UN seeks Khmer tribunal changes

The Pol Pot regime killed up to 1.7 million

The United Nations has asked for some revisions in a draft Cambodian law which would set up a court to try leaders of the 1970s Khmer Rouge regime for alleged war crimes.

UN spokesman Fred Eckhard did not give any details of what the revisions were, although he said they had substantive implications.

And US President Bill Clinton's special envoy David Scheffer, who has been dispatched to Phnom Penh to discuss the legislation, said that the creation of the tribunal was achievable despite reservations.

PM Hun Sen: Expects the tribunal to be working this year

The new tribunal, which is based on US proposals, involved a compromise in which both Cambodian and foreign prosecutors and judges jointly indict defendants and reach verdicts.

The foreign judges would be a minority, but would hold the power of veto over decisions.

The Cambodian National Assembly passed the bill setting up the tribunal earlier this month.

The bill is now being debated in the Senate and will then require the signatures of the Constitutional Council and the king to become law.

Thirty suspects

Once the new law is adopted, there will be a new round of negotiations with the UN.

Then the process of setting up the court can begin. Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Wednesday that he expected it to be working sometime this year.

Pol Pot led the Khmer Rouge's reign of terror

The first suspects to face trial have yet to be named, but the Khmer Rouge is held responsible for around 1.7 million deaths during the Pol Pot regime in 1975-79.

It is thought that up to 30 men, many in their 70s, could be brought before the tribunal.

One of Pol Pot's most ruthless commanders, Ta Mok - nicknamed "The Butcher" - and chief executioner Kang Kek Ieu are being held in jail pending trial.

Pol Pot himself died in his jungle hideout in 1998.

Khmer Rouge leaders

Pol Pot: Died in 1998

Ta Mok: The Butcher, captured and awaiting trial

Kang Kek: Chief executioner, in jail awaiting trial

Ieng Sary: Foreign minister, pardoned

Nuon Chea: Chief political theorist and "Brother Number Two", at liberty

Khieu Samphan: Public apologist, at liberty

The basic shape of the tribunals was agreed by Cambodia and the United Nations in April, after nearly a year of talks.

The Khmer Rouge took power with their brutal form of radical communism in 1975, declaring it Year Zero and forcing millions to work on the land, in what became the country's "killing fields".

Pol Pot ruled until January 1979, by which time hundreds of thousands of people had died and the country's economy and infrastructure lay in ruins.