‘Killing Fields’: Crunch time for Pol Pot’s top henchmen

PHNOM PENH – Cambodian and international judges sitting on the Khmer Rouge tribunal hold crunch talks this week to salvage the trial of Pol Pot’s top surviving henchmen for the atrocities of the ‘Killing Fields’.

At the heart of the problem is a disagreement between local and UN-backed officials over legalities of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, as the joint tribunal into the deaths of Khmer Rouge’s estimated 1,7 million victims is called. A week-long meeting in November to hammer out rules covering everything from the admissibility of evidence to the protection of witnesses to the height of the judges’ chairs came to nothing.Since then a separate sub-committee has discussing many of the issues but with the clock ticking on the $53 million three-year trial, which officially started in July, there can be no more delays.The meeting, which will run from March 7 to 16, “must resolve all fundamental differences”, a court statement said.”The judges are also acutely aware that time is of the essence,” it added.Diplomats say the UN side of the court will walk away if they feel their local counterparts are dragging their feet or acting on the orders of Prime Minister Hun Sen, an ex-Khmer Rouge soldier who lost an eye in the battle for Phnom Penh in 1975.Even though there is no evidence linking Hun Sen to any atrocities, his government is riddled with former cadres from the ultra-Maoist regime, many of whom will not want prosecutors raking through their pasts.The Khmer Rouge’s main ally, China, has also been lobbying Hun Sen hard to stall the proceedings to prevent the full extent of Beijing’s involvement coming to light, diplomats say.In public at least, Hun Sen has been making it clear he wants the trial to go ahead, announcing at a recent road-opening ceremony near a mass-execution site on the outskirts of the capital that victims’ remains must be preserved.Pol Pot, the architect of the Khmer Rouge’s ‘Year Zero’ peasant revolution, died in 1998.Around 10 of his ageing colleagues are expected to face trial, including by “Brother Number Two” Nuon Chea, former head of state Khieu Samphan and ex-foreign minister Ieng Sary, who are all living as free men.Duch, head of Phnom Penh’s notorious Tuol Sleng interrogation centre where at least 14 000 people are thought to have been tortured and later executed, has been in detention since 1998.Nampa-ReutersA week-long meeting in November to hammer out rules covering everything from the admissibility of evidence to the protection of witnesses to the height of the judges’ chairs came to nothing.Since then a separate sub-committee has discussing many of the issues but with the clock ticking on the $53 million three-year trial, which officially started in July, there can be no more delays.The meeting, which will run from March 7 to 16, “must resolve all fundamental differences”, a court statement said.”The judges are also acutely aware that time is of the essence,” it added.Diplomats say the UN side of the court will walk away if they feel their local counterparts are dragging their feet or acting on the orders of Prime Minister Hun Sen, an ex-Khmer Rouge soldier who lost an eye in the battle for Phnom Penh in 1975.Even though there is no evidence linking Hun Sen to any atrocities, his government is riddled with former cadres from the ultra-Maoist regime, many of whom will not want prosecutors raking through their pasts.The Khmer Rouge’s main ally, China, has also been lobbying Hun Sen hard to stall the proceedings to prevent the full extent of Beijing’s involvement coming to light, diplomats say.In public at least, Hun Sen has been making it clear he wants the trial to go ahead, announcing at a recent road-opening ceremony near a mass-execution site on the outskirts of the capital that victims’ remains must be preserved.Pol Pot, the architect of the Khmer Rouge’s ‘Year Zero’ peasant revolution, died in 1998.Around 10 of his ageing colleagues are expected to face trial, including by “Brother Number Two” Nuon Chea, former head of state Khieu Samphan and ex-foreign minister Ieng Sary, who are all living as free men.Duch, head of Phnom Penh’s notorious Tuol Sleng interrogation centre where at least 14 000 people are thought to have been tortured and later executed, has been in detention since 1998.Nampa-Reuters