Global Policy Forum

By Ker Munthit

The Cambodian government wants to detain Khmer Rouge leaders for another year while it waits for a U.N. response on setting up a genocide tribunal, an official said Monday.

Om Yentieng, a member of the government's task force in charge of Khmer Rouge trials, said the Cambodian National Assembly must approve the extension before it begins its recess next month.

If the administration gets its way, the measure will end fears that Ta Mok, a former Khmer Rouge commander known as Butcher, will go free when his detention order expires in March.

"It must be done before that," Om Yentieng, also an adviser to Prime Minister Hun Sen, told reporters. "We will not consent to the release of Ta Mok in this situation."

The detention order for Kaing Kek Iev, the only other senior Khmer Rouge leader in government custody, will end in May. Kaing Kek Iev is better known by his revolutionary name, Duch.

Most other Khmer Rouge leaders live freely in Cambodia after reaching defection deals in recent years with the government.

None has been prosecuted for the atrocities committed during the communist group's rule from 1975 to 1979, when an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died from disease, starvation, overwork and execution.

The movement collapsed after the death of its leader Pol Pot in 1998.

In August, the Cambodian parliament approved a law to set up a tribunal with the help of the United Nations, but the two bodies have yet to reach a written agreement. The United Nations has expressed concerns about the law, with many observers saying it falls short of international legal standards.

Om Yentieng said if the United Nations refuses to take part in the tribunal, "we won't let them tie our hands from proceeding with it."

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