By Jonathan Manthorpe,
Vancouver Sun
It took 12 years and $120 million US to get Khmer Rouge former prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Comrade Duch, in front of a court in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh last week.
He dutifully confessed to responsibility for the deaths of about 14,000 of the two million people killed during Khmer Rouge's 1975-79 maniacal reign of terror and asked for forgiveness.
And Comrade Duch may well be the only person to face charges in court in what is proving to be a grossly inept and inadequate attempt to bring a judicial close to one of the major crimes against humanity of modern times.
It is 30 years since the Khmer Rouge regime was ousted by invading Vietnamese forces and 11 since the civil war that followed ended with the death in Cambodia's western jungle-clad mountains of Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot.
Prime Minister Hun Sen has his own reasons for wanting a limited and scripted judicial resolution to the Khmer Rouge era. Obstructionism is furthered by corruption in the jointly administered United Nations and Cambodian court where Cambodian employees are forced to give kick-backs to government officials. Together it has ensured strategic delay and an incomplete outcome.
Besides Comrade Duch, only four former Khmer Rouge leaders are awaiting trial and they are so old and infirm there are real doubts any will make it into the dock. They are the former deputy leader of the Khmer Rouge Nuon Chea, the former head of state Khieu Samphan, the former foreign minister Ieng Sary and his wife, Ieng Thirith, who was the social affairs minister.
There are, of course, dozens if not many scores of former Khmer Rouge kingpins still leading comfortable lives in Cambodia. The court admitted in January it has its eyes on several more suspects -- it's widely believed the number is six -- but the Cambodian co-prosecutor has argued that to expand the manhunt would not be good for national reconciliation and has blocked further moves.
Prime Minister Hun Sen made the same point when he was asked last week why more Khmer Rouge cadres have not been put on trial.
Spreading the dragnet wider than the five people now charged could lead to a resumption of civil war, he said.
"I would prefer to see this tribunal fail instead of seeing war return to my country," Hun Sen said.
His reservations may be more personal. Hun Sen himself was a Khmer Rouge commander who, according to his own account, defected to Vietnam in 1977 and thus played no part in the Khmer Rouge genocide.
After the Vietnamese invasion in 1979 Hun Sen was installed as prime minister and, one way or another, has held power ever since, even after being defeated in an election.
Both the Vietnamese-installed government and Hun Sen's current administration contain many veterans of the Khmer Rouge who could justly be brought to court if their histories were examined.
jmanthorpe@vancouversun.com
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