Judges fail to resolve trial rules rift

Judges have failed to resolve their differences on draft rules for genocide trials of Khmer Rouge leaders, threatening to further delay the long-pending cases, the tribunal's office said Friday.

The court actions are aimed at meting out justice for atrocities committed when the communist Khmer Rouge held power in the late 1970s.

A committee of five Cambodian and four foreign judges appointed to the tribunal have met over the last two weeks to try to resolve disagreements left over from a plenary session in November last year.

They made "solid progress" in "significantly narrowing the number of outstanding issues," a tribunal statement said Friday.

"Nevertheless, there remain several major issues to be fully resolved," involving how Cambodian and international law can be integrated into the internal rules to ensure transparency and fairness, especially for the defense side, it said.

The tribunal was created by a 2003 agreement between Cambodia and the United Nations to seek justice for crimes committed when the Khmer Rouge held power from 1975-79. The radical policies of the now-defunct communist group led to the deaths of some 1.7 million people from execution, overwork, disease and malnutrition.

Prosecutors are expected to indict about 10 defendants, including the few surviving top Khmer Rouge leaders.

The 110 draft rules cover every phase of the proceedings _ preliminary investigations, judicial investigations, the trial and appeals. They also delineate the roles of all parties, including prosecutors, defense attorneys and defendants.

In November, the judges ended their plenary session with disagreements on how Cambodian law can be integrated with international standards and how the special tribunal will operate within the Cambodian court structure, under which the tribunal was established.

Critics have often described the Cambodian judiciary as weak, corrupt and susceptible to political influence.

The statement Friday did not provide any details of the two-week meeting but indicated that previous disagreements still persist.

It said the committee will meet again in March. It, however, set no date for the next plenary session to adopt the rules.

A coalition of Cambodian civil society groups warned Wednesday that international senior officials could pull out of the process should the internal rules not meet minimum international standards.

"We are ... disappointed and concerned that more than half of the first year's operation has passed with little to show in the way of justice for the victims" of the Khmer Rouge, it said.