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WORLD NEWS Friday 16 November 2018
Verdicts on Khmer Rouge leaders may be tribunal's last gasp

By SOPHENG CHEANG prosecuted — appear to
GRANT PECK preclude further cases be-
Associated Press ing pursued by the tribunal.
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia Hun Sen insists that further
(AP) — The U.N.-backed prosecutions could cause
tribunal judging the crimi- unrest.
nal responsibility of former In addition to Nuon Chea
Khmer Rouge leaders for and Khieu Samphan, the
the deaths of an estimated tribunal can lay claim to
1.7 million Cambodians will only one other prosecution,
issue verdicts Friday in the resulting in the 2010 con-
latest — and perhaps last viction of Kaing Guek Eav,
— of such trials. alias Duch, who as head
Nuon Chea, 92, and Khieu of the Khmer Rouge prison
Samphan, 87, are the last system ran the infamous
two surviving senior lead- Tuol Sleng torture center in
ers of the radical com- Phnom Penh.
munist group that brutally Hun Sen himself was a mid-
ruled Cambodia in the late level Khmer Rouge com-
1970s. They are already mander before defecting
serving life sentences after while the group was still in
being convicted in a previ- power, and several senior
ous 2011-2014 trial of crimes members of his ruling Cam-
against humanity con- In this Oct. 31, 2013, file photo released by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, bodian People's Party share
nected with forced trans- Khieu Samphan, left, former Khmer Rouge head of state, and Nuon Chea, right, who was the similar backgrounds. He
fers and disappearances Khmer Rouge's chief ideologist and No. 2 leader, sit in the court hall at the U.N.-backed war helped cement his political
of masses of people. The crimes tribunal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Associated Press control by making alliances
proceedings against them with other former Khmer
were split into two succes- religious grounds; geno- four additional, middle- of Cambodia into a peas- Rouge commanders.The
sive trials for fear that the cide, for the killings of mem- ranking Khmer Rouge of- ant society, emptying cities ground rules under which
aging defendants might bers of the Vietnamese ficials have been scuttled and forcing the population the tribunal was established
die before any verdict was and Cham ethnic groups; or frozen and are unlikely to to work the land. in 2005 are complicated,
reached in a single, more and more breaches of the be revived. They backed up their rule providing for hybrid courts
comprehensive trial and Geneva Conventions, in- If the current trial is the last with ruthless elimination of pairing Cambodian judges
foreclose the opportunity cluding willful killing, torture staged by the U.N.-assisted perceived enemies, and and prosecutors with inter-
for any sort of justice. The or inhumane treatment. international tribunal — of- were driven from power in national counterparts.
fear was justified — two co- As members of the Khmer ficially called the Extraor- early 1979 by an invasion Cambodian court officials,
defendants died before Rouge leadership under dinary Chambers in the from neighboring Vietnam, known for their loyalty to
the trial was completed. the late Pol Pot, they have Courts of Cambodia — it which had suffered border Hun Sen's government, are
On Friday, Nuon Chea been prosecuted under will have convicted three attacks from Khmer Rouge in a position to base their
and Khieu Samphan will the legal doctrine of joint individuals at a cost of forces.Although atrocities judgments on the tribunal's
be judged on additional criminal enterprise, which more than $300 million. were carried out on a mas- inexact guidelines limit-
charges of crimes against holds individuals respon- The Khmer Rouge seized sive scale, political realities ing prosecutions to senior
humanity, such as murder, sible for actions attributed power in 1975 after a — specifically the repeat- leaders or persons consid-
extermination, enslave- to a group to which they bloody five-year civil war. ed demands by Cambo- ered "most responsible" for
ment, torture and persecu- belong. They immediately attempt- dian Prime Minister Hun Sen atrocities, or simply cease
tion on political, racial, and Cases launched against ed a radical transformation that no more suspects be cooperation.q