Phnom Penh (AsiaNews/Agencies) – The tribunal to judge the leaders of the Khmer Rouge, responsible for the genocide which took place in Cambodia between 1975 and1979 is finally able to begin trials. Today Cambodian and international judges agreed the underlying rules for the specialcourt, putting an end to often bitter discussions which stretch back to November last and which put the Cambodian will to open the tribunal in doubt.
The tribunal to judge those responsible for the extermination of over two million people during the reign of Pol Pot’s Maoist regime was created last year, after years of negotiations between Phnom Penh and the United. In the meantime, Pol Pot died – in 1998 – followed by another of those held prime suspects Ta Mok, in 2006. Currently there is only one Maoist henchman in prison: Kang Khek, better known as Duch, chief of a special troop of the secret police, arrested in 1999. Duch confessed to having ordered the torture and murder of 15 thousand people, including children, sons and daughters of “spies”. Other Khmer Rouge henchmen live and circulate freely in Cambodia or have moved abroad.
The approval of the internal rules and the will expressed by all 29 judges who make up the special tribunal to “conclude procedures as soon as possible” do not raise hopes that the first trial will begin before the end of the year.