Human Rights Watch called today for the prosecution of Khmer Rouge leader Ta Mok, 72, before an independent international tribunal. On March 6, Cambodian officials arrested the seventy-two-year-old guerrilla and transferred him to the military prosecutor's prison of the Phnom Penh Military Court. Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith has said that Prime Minister Hun Sen wants Ta Mok tried in a Cambodian court under Cambodian law, rather than before an international tribunal.
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Ta Mok will never receive a fair trial in a Cambodian court, nor is a trial in Cambodia likely to bring out the full truth about how the Khmer Rouge operated. The lack of independence and professionalism of the Cambodian courts is one of the primary reasons an international tribunal is needed for the Khmer Rouge.
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Human Rights Watch recommends that Cambodian officials hold Ta Mok under Cambodian law pending the creation of an international tribunal, and then hand him over for an internationally-sponsored trial.
Human Rights Watch noted that Cambodian government officials themselves have acknowledged the country's lack of capacity to bring the Khmer Rouge to justice. In June 1997, Cambodia's then-First Prime Minister Norodom Ranariddh and then-Second Prime Minister Hun Sen requested assistance from the United Nations in bringing the Khmer Rouge to justice, stating in a letter to the Secretary General, "Cambodia does not have the resources or expertise to conduct this very important procedure."
Born Ek Choeun and also known as Chhit Choeun, Ta Mok served as Secretary of the Southwest Zone of the Communist Party of Kampuchea as well as Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Khmer Rouge. He was the third highest-ranking member of the Khmer Rouge military chain of command (after Pol Pot and Son Sen, both of whom are now dead), and also figured prominently in the Khmer Rouge political chain of command.
