Move for justice

SINGAPORE: Cambodia's constitutional council has just approved revised legislation, passed almost unanimously by the country's legislators, to put on trial former leaders of the dreaded Khmer Rouge for crimes against humanity.

But many survivors and families of victims remain unaware of the plan to prosecute those leaders before a panel of Cambodian and international judges. Some 1.7 million Cambodians -- one fifth of the population -- were killed during the 1975-1979 Pol Pot regime. More than a million fell victim to disease, starvation and forced labour. The rest, starting with the educated classes, were executed in cold blood as Pol Pot acted to return Cambodia to "year zero". Yet the present government includes many former members of the Khmer Rouge, including Prime Minister Hun Sen, who took over during a 1997 coup.

Unsurprisingly, the average Cambodian finds his government somewhat incomprehensible. Many cannot tell the good guys from the bad. Because the tribunal will be held on Cambodian soil, where the Khmer Rouge, though spent as a military force, still looms large in government and in daily life, the tribunal may be frustrated by Cambodians shying away from telling their stories, out of fear. With the death of Pol Pot in 1998 and the surrender of other top commanders, there is little threat of a renewed civil war.

Still, many Cambodians understandably fear a renewed spiral of vengeance. There are also widespread doubts about the government's commitment to a rigorous trial. After all, the revised law removes a reference to the death penalty while Hun Sen has cut deals with several aging Khmer Rouge leaders in exchange for their surrender.

Those like former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary, to whom King Norodom Sihanouk granted an amnesty in 1996 after he led a mass defection to the government side; chief ideologue Nuon Chea; and the Khmer Rouge's public face, Khieu Samphan, who defected to the government in 1998, live free in Cambodia. Only two senior figures, Ta Mok, captured in 1999, and Kaing Khek Iev, better known as Duch, the director of the horrific torture center in Phnom Penh, are in custody.

Just a few years ago, Hun Sen said Cambodia should "bury the past", but now, after receiving US$600 million (S$1.1 billion) in aid pledges from foreign governments that strongly support a tribunal, he too favors a trial. This is good for Cambodia, which needs to move forward. A trial like the ongoing prosecution of war crimes in Rwanda and Yugoslavia could be a step toward healing and closure for the traumatized country.

But a trial will deal with the deeper issues affecting every village, where victims and perpetrators still live side by side. The cadres who carried out the regime's horrendous orders were often uneducated child soldiers conditioned to commit acts of unspeakable cruelty. Some say these perpetrators were victims too. Hundreds of thousands of these former cadres, now in their 30s and 40s, live in villages across Cambodia, among people who could easily have been their victims.

Then there is the key question of which of the leaders will actually be prosecuted. Hun Sen is already insisting that the United Nations cannot dictate terms, so the UN might withdraw its support if it is not convinced there will be no political interference. The UN, correctly, is not about to approve a process that ends up as a sham, so its officials are engaging in tricky negotiations with the Hun Sen regime to set up a credible tribunal. These negotiators deserve everyone's support.

-- The Straits Times/Asia News Network