pp518_03_99.jpg

THE United Nations legal experts recommendations include putting former leaders on trial and investigating the possibility of reparations for former victims, according to a partial copy of the report obtained by the Post.

The documents consist of what the three experts - Sir Ninian Stephen from Australia, Rajsoomer Lallah from Mauritius and American Steve Ratner - regarded as their 10 recommendations of "most importance".

• The United Nations establish an ad hoc international tribunal to try Khmer Rouge officials for crimes against humanity and genocide committed from April 17, 1975, to January 7, 1979.
• The independent prosecutor appointed by the United Nations limits his or her investigations to those persons most responsible for the most serious violations of international human rights law at the same time using their discretion to "fully take into account the twin goals of individual accountability and national reconciliation in Cambodia.
• That the Security Council establish this tribunal or, should it not do so, that the General Assembly establish it.
• That the tribunal comprise two trial chambers and an appellate chamber, and that the United Nations actively seek to include on the tribunal a Cambodian national whom it believes is qualified, impartial and appropriate.
• Use the same prosecutor as was used for the Yugoslavia and Rwanda war crimes tribunals, but also bring in a special deputy prosecutor especially for this trial.
• The tribunal, including the office of the Deputy Prosecutor, be established in a state in the Asia-Pacific region but not in Cambodia; that the Prosecutor establish an investigations office in Cambodia; and that the United Nations, in cooperation with the government of Cambodia, arrange for the unfettered dissemination of the proceedings in Cambodia by radio and television.
• That the full panel of judges appointed by the United Nations not commence full-time service until a least some indictees have been arrested.
• That the Untied Nations undertake special measures for the protection of physical evidence and of witnesses as necessary, and that states with evidence and witnesses on their territory make them available to the Prosecutor.
• That the tribunal established provide for the possibility of reparations by defendants to victims, including through a Trust Fund or some other special fund, and that states holding such assets arrange for their transfer to the tribunal as required to meet the defendants' obligations in this regard.
• That the United Nations, in cooperation with the Cambodian government and non-governmental sector, encourage a process of reflection among Cambodians to determine the desirability and, if appropriate, the modalities of a truth-telling mechanism to provide a fuller picture of the atrocities of the period of Democratic Kampuchea.