Cambodia genocide trial to begin

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: The first trial of a Khmer Rouge leader was to begin Tuesday as part of efforts by a U.N.-assisted genocide tribunal to punish those responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians after more than three decades of delayed justice.

When the communist Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975 after five years of bitter civil war, many of their countrymen thought peace was at hand. But in their effort to remake society, they instituted a reign of terror that lasted nearly 4 years and ended only by an invasion by neighboring Vietnam.

To get even one of the Khmer Rouge leaders on trial is seen as a breakthrough, as many victims feared that the defendants, now aging and infirm, would die before facing justice. But there are real concerns that the process is being politically manipulated and that thousands of killers will escape unpunished.

"It's going to be a very big day for the Cambodian people because the justice that they have been waiting for 30 years it starting to get closer and closer," said tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath.

Kaing Guek Eav — better known as Duch, who headed the Khmer Rouge's largest torture center — is the first of five former Khmer Rouge leaders scheduled to stand trial. He is charged with crimes against humanity.

Duch, 66, is accused of having committed or abetted a range of crimes including murder, torture, rape and persecutions at S-21 prison in Phnom Penh — formerly a school — where up to 16,000 men, women and children were held and tortured, before being put to death.

The prison, also known as Tuol Sleng and now a genocide museum, provides gruesome evidence.
Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot's Maoist plan for a peasants' paradise collapsed under a disastrous agricultural policy and rampant paranoia about supposed traitors; thousands were executed, while many more died of starvation, exhaustion and disease.

Duch's hearing before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, as the tribunal is called, will deal with procedural issues, and testimony is expected to begin only in late March. Up to 1,000 people are expected to attend the hearing, which will last two or three days, Reach Sambath said.

The trial comes 30 years after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, 13 years after the tribunal was first proposed and nearly three years after the court was inaugurated.

The tribunal has been plagued by political interference from the Cambodian government, allegations of bias and corruption, lack of funding and bickering between Cambodian and international lawyers.

Some observers believe Prime Minister Hun Sen — a former Khmer Rouge officer himself — is controlling the tribunal's scope and reach by directing the decisions of the Cambodian prosecutors and judges.

Others in detention facing trial are Khieu Samphan, the group's former head of state; Ieng Sary, its foreign minister; his wife Ieng Thirith, who was minister for social affairs; and Nuon Chea, the movement's chief ideologue.

"I think the possibility is definitely there that this can deliver justice," said Heather Ryan of the New York-based group Open Justice Initiative, which seeks to work with the court and NGOs to ensure that international standards of justice are met.

"But ... there are hurdles that need to be overcome before we get to that point and unless and until the government of Cambodia and the United Nations demonstrates seriousness about getting over those hurdles I think there will be a serious doubt the ultimate value of these trials."