'Killing Fields' survivors still wait for justice

It is 30 years since, on April 17, 1975, Khmer Rouge forces "liberated" Phnom Penh and began their infamous four-year campaign of genocide. But the survivors of the regime have yet to see any justice for the estimated 2 million people - a quarter of the population - wiped out by execution, starvation and disease.

Pol Pot, the main instigator of the policies that led to the notorious "killing fields", died in 1998, but most of the Cambodian people still want to see his ageing fellow leaders brought to answer for crimes against their own people.

The opportunity is painfully close as the international community pledges money for a Khmer Rouge Genocide tribunal to try seven of the "most responsible". But the delaying tactics of the Cambodian Government, however, leave people doubting a tribunal will ever begin, and, if it does, if it will be in a legal form meaningful to ordinary Cambodians.

"We are broken glass, broken people, we can never be the same, nothing can replace what we have lost," says Youk Chhang, 44, director of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, responsible for preserving and documenting the memoirs of that period for future generations.

"As a human you deserve justice when somebody kills your own family member."

The genocide tribunal is set to begin in Phnom Penh once the US$56.3 ($77.39) million budget estimated for the three-year trial is reached. The international community and the United Nations are to contribute US$43 ($59.11) million of this total, with the Cambodian Government covering the remaining US$13.3 ($18.28) million.

Japan, France, Britain and Australia have pledged US$38.4 ($52.78) million. Belgium has confirmed its contribution of US$193,500 ($265,980) and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he expects New Zealand and the European Union to cover the shortfall of US$4.3 ($5.91) million.

The Cambodian Government is contributing US$1.5 ($2.06) million and is seeking bilateral assistance for the remainder. The US Congress passed legislation this year prohibiting any financial assistance for the tribunal, saying it had already donated US$7 ($9.62) million towards research of historical Khmer Rouge documents.

Observers say the destruction inflicted by America's secret B-52 bombing raids along Cambodia's border with Vietnam in the early 1970s was a catalyst for the rise in popularity of Pol Pot's extreme Marxist-Leninist revolution. The US also provided intelligence to the Khmer Rouge to help to fight the Vietnamese communist "puppet-government" in control of Cambodia from 1979-89.

But Cambodians are sceptical whether their Government has the political will to try the regime's leaders. It has been seven years since discussions for a tribunal began between the UN and the Cambodian Government.

In 2003, the Government passed legislation for the tribunal, and late last year they ratified the agreement for the budget. In contrast, tribunals established to address war crimes in Sierra Leone and East Timor were operating within three years of the atrocities taking place.

The Government is also littered with ex-Khmer Rouge, including the Prime Minister Hun Sen. Hun Sen defected to Vietnam when purges began to plague the regime, and then returned with the Vietnamese "liberators" in 1979. Other government officials were offered their posts in the mid-90s in return for laying down their Khmer Rouge arms.

Kek Galabru, 63, founder and president of the Cambodian human rights organisation Licadho, says although the leaders of her country are not on the most-wanted list, they are scared at the prospect of having their names "brought to the surface", and will find any means to postpone the tribunal.

"The imagination of our leader is very fertile," she said of Hun Sen. "But Kofi Annan has done a good job and [the Government] can't use money as an excuse anymore."

Four surveys conducted in past six years show Cambodians insist on an internationally led tribunal to ensure credible, transparent legal proceedings. The "mixed tribunal", to be made up of Cambodian and international judiciary, will use existing Cambodian court rules for procedure and evidence, and supplement these with international rules when needed.

The Government has strong influence over the judiciary in Cambodia and Galabru says a fair and legal trial can only take place under strict international surveillance.

"If a high standard of judges and prosecutors comes we are so willing to see the result. This is something new for us. This is a fight against impunity."

Justice goes beyond a tribunal for many of the survivors and a fair tribunal on Cambodian soil could spark other improvements in the country. 

The country was still ravaged by civil war until 1997, when the remnants of the Khmer Rouge forces were finally crushed, but Cambodians have continued to live under a government marred by corruption, whose record for human rights abuses is bleak.

The country is the poorest in Southeast Asia, with 36 per cent of the population living under the poverty line. It has the highest HIV/Aids rate and the highest child mortality rate in the region

"It is not just about putting people in jail," Galabru says.

"The people in the streets have the right to shelter, protection and a good education."

Youk Chhang agrees, and says a tribunal will inevitably address the respect of Human Rights not just for Cambodians, but for all people whose rights are abused.

"It was humans who committed crimes here, it was not done by a monster," he says. "This is about humanity."