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Cambodia to Try Khmer Rouge Leaders Without UN Help VOA News 9 Feb 2002 06:24 UTC 
Cambodia says it will go ahead with war-crimes trials for the country's former Khmer Rouge rulers without U.N. assistance. The United Nations ended more than four years of negotiations Friday and said it was withdrawing from an effort to convene an international war-crimes court for Cambodia. U.N. counsel Hans Corell says the United Nations pulled out of the project because the court's objectivity, impartiality, and independence could not be guaranteed. U.N. officials say they refused a Cambodian request that Phnom Penh should determine the rules governing U.N. assistance to the court. Khmer Rouge rule in Cambodia was relatively brief -- less than four years (from 1975 to 1979) -- but marked by brutality. Leaders of the Khmer Rouge are blamed for the deaths of up to one-point-seven million people. Most Khmer Rouge troops eventually defected or surrendered. The militia's leaders were arrested after Cambodia's monarchy was restored in 1993. The proposed trial is a controversial issue in Cambodia. Some analysts have expressed concern the move could plunge the country into civil war.
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