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Groups seek speedier Khmer trial

Cambodian Buddhist nuns march to the Khmer Rouge Tribunal headquarters in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, yesterday. Some 600 protesters, including Buddhist nuns and Cambodian Muslims, marched in the capital yesterday to urge a speedier trial for former leaders of the murderous Khmer Rouge. PHOTO: AP

More than 600 Buddhist monks and nuns, as well as Muslim leaders, marched to Cambodia's UN-backed genocide tribunal yesterday to demand speedier trials of Khmer Rouge cadre.

The group marched silently to the courthouse, with the clergy in white robes, carrying banners that read "reconciliation" and "the tribunal is a remedy for the cycle of vengeance."

"We are marching because we want peace and justice to be rendered in the Khmer Rouge cases," Buddhist nun Chou Salean said.

"We want the court to speed up the prosecutions because we have been waiting for nearly 30 years," said the 60-year-old woman, who said she lost seven relatives under the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s.

Many of the nuns said they had hoped to see the five suspects who have been arrested by the tribunal.

"The marchers support the court. The court will try its best to respond to the demands of the victims under the regime," said tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath, who greeted the march.

As many as 2 million people died of starvation and overwork or were executed under the Khmer Rouge.

The Khmer Rouge emptied Cambodia's cities, exiling millions to vast collective farms in a bid to forge an agrarian utopia during its rule.

Established in July last year after nearly a decade of negotiations between Cambodia and the UN, the joint Cambodian-UN tribunal seeks to prosecute crimes committed by senior Khmer Rouge leaders.

Five top Khmer Rouge leaders have been detained to face charges for crimes committed by the regime's brutal 1975 to 1979 rule. Trials are expected to begin in the middle of next year.

All the defendants claim to be suffering from serious health ailments, causing concern among those hoping to find justice for Cambodia's genocide victims before the alleged perpetrators die.
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