CORRECTED: Senate approves 29 articles…

0 Comments | Asian Political News, Jan 15, 2001

PHNOM PENH, Jan. 12 Kyodo

After three sessions of debate since Thursday on a bill to bring former Khmer Rouge leaders to trial, Cambodia's Senate approved 29 of the 48 articles Friday, leaving the process taking much more time than in the National Assembly where it took only two sessions to adopt the bill.

Chea Sim, the Senate president, said the review of the bill will resume Monday and it is expected to pass by Wednesday.

So far, there have been no changes to the content or amendments passed by the lower house Jan. 2.

Thach Setha, an opposition senator from the Sam Rainsy Party, proposed some additions to the law to include foreign defendants if investigations found any involved in the massacre of at least 1.7 million Cambodians during the regime's rule from 1975 to 1979.

But Sok An, a government representative and chief of the negotiation team with the United Nations in preparing the bill, argued the proposed provision would lead to a far too complicated situation.

He reiterated the bill clearly states, ''The purpose of the law is to bring to trial senior leaders of Democratic Kampuchea and those who were most responsible for the crimes.''

The number of suspects must be small and narrowly limited to avoid a complicated situation that might be harmful to the political or security atmosphere in Cambodia, he said.

U.S. legal expert David Scheffer, an ambassador-at-large sent to observe the legal process in Cambodia, said, ''So far there is no extremely serious obstacle to the process moving forward.''

Scheffer is an expert on war crimes, in particular on the Khmer Rouge issue.

The ambassador, who met with Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday, said, ''I was reassured from my discussions with Prime Minister Hun Sen that this court will be able to operate as envisioned and that it will be able to investigate where the evidence takes it and that no individual who falls into the jurisdiction of this court will be immune from its reach.''

Sok An told reporters that he will have more talks with Hans Corell, U.N. undersecretary general, soon after King Norodom Sihanouk signs the bill into law.

He said Corell, in a letter, raised some issues about the bill passed by the lower house, but added Corell's concerns did not acquire amendments. The questions will be ironed out in articles of cooperation with the U.N. to be signed after the bill is promulgated, he said.

Some legal observers have said it will take years before any trial begins, but Hun Sen told reporters Wednesday the trial could begin this year.

The new legislation will establish three special tribunals to try former Khmer Rouge leaders, with five judges sitting on the trial bench, seven on the appeals bench and nine on the top bench.

There will be three Cambodian and two foreign judges at the trial level, four Cambodians and three foreigners at the appeals level, and five Cambodians and four foreigners in the court of final appeal.

Rulings will require ''super-majorities'' at each respective level of four of five, five of seven and six of nine.

According to the bill, the tribunal will sit in Phnom Penh.