The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) yesterday ordered the arrest of the former Foreign Minister of the Khmer Rouge regime, Ieng Sary, for War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity and of his wife, Ieng Thirith (who was Minister for Social Affairs) for Crimes Against Humanity.
These arrests seem to mark an intensification of the prosecutorial process of the ECCC after a very slow start-up. The Washington Post reports that it seems that the arrests of Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith were two of the five promised in a recent statement by the tribunal.
Once the trials of these and other leaders of the former regime begin, Cambodians will finally have the opportunity to confront not only the evidence from the Khmer Rouge years, but also the killers themselves, who for so many years have managed to live quite well since the end of the civil war.