DPA
Phnom Penh - The tribunal set up to try surviving leaders of Cambodia's disastrous Khmer Rouge reign will be bankrupt by September without a new cash injection, officials said Friday.
Up to 2 million Cambodians perished under the 1975-79 regime and victims have waited nearly 30 years for justice up to an international standard, but although five former leaders have been arrested by the court, hearings are yet to commence.
Originally budgeted at 56 million dollars, UN and Cambodian representatives of the joint UN-Cambodia tribunal told a press conference Friday that it needed at least 117 million dollars more to continue past September.
'We hope and believe the international community will help,' government tribunal coordinator Sean Visoth said at a Friday press conference.
It was unclear what would happen to the elderly defendants currently in jail awaiting trial if the money does not appear, but they also face civil cases over their alleged crimes.
Due a post-war baby boom, most Cambodians were born after the Khmer Rouge era and allegations of graft, corruption and money problems within the court have shaken local confidence in the legal proceedings.
Due to Cold War politics, the United Nations recognized many of the five currently detained as legitimate leaders of the country until the end of the 1980s rather than the Vietnamese-backed government which overthrew them, further undermining local confidence in the process in some quarters.
Up to 2 million Cambodians perished under the 1975-79 regime and victims have waited nearly 30 years for justice up to an international standard, but although five former leaders have been arrested by the court, hearings are yet to commence.
Originally budgeted at 56 million dollars, UN and Cambodian representatives of the joint UN-Cambodia tribunal told a press conference Friday that it needed at least 117 million dollars more to continue past September.
'We hope and believe the international community will help,' government tribunal coordinator Sean Visoth said at a Friday press conference.
It was unclear what would happen to the elderly defendants currently in jail awaiting trial if the money does not appear, but they also face civil cases over their alleged crimes.
Due a post-war baby boom, most Cambodians were born after the Khmer Rouge era and allegations of graft, corruption and money problems within the court have shaken local confidence in the legal proceedings.
Due to Cold War politics, the United Nations recognized many of the five currently detained as legitimate leaders of the country until the end of the 1980s rather than the Vietnamese-backed government which overthrew them, further undermining local confidence in the process in some quarters.
9 comments:
there shouldn't be any obstacle to the KR trial at all. if there is, it's all man-made and ought to be corrected expeditiously. where is the justice for the KR victims and the rest of cambodian people to suffered unimaginably under the KR and its aftermath.
Just remove CPP and install a new Cambodian government....that's all we need!
Khmer
I HAD SEX WITH HUN SEN LAST NIGHT!
I dont know why soes it take so much time to judge these KR killers .
We cant wait 1 or 2 years more because the criminals and the victims can die at any time.
The KR trial funds are being extremely mismanaged and are going into the pockets of those corrupt officials. I hope the world community can see through this and realise that the Cambodian government officials as well as most who are appointed by them ARE THE KHMER ROUGE. Obviously Vietnam also doesn't want this trial to go because it can mean that sensative infomration could be releaved.
There is always obstacle because those in the present government are themselve former KR cadres.
Those arrested for the trial will eventually die from old age anyway if this tribunal keeps on dragging for whatever reasons...money, staff just to name a few. This pattern of delay happens all the time throughout the KRT.
The KR prefers that their crimes against their fellow Khmers remained unsolved. It seems they will get their wishes.
So much for justice.
Wrong, there is no former KR member in the UN side of the ECCC.
kr members in the government guy.
the reason is that they want to get more moneys and have no intention to find justice at all.
a mong them in government there are
kr officails themselves.
Wrong, we want to give justice to all, but gorilla blocked us from doing so by insisting on the stupid international standard crap from the west.
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