Failed Corruption Talks Worry Some

By Men Kimseng, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
10 April 2009

Cambodian officials gave guarded reaction to a UN statement following failed corruption talks over the tribunal on Wednesday, a statement that said in part the UN would pursue its own anti-corruption measures at the UN-backed court.

UN Assistant Secretary General for Legal Affairs Peter Taksoe-Jensen left three days of talks with Council Minister Sok An Wednesday with no agreement on how to address the nagging allegations of corruption and mismanagement that have led to a dearth of funds and a cash-strapped Cambodian side of the court.

Phay Siphan, a spokesman for the Council of Ministers, pointed to the ongoing trial of Duch, the former chief of Tuol Sleng prison, where 16,000 Cambodians were sent to their deaths, as proof of the success of the courts.

Duch, the revolutionary name for Kaing Kek Iev, is the first of five defendants to be tried at a tribunal that was established in 2006 after a decade of negotiations between Cambodia and the UN.

“We have to ask whether this success can be separated from those of the administration,” Phay Siphan said. “It is not unless the administration team provides sufficient service that the trial is as smooth as what we have seen now.”

Duch’s trial has coincided with dire straights for the Cambodian side of the jointly administered tribunal. The Cambodian side, from where allegations of staff kickbacks to senior officials come, struggled to pay its employees in March. That’s because many donors to the tribunal are either waiting for corruption allegations to be resolved or are giving their money to the UN side of the court. A UN investigation into allegations made in 2008 has not been made public.

Taksoe-Jensen said in a statement after failed talks on Wednesday that it had been his goal to establish a system of monitoring that would have re-established credibility for the Cambodian administration. No agreement was reached.

“I have submitted to H.E. Sok An–for his consideration–a draft Exchange of Letters setting out an ethics monitoring mechanism acceptable to the United Nations,” said Peter Taksoe-Jensen in his statement issued late Wednesday, adding that he thought the system would also be acceptable to the government.

Taksoe-Jensen also said the UN side of the tribunal would strengthen its own ethic monitoring, forwarding complaints to UN headquarters in New York and informing the Cambodian government “as appropriate.”

Without commenting directly on the statement or exchange of letters, Phay Siphan said that during negotiations this week, the Cambodian side had suggested including the real name of complainants in any allegations brought forward, to avoid groundless accusations. The UN would not agree.

“The UN does not understand this issue. They don’t know Cambodian culture. We want the complainant to put their name with real ground so that we can look at the complaint together, but what they want tends to dominate [us],” he said. “They just want this or that, so as an independent and sovereign country, and since the court is in the Cambodian jurisdiction, Cambodia must preserve its right to maintain discipline, orders and work effectiveness.”

Taksoe-Jensen said in Wednesday’s statement it was crucial that complainants remain anonymous: “the United Nations continues to believe that for the ethics monitoring system to be credible, the staff should have the freedom to approach the Ethics Monitor of their own choice and put forward complaints without fear of retaliation. Such freedom of choice is an imperative element of a trustworthy ethics monitoring system.”

Taksoe-Jensen’s statement was quickly welcomed by an organization monitoring the court process.

“I support both the UN and Cambodian measures to get rid of the corruption scandal, otherwise at every court hearing or legal process it will become a forum for lawyers and defendants to raise every time,” Long Panhavuth, a program coordinator for the Open Society Justice Initiative, told VOA Khmer by phone.

OSJI was one of the first organizations to air concerns of kickbacks, in 2007.

Staff members allege they must pay a portion of their salaries to senior officials in the Cambodian government in order to work at the tribunal—a not uncommon practice in other sectors of Cambodian government.

“The corruption allegations not only tarnish the government, but the whole court, which is comprised of both the UN and Cambodia,” Long Panhavuth said.

Other civil society organizations expressed concern that short funding would derail the court process. They suggested the UN and Cambodia finalize their differences as soon as possible to ensure transparency in spending donor money and to secure donor confidence.

“We are concerned and sorry,” Kek Galabru, president of the rights group Licadho, told VOA Khmer. “We want to see the court finish its work by at least putting on trial the five defendants so that people are able to know the truth.”

“From what we witnessed at Duch’s hearing, the court is doing their work at an international standard,” she said. “We want to see such a court.”

No date has yet been scheduled for another round of talks, though the government has said it still welcomes a UN return to the table.

Khmer Rouge court corruption issue unresolved

2009-04-10
By SOPHENG CHEANG
Associated Press

Talks between Cambodia and the United Nations on how to deal with allegations of corruption at their jointly run Khmer Rouge genocide tribunal ended without agreement, raising the possibility that donors will stop funding it despite compelling testimony that continued Thursday.

