War Crimes

An article in the paper over the weekend talked about a looming crisis at the Cambodian Khmer Rouge tribunal. Apparently the UN-backed genocide court, established to prosecute leaders of the regime that was toppled nearly 30 years ago, appears to be going bankrupt putting the whole process in jeopardy just as the first trials are about to begin. This is the latest in a long and very difficult journey to create the tribunal in the first place.

Khmer Rouge Army entering Phnom Penh in 1975

The Khmer Rouge, under Pol Pot, held power for three years, eight months and twenty days from 1975 to 1979 and during that time between 2 and 3 million (reports vary) Cambodians died. After the regime was toppled by the Vietnamese, the end of the Khmer Rouge period was followed by a civil war which finally ended in 1998, when the Khmer Rouge political and military structures were dismantled. In the decade since, it has been a long process to establish this tribunal, but it is finally up and running with some of the top former leaders arrested this past fall. #1 bad guy, Pol Pol died in 1998 and Ta Mok, the regime's military commander died in 2006.

Five senior officials have been arrested:

Nuon Chea, 81, (“Brother Number Two”) who was Khmer Rouge supreme leader Pol Pot's closest deputy and the alleged architect of the regime's execution policies during its 1975 to 1979 rule, was arrested in September 2007 and charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

This picture taken in 1980 was one of the first concrete proofs to the outside world that something terrible had happened in 'Democratic' Kampuchea

"Duch", born Kaing Guek Eav, 67 years old. He was the brutal interrogator who headed Phnom Penh's notorious Tuol Sleng torture centre - codenamed S21 - where he oversaw the slaughter of over 10,000 "spies and traitors" and 2,000 children. He was seized on May 10 1999, after confessing and expressing remorse to British photojournalist, Nic Dunlop, who spent years tracking him down. Dunlop has written a book about this called The Lost Executioner.

Witness and weep

Last month he led the judges who will try him for crimes against humanity around the mass graves for some of its victims, reportedly crying and praying and apologizing.

In November 2007, authorities also arrested Ieng Sary, the Khmer Rouge's ex-foreign minister, and his wife Ieng Thirith, its social affairs minister. Both were charged with crimes against humanity; Ieng Sary was also charged with war crimes. In February Ieng Sary requested the court grant conjugal visits. The English-language Cambodia Daily quoted Ieng Sary's lawyer as saying the 82-year-old "misses his wife," fellow detainee Ieng Thirith (78), the sister-in-law of former Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot. "He wants to see her, she wants to see him ... why does the tribunal prevent them from seeing each other?" Ironic, given the Khmer Rouge policy of tearing families apart during their reign of terror.

Let's stay together

The former Khmer Rouge head of state was arrested in November 2007, the fifth senior official of the brutal regime to be rounded up ahead of a long-delayed genocide trial. Khieu Samphan, 76, was taken to the tribunal from a Phnom Penh hospital where he had been undergoing treatment after suffering a stroke a day earlier. He’s a real piece of work who claims that he was only a “figurehead” and had no idea what was really going on. "Wat da fukh?"

Only five former leaders have been arrested so far. Other cases will be brought forward but in total, no more than a dozen defendants, the top leaders and "those most responsible" for the genocide, are in the sights of the tribunal, whose estimated cost is $60m and climbing. Most of them are aging and in ill health.

One former Khmer Rouge commander who may be on the short list for upcoming prosecution, who is currently living a comfortable retirement in the countryside, says, “Let bygones be bygones”. He says “It’s such a waste of time to talk about these issues. I’m in my preparation to go to hell”.