The UN Secretary-General's special representative on human rights in Cambodia has arrived in the country for a ten-day visit. The senior official, Thomas Hammerberg, who will be meeting government officials, will again press his concerns over the lack of progress in addressing human-rights violations which he has said could prove a serious impediment to holding elections which would be considered free and fair. He told reporters that he was also pressing ahead with plans to appoint a three-person team of experts to evaluate evidence of crimes committed under the Khmer Rouge regime to see whether a genocide trial could take place. He said failure to prosecute those who'd committed atrocities would remain a serious wound in the country's body politic. Caroline Gluck reports from Phnom Penh:

Mr Hammerberg's visit is one of his regular fact-finding missions to Cambodia and his investigations will form part of his twice-yearly report to the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva. But on this visit, coming just six months before the country's general elections, Mr Hammerberg will forcefully press home his concern at the lack of progress made by the government in investigating serious human-rights abuses, including a grenade attack on a rally outside the national parliament in March in which at least 16 people were killed and the extrajudicial killings of at least 45 supporters of deposed co-Premier Prince Norodom Ranariddh following the fighting in July.

Mr Hammerberg told reporters that lack of investigation and prosecution into these incidents would have a severe impact on the possibility of having a free and fair atmosphere for the coming elections. In September the government promised it would set up a commission of investigation into the July killings, but to date the body has never met.

During part of his visit, Mr Hammerberg will be accompanying the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, who arrives in Cambodia for four days on Thursday. She will be seeking, among other things, to renew an agreement with the government for the UN Centre for Human Rights to continue its work in the country.