In September 1978 , Schwebel , acting as Deputy Adviser to the U.S. Department of State , sought accountability for the mass executions committed by the Khmer Rouge . Schwebel wrote the U.K. Foreign Office about the possibility of instituting proceedings against Cambodia before the International Court of Justice for genocide . Although Schwebel suggested a basis for the proceedings should be the Genocide Convention , he acknowledged that proceedings of a case against Cambodia based on the convention were not well founded . Schwebel stated that the atrocities had apparently not been aimed at destroying , in whole or in part , a " national , ethnical , racial or religious group , " as defined by the Genocide Convention , but rather those whom the Cambodian authorities deemed to be politically unsympathetic . The UK concurred with Schwebel 's concerns by stating that it felt arguments against instituting proceedings were too strong and that the criterion for the atrocities appeared to be the political attitude ( or assumed attitude ) by the Cambodian government
mass executions
Cambodian genocide
Stephen M. Schwebel