June 24, 2008
Cambodian Khmer Rouge trial still US$43.8m short:
officials
PHNOM PENH - KHMER ROUGE tribunal officials said on Tuesday they were optimistic that
those guilty of crimes against humanity would face trial in Cambodia despite a 43.8-milliondollar (S$59.9 million) funding shortfall.
Court officials met with international backers last week in New York and presented a budget that
required at least 50.3 million dollars extra to continue their operations until December 2009.
So far, only Japan has come forward with significant new funds.
'We are quite optimistic that there will be contributions from donor countries,' Sean Visoth,
director of administration for the court, told reporters.
If trials of the five Khmer Rouge officials currently detained go on longer than expected or if
more people are prosecuted, court officials said the budget could swell to 105 million dollars,
with cases running to December 2010.
'The money is not going to come easily. We have to work for the money,' said Knut Rosandhaug,
deputy director of administration for the court.
Donors have appeared hesitant to give more cash to the court after allegations of mismanagement
and political interference.
Japan agreed last week to donate nearly three million dollars and there are some outstanding
original pledges, but court officials were seeking much more in a meeting with donors last
Friday.
The tribunal, which opened in 2006 after nearly a decade of wrangling between the United
Nations and Cambodia, was originally budgeted at 56.3 million dollars over three years.
Once in operation, the tribunal significantly raised its cost estimates to more than 100 million
dollars.
Court officials said they expect the trial of former Khmer Rouge jailer Duch, whose real name is
Kaing Guek Eav, to start in September.
The United Nations this year announced that an audit showed no financial mismanagement.
But last year, the New York-based Open Society Justice Initiative alleged that Cambodian
tribunal staff, including judges, had bought their jobs.
Up to two million people died of starvation and overwork, or were executed as the communist
Khmer Rouge dismantled modern Cambodian society in a bid to forge an agrarian utopia during
its 1975-1979 rule. -- AFP
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