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PAILIN, Cambodia: Judges from Cambodia's genocide tribunal met on Tuesday for the first time with former Khmer Rouge rebels in one of their last strongholds to urge them to cooperate with the UN-backed court.
Although the court's mandate allows it to try only the most senior Khmer Rouge leaders, many lower-ranking cadres suspect they could be prosecuted for atrocities committed by the regime, which seized control of Cambodia in 1975.
"We hope our meeting will help clear up any misunderstanding about our mission in order to convince them to give evidence in future trials," said judge You Bunleng.
"The court cannot implement its task without their support and involvement," he said before meeting with government and security officials – many of whom were once Khmer Rouge members – in western Cambodia's Pailin region.
Pailin was one of the final refuges of the brutal regime which was driven out of power in 1979. Soldiers and officials fled to the remote region to regroup and try and battle the new government.
Judges and other tribunal officials will on Wednesday meet with villagers, many of whom were also members of the communist movement, at the end of their brief visit to the remote region.
Up to two million people died of starvation, disease and overwork, or were executed under the Khmer Rouge, which emptied Cambodia's cities, exiling millions to vast collective farms in a bid to forge an agrarian utopia.
Schools, religion and currency were also outlawed and the educated classes targeted for extermination by the communists.
Five regime heads have been detained so far on war crimes and crimes against humanity charges, and tribunal officials have not ruled out more arrests.
Pailin governor and former Khmer Rouge cadre Y Chhean said it would be up to individual ex-rebels whether to cooperate with the court's efforts to gather evidence.
The tribunal was established in July 2006 after nearly a decade of negotiations between Cambodia and the United Nations, with trials expected to begin in mid-2008.
- AFP/so
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