bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Cambodia's genocide trial is shaping up as an embarrassing fiasco even before it  has begun.

Last week, Cambodia's government appointed 30 local and international judges and prosecutors who will try the former senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime.

This should have been hailed as a significant step forward for Cambodia's drawn-out genocide tribunal, which starts next year. But it was not.

Instead, the credibility of the trial remains in doubt because of question marks over the impartiality and qualification of the Cambodian judges and prosecutors, and the quality of justice they will deliver.

The split of judges and prosecutors for the trial is 13 Cambodian and 17 foreign.

Among the Cambodian judicial team are  Thong Ol, Ney Thol and Ya Sakhorn, each  accused of bowing to political manipulation and delivering questionable rulings in the past year.

Ney Thol, a Military Court judge, sentenced a Cambodian opposition lawmaker to seven years in jail last August for sedition and fraud. The lawmaker was acquitted of those charges and freed this year after widespread international condemnation of the court case.

The timing of the lawmaker's release coincided with the Cambodian government's negotiation over an international aid package of US$601 million.

There is not only concern about the experience of the Cambodian judges, but also whether Cambodia's judicial system is capable of meeting international standards.

Cambodia's Centre for Social Development monitored nearly 1,000 court cases between October 2004 and September 2005 and found that only 15 per cent included witness testimony and 71 per cent of the cases lasted less than half an hour. It also found allegations of torture in 29 per cent of all felony cases.

The Khmer Rouge trial will be heavily reliant on witness testimony if the former leaders of the regime are to be held accountable for their crimes of murdering, torturing and starving to death 1.7 million Cambodians between 1974 and 1979.

The Khmer Rouge was an ultra-Maoist movement that sought to create a vision of a peasant society free of class structures and foreign influence.

It targeted intellectuals, doctors, lawyers, teachers and artists, and banned religion, money and education.

Many current leaders within Cambodia's government were former Khmer Rouge foot soldiers. The UN,  acting only in an assisting role to the Cambodian government, has ensured that any ruling during the trial must have the agreement of a foreign judge.

In fairness, the selection process of Cambodian judges and prosecutors was always going to be difficult given the small pool of talent available, and that can be blamed on the Khmer Rouge exterminating so many educated people.

Cambodia does not have enough judges to meet the demands of its own court system, according to Pen Rany, of the  Centre for Social Development.  'I don't have confidence in [the Cambodian judges] because I don't think they have enough experience in international law,' she said. 'The duration of the court will only be three years - it's not enough time to give justice to Cambodians.'

A spokesman for Cambodia's genocide tribunal, Reach Sambath,  disagreed. 'This place is a tribunal where [the judges] must act at international standards and they have the opportunity to rebuild their reputation.'

The Cambodian tribunal differs from the Rwandan and former Yugoslavia genocide trials as it involves local judges and the court will be in Cambodia, rather than in a neighbouring country or The Hague.

This  format was reluctantly accepted by the UN after years of haggling with the Cambodian government to hold a trial.



Question mark hangs over Khmer Rouge trial