War crimes court splits KRouge trial charges

The four ex-Khmer Rouge leaders on trial. Clockwise: Nuon chea, Ieng Sary, Khieu Samphan and Mrs. Ieng Thirith.

By Suy Se | AFP

Four former Khmer Rouge leaders on trial for genocide in Cambodia will first face charges of crimes against humanity after a UN-backed court on Thursday announced a plan to separate the prosecution process.

The trial, long awaited by survivors of the brutal regime, will be divided into smaller sections, beginning with the forced movement of population and the related charges of crimes against humanity, the court said.

The elderly defendants, including "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea and former head of state Khieu Samphan, face a range of charges over the deaths of up to two million people from starvation, overwork, torture or execution during the Khmer Rouge's 1975-79 reign of terror.

Tribunal spokesman Lars Olsen said the division of the "extremely complex" case is "to speed up the proceedings".

In a statement the court said trials of similar complexity had occasionally taken up to ten years to reach verdicts.

It said allegations of "genocide, persecution on religious grounds as a crime against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 have also been deferred to later phases of the proceedings" but did not specify when these will be heard.

Observers and survivors have long raised fears about the speed of proceedings and the advanced age of the four accused.

"We are racing against time and I hope the court can catch their crimes while they are still alive," said Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which researches Khmer Rouge atrocities.

The trial officially opened in June but has been held up by health issues surrounding the defendants.

Last month a medical assessment of Ieng Thirith, the 79-year-old former social affairs minister, found she had dementia and memory loss.

Nuon Chea, 85, seen as the regime's chief ideologue, is also contesting his ability to be tried and has said he has trouble concentrating and sitting for long periods.

The court said its decision was to help it safeguard the interests of victims in "achieving meaningful and timely justice" and stressed that the remaining charges would not be discontinued.

It said it would also be permitted to split prosecutions to deal with one or several defendants, adding that although it is currently considering the fitness of two accused "decisions in this area are still pending".

Verdicts and sentences in the event of convictions will be handed out at the end of each smaller trail, the court said.

Observers now predict the first trial could start before the end of the year, depending on the process of determining Ieng Thirith's fitness to stand trial.

Clair Duffy, a trial monitor for the Open Society Justice Initiative, said it was a "very positive move" and showed judges had considered the age and health of the accused and "the magnitude of the crimes they have been charged with".

"It's about weighing up whether it's better for there to be a long, drawn-out process with the possibility of never having a conclusion or if it's better to actually see a result more quickly. I think the answer is obvious," she said.

Chum Mey, one of just a handful of people to survive a feared Khmer Rouge detention centre, said he welcomed any move to advance the trial.

"We want the court to speed up the proceeding. The accused are very old now. We want to see them convicted for their crimes," he said.

In its historic first trial, the court sentenced former prison chief Kaing Guek Eav -- also known as Duch -- to 30 years in jail last year for overseeing the deaths of 15,000 people.

The case is now under appeal.

Led by "Brother Number One" Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the Khmer Rouge emptied Cambodia's cities, abolishing money and schools in a bid to create an agrarian utopia before they were ousted from the capital by Vietnamese forces.