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Khmer Rouge tribunal delayed

PHNOM PENH: Parliament will not begin debating a draft law on the Khmer Rouge tribunal on April 19, as promised last month by National Assembly President Prince Norodom Ranariddh, a senior official said on Wednesday.

"There are 27 articles in the Khmer Rouge draft law and as far as I know, only four articles have already been checked," Kol Pheng, secretary-general of the National Assembly, told Reuters.

He was unable to predict when the legislative committee would finish and pass the draft law on to parliament for debate.

Former prime minister Ranariddh insisted in March that debate on the law - which will determine how to try former Khmer Rouge leaders blamed for the 1975-79 "killing fields" that left some 1.7 million dead - would begin on April 19.

Prime Minister Hun Sen was scheduled to meet U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Wednesday in Havana, Cuba, where they are attending a summit of leaders of developing nations.

Annan told reporters on Tuesday that the two would discuss the establishment of a tribunal.

No leader of the Khmer Rouge has ever been brought to court. Notorious leader Pol Pot died in 1998 as government troops were closing in on his jungle hideout.-Reuters