Cambodia told to get ready for genocide trials
| May 1, 2005 |
| By ASSOCIATED PRESS and REUTERS in Phnom Penh |
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[Ed. note: the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) provided arms, training and financial resources to the Khmer Rouge, without which it would have never been able to slaughter 1/4 of its population.]
Cambodia yesterday welcomed a UN announcement giving approval for a tribunal to prosecute Khmer Rouge leaders over genocide and crimes against humanity, more than 25 years after the regime that decimated the country was overthrown. The UN said it now had enough money to pursue its longtime agreement with Cambodia to hold the tribunal, and asked the government to start organising the trials. Secretary-General Kofi Annan notified Prime Minister Hun Sen in a letter “that the legal requirements” the UN had demanded “had been complied with”. He also said “sufficient pledges and contributions are now in place to fund the staffing of the Extraordinary Chambers and their operations for a sustained period of time”, the UN announcement said. Mr Annan was determined to see it up and running “as soon as possible”, it added. “This is very good news, a positive step,” said Kek Galabru, of Cambodian human rights group Licadho. “Now maybe we can have hope, a real hope, to see the establishment of that tribunal.” The breakthrough came eight years after the government first sought UN help in financing the prosecutions. No former Khmer Rouge leaders have been tried for the regime’s policies of exterminating intellectuals, professionals, minority groups, political enemies and others; emptying cities and driving people into forced labour in the countryside; and allowing massive food shortages to kill many more. An estimated 1.7 million of Cambodia’s 8 million people died during their 1975-79 rule. Khmer Rouge chief Pol Pot died in 1998. Several of his top lieutenants, ageing and infirm, still live freely in Cambodia. Hun Sen has voiced concern that defendants might die before trials could start. The tribunal, expected to last three years, is estimated to cost about US$56 million. The UN, which is responsible for US$43 million, has collected about US$38 million from member states. Om Yentieng, a member of the government’s tribunal taskforce, said: “If it is true, it is good news.” He said the government would continue to appeal for donors to help fund its US$13 million share of the budget for the trials. Youk Chhang, director of a centre documenting Khmer Rouge atrocities, said the government should quickly start dealing with issues of logistics, such as the premises and recruitment of personnel. “Let’s be united for justice,” he said. Critics have accused Cambodia of foot-dragging over a tribunal as some government officials were once members of the Khmer Rouge, including Hun Sen, a former regimental commander. The Khmer Rouge regime was overthrown by Vietnam-backed rebels in 1979, who then put Hun Sen in power. |