Debate will finally begin Friday on the much-delayed Khmer Rouge trial draft law, National Assembly President Prince Norodom Ranariddh said Tuesday.
He said debate was supposed to start Tuesday, but had to be rescheduled because Cabinet Minister Sok An is out of the country.
Government leaders said the law, which sets up procedures for a UN-sanctioned tribunal on former Khmer Rouge leaders, would be passed by the end of the year.
And although it appears unlikely that deadline can be met, officials said Tuesday they will not miss it by much. An official with the US Embassy, which has been instrumental in pushing the draft toward completion, also said Tuesday the government appears to be on schedule.
Lawmakers from all three political parties represented in the legislature said they think the draft law will pass quickly.
As far as Funcinpec is concerned, “There will be few or perhaps no changes in the bill,” Prince Ranariddh, the party’s leader, said.
Opposition party leader Sam Rainsy said his party would not be the one to slow things down. “The Sam Rainsy Party supports the whole law and agreement 100 percent,” he said. “We will not change even one word in the law.”
He said he was very happy the draft finally will be debated, saying it will “send a strong signal to the culture of impunity in Cambodia and to the powerful, who have a bad habit of killing people.”
Ek Sam Ol, a leading member of the dominant CPP, said debate should go smoothly if the Sam Rainsy Party means what it says.
The CPP, he said, “will raise no objection to the law.”
Prince Ranariddh said the legislators are so committed to moving quickly that they are prepared to continue working through the scheduled recess that begins Jan 16, if necessary.
By that time, the prince said, they should be done with the Khmer Rouge law and well into the commune elections draft law. “We can have a shorter holiday so we can begin this important law,” he said.
