Cambodian side of ECCC to run out of money next January

July 05, 2007

The Cambodian side of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) will run out of money at the end of January 2008, local media said on Thursday.

The Cambodian side of the tribunal last year spent only 12.7 percent of its three-year, 13.2 million U.S. dollars of budget and the expenditures are expected to rise sharply in 2007, English newspaper the Cambodian Daily quoted the side's first annual report as saying.

However, it added, only 6.8 million U.S. dollars in the committed funds have actually been delivered, thus making the Cambodian side run out of money at the end of January 2008.

The court will launch a joint appeal for additional financing, ECCC Public Affairs Chief Helen Jarvis was quoted by the paper as saying.

ECCC was jointly designed by the United Nations and the Cambodian government to try former Democratic Kampuchea leaders on charges of crimes against humanity between 1975 and 1979. The whole process will cost 56.3 million U.S. dollars.

Source: Xinhua

Khmer Rouge Tribunal: one stumbling excuse after another ... is it over yet?

Cambodian judge You Bun Leng (L) replies to journalists questions as International judge Marcel Lemonde (R) listens during a press conference at Khmer Rouge tribunal's courthouse, in Phnom Penh 13 June 2007. Cambodia's Khmer Rouge tribunal could run out of money in early 2008, more than a year before the proceedings are scheduled to wrap up, officials said Wednesday.(AFP/File/Tang Chhin Sothy)

Cambodia's Khmer Rouge tribunal running out of money

PHNOM PENH (AFP) - Cambodia's Khmer Rouge tribunal could run out of money in early 2008, more than a year before the proceedings are scheduled to wrap up, officials said Wednesday.

Efforts to prosecute those who carried out one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century were currently funded through next April, tribunal spokeswoman Helen Jarvis told AFP.

But she also said several new initiatives such as the creation of a victim protection unit will have "quite significant budgetary implications."

"Of course there is concern -- we know we need these funds to do the job properly," she said, but added: "I don't think there's any sense of panic."

The joint UN-Cambodian tribunal has been continually beset by budget problems, starting with the Cambodian government's failure to shoulder most of its share of the costs.

The three-year tribunal is budgeted at 56.3 million dollars, of which Cambodia agreed to pay roughly 13 million dollars.

But the government has since said it cannot meet the payments, forcing tribunal officials to scramble for donors.

Jarvis said an appeal was likely later this year after future cost estimates are tallied.

"There is a continuing request for more funds," she said. "We have not mounted a major appeal but expect to do so ... when projections are clearer."

Tribunal officials have repeatedly complained that the tight budget was one of the biggest obstacles to the trials, which have suffered numerous delays since Cambodia first approached the United Nations a decade ago for help in prosecuting former Khmer Rouge leaders.

Up to two million people died of starvation and overwork, or were executed during the communist regime's 1975-1979 rule.

The Khmer Rouge abolished religion, schools and currency, exiling millions to vast collective farms with the aim of creating an agrarian utopia.

So far only one possible defendant is in custody -- former Khmer Rouge prison chief Kaing Khek Iev, also known as Duch -- while several live freely in Cambodia.

Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot died in 1998.