DATE=1/21/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CAMBODIA / KHMER ROUGE (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-258281
BYLINE=KAY JOHNSON
DATELINE=PHNOM PENH
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: A human-rights group has called (Thursday) for
changes in a Cambodian law on genocide trials for
leaders of the Khmer Rouge. As Kay Johnson reports
from Phnom Penh, the group says the current law could
allow crimes against humanity to go unpunished.
TEXT: New York-based Human Rights Watch has
warned against "second-class justice" in trials
for surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge. It
says the United Nations should withhold its
endorsement of the trials until it is sure the
process will not exclude former Khmer Rouge who
are allies of the current Cambodian government.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has so far been
unwilling to give international judges enough
control to allay fears of selective justice. But
the prime minister has shown some flexibility
lately, and has invited the United Nations to new
talks in Phnom Penh. The world body has yet to
respond.
Several top leaders of the 1970s Khmer Rouge
government have defected to Hun Sen's government
in recent years. Hun Sen said at the time of the
defections that those leaders should not be
tried, because their action ended Cambodia's
decades-long civil war.
But human-rights advocates say none of the top
Khmer Rouge leaders should escape trial for their
alleged role in one of last century's most brutal
regimes. Nearly two-million Cambodians -- a
quarter of the population -- died under the Khmer
Rouge's reign of terror in the 1970s.
Hun Sen has vowed that Cambodia will soon stage
Khmer Rouge trials on its own, if the United
Nations does not agree to take part. Human
Rights Watch says that would be a precedent the
world cannot afford to set. Referring to
atrocities in East Timor and Kosovo, the group
says crimes against humanity should be tried in
an international court. (Signed)
NEB/KJ/FC/WTW
21-Jan-2000 05:50 AM EDT (21-Jan-2000 1050 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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