HNOM PENH, Cambodia — In what seems to have become a never-ending diplomatic two-step, the United Nations has revived the possibility of putting Cambodia's former Khmer Rouge leaders on trial.Posted on 09/01/2002 12:52:19 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
HNOM PENH, Cambodia — In what seems to have become a never-ending diplomatic two-step, the United Nations has revived the possibility of putting Cambodia's former Khmer Rouge leaders on trial.
In February, it cut off five years of discussions with Cambodia, saying the government had displayed what it called a "lack of urgency" that had raised questions among diplomats here as to whether it truly wanted to proceed with a trial.
At that time, the United Nations legal counsel, Hans Corell, said the impasse was such that "it is not likely that the parties will be able to solve it through further negotiations."
More than two decades after being driven from power after causing the deaths of more than a million people in the late 1970's, it appeared that the surviving Khmer Rouge leaders had gotten off scot-free.
Their chief, Pol Pot, died in 1998, but a dozen other major figures now live freely in Cambodia. Prime Minister Hun Sen, whose word is final here, has pursued a policy of ambiguity over whether he wants a trial.
Last year, under his direction, Parliament approved legislation to set up an international tribunal, but the law contained provisions unacceptable to the United Nations. The main sticking point was Cambodia's insistence that its own corrupt and ill-trained courts would have the final say in the proceedings, rather than the United Nations.
In recent weeks Cambodia has communicated to the United Nations that it might be willing to make compromises, and on Aug. 14 the organization's spokesman, Fred Eckhard, gave the first public indication that it might be possible to try again.
Secretary General Kofi Annan would be prepared to return to negotiations, Mr. Eckhard said, if the 15-member Security Council or the 189-member General Assembly gave him a mandate to do so.
"Without that, he will not resume," Mr. Eckhard said.
Mr. Hun Sen immediately embraced the possibility of new talks, saying: "All signs are good now. What is left is further joint efforts."
On the same day, the United Nations human rights commissioner, Mary Robinson, said during a visit to Phnom Penh that she hoped a formula could be reached that would allow trials to proceed.
"This country has suffered horribly and there is a need to have a healing process," she said. "It is important that grave violations of human rights under the Khmer Rouge period will be addressed."
If talks do resume, they will begin from a standing start. Both sides had staked out what seemed to be nonnegotiable positions.
The Cambodian government, saying it was not a vassal of the United Nations, said it could proceed independently with an international trial involving foreign judges and lawyers. But without the United Nations, such a trial would lose much of its international legitimacy.
The United Nations, for its part, said it could not agree to a process that falls below minimal standards of international justice. Although the Cambodian law does not directly violate these standards, it is filled with loopholes that would leave room for government manipulation.
It now appears to be up to nations like the United States, a strong backer of the process, to lobby for support within the United Nations. The idea of a trial is likely to face the same resistance it had in the past from China, a longtime supporter of the Khmer Rouge.
That Bloody Century Pass'd- "We have nothing to fear but Governments Themselves..."
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