Global Policy Forum

The Senate unanimously approved revised legislation Monday for the creation of a U.N.-assisted genocide tribunal of surviving Khmer Rouge leaders blamed for the deaths of 1.7 million Cambodians. Lawmakers in the upper house voted 51-0 in favor of a minor revision to a law passed earlier this year, now specifying life imprisonment as the heaviest penalty the proposed court could hand out. The Constitutional Council had earlier worried the tribunal might allow the death penalty, forbidden by the constitution.

The revision must be reviewed by the council and approved by King Norodom Sihanouk, a process Prime Minister Hun Sen said should be complete by the end of August. That would pave the way for talks to begin between the government and the United Nations to hammer out details of setting up the tribunal in Cambodia, with a mix of foreign and Cambodian judges and prosecutors. Opposition lawmakers voted for the revised law but worried the law will not be acceptable to the United Nations.

No one has been brought before a court for Khmer Rouge atrocities that took place between 1975-79. Supreme leader Pol Pot died in 1998 but most of his top lieutenants live freely in Cambodia after reaching defection deals with Hun Sen. Talks with the U.N. on the tribunal were initiated four years ago. Last year, the two sides informally agreed to set up a mixed court in Cambodia with a majority of Cambodian and a minority of foreign judges and prosecutors.