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Tribunal Judges Meet To Review Rules


International and local judges met separately Friday to review rules for a Khmer Rouge tribunal.

United Nations-appointed judges met in Bangkok, while Cambodian judges met in Phnom Penh, to review 113 internal rules for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.

The internal rules are necessary to bridge the differences between Cambodian legal procedures and needs specific to the joint tribunal, which seeks to prosecute leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime.

"We would like to see that they proceed immediately, and [with a court] up to international standards," Seng Theary, executive director of Center for Social Development, said at a national reconciliation forum in Siem Reap Friday. Seng Theary lost both her parents under the Khmer Rouge."

There was a failure before, and I'm afraid of a second failure, in which case the international judges might withdraw and the Khmer Rouge trial will not proceed," Sam Rainsy Party legislator Son Chhay said.

The Cambodian government was partly responsible for delays, he said.

Disagreement between Cambodian and international judges over technicalities in the tribunal has stalled the process, prompting a special session to help the sides compromise.

All the judges will come together again in Phnom Penh to discuss the internal rules further from March 7 to March 16, an ECCC spokesman said.

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