Global Policy Forum

Cambodia's constitutional council has approved legislation for a special tribunal to prosecute members of the Khmer Rouge, responsible for the deaths of almost two million people in the mid-1970s. It is unclear when the trials - under joint national and United Nations auspices - will begin, but Prime Minister Hun Sen says he would like to see prosecutions by the end of the year.

The long-running attempt to set up such a tribunal now needs a signature from King Norodom Sihanouk to become law, but must also be approved by the UN.

The special courts will be made up of three Cambodian and two foreign judges. But there are some who believe the trials will be a whitewash, because many of the most notorious Khmer Rouge leaders have already been given amnesty under a deal in the 1990s to end the country's long-running civil war.

The UN insists it will back out of the whole process if it excludes key figures in the Khmer Rouge regime.

UN help

Since the mid-1990s there has been much talk about punishing those responsible for the so-called Killing Fields, where 1.7 million people died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1978. The BBC's Jonathan Head in Phnom Penh says there may be concerns about such trials among members of the current Cambodian Government, some of whom formerly belonged to the Khmer Rouge. And China, which backed the Khmer Rouge, has quietly opposed establishing an international tribunal.

Four years ago, Cambodia asked the United Nations for help in establishing a special tribunal to judge the architects of genocide, but agreement on how it should be set up and run has been elusive. The UN wanted a panel of international judges, sitting outside Cambodia to run the tribunal; the Cambodians wanted only local judges on the panel.

In the end, a compromise was reached. Under the agreement, trials will be held on Cambodian soil, but the UN is insisting that international standards of justice must be met when trials begin.

Both Cambodia's houses of parliament have already approved the legislation.

Divisive issue

The issue of whether or not there should be prosecutions is a divisive one for Cambodia. While some want all the top Khmer Rouge leaders still alive in the dock, there are others being more cautious. Hun Sen told the BBC that if handled incorrectly, the trials might re-ignite civil war, especially if Khmer Rouge leaders who gave themselves up under the amnesty deal are prosecuted. But in the eyes of his critics, the prime minister is simply trying to keep out of jail those who can help him politically.

Nevertheless, no matter how many former Khmer Rouge leaders eventually appear in the dock, any trial would allow some ordinary Cambodians their day in court, something many thought would never happen.