This is part of the Global Issues Lecture Series: Perspectives of Conflict: Congo, Sudan, Cambodia

Sopheada Phy, Visiting H.J. Heinz Company Foundation Scholar

After more than three decades since the demise of the so-called genocidal Khmer Rouge regime in 1979 in Cambodia, real justice for victims of the massacre still remains elusive even though the Khmer Rouge tribunal, which was established in 2006, has been in the process of prosecuting the senior leaders and those most responsible. The time for justice is running out as senior Khmer Rouge leaders are aging and some have passed away, while others believed to be involved with the Khmer Rouge have not been tried and/or are out of jurisdiction of the tribunal. It is argued that justice being served by the existing Khmer Rouge tribunal is in jeopardy due to a poor design of the tribunal and the challenges of the trials. In addition to the lengthy delay of establishing the Khmer Rouge tribunal, the loopholes in the statute of the court and the burdensome legal and political environments ensure that injustice and trauma would possibly go unanswered, while impunity would probably prevail.