A team of United Nations experts was in Cambodia Sunday to lay the groundwork for the long-awaited genocide trial of Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge henchmen, held responsible for the deaths of 1.7 million people. After six years of tortuous negotiations and delays, the U.N. says a trial in “extraordinary” joint Cambodian and international courts of Khmer Rouge leaders such as “Brother Number Two” Nuon Chea should be under way within 12 months. “Both the United Nations and the Royal Government of Cambodia are starting from the assumption that the extraordinary chambers will be operational in 2004,” Karsten Herrel, head of the five-strong trial organizing team, told a news conference. The ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge unleashed a four-year reign of terror on Cambodia in the 1970s as their dream of turning the jungle-clad country into an agrarian utopia turned into the nightmare of the “Killing Fields.” Full Story
About OODA Analyst
OODA is comprised of a unique team of international experts capable of providing advanced intelligence and analysis, strategy and planning support, risk and threat management, training, decision support, crisis response, and security services to global corporations and governments.