A judicious return to Pol Pot's 'killing fields'

Cambodians are a step closer to bringing the perpetrators of some of the 20th century's most heinous war crimes to justice.

The country's Constitutional Council yesterday approved a law to prosecute Khmer Rouge leaders, whose rule was responsible for the deaths of some 1.7 million Cambodians through starvation, torture, and execution.

The decision is likely to clear the way for Cambodia to set a global precedent as the first country to hold a hybrid war-crimes tribunal, combining national and international law on its own soil. Moreover, Cambodia is moving closer to a self-examination of the "killing fields" regime from 1975 to '79 - a process of revelation and healing that it has not yet begun.

"What the people want is not revenge against the Khmer Rouge," says Ok Socheat, a member of the National Assembly. "What they want is the reality, the truth, of what lies behind the Khmer Rouge, because I don't think anyone really understands that. We need to have this trial so we can prevent genocide, but the people also need it so we can write our own history," he says.

Still, there are powerful forces both inside and outside Cambodia reluctant to sift through the ashes of the past - particularly under the microscope of the United Nations. Some observers say that plans for a tribunal will remain bogged down in disagreements between the UN and Prime Minister Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge leader who switched sides in 1978 and became this country's leader after a 1997 coup.

Others worry that Hun Sen will try to push through a hasty and tightly controlled trial in order to come out looking good before communal elections next year, and national elections the year after.

"Even with UN involvement, it's hard to believe that most of the Khmer Rouge leaders will be found guilty," says Mr. Socheat, a senior member of Funcinpec, a party that remains loyal to King Sihanouk, whose signature on the law is the next necessary step in the road to creating a tribunal.

It was the king who gave the Cambodian Communist Party their name - dismissing them before their rise to power as a pack of "Red Khmers." Their short but horrific rule was marked by an absurd drive to create an agrarian utopia, and the wholesale slaughter of families. They also abolished money, schools, urban living, religion, as well as potato picking and book reading. The surviving leaders of the regime, who saw massive bloodletting as part of their purification of Cambodian societal decadence, are comfortably ensconced near the Thai-Cambodian border. Only two leaders, Kang Kek Leu, or "Duch," and Ta Mok, are in detention.

Duch, an infamous torture and execution center director for the Khmer Rouge told investigators that he took orders from Nuon Chea, second only to Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot. "He called me in to meet me and he said, 'Don't bother to interrogate them - just kill them.' And I did," according to a new report released in Washington.

The War Crimes Research Office at the Washington College of Law, American University, in conjunction with the Documentation Center of Cambodia here, has just released research based on more than 1,000 documents, including telegrams, minutes of meetings, and testimonies of victims and perpetrators. The information would comprise some of the important and most disturbing evidence in a trial of surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge.

But the prospect of peeling away the layers of secrecy around the Khmer Rouge still stirs great resistance among senior officials here, where former Khmer Rouge members now hold some of the highest positions in government and have been absorbed into the military. China, Russia, and Thailand are also reluctant to back the trials. They could be implicated in the process of examining who helped one of recent history's most brutal regimes.

Another source of tension is the question of how large a role the international community should have in the tribunal. In an age when alleged war criminals from Rwanda to Yugoslavia are facing prosecution, Cambodia is treading an uncut path by winning its battle to have the trial take place on its own soil, with a majority of its own judges, and under Cambodian law.

"I don't want to say that it's good or bad, but it's a new concept," says Surya P.S. Dhungel, the Officer-in-Charge of the Cambodia Office of the United Nation's High Commissioner for Human Rights.

"It will be a mixed tribunal based on Cambodia's own national law, with its own judges who are not very well trained and have less international experience," he says. "This is challenging. Cambodia is creating a new form of international jurisprudence."

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen says he is not against having a trial, but that it must be on Cambodia's terms. Last month he was quoted as saying the UN should "shut up" and stop telling Cambodia what to do.

The top negotiator with the UN is Cambodia's second most powerful man, Sok An. He denies critics claims that the government is stalling. "These are very biased assessments. We're making a great effort, going from compromise to compromise," snaps Sok An during an interview in his office. The compromise, he says, is that a majority of judges on the tribunal will be Cambodian - five local and four foreign, for example - but the panel will need a supermajority - six out of nine - to convict or acquit. That will ensure that the Cambodians judges will not be able to completely disregard the advice of the foreign ones.

"This kind of compromise, it is easy?" asks Sok An. "The most important thing in Cambodia now is political stability, and law and order. For the first time in 30 years, we are in a situation of no conflict. We will try our best to cooperate with the UN because we would like to have a procedure that is recognized by everybody, but we also must maintain our national sovereignty."

Others here are more obvious about their lack of enthusiasm, "If they don't try them now, then another government will do it," says Lu Lay Soeng, the Minister of Information. "Why try to launch the boat during the dry season? It might be 10, 15, 20 years before we have a trial. This time is not quite appropriate because we have too many other things to do."

If that attitude prevails, critics complain, that will increase the chances of letting aging leaders pass away, as Pol Pot did in 1998.

Bolstering the Phnom Penh's resolve not to give in to UN demands are larger powers, particularly China, which has been vocal in its opposition to a Khmer Rouge tribunal. A recent boost of Chinese financial aid in Cambodia, both official and unofficial, appears designed to give Cambodia incentives not to cooperate.

"There will be revelations," says opposition leader Sam Rainsy. "When those top seven start to speak, there will be revelations because they will not allow themselves to become the scapegoats of the regime. And many countries, like China, don't want an independent tribunal because the truth will hurt them."

Cambodia's king, who would have to sign the bill for any tribunal to take place, is reported to be willing to do so. He is also due to spend most of the month in Beijing, where he often visits for medical treatment.

"Maybe the king will sign the bill and have a tribunal, but it will not be the kind of tribunal we want," says Mr. Socheat, who lost his father and a brother during the war. Socheat also holds citizenship in Canada - insurance, he acknowledges, that has allowed him to be more critical of his government that most. "Sure, they'll bring in foreign judges, maybe one Russian, one Chinese. That would be a joke for the Cambodian people."