearly a quarter of the country's population before they were ousted from the capital by Vietnamese forces.