By Jared Ferrie
Asia Times Online
PHNOM PENH - In a legal landmark for Cambodians and for international justice, testimony at the first trial of the Khmer Rouge tribunal has successfully come to a close. But as judges deliberate the verdict of one self-confessed former torture chief, the fate of the tribunal itself is also in question.
A series of controversies, including Prime Minister Hun Sen's warnings that more trials would undermine national security and potentially re-ignite civil war, threaten to unravel future cases against former leaders of the radical Maoist regime. The man who stirred the controversy, former international prosecutor Robert Petit, left his post on September 1 for "personal and family reasons" as testimony was wrapping up.
Petit announced last December that he intended to charge six more suspects up and beyond the five who have already been detained and await trial. That sparked a legal dispute with his Cambodian co-prosecutor, who filed an objection, and the ire of Hun Sen.
"If you tried [more suspects] without taking national unification and peace into consideration, and if war re-occurred, killing between 200,000 and 300,000 people more, who would be responsible for it?" Hun Sen asked in a speech to mark the release of census results on September 7. Hun Sen said previously that he would rather see the court fail than pursue more prosecutions.
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