DATE=8/26/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CAMBODIA / TRIAL (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-253131
BYLINE=JOE COCHRANE
DATELINE=PHNOM PENH
INTERNET=YES
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Thousands of people marched through Phnom Penh
Thursday. They were demanding that senior Khmer Rouge
leaders accused of war crimes be tried by an
independent tribunal run by the United Nations. But
as Joe Cochrane reports from the Cambodian capital,
the Cambodian government is warning that the U-N's
proposal for a war crimes tribunal might spark renewed
civil war.
TEXT: Cambodian government spokesman Sieng Lapresse
told reporters a tribunal must not panic Khmer Rouge
members into fleeing back into the jungles to resume
their civil war. The spokesman says justice should be
found for the victims of the Khmer Rouge "killing
fields" regime, but the tribunal cannot, as he put it,
violate Cambodia's sovereignty.
The spokesman made his comments as Cambodian and U-N
officials began negotiations on establishing a joint
tribunal for war crimes, crimes against humanity and
genocide.
A visiting U-N delegation led by Assistant Secretary-
General Ralph Zacklin is proposing a mixed tribunal,
in which foreign judges and prosecutors would work
with their Cambodian counterparts to try the accused
senior Khmer Rouge officials under domestic law.
Prime Minister Hun Sen is insisting that the majority
of judges and prosecutors be Cambodian, and that the
government alone decide who will be
indicted.
However, government critics are demanding that the U-N
control the tribunal, saying Cambodia's notoriously
corrupt judiciary is incapable of
meeting minimum international standards of justice.
Outspoken Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy led
as many as five-thousand people on a street march
through Phnom Penh Thursday, calling for a U-N-run
tribunal in the Hague or other venue, outside the
country.
Mr. Rainsy says the Cambodian people do not trust
their court system to hold fair trials. He says only
an international tribunal, controlled by the U-N, will
bring justice to victims of the Khmer Rouge.
The Maoist-inspired movement is blamed for the deaths
of as many as two million Cambodians from forced
labor, disease, starvation and summary
executions between 1975 and 1979. (signed)
NEB/JC/GC/FC
26-Aug-1999 03:34 AM LOC (26-Aug-1999 0734 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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