Cambodian and UN negotiators unveiled the text of their new draft accord for a Khmer Rouge tribunal on Wednesday in Phnom Penh and Tuesday in New York, with both sides urging that it be promptly approved.
“I hope the [UN] General Assembly will act so quickly that it will entice local Cambodian authorities to act just as quickly,” UN legal counsel Hans Corell said at the world body, The Associated Press reported.
Both the UN Assembly and the Cambodian legislature must approve the text, initialed by the negotiators Monday in a move hailed as a breakthrough after nearly six years of wrangling.
“If [the agreement] is not ratified, then that was the last chance” to bring the aging senior leaders of the genocidal regime to justice, Corell said.
Minister of Cabinet Sok An also asked UN member states to support the accord, which he hailed as a precedent for international law and the Cambodian judiciary.
Sok An told reporters at the Council of Ministers that the UN Assembly was scheduled to debate the agreement next month and that he and UN negotiators were confident of passage.
He said Cambodia would wait for UN approval before calling on the National Assembly to debate ratification. He did not say why Cambodia would not make the first move. The text of the agreement does not require one side to act before the other.
However, Sok An said Cambodia will now begin legal analysis of the agreement, whose ratification will require amending Cambodian law, as well as logistical preparations for the hoped-for trial—budgeting, finding office space and selecting potential trial personnel.
He would not say how much the tribunal would cost, but did say that it would not cost as much as the ones being conducted for Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
Several nations welcomed the agreement, a positive sign for its chances at the General Assembly. On Tuesday in Belgium, EU Foreign Policy Envoy Javier Solana called it “an important step forwards for both the government and people of Cambodia, as well as for the wider international community,” Agence France-Presse reported.
France’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also issued a statement “rejoicing” at the accord.
“For its part, France is committed to fully doing its part toward the establishment of this tribunal,” it stated.
