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Too little, too late

It is a travesty of justice that only a handful of Khmer Rouge leaders are going to be prosecuted for the genocidal atrocities their regime committed in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. What is more, the few who have been charged might escape punishment either on account of natural causes or because of the complex judicial process. Pol Pot, under whose rule 1.7 million Cambodians perished, died in 1998; Ta Mok, the military commander, died in 2006; the five who are to be tr ied are either of advanced age or suffer from poor health. The tribunal, called the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, is a mixed body with 17 local and 12 foreign judges. It is supposed to draw on the domestic code while applying procedural and penal laws but can adopt regulations operating in advanced legal systems whenever the local law is found to fall short of international standards. The Cambodian government is not at all comfortable with a process in which foreign laws can be adopted and western lawyers figure in the defence teams. It fears the trial can become a freewheeling inquiry into the political system existing in the country since several key officials, including Premier Hun Sen, did have some connection with the Khmer Rouge in the past. The dictum that no one should be held guilty without a fair trial is of course germane to these proceedings as well. However, the crimes committed by the Pol Pot regime are so well-documented that justice will not be seen to have been done if some of the accused, especially Kaing Guek Eav who ran the notorious Tuol Sleng prison, walk free. The case against others such as Khieu Samphan, the former figurehead President, might be more difficult to prove since they can argue with some plausibility that they were kept in the dark by Pol Pot and, in any case, were powerless to intervene.

A process, which from the outset appears to be beset with complications, has every chance of becoming even more convoluted since some of the parties who have set it in motion see it as something more than a means to administer justice. Some countries that did much to sustain the movement as it continued its insurgency against the government in Phnom Penh for nearly a decade after 1979 now conveniently overlook their own complicity and hail the proceedings as the first ever to be instituted against leaders of a communist regime. Ordinary Cambodians deserve a thorough and fair examination of their country’s tragic past. As matters stand, they are unlikely to experience the cleansing catharsis that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission provided to the people of South Africa.

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