Australia offers more funds for Khmer Rouge trial

The Clown by Sacrava

July 13, 2012
Australia Network News

Australia has announced it's providing an additional $1.4 million to help finance the trials of three Khmer Rouge leaders.

Pol Pot's Head of State Khieu Samphan, Foreign Minister Ieng Sary and 'Brother number two' Nuon Chea are facing charges of genocide and crimes against humanity, arising from their involvement in the starvation, torture and murder.

The Khmer Rouge is blamed for the deaths of at least 1.7 million people between 1975 and 1979.

The trials are the first genocide cases to be conducted in the country where the alleged offences occurred, since the Nuremberg Trials following World War Two.

Bob Carr needs new glasses?

Cambodia is plagued by unrest from forced evictions: an example of political stability cited by Bob Carr???

Australian FM hails Cambodia for rapid growth, political stability

PHNOM PENH, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr on Monday praised Cambodia for its rapid economic growth in recent years and political stability.

The remarks were made during a meeting with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen at the Peace Palace.

Bob Carr said that Australian Development Assistance Program has allocated 77 million U.S. dollars to Cambodia in 2011-2012, focusing on agriculture development, health, services, infrastructure and access to justice.

Carr gives $1.6m to UN tribunal rocked by resignations

Meas Muth (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

March 28, 2012
Lindsay Murdoch
smh.com.au

THE Foreign Minister, Bob Carr, has pledged a further $1.61 million of taxpayers' money to a United Nations tribunal that is set to allow a Khmer Rouge commander who sent two Australians to their deaths to escape justice.

Senator Carr pledged the money days after the tribunal was rocked by the resignation of the Swiss judge Laurent Kasper-Ansermet, who had been blocked from pursuing prosecutions of former Khmer Rouge commanders, including Meas Muth, a former navy commander.

Meas Muth, now in his 70s, sent the yachtsmen Ronald Keith Dean and David Lloyd Scott to Cambodia's notorious Tuol Sleng interrogation centre where they were tortured and killed in 1978.

Australia donates $1m for Angkor Wat

Mon Mar 26 2012
9 News (Australia)

The Australian government has donated almost $1 million to help protect Cambodia's historic Angkor temple site.

Foreign Minister Bob Carr announced the donation during a trip to the South-East Asian nation on Monday.

"We are putting nearly $1 million into a heritage protection plan for the Angkor World Heritage area to stop it being trampled to death as visitor numbers rise to 20,000 per day," Senator Carr said.

"We are using the experience gained at Uluru in central Australia and other UNESCO world heritage sites."

Australia increases support for food and scholarships in Cambodia

May 6, 2010
Source: AusAid

At a meeting today Australia announced its largest ever package of food aid.

The package was announced during a meeting between the Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Interior, His Excellency Mr Sar Kheng and Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance Bob McMullan,The package will help address persistent food shortages among Cambodia’s poorest people.

“To help around 800,000 Cambodians living in hunger, including 578,000 children, the Australian Government is providing the World Food Programme with $6 million in 2009-10 to purchase and distribute more than 8600 metric tonnes of rice,” Mr McMullan said.

“Cambodia has one of the highest malnutrition rates in Asia. An estimated 2.8 million people lack access to adequate food and 39.5 per cent of children suffer from chronic malnutrition.

“On top of this, in 2009 the dual impact of the economic recession and Typhoon Ketsana placed even more Cambodians at risk of poverty and hunger. The typhoon affected 10 of Cambodia’s 24 provinces, damaging or destroying more than 107,000 hectares of rice crop just before harvest,” Mr McMullan said.

This assistance will also include new food-for-work programs, ensuring food for more than 145,000 farmers and labourers and their families during the pre-harvest season, as well as a home-based care program for up to 77,000 Cambodians affected by HIV/AIDS.

“To help Cambodia address its critical human resource needs Australia will also double the number of scholarships to Cambodia over the next four years, bringing the total number from 25 in 2010 to 50 by 2013-14,” Mr McMullan said.

“Through the Australian Development Scholarships program we will help Cambodia build the capacity of its institutions devastated by years of conflict.”

Cambodia railway to be fully open by 2013

PHNOM PENH, March 5 (AFP) – Cambodia's rail network should be restored by 2013 with the help of millions of dollars in international aid, the country's finance minister said.

Trains have only run sporadically in Cambodia since the country's civil war ended in the 1990s, but finance minister Keat Chhon said workers will complete an overhaul of the rail system in the next few years.

''The project implementation started in 2007 and expects to be complete in 2013,'' Keat Chhon said during a ceremony in which the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Australian government gave more funds to complete the rail network.

