Stooped from old age and disease, the four surviving leaders of Pol Pot’s communist revolution of 1975, which left perhaps 2 million people dead, at last entered the dock to stand trial at a special tribunal here on Monday. Facing charges of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide, they are accused of leaving this tiny nation in ruins after nearly four years of mass murder and enslavement with the greatest number of victims in any trial since the Third Reich.
But the court, created by the United Nations and Cambodian government in 2003, is marking what should be its greatest success amid the standing accusation that, as it brings some Khmer Rouge leaders to justice, it is also whitewashing other related investigations with little to no objection from the international community. The Open Society Justice Initiative, an organization monitoring the court has called for an investigation of judicial misconduct, saying judges have deliberately failed to investigate prosecutors’ allegations in other Khmer Rouge cases. UN officials continue to walk off the job in frustration, citing what one consultant called a “toxic atmosphere of mutual mistrust.”
