A Trial but No Justice

Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge leader who organized the slaughter of more than a million fellow Cambodians between 1975 and 1979, has been denounced by his former comrades, tried and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Maybe.

The authenticity of the two-hour show trial that a Western journalist was allowed to videotape remains open to question. It has been 18 years since Pol Pot was last seen by outsiders. The seemingly weak and ailing figure seen on the videotape appears to be the now 69-year-old author of the insane purge that destroyed Cambodia’s institutions and eradicated almost all of its educated elite along with many others. But even if the lead character in this drama staged in a jungle clearing is real, there is no certainty that the event depicted was genuine.

Why mount such a sham? For one thing, to try to convince Cambodians and everyone else that the Khmer Rouge has acted to purify itself by removing the man most responsible for the greatest genocide since World War II. For another, to try to fend off pressures to have Pol Pot turned over to an international tribunal to face charges of crimes against humanity. A Khmer Rouge statement issued after the trial said he would not be handed over to any international body. This assures that Pol Pot won’t have the opportunity to implicate those who were complicitous in the genocide. It similarly assures that Pol Pot will now once again disappear from sight.

Coincidentally or not, all this suits the purposes of the significant number of Cambodian officials who were once associated with the Khmer Rouge regime. Foremost among them is Hun Sen, who seized power in a coup earlier this month. Hun Sen is eager to win international legitimacy. The United States has let it be known he can help his cause by seeing to it that Pol Pot is handed over for trial. There’s no reason to think that will happen. Pol Pot, disgraced or not, still lives, Hun Sen rules and the cries for justice that come from the graves of the Khmer Rouge’s victims seem destined to go unanswered.