Original report from Phnom Penh
25 October 2007
Foreign Minister Hor Namhong made an appeal to donor countries Thursday for more money to run the Khmer Rouge tribunal, saying the process was running "smoothly" but more funds were needed to keep things that way.
More arrests are imminent, Hor Namhong told reporters outside the Foreign Ministry, adding that the process could go through 2010, an extended time period for which no budget currently exists.
"The lack of funds is not so much, it is somewhat small, and I hope that the international community will contribute to the funds," he said.
Tribunal observers said earlier this week they expect a third Khmer Rouge leader to be brought before the tribunal courts in coming days, though the identity of the defendant has not been released.
Those widely suspected of being under tribunal investigation include Ieng Sary, the former foreign minister of Democratic Kampuchea, and Khieu Samphan, the former nominal head of the regime.
The tribunal struggled through its first year, failing to indict a single Khmer Rouge leader, as Cambodian jurists and their UN-appointed counterparts debated internal rules for the process. Critics have since warned the tribunal could exceed its own time-limit and budget. The tribunal has also come under fire from critics for a lack of transparency in its administration and staff hiring practices.
US Ambassador Joseph Mussomeli said Thursday the US would be reluctant to contribute to the tribunal if it is not made more transparent.
"We are now, in Washington and here, seriously assessing whether the United States should directly fund the Khmer [Rouge] tribunal," he said.
Hor Namhong said the tribunal was now moving forward, and he anticipated no further problems.
"I believe that in the future, there will be summons or the arrests of other top Khmer Rouge leaders, like Nuon Chea recently, so the procedure is going smoothly, and there will be no other problems," he said.
"The lack of funds is not important," Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, said. "The important thing is the court's implementation."
Donors were not happy with the misuse of funds and allegations around the administration of the courts, he said.
"All of this leads to delay, not the budget," he said.
If the tribunal carries forward more than its mandated years, international standards could be comprised, Hisham Mousar, a legal expert for the rights group Adhoc said. "It is a loss to the Khmer Rouge tribunal."
More arrests are imminent, Hor Namhong told reporters outside the Foreign Ministry, adding that the process could go through 2010, an extended time period for which no budget currently exists.
"The lack of funds is not so much, it is somewhat small, and I hope that the international community will contribute to the funds," he said.
Tribunal observers said earlier this week they expect a third Khmer Rouge leader to be brought before the tribunal courts in coming days, though the identity of the defendant has not been released.
Those widely suspected of being under tribunal investigation include Ieng Sary, the former foreign minister of Democratic Kampuchea, and Khieu Samphan, the former nominal head of the regime.
The tribunal struggled through its first year, failing to indict a single Khmer Rouge leader, as Cambodian jurists and their UN-appointed counterparts debated internal rules for the process. Critics have since warned the tribunal could exceed its own time-limit and budget. The tribunal has also come under fire from critics for a lack of transparency in its administration and staff hiring practices.
US Ambassador Joseph Mussomeli said Thursday the US would be reluctant to contribute to the tribunal if it is not made more transparent.
"We are now, in Washington and here, seriously assessing whether the United States should directly fund the Khmer [Rouge] tribunal," he said.
Hor Namhong said the tribunal was now moving forward, and he anticipated no further problems.
"I believe that in the future, there will be summons or the arrests of other top Khmer Rouge leaders, like Nuon Chea recently, so the procedure is going smoothly, and there will be no other problems," he said.
"The lack of funds is not important," Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, said. "The important thing is the court's implementation."
Donors were not happy with the misuse of funds and allegations around the administration of the courts, he said.
"All of this leads to delay, not the budget," he said.
If the tribunal carries forward more than its mandated years, international standards could be comprised, Hisham Mousar, a legal expert for the rights group Adhoc said. "It is a loss to the Khmer Rouge tribunal."
4 comments:
Why does it take so much time and money?
95% of the criminals are the KR members and Sihanouk between 1975 and 1976.
After 1975, I saw they killed unarmed khmer soldiers by thousands.
All khmer soldiers were killed.
The criminals at that time was certainly the vietcong soldier and the Pol Pot's army.
As most Khmers and some foreigners know that vietcongs intruded Cambodia since 1946 intending to make Cambodia fall into Indo-China confederations system controlling by hochimin.
According to one of many sources from south vietnam(KHMER)said that in 1946 hochimin orderd his secret servant soldiers to kidnap several dozen of vietnamese's babies brought into vietcongs compound and taught them Khmer and vietnam language and some Khmer cultures until they grown up then hochimin secretly sent them out into Cambodia to seek the revenges in Cambodia as their leaders told them that they are Cambodians but their parents got kill by Cambodian people.
Those several dozen are multiplied to a couple hundreds working secretly in Cambodia with one command directly from hanoi.Some of those vietcongs were working in Cambodia authority and some were working in the remote regions, their communications not allow to have in Cambodia,all the secret messages have to gone through the headquarter in hanoi.Some that were working inside each regime their duties are to make elite government
official divided and do all kind of corruptions and the one in the remote rural to hate the authority.
Dear brothers and sisters..It's clear that almost 2 millions lives of Cambodian were destroy by those intruders,1979 they signalized to hanoi to invade Cambodia because Cambodia was in serious trauma and now they still continue to kill us again in a modern ways by swifting those intruders who secretly work for POL POT changed to cpp government,every important ministries are intruders that why Cambodia now is going down hill by corruptions exploding all over the country,more than that they intimidate and chasing investor to vietnam.
Khmer rouge trial is in vietcongs and cpp's hands,not in U.N's hand that why they always find the ways to delay the trial until the living witness can't talk any more like ho chi hong said no money for the trial when there no witnes the trial will go on.This is the viets trick the U.N should learn quickly otherwise they always on top of law.
LOL, hahaha, LOL source from south Vietnam (ancient Ah Khmer Youn land) stated Ho Chin Minh order to capture Vietnames to train to be Khmer, hahaha, LOL, hahaha.
We all know who those who those agent are, idiot. Stop embarrassing yourself.
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