Justice for Khmer Rouge victims still distant

By Hillary Jackson

PHNOM PENH (Reuters): Cambodia has waited more than 20 years for a Khmer Rouge trial to avenge the deaths of the 1.7 million men, women and children in the bloody "killing fields" of the 1970s, but justice seems as far away as ever.

Analysts say the Cambodian government has dragged its feet consistently and appears determined none of the top communists involved will ever be put on trial, partly for fear of upsetting the fragile political stability the country has only recently achieved.

Too many people have past links with the Khmer Rouge communist regime and many others find it too difficult to face up to the reality of the butchery and the complicity of some of the rest of the population in the killing.

Many Cambodians, from senior government officials downwards, just think it would be better to forget the past.

"Deep down inside the government doesn't want to have a trial," said Lao Mong Hay, executive director of the Khmer Institute of Democracy. "My understanding is that the government is buying time until (the top leaders) die."

National Assembly President Prince Norodom Ranariddh insists a trial will eventually take place, but cautions the issue must be handled with care in order to maintain Cambodia's new found peace.

"The main issue in this nation is peace ... We must improve peace in our nation first," he told Reuters.

"We cannot forget and we cannot tolerate (the Khmer Rouge). One day we will put them on trial, but I think peace in Cambodia is not firm yet," he said.

Cambodia and the United Nations agreed in late April on how to conduct a trial of former Khmer Rouge leaders, who engineered a catastrophic back-to-the-land policy between 1975 and 1979.

But the process cannot move forward until crucial legislation is ratified.

Debate of that legislation -- and its fate -- remained unscheduled when parliament opened a new session this week.

Ranariddh told Reuters after opening the new session on Monday that he did not expect to pass the law before the end of this year. Some observers believe debate will not even begin before the session ends Jan. 15.

Before the law can be debated, it must be approved by parliament's legislative committee.

This cannot happen until a series of meetings take place with government representative Cabinet Minister Sok An, who was out of the country when the new session opened.

He told Reuters earlier this month that talks would be suspended because the government was too busy dealing with severe flooding that has hit Cambodia this year.

No Khmer Rouge leader has ever appeared in court to answer for crimes committed during the group's rule.

Although two senior members of the Khmer Rouge -- former military chief Ta Mok and Kang Khek Ieu or "Duch", former chief of Tuol Sleng prison -- are imprisoned in Phnom Penh and awaiting trial, others are living freely along the Cambodian-Thai border.

The Khmer Rouge's notorious leader Pol Pot died in 1998 just as government troops were closing in on his jungle hideout in northwestern Cambodia.

Former rebels living in the area expressed concern to Reuters that former lower-ranking Khmer Rouge officials could be prosecuted, which they said could spur renewed civil war.

"I have no objection to the trial of the ex-Khmer Rouge leaders," said Chum Sib, Sompov Loun district chief.

"If there was no trial of those responsible for the genocidal regime, it would set a bad example for the next generation and others might act the same way."

However, said the 46-year-old former Khmer Rouge deputy commander: "Cambodia would (experience) civil war again if the court were to cast the net and also bring the lower ranks to justice."

But Lao Mong Hay of the Khmer Institute of Democracy said renewed civil war was a remote possibility given the age of many of the former rebels and their lack of weapons.

"The Khmer Rouge defectors can't go back to civil war. First, they have no guns. Second, their leaders are not in power and too old to lead them," he said.

Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, said there was no chance low ranking Khmer Rouge members would be called to court.

"The (defectors) misunderstand about the trial...The 'orderers' will be punished, not the 'doers' who just received the orders," he added. "Former rebels should not worry."

Nor, it seems, need most of the Khmer Rouge leaders.

"There is a lack of political will for a trial," said Chea Vannath, head of the Center for Social Development in Phnom Penh.

"You open Pandora's box and there is uncertainty over the future," she said. "They (the government) will delay as long as possible."