March 23, 1999
Phnom Penh - The United Nations and the Cambodian government on Tuesday edged closer to salvaging an international role in the domestic trial of Khmer Rouge leaders, a senior Cambodian official announced. After discussions with UN rights envoy Thomas Hammarberg, Secretary of State for Information Khieu Kanharith said, however, that "a very long debate" on various formulas was expected before any trial could begin.
"It seems that we have made progress on having a Khmer Rouge trial that meets international standards in Cambodia," Khieu Kanharith told AFP."We have not reached any concrete agreement yet but we have reached a very good understanding," he added.
Khieu Kanharith said initial divisions had centered on his government's determination to hold legal proceedings on home soil, against recommendations by a team of UN experts for an international tribunal. However he said the compromise of holding a trial in Cambodia but "international in character" -- as suggested by UN chief Kofi Annan -- was an acceptable option.
"We can probably accept that kind of trial but I have asked Mr Hammarberg to present options and formulas and ways in which international experts can help," he said. "Now we have to study the form of the participation by international experts," he said, anticipating "a very long debate" in examining different options and complex constitutional and legal alterations.
UN rights envoy Hammarberg said last week the UN was willing to help Cambodia in staging a Khmer Rouge trial, but warned that few countries would support a process held in existing judicial structures that would be a "sham." Hammarberg, the UN experts' report released earlier this month and human rights groups have described Cambodia's judiciary as inadequate to host a fair trial for leaders of the 1975-1979 genocide. With Prime Minister Hun Sen rejecting a trial abroad, UN officials are now considering assisting a trial inside Cambodia but with the UN exercising paramount control of court proceedings, diplomatic sources said.
However one key area of concern is that the only Khmer Rouge leader facing trial is Pol Pot's former chief of staff Ta Mok, captured earlier this month. Fellow ageing leaders live in peaceful retirement following their defections. These include Pol Pot's ideological guru Nuon Chea and the movement's public face Khieu Samphan -- who defected in December -- and number three Ieng Sary, who split from the rebels in 1996. Pol Pot died in April 1998.The architects of Pol Pot's ultra-Maoist "Killing Fields" nightmare are held responsible for the deaths of up to two million people through torture, overwork, starvation or execution.
Hammarberg is due to meet Premier Hun Sen on Thursday for what is expected to be more hard bargaining aimed at maintaining an international hand in a trial for the Khmer Rouge.
The UN envoy last week said a government rejection of the UN's strict legal conditions for assistance could lead the the international community washing its hands of the issue, just weeks after the UN recommendations were published.
Although legal proceedings against Ta Mok have started and the government has pledged a trial within six months, he has yet to find a lawyer and remains in a Phnom Penh military jail.