Officials hope patching up Cambodia's railways will boost the country's economic growth and facilitate trade with other countries in Southeast Asia.

The total cost to reconstruct the 600 kilometers (373 miles) of rails, connecting them to highways and ports, is expected to be 141.6 million dollars, Keat Chhon said.

The minister made his remarks after receiving an additional loan of $42 million from the ADB and a grant of $21.5 million from Australia for the project.

The ADB has provided $84 million in total loans to restore Cambodia's railway, he said.

Another $13 million come from the OPEC Fund for international development, while Malaysia had contributed 106 kilometers of track worth $2.8 million, Keat Chhon added.

It has long been a regional dream to connect Asia by rail, and many of the gaps in the railway are in Southeast Asia, with only Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand operating cross-border links.

Australia donates AU$5 million to KR Tribunal

Stephen Smith MP
Minister for Foreign Affairs

Media Release
21 October 2008

AUSTRALIA HELPS BRING FORMER KHMER ROUGE LEADERS TO JUSTICE

I am pleased to announce a further $5 million Australian contribution to the United Nations (UN) for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), also known as the Khmer Rouge Tribunal.

I advised Cambodia’s Ambassador for Australia, Meas Kim Heng, of this contribution today.

Under an agreement between the United Nations and the Royal Government of Cambodia, the ECCC will conduct trials of former Khmer Rouge leaders charged with crimes against humanity during the 1975-1979 period, in which it is estimated up three million people perished under the Khmer Rouge regime.

In 1997 the then newly formed Cambodian Government requested UN assistance in establishing a trial process to prosecute the senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge. The Cambodian National Assembly in 2001 passed a law to create a Court to try serious crimes committed during the Khmer Rouge regime.

This court is called the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia for the Prosecution of Crimes Committed during the Period of Democratic Kampuchea (Extraordinary Chambers or ECCC).

While the court was created by the Cambodian Government and UN, the ECCC is independent and will provide a new model for court operations in Cambodia.

Australia has been a long-term supporter of Cambodia’s efforts to bring Khmer Rouge leaders to justice.

This new funding will support the United Nations’ contribution to the work of the ECCC over the next two years. Australia has previously provided over $4 million towards the ECCC’s operations.

There has been significant progress since the ECCC began its work, with five individuals charged and held in provisional detention awaiting trial.

The ECCC provides an historic opportunity to achieve justice for the victims of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime.

Australia urges Cambodia and the international community to intensify their cooperative efforts to ensure that the trials are completed in a timely manner and according to internationally acceptable standards of justice, fairness and due legal process.

Mr Smith’s Office: Courtney Hoogen 02 6277 7500 or 0488 244901
Departmental : (02) 6261 1555

Power lines

Australia will allocate more than 30 million Australian dollars over the next four years to bring electricity to rural Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. (Photo: HENG CHIVOAN)

Friday, 04 July 2008
Written by Lyria Eastley
The Phnom Penh Post

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith says thousands of rural households in Cambodia will be connected to electricity under funding Australia will provide through the World Bank over the next four years.

Smith announced the funding of more than 30 million Australian dollars on July 1 during a visit to Vietnam, one of three countries along with Cambodia and Laos to benefit from the rural electrification program.

"In Cambodia, where only six percent of rural households can access electricity, Australia will provide $12.3 million to help extend electricity supply to an additional 13,000 households and small enterprises in rural areas," Smith said.

As well as improving electrical supply in rural areas, the funds would also be used to reduce transmission losses and promote renewable energy in the three countries, Smith said.

A statement issued by the Australian embassy in Phnom Penh said the funding builds on the Canberra government's development program in Cambodia.

"The Australian government will provide an estimated $61.2 million (US$58.6 million) in development assistance to Cambodia in 2008-2009 (July 2008 to June 2009)," said the statement.

Australia to give Cambodia fresh aid

Monday, March 14, 2008
ABC Radio Australia

Australia has committed $A3.5 million dollars to Cambodia to help the kingdom reduce its high maternal mortality rate and improve reproductive and child health.

The Cambodian Health Ministry says that despite an increase in its budget, maternal mortality still remains the highest in the region.

The donation will go to the United Nations Population Fund, which says it will use the money to improve decentralised health service delivery services, and to implement a comprehensive assessment of neonatal care for 2008 -2009.

The UNFPA says just 44 percent of Cambodian mothers deliver their children with the help of a trained health professional.

Midwives are in short supply and distance and lack of money also mean many women go without pregnancy and childbirth services.