Should low-level Khmer Rouge Officials Be Tried after the top five?
So far, only five former top Khmer Rouge leaders have been detained and the definite results have not been produced to the public. The question has not been definitely been answered.
However, the ECCC has told their aim that low-level officials or second/third-tiers will not be tried and only the top ones will be. Whereas, some people perceive this differently and want the ECCC to also bring low-level officials who were passive perpetrators to justice.
What about you? What do you think? Do you think the ECCC should try low-level officials?
KR Tribunal Seeks Funds to Try Five Top KR Leaders
The UN-joint Khmer Rouge tribunal was originally projected to require more than $56 million for its 3-year mandate. However, after the co-investigating judges and the co-prosecutors accused five former senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime of their responsibilities for the mass killing of as many as almost two million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979, it has become so complicated.
The five Khmer Rouge detainees include: Nuon Chea, former president of the KR People’s Representative Assembly; Ieng Sary, former KR deputy prime minister and foreign minister; Khieu Samphan, former chairman of KR State Presidium; Ieng Thirith, former KR social actions minister; and Kiang Guek Eav, alias Duch, former director of Tuol Sleng or notorious S-21 torture center, where some 16,000 intellectuals, diplomats and Cambodians were executed.
The tribunal’s and government’s officials are seeking an extra fund of $114 million. However, the efforts to seek the fund for the trial of the five former Khmer Rouge leaders whom the co-investigating judges charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity have not produced any remarkable results yet.
It is also reported that after the trial of the five suspects, the Khmer Rouge tribunal plans to request for more funds from the UN in order to continue the investigation on other people. It is believed that at least 3 other former Khmer Rouge most responsible in region or division during the Khmer Rouge reign will be charged. Presently, some of them are residing in former Khmer Rouge strongholds while others are holding positions in the Royal [Cambodian] Armed Forces.
Up to now, Khmer Rouge tribunal’s officials have yet to request for a new budget to bring other people to justice, but instead it is looking for an extra fund to try the five currently detained former Khmer Rouge leaders.