The Cambodian government has staged a number of high profile sham trials in recent years, including that of Prince Ranariddh after the July 1997 coup and former Foreign Minister Prince Sirivudh in 1995. Hun Sen has run circles around the international community since 1991 and there is no reason to expect a mixed tribunal located in Phnom Penh to be any different if he decides it is in his interests to manipulate the process. Once the UN and donors buy into the process, they will not walk away, no matter how bad it smells. Those interested in justice should remember that it is more important to get it right than to simply make a deal for its own sake. If it is not possible for credible trials to take place in the near future, these cases will not be forgotten.
Victims have long memories.
One only has to look at the continuing prosecutions of Nazi war criminals over 50 years later, and the recent efforts by European governments to extradite the dictator General Augusto Pinochet for the slaughter in Chile after the 1973 coup. It is simply immoral for the sponsors of the Cambodian Holocaust to continue to live comfortably, travel freely, and to wander the streets of Cambodia as free men. While UN-bashing may be an enjoyable sport, it is time for those truly interested in justice to support the principles Kofi Annan has articulated. This is the bottom line, below which there can be no certainty that any trials will be genuine. Cambodians have waited long enough for justice and the truth about this terrible period.