A breakthrough in efforts to try surviving Khmer Rouge leaders for the deaths of up to 2 million people emerged yesterday with the UN holding out an olive branch to the Cambodian government.
A breach in the four-month impasse followed an offer by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to re-open tribunal talks if he receives a mandate from the UN Security Council or the General Assembly.
Government officials, tribunal advocates and diplomats welcomed the offer signaling justice might yet be found for those who perished under Pol Pot's 1975 to 1979 regime through alleged genocide and starvation.
"I think that this is a fresh opening after a long delay," said Prince Norodom Ranariddh, head of the royalist FUNCINPEC party.
The offer came in a letter to Prime Minister Hun Sen and was made public by Annan as the UN's top human rights chief, Mary Robinson, arrived here.
Senior diplomats were hopeful the offer would end bitterness between Phnom Penh and the UN, sparked on Feb. 8 when the UN broke-off four years of negotiations with the Cambodian government aimed at staging a trial.
Then, the UN cited this country's inability to hold objective and impartial hearings. But it later emerged the chief sticking point centered around who would ultimately control the trial process, Cambodia or the UN.
Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which has spent seven years compiling evidence of atrocities committed by the ultra-Maoists, welcomed the decision saying only China posed a potential obstacle.
"It's the kind of gesture that's creating a position to collaborate so it's a positive step but now it's up to the government to take action and seek that mandate and convince the UN that they are serious," he said.
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