Ieng Sary, who co-founded
Cambodia's brutal Khmer Rouge movement in 1970s, served as its public
face abroad and decades later became one of its few leaders to face
justice for the deaths of well over a million people, died in hospital
this week, escaping justice.
THE UN has urged Cambodia's war crimes court to speed up the trial
of Khmer Rouge leaders after the death of an elderly suspect.
Regime co-founder Ieng Sary, 87, who was one of the few public
faces of the Khmer Rouge, died in hospital on Thursday, escaping court
judgment for his alleged role in the atrocities.
The two remaining
defendants, Nuon Chea and former head of state Khieu Samphan - who both
deny charges of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity - are
in their eighties, prompting fears they too could die before the
tribunal reaches a verdict.
The UN special rapporteur on human
rights in Cambodia called on the court, its donors and the government to
speed up proceedings at the much-delayed tribunal.
"We owe it to
the surviving victims of the Khmer Rouge, the families of the victims,
and the whole of Cambodian society that continues to suffer from the
impact of the Khmer Rouge to this day," Surya Subedi said in a
statement.
Only a handful of top regime figures have ever come to trial over
the Khmer Rouge's crimes that saw a quarter of Cambodia's population
wiped out in the late 1970s.
The tribunal has been frequently
cash-strapped since it was set up in 2006 to find justice for the deaths
of up to two million people under the hardline communist regime.
It
has been suspended since last week due to a strike by some local staff
over unpaid wages, as a result of a row between donors and the Cambodian
government.
A foreign expert, who asked not be named, described
"exasperation" among donor nations over "the government's inertia" on
the issue, adding discussions were ongoing to drum up more money and
"remind the Cambodians of their responsibilities".
In a joint
statement the French and Japanese embassies in Cambodia, among the top
donors, warned the trial must move ahead in a "fair, efficient and
expeditious manner".
Human Rights Watch (HRW) meanwhile accused
strongman Prime Minister Hun Sen, himself a former Khmer Rouge cadre who
defected and became premier in 1985, of trying to delay the trial.
"Hun
Sen has run circles around the UN and donors while successfully denying
justice for the Cambodian people," HRW's Asia director Brad Adams said.
"Cambodians
now face the prospect that only three people will be held legally
accountable for the destruction of their country," he added, referring
to the two on trial and former prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, better known
as Duch, who has been jailed for life.
Led by "Brother Number
One" Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the Khmer Rouge wiped out nearly a
quarter of Cambodia's population through starvation, overwork or
execution in a bid to create an agrarian utopia during their 1975-79
rule.
Funeral ceremonies for Ieng Sary began on Friday in his
powerbase in northwestern Malai district, near the Thai border where he
held out with fellow Khmer Rouge members after the regime fell from
power until his defection in 1996.
Witnesses said hundreds of
mourners, some crying, gathered to say goodbye to the former Khmer Rouge
foreign minister, despite evidence he oversaw purges and executions,
spotlighting the lingering divide between supporters and ex-members of
the former regime.
"He was good. He helped people with a lot of things," said supporter Meas Sam, 53. "I hope he rests in peace."
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