TONY EASTLEY: A long awaited war crimes tribunal to punish surviving members of Pol Pot's genocidal regime in Cambodia may be a reality in the next few weeks. Up to two million people died during the reign of the Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1979.

The trials have been delayed by an eleven-month stand off over the formation of a new government but at the weekend Cambodia's two main parties finally reached a power sharing deal.

South East Asia Correspondent Peter Lloyd reports.

PETER LLOYD: In the mountains of Anlong Veng, about three hundred kilometres north-west of Phnom Penh, workers have begun turning Pol Pot's grave site into a tourist resort with hotel, casino and duty free shop.

The dictator escaped retribution in 1998 by dying in the jungle where he'd been hiding since his regime was toppled. At the workers' current rate of progress, Cambodia will have a Pol Pot theme park long before it has the Khmer Rouge trials.

The dictator's zealous followers put down their guns years ago. These days the town of Pailin, the regime's last stronghold, echoes to the clapping and singing of ex-revolutionaries celebrating their conversion to Christianity.

Most of local warlords who were among Pol Pot's most senior henchmen are still alive and still at large, but they haven't found God or reason for regret.

A few months back this was the chilling reaction of Pol Pot's number two, Noun Chea, to the notion that he'd have to explain himself in Court.

NOUN CHEA: I did nothing that harmed my country and my people.

PETER LLOYD: Other regime leaders are taking what western diplomats in Phnom Penh laughingly call the Sargent Shultz defence.

KHIEU SAMPHAN: Let bygones by bygones.

PETER LLOYD: That's former head of state, Khieu Samphan, who is the first senior regime leader to admit atrocities happened but also contends that he knew nothing. While there is no shortage of documentary evidence, the defendants are now old men and time is of the essence.

While the political bickering has been going on, the United Nations has been working quietly in the background to establish war crimes tribunal architecture, such as securing a budget, establishing a secretariat and a venue for the trials.

Australia has given more than one million dollars to help the process along and it could still be asked to supply judicial muscle to the international tribunal. But right now what's required is something simple ・the convening of the Cambodian Parliament and the passing of a law that gives legal legitimacy to a process that victims have been waiting for, for almost a generation.

This is Peter Lloyd reporting for AM.