With the trial of three Khmer Rouge leaders now underway in Phnom Penh, the UN's envoy for human rights says the court is sending a message.
"Everybody who has committed atrocities, one day should be answerable to the public, to the international community," Surya Suedi, UN special rapporteur for human rights in Cambodia, told VOA Khmer.
The court is currently trying Khmer Rouge leaders Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan and Ieng Sary for atrocity crimes including genocide in a landmark trial that was years in the making.
In an exclusive interview, Subedi said the trial is symbolic.
"Even if it's later, it is better to bring them to justice and have everything out in the public domain so people know, the future generations will know, if you commit crimes, international crimes, one day the long arm of the law will reach you and you will be held accountable for the atrocities you have committed," he said.
Subedi spoke to VOA Khmer after he was a guest speaker for a conference on the Paris Peace Accords in Berkeley, California. (VOA Khmer's Sok Khemara reports)
Stay informed:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/109289307331230505852/
I lived in KR era, I had seen Khmer people took another khmer people to bamboo trees and killed them...They are not Vietnames,..they were Khmer...
If you had a brother about teenager, either they killed him or he would killed other...this is the fact..live through it..
KoCh627 1 month ago
What did the PM think would happen if more former KR officials called on trial?
sopheak222 2 months ago