Proof against Khmer leaders varies

Proof against Khmer leaders varies

PHNOM PENH (Agencies): Direct evidence exists to implicate Khmer Rouge leader Nuon Chea in mass killings in the 1970s but cases against two others, Khieu Samphan and Ieng Sary, may be more difficult, a leading scholar said on Tuesday.

American academic Stephen Heder said many documents from Khmer Rouge rule in the 1970s had either disappeared or had been destroyed, creating problems for prosecutors at any international tribunal set up to account for Khmer Rouge crimes.

There was, for instance, no direct documentary evidence linking Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan to the deaths of 1.7 million people during the group's rule from 1975 to 1979.

Heder, whose research for Washington's American University might assist a prosecution, said Khieu Samphan and also Ieng Sary, the Khmer Rouge foreign minister, could be indicted even if there was not the direct documentary evidence to convict them.

"There are cases to be answered by Khieu Samphan and Ieng Sary, but on the available documentary evidence you have to be less confident they would ever be convicted."

Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea defected to the government late last month amid calls that they answer charges of genocide before an international tribunal. Ieng Sary defected previously.

Experts hired by the United Nations are currently examining the possibility of setting up an international tribunal for Cambodia along the lines of those set up for Rwanda and Bosnia.

Heder said evidence against Nuon Chea, the number two to late Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot and seen as the group's ideological guru, was stronger and should demonstrate "command responsibility" in crimes against humanity and maybe genocide.

"To say whether a person was responsible, you have to be able to prove: first, that they knew what was going on; second, that they had the power to stop it; and third, that they did nothing."

The evidence against Nuon Chea was transcripts of messages between him and zone commanders relating to arrests and killings.

Heder said such documents were also enough to convict two of the most notorious zone commanders: Ta Mok, the Khmer Rouge military chief who remains at large, and Ke Pok who formerly commanded the Khmer Rouge's central zone and lives in the northwestern province of Siem Reap.

Two other figures clearly implicated were an officer named Deuch, who commanded the Khmer Rouge "S-21" torture center in Phnom Penh, and Mam Nay, the chief interrogator at the prison. Both are now believed to staying in the Pailin area, a province close to the Thai frontier, run by Ieng Sary and to which Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea returned on Sunday.

China, meanwhile, said on Tuesday that the fate of its former allies in the murderous Khmer Rouge was up to the Cambodian government and people.

While Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao did not rule out a trial for Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea, he said Beijing supported "all actions that will help to promote the national reconciliation, solidarity and stability of Cambodia."

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen offered the two Khmer Rouge leaders an amnesty last week, but retracted the offer in response to public outrage.

Zhu noted that the two Khmer leaders were the latest members of the once radical regime to reconcile with the government.