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.