Global Policy Forum

By Satya Sivaraman

The proposed international tribunal to bring former leaders of the genocidal Khmer Rouge is one more step closer to becoming reality, but analysts warn that it may still take some time before the Cambodian people get to see their former tormentors in a courtroom dock. In late July, the Cambodian Senate unanimously approved a draft bill creating the tribunal, after years during which the issue hung in the balance. But analysts warn that it a host of unsettled issues that remain between the Cambodian governnent and the United Nations, which would help set up the tribunal, means its proceedings against the Khmer Rouge will not be held quickly.

The former Khmer Rouge leaders are to be indicted for their role in the deaths of an estimated one million Cambodians under their regime between 1975 and 1979, due to executions, forced labour and famine. The Khmer Rouge had sought to remake society by evacuating cities, forcing people into collectives, clamping down on intellectuals and closing down schools and factories.

Among the sticking points between Phnom Penh and the United Nations are the selection and quota of international judges, guarantees for the carrying out of possible sentences handed out by the special court and the applicability of amnesty given to some key Khmer Rouge leaders accused of crimes against humanity. Negotiations are currently underway between the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen and the United Nations, which hopes to sign a formal memorandum of agreement once the draft bill becomes law after being signed by King Norodom Sihanouk, who is the head of the Cambodian state.

''I don't expect to see the tribunal actually start work soon, because the proceedings may rake up too many memories of the past and domestic politicians will try to put it off for as long as they can,'' says Lao Mong Hay, director of the Khmer Institute for Democracy, a policy think tank based in Phnom Penh. He says there are too many people within the ruling coalition government of Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party (CPP), as well as the royalist Funcinpec, who would be embarrassed by any revelations of the various deals and counter-deals they have struck with the Khmer Rouge over the years.

While the CPP rightfully claims responsibility for ousting the hated Khmer Rouge regime in 1979 with the help of Vietnamese troops in 1996, the Hun Sen government had to offer amnesty to key members of the extremist outfit, like it former foreign minister Ieng Sary, in exchange for their laying down arms against the government. Many other Khmer Rouge leaders, identified for indictment by the proposed international tribunal, have also been silently rehabilitated since then in an ostensible effort to end the country's two-decade long civil war.

The Funcinpec, led by Prince Norodom Ranariddh, has much more to be embarrassed by any public trial of the Khmer Rouge leaders, having fought alongside the rebel group against the CPP government throughout the eighties until the 1991 Paris Peace Accord brought it into mainstream politics.

Even King Sihanouk could be put under scrutiny for being the nominal head of state during the Khmer Rouge's reign, though he has claimed to have been under house arrest and under the threat of execution by the extremist group if he had not complied.

Though for a lot of Cambodian people all these facts are really old hat, ruling politicians still fear that the tribunal's proceedings could hurt their image and more importantly their domestic political fortunes.

An immediate reason for delaying the functioning of the tribunal may be the upcoming elections for local bodies throughout Cambodia in February 2002. A somewhat more long-term delay factor may include the next general election scheduled for sometime in 2003.

''The compulsions under which the Cambodian government approached the United Nations in mid-1997 requesting help to set up the tribunal are no longer there and the two may find it difficult to come to an agreement on the final shape and specific objectives of the special court'' says an Asian diplomat here.

Among other things, U.N. negotiators have insisted that apart from having international judges on the bench hearing the cases at the tribunal, all decisions to block any case from proceeding should require a super majority vote with at least one foreign judge.

The United Nations is also reported to have asked for guarantees that the Cambodian National Assembly, Senate and Constitutional Court will respect agreements between the government and the world body.

Already, there are indications of trouble ahead over such details. Hun Sen mysteriously stated at a public meeting in mid-July that ''I do not worry whether the United Nations will participate in the trial or not ,'' and that ''foreigners should not control the trial of the Khmer Rouge''.

While the United Nations is obviously worried that too much local control over the tribunal could damage its credibility and result in domestic politics shaping its outcome, the Cambodian government also has sufficient reasons for suspecting too much ''foreign interference''.

As CPP officials point out, the United Nations and Western governments like the United States, which have been keenly pushing for a trial of the Khmer Rouge, also have little credibility because of their past support for the rebel group after it was driven out of power in 1979.

At that time, in what is considered one of the most shameful episodes in the United Nations' history, the Khmer Rouge -- despite its known record of genocide -- was allowed to occupy Cambodia's seat at the UN General Assembly, because of the West's refusal to recognise the new, Vietnam-backed CPP government.

''While any trial of the Khmer Rouge leaders is welcome, there is no doubt that the international tribunal will do only partial justice to the wrongs committed in Cambodia,'' says a researcher formerly employed with the U.S.-based Yale University's genocide research programme, which is collecting evidence for the proposed tribunal. According to him, there is plenty of evidence to show that even prior to 1975, Cambodia had witnessed various acts of crimes against humanity, first through pogroms against migrant Vietnamese by the U.S.-backed Lon Nol dictatorship in 1971, and then by the massive carpet bombing of the Cambodian countryside between 1970 and 1975.

According to some estimates by Cambodian experts, more than 800,000 people, mostly civilians, perished in the U.S. bombings. Whenever the tribunal to try former Khmer Rouge leaders gets off the ground, it is bound to revive painful memories of Cambodia's accidental and extremely tragic involvement in the Cold War. But given the continuing political wrangling over the formation of the tribunal, doubts remain on whether it will do justice to the victims of wanton violence by both domestic and foreign forces, even decades after the Khmer Rouge's bloody rule.