Friday, 18 January 2008

Trial Of Khmer Rogue Officials Got Strong Support From The U.S.

January 18, 2008

Annie Simoy - AHN News Writer

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - The trial of Cambodia's Khmer Rogue regime leaders responsible for the atrocities committed got strong support from the United StatesThursday, said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

"The U.S. strongly supports bringing to justice senior leaders responsible for the atrocities committed under the Khmer Rouge regime," McCormack said.

"The department is currently reviewing all the facts about the tribunal and its operations, including whether or not it is capable of meeting international standards of justice prior to making a decision regarding funding," he said.

According to reports, five top officials of Cambodia's Khmer Rogue regime were so far arrested. The first trials are expected to start in mid-2008.

Cambodia's Khmer Rogue rule in 1975-79 resulted to death of millions of people due to starvation, disease and overwork, or being executed.

An argument is currently under fire as to whether the death was genocide or not.

"There is a very strong legal argument to say that genocide is when you kill people because of their ethnicity, whereas the vast majority of the [Khmer Rouge] purges were not for ethnic reasons, but were for political reasons. So genocide may not be possible," U.N. Principal Defender Rupert Skilbeck said

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The U.S should of intervened when the Khmer Rogue took power. They should of helped those innocent people.