KR Tribunal judges re-assured ex-KR cadres

The KR Tribunal judges, Marcel Lemonde (L) and You Bunleng (R), discussed about the KR trial during a trip to Pailin.


By Ker Munthit
Associated Press Writer / January 15, 2008



PAILIN, Cambodia—Cambodia's genocide tribunal embarked on an unusual mission Tuesday to win the hearts and minds -- or at least the grudging cooperation -- of old Khmer Rouge loyalists as the panel forges ahead with prosecuting the group's leaders.
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Tribunal officials hope to dispel fears that low-ranking former Khmer Rouge will become targets of the court and thus gain their valuable help in investigating the alleged crimes of their leaders.
The public meetings between this week involving judges, officials and local residents in the former Khmer Rouge stronghold of Pailin are the first activity of its kind conducted by the tribunal in the former guerrilla heartland.
It follows last year's arrests of five senior figures of the Khmer Rouge, whose radical policies led to the deaths of some 1.7 million of their countrymen in the late 1970s.
Kaing Guek Eav, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirith and Khieu Samphan are being held in the tribunal's custom-built jail on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Their trials are expected to start later this year.
"Without your cooperation, this court will not be able to succeed," a tribunal judge You Bunleng said in opening remarks at a meeting Tuesday of some 150 police and mid-level officials of the Pailin municipality.
The judges will be holding a town meeting Wednesday in an attempt to persuade Pailin's residents to help with the trials -- and allay their fears.
"The mandate of this court is to try only the most senior and most responsible Khmer Rouge leaders, so the ordinary former Khmer Rouge should not be worried," said tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath.
But some in Pailin were reluctant and indifferent when they were earlier approached by Cambodian and U.N.-appointed investigating judges, he said, so it is necessary to explain to them how the tribunal works.
In negotiating the U.N. agreement, the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen -- himself a former Khmer Rouge soldier -- fought vigorously to limit the panel's scope for fear it could shake political stability by scaring the Khmer Rouge back into the jungle.
The group had carried on a guerrilla war for two decades after a 1979 Vietnamese invasion ousted it from power. Hun Sen allowed most of the guerrillas to surrender with no penalty, and absorbed some important commanders into the government and its military.