By Erika Kinetz
THE CAMBODIA DAILY
Next year, 100 Cambodian journalists will be able to prepare themselves to cover the Khmer Rouge tribunal through a $200,000 training program funded by the US government which has yet to give any money to the tribunal itself.
The program is the latest example of a longstanding US strategy: Support the Khmer Rouge tribunal, but from afar. Since the mid-1990s, the US has given about $8 million to the Yale Genocide Project and the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which research the Khmer Rouge regime, according to US Embassy spokesman Jeff Daigle.
In the last two years, US Congress has inched towards loosening its restrictions on aid for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. Previously, Congress has said that the secretary of state would have to certify that Cambodia's judiciary was competent and free of corruption and that the tribunal would meet international standards of justice before allowing direct US funding.
But in the budget for the 2006 fiscal year, Congress switched to a quieter sanction, moving its ban from the appropriations bill into the appropriations committee report, according to US Embassy officials. For the 2007 fiscal year budget, which has not yet been approved, no sanction on funding exists anywhere. However, still no money has been set aside for tribunal funding.
"While we are very supportive of the concept of the Khmer Rouge tribunal and the need for justice for the victims, as I've said many times before the only thing worse than no trial would be a trial that is a farce," US Ambassador Joseph Mussomeli said.
"Once we are convinced the trial has the right rules and has a good possibility for delivering justice, we will press even harder for direct funding," he added.
Other US officials also remain skeptical about the tribunal.
"My question is what is [Prime Minister] Hun Sen going to do to mess it up," one congressional staffer said from Washington on condition of anonymity. "We were skeptical and remain skeptical that justice will come of it," he added. "Cambodia doesn’t know what rule of law is."
Government spokesman and Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said Hun Sen and others in the government are not going to interfere with the tribunal process.
The tribunal's structure, with international judges and a supermajority voting system, will prevent untoward political influence, he said.
Supermajority voting means that Cambodian judges alone cannot control decision-making in the court, and that at least one foreign judge will have to agree with their decision.
"How can you interfere when there are international judges voting with a supermajority?" Khieu Kanharith asked.
"We can go ahead without American support," he added. "If they don't want to give the money, we don't care about that."
The $563 million tribunal still faces a budgetary shortfall of $4.9 million on the UN side and $2.9 million on the Cambodian side, according to tribunal officials.
Several NGOs have called attention to the lack of adequate funding for witness protection, outreach and a proposed unit to help protect victims and assist them in filing claims with the court.
"Of course if the US were to allow funds to be provided for the ECCC, they would be used," ECCC spokesman Peter Foster said.
"The exact use of those funds would be dependent on the terms under which the US decided to release them," he said.
The core of the US-funded journalism program, which is offered through the Internews organization, will consist of four half-day courses on Cambodia's judicial system, legal vocabulary, information access and Cambodian law, which will be offered four times over the course of next year.
Chea Vannath, former director of the Center for Social Development said that training journalists is a good thing, but added that there are other obstacles to a free and trustworthy press in Cambodia.
Personal safety is an issue for journalists who take on the rich and powerful and low salaries can encourage reporters to take bribes, she said.
"Even if they get the training, how they report the facts might be affected by their personal, political, or economic affiliations," she added.
The program is the latest example of a longstanding US strategy: Support the Khmer Rouge tribunal, but from afar. Since the mid-1990s, the US has given about $8 million to the Yale Genocide Project and the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which research the Khmer Rouge regime, according to US Embassy spokesman Jeff Daigle.
In the last two years, US Congress has inched towards loosening its restrictions on aid for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. Previously, Congress has said that the secretary of state would have to certify that Cambodia's judiciary was competent and free of corruption and that the tribunal would meet international standards of justice before allowing direct US funding.
But in the budget for the 2006 fiscal year, Congress switched to a quieter sanction, moving its ban from the appropriations bill into the appropriations committee report, according to US Embassy officials. For the 2007 fiscal year budget, which has not yet been approved, no sanction on funding exists anywhere. However, still no money has been set aside for tribunal funding.
"While we are very supportive of the concept of the Khmer Rouge tribunal and the need for justice for the victims, as I've said many times before the only thing worse than no trial would be a trial that is a farce," US Ambassador Joseph Mussomeli said.
"Once we are convinced the trial has the right rules and has a good possibility for delivering justice, we will press even harder for direct funding," he added.
Other US officials also remain skeptical about the tribunal.
"My question is what is [Prime Minister] Hun Sen going to do to mess it up," one congressional staffer said from Washington on condition of anonymity. "We were skeptical and remain skeptical that justice will come of it," he added. "Cambodia doesn’t know what rule of law is."
Government spokesman and Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said Hun Sen and others in the government are not going to interfere with the tribunal process.
The tribunal's structure, with international judges and a supermajority voting system, will prevent untoward political influence, he said.
Supermajority voting means that Cambodian judges alone cannot control decision-making in the court, and that at least one foreign judge will have to agree with their decision.
"How can you interfere when there are international judges voting with a supermajority?" Khieu Kanharith asked.
"We can go ahead without American support," he added. "If they don't want to give the money, we don't care about that."
The $563 million tribunal still faces a budgetary shortfall of $4.9 million on the UN side and $2.9 million on the Cambodian side, according to tribunal officials.
Several NGOs have called attention to the lack of adequate funding for witness protection, outreach and a proposed unit to help protect victims and assist them in filing claims with the court.
"Of course if the US were to allow funds to be provided for the ECCC, they would be used," ECCC spokesman Peter Foster said.
"The exact use of those funds would be dependent on the terms under which the US decided to release them," he said.
The core of the US-funded journalism program, which is offered through the Internews organization, will consist of four half-day courses on Cambodia's judicial system, legal vocabulary, information access and Cambodian law, which will be offered four times over the course of next year.
Chea Vannath, former director of the Center for Social Development said that training journalists is a good thing, but added that there are other obstacles to a free and trustworthy press in Cambodia.
Personal safety is an issue for journalists who take on the rich and powerful and low salaries can encourage reporters to take bribes, she said.
"Even if they get the training, how they report the facts might be affected by their personal, political, or economic affiliations," she added.
No comments:
Post a Comment