Global Policy Forum

By Ed Cropley

A team of United Nations experts was in Cambodia Sunday to lay the groundwork for the long-awaited genocide trial of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge henchmen, held responsible for the deaths of 1.7 million people. After six years of tortuous negotiations and delays, the U.N. says a trial in "extraordinary" joint Cambodian and international courts of Khmer Rouge leaders such as "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea should be under way within 12 months. "Both the United Nations and the Royal Government of Cambodia are starting from the assumption that the extraordinary chambers will be operational in 2004," Karsten Herrel, head of the five-strong trial organizing team, told a news conference. The ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge unleashed a four-year reign of terror on Cambodia in the 1970s as their dream of turning the jungle-clad country into an agrarian utopia turned into the nightmare of the "Killing Fields." Many of the victims -- men, women and children -- were tortured and executed. Others died of starvation, disease or overwork in vast rural labor camps. No Khmer Rouge leader has ever seen credible justice for the atrocities, one of the darkest chapters of the 20th century. The regime's leader, "Brother Number One" Pol Pot died in 1998.

During a week-long stay in the war-scarred southeast Asian nation, Herrel said he would be discussing the details of the trial, from buildings to staffing to translation facilities and broadcasting. Another priority would be setting the scope of a budget for the trial, which will be paid for half by Cambodia and half by voluntary contributions from U.N. member states. Speculation has centered on a total $40-million bill for a three-year trial, although Herrel said the funding aspect, particularly on the international side, remained uncertain. "The situation of the funding side is, at this stage, quite difficult," Herrel said, although he hoped an appeal to the international community planned for early February would bear sufficient fruit by the end of that month. Cambodia and the U.N. finally agreed a trial framework in March, although Phnom Penh has yet to ratify the deal -- the final obstacle to it becoming law -- due to a four-month post-election stalemate which has deadlocked parliament. Despite several rounds of talks and the intervention of the revered King Sihanouk, the three main political parties appear little closer to compromise. Most analysts and diplomats fear the deadlock may last for several months yet, increasing the chances of the aging former guerrilla leaders, most of whom are in their 70s, dying of old age before they ever see the inside of a courtroom.

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