Khmer Rouge genocide trial close to collapse as judges dispute rules (Guardian)

[Eugene]

Khmer Rouge genocide trial close to collapse as judges dispute rules

Diplomats say government hampering tribunal for fear of embarrassing revelations

Ian MacKinnon in Phnom Penh
Tuesday February 27, 2007
The Guardian

With sad eyes Om Som sits in her shack in the Cambodian countryside waiting for
answers. The shoeless 70-year-old has clung on for half a lifetime hoping to find out
what happened to her beloved husband, and why.

-snip-

Twenty-eight years after Pol Pot's brutal regime was toppled, the prospect of a long-
awaited genocide trial of its senior leaders offers a faint glimmer of hope for Om Som.
With her family she was evacuated from Phnom Penh when it was cleared by the Khmer
Rouge in "Year Zero", starved and forced to labour in the fields.

-snip-

But even that modest hope could be dashed. The trial to bring to book the Khmer Rouge's
leaders for the extermination of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians in the "killing fields"
is on the brink of collapse even before the first indictment can be handed down. Now victims'
families scarred by Pol Pot's savagery fear his ageing henchmen may escape justice and die
free men because wrangling between Cambodian and United Nations-appointed international
judges over the tribunal's ground rules is threatening to derail the process.

Two attempts to resolve the disputes have foundered. Another effort to break the deadlock
is set for a special session starting on March 5. But the senior international judge warns
that another failure could prove fatal, forcing him and his colleagues to pull out.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2022001,00.html

[derby378]

1. That's it. The Khmer Rouge is getting away with murder. Literally.

From Pol Pot down to the rank-and-file butchers. This is really sad.

:cry:

[BayCityProgressive]

2. I read up on these guys

a few weeks ago. They were crazy as hell. They were against all forms of modernization and thought everyone should be forced onto collectivized farms. Apparently the Vietnamese communists thought they were bat shit crazy too because they went in and overthrew them.

[rman]

3. Sen. Kerry: "We delivered weapons to the Khmer Rouge..."

Meet The Press
Jan. 30, 2005
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6886726/

...

SEN. KERRY: We were right on the border, Tim. What I explained to people and I told this any number of times, did I go into Cambodia on a mission? Yes, I did go into Cambodia on a mission. Was it on that night? No, it was not on that night. But we were right on the Cambodian border that night. We were ambushed there, as a matter of fact. And that is a matter of record, and we went into the rec-- you know, it's part of the Navy records. It's been documented by the other guys who were on my boat. And Steve Gardner, frankly, doesn't know where we were. It wasn't his job, and, you know, he wasn't involved in that. But we did go five miles into Cambodia. It was on another day. I jumbled the two together, but we were five miles into Cambodia. We went up on a mission with CIA agents--I believe they were CIA agents--CIA Special Ops guys. I even have some photographs of it, and I can document it. And it has been documented.

...

MR. RUSSERT: And you have a hat that the CIA agent gave you?

SEN. KERRY: I still have the hat that he gave me, and I hope the guy would come out of the woodwork and say, "I'm the guy who went up with John Kerry. We delivered weapons to the Khmer Rouge on the coastline of Cambodia." We went out of Ha Tien, which is right in Vietnam. We went north up into the border. And I have some photographs of that, and that's what we did. So, you know, the two were jumbled together, but we were on the Cambodian border on Christmas Eve, absolutely.

...