Cambodia rejects UN tribunal for Ta Mok
Cambodia rejects UN tribunal for Ta Mok
PHNOM PENH (AFP): Captured Khmer Rouge leader Ta Mok was set on Monday to be the first and only Khmer Rouge leader to stand trial for genocide but the Cambodian government again rejected UN proposals for an international tribunal.
The jailed former chief of staff of Pol Pot -- dubbed "The Butcher" for his work during the "Killing Fields" years -- was unrepentant under military interrogation as prosecutors prepared to level charges, officials said.
"Ta Mok is a warlord criminal leader and we will put him on trial," Foreign Minister Hor Namhong told reporters before departing for New York where he meet United Nations Secretary- General Kofi Annan.
"But according to Article 33 of the Constitution of Cambodia it is prohibited for any Cambodian to be sent for trial abroad," he added, the clearest signal yet that Phnom Penh will refuse to hand over any rebels.
He also asserted there was a difference between Ta Mok and rebel leaders who had defected to the government: "Ta Mok was still fighting when he was arrested, while Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea surrendered."
The frail 72 year-old Ta Mok spent his third day holed up in a city center military prison under tight guard, unrepentant for his role in the 1975-79 ultra-Maoist regime that left up to two million dead from execution, disease, starvation or overwork.
"Ta Mok has not taken responsibility or admitted any faults at all: he has just blamed Pol Pot," a top military source told AFP. Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge's "Brother Number One," died in April last year.
Government officials said charges were expected against Ta Mok on Tuesday or Wednesday but he was likely to remain out of sight for weeks.
"At this stage we want him to stay inside where there is peace and quiet, and to let him write down his confession himself," said a government source close to Prime Minister Hun Sen.
"Perhaps this will take one week or one month -- it depends on him. But we do not want to be accused of having forced him to say anything."
Tight guard
Military police kept a tight guard around the jail, which is surrounded by high walls lined with barbed wire. Insiders said that although frail and tired, Ta Mok was eating normally and no longer in handcuffs.
"He has been allowed out of his cell to go to the toilet under heavy guard," one military policeman told AFP. "And we are not torturing him either," another added.
Hor Namhong said it remained undecided whether Ta Mok would face a civilian, military or "special" court. Prosecutors said the first charge was likely to be brought under a 1994 law outlawing the Khmer Rouge.
Under Cambodian law he faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Fellow surviving rebel leaders Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan and Ieng Sary -- also considered to be at the heart of "Democratic Kampuchea" -- are living in retirement following their defections to the government.
A UN panel recently submitted recommendations that an international tribunal be set up, asserting Cambodia's legal structure was not equipped to deal with leaders of the 1975-1979 regime.
However Cambodian officials argue that no international mechanism has been set up to which Ta Mok could be handed over and assert they are capable of putting him on trial here.
Arguing that an international trial of all leaders could spark civil war, Hun Sen has called for a full investigation of the entire civil war period -- which would cover U.S. bombing as well as foreign backing for the Khmer Rouge after 1979 -- or a South African-style truth commission.
Ta Mok was the last senior Khmer Rouge leader still at large and his arrest effectively marks the end of the fading movement's rebellion.
The Butcher -- Page 5