Published on : 1 November 2010
By International Justice Tribune
United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon said last week it would be up to Cambodia’s UN-backed Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) to decide whether or not to start a third trial.
Ban’s statement came a day after Prime Minister Hun Sen told him in Phnom Penh that a second Khmer Rouge war crimes trial, due to start early next year, would be the last and “case three is not allowed” because it could plunge the country back into civil war.
Hun Sen was once a mid-level Khmer Rouge member before turning against the movement.
“The UN will discuss this matter with international community members, particularly donors,” Ban said.
Also speaking in Cambodia this week, US foreign minister Hillary Clinton hailed the court’s work. She said the tribunal “is bringing some of the people who caused so much suffering to justice. The work of the tribunal is painful but it is necessary to ensure a lasting peace.”
In its first case, the court in July sentenced former prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, a 30-year jail term for overseeing the deaths of more than 12,000 men, women and children in the late 1970s.
In September, the court indicted four regime leaders for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. They are charged in connection with the deaths of up to two million people from starvation, overwork and execution between 1975 and 1979.
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