Genocide Trial Rules Agreed in Cambodia

From second left, Co-Prosecutors, Robert Petit of Cananda, Chea Leang of Cambodia, Cambodia Judge Kong Srim and Co- investigating Judge, You Bun Leng sit inside the court hall of Khmer Rouge Tribunal headquarters in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, June 13, 2007. Cambodian and international judges announced guiding rules for a U.N.-backed genocide trial Wednesday, putting aside the last major roadblock to much-delayed trials of former Khmer Rouge leaders. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith) (Heng Sinith - AP)

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- Cambodian and foreign judges announced rules Wednesday clearing the way for a U.N.-assisted genocide tribunal to begin investigating Khmer Rouge leaders in the deaths of 1.7 million people during their 1975-79 communist regime.

The rules were one of the judges' last major tasks before they could begin working on the cases, but it was unlikely the trials would start anytime soon. That is a growing concern as there is a chance the aging defendants could all die before they are brought to justice.

The top Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998. Ta Mok, the Khmer Rouge army chief, died last July while in detention pending trial by the special tribunal. He was believed to be 80.

The only defendant now in custody is Kaing Khek Iev, also known as Duch, who headed the notorious S-21 torture center in the capital, Phnom Penh.

Their senior-level colleagues, Nuon Chea, the movement's chief ideologue; Ieng Sary, the former foreign minister; and Khieu Samphan, the former head of state, live freely in Cambodia but are in declining health.

Cambodia and the United Nations created the genocide tribunal last year under an agreement they reached in 2003. The 17 Cambodian and 12 foreign judges and prosecutors have spent the last six months in sometimes rancorous disagreement on guidelines for the trials.

After two weeks of meetings, the Cambodian- and U.N.-appointed officials unanimously agreed on a set of rules Tuesday, they said at a joint news conference in Cambodia's capital.

"Now that the rules have been adopted we can move forward," Kong Srim, a Cambodian judge with the tribunal, read from their statement.

"These rules enable us to hold fair, transparent trials before an independent and impartial court," said Robert Petit, a U.N.-appointed prosecutor from Canada, also reading from the statement.

He said investigating judges will begin the judicial process as soon as they receive their first case from prosecutors.

"Although it's impossible to say when the first accused will appear before them (the judges), I think it's safe to say the process is going to get under way within the next weeks," Petit said.

The tribunal is an unprecedented hybrid. It will operate under the Cambodian judicial system often criticized as weak, corrupt and susceptible to political manipulation. Decisions require support from a majority of the Cambodian judges, backed by at least one U.N.-appointed judge.