U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Peter Taksoe-Jensen and Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sok An had been meeting for three days to work out a mechanism to monitor corruption at the tribunal, which has begun trying one of five leading Khmer Rouge officials for crimes allegedly committed during the group's time in power in the late 1970s.

Taksoe-Jensen was the first to report the talks' failure when they ended Wednesday night.

Defense attorneys and human rights organizations say allegations that Cambodian staff at the court pay kickbacks to keep their jobs could sink the court's credibility if not resolved.

They also pose a financial threat since most of the foreign aid donors supporting the court refuse to pay staff salaries until the corruption questions are resolved.

Cambodian Cabinet spokesman Phay Siphan confirmed that no progress had been made in the talks.

"We did not sign any agreement with the United Nations," he said Thursday.

Phay Siphan insisted that there was no evidence of any corruption and the allegations were simply an attempt to discredit the tribunal or the government.

The talks broke down even as testimony continued in the U.N.-assisted tribunal's first trial, in which Kaing Guek Eav, 66, the chief of the group's main prison, stands charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes, as well as homicide and torture.

A Cambodian man told the court Thursday he was held captive in a deep communal dirt pit in a Khmer Rouge jungle prison for a year but survived by working for the commander digging graves for other inmates.

Ouch Sorn, 72, the first Cambodian survivor to testify, said when was let out of the communal pit he shared with about 20 men he saw inmates tied naked to poles, beaten, submerged in water during interrogation and executed by young pistol-wielding guards. He saw one woman pushed into a grave while still alive, he said.

Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, listened anxiously to the testimony and told the judges that the testimony was "not really accurate" and that the witness "spoke more than the truth."

Duch insisted that extreme torture was not used at the small prison he ran before being assigned to command Tuol Sleng, the most notorious prison in the regime, where 16,000 people were tortured before execution.

"There were no pliers, no pins and no nails were pulled," he said.

The witness said he never saw Duch execute anyone but saw him beat a woman unconscious, and "then he slapped his butt and he laughed."

Duch is the first senior Khmer Rouge figure to face trial, and the only one to acknowledge responsibility for his actions. Four more are in custody and scheduled to be tried sometime over the next year or two.

An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died under the Khmer Rouge from executions, forced labor, starvation and medical neglect.

Corruption Allegations Affect Khmer Rouge Trials

April 9, 2009
By SETH MYDANS
The New York Times

BANGKOK — Even as Khmer Rouge trials in Cambodia gain momentum with compelling testimony from the regime’s chief torturer, allegations of corruption among the tribunal staff have slowed the international funding that keeps the process alive.

A United Nations envoy left Cambodia late Wednesday saying he had failed to reach an agreement with the government over internal mechanisms for the reporting of corruption allegations in the jointly administered trials.

The U.N. official, Peter Taksoe-Jensen, assistant secretary general for legal affairs, placed the blame on the government side, which he said was refusing to make a key compromise.

Five leading figures in the Communist Khmer Rouge have been arrested in connection with the deaths of 1.7 million people during their 1975-79 rule. The tribunal was established in 2006, and courtroom hearings began last month.

The United Nations Development Program, which administers funding from donors including the United States, Japan, the European Union and Australia, is withholding the money, saying it is waiting for the issue to be resolved.

“It remains critical to the United Nations that the allegations of corruption and other misconduct are effectively addressed,” Mr. Taksoe-Jensen said in a statement.

The corruption allegations, together with an appearance of government manipulation of the judicial process, have thrown a shadow across the trials at a moment when they appear to be bearing fruit with gripping and self-incriminating testimony from Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, the commandant of the Tuol Sleng torture house. In hearings this week, Duch, the first of the defendants to face trial, has portrayed himself as a dedicated and creative functionary in a hierarchy of terror and killing.

But an appearance of political interference has tainted the process since early this year, when a Cambodian prosecutor objected to widening the indictments beyond the five defendants who are already in custody. She gave political rather than judicial reasons for her objection, echoing positions that have been taken by the government.

Last week, Prime Minister Hun Sen took those positions a step further, saying he would rather see the trials collapse than have the number of defendants increase.

He cited the possibility of popular unrest, but foreign analysts said it was more likely he was seeking to keep control over a legal process that could lead in unpredictable and damaging directions.

“My greatest fear is that the tribunal will simply fade away from lack of funding — with the donors reluctant to fund a tribunal unable or unwilling to address the allegations,” said John A. Hall, a professor at the Chapman University School of Law in Orange, California, who has been monitoring the trials.

“In terms of what is happening inside the courtroom, this is an amazingly exciting time,” he said. But he added: “We shouldn’t pretend that progress can continue unless the corruption issue is dealt with.”

Just to get it to the end of this year, according to a revised budget forecast, the court needs new funding of $44.1 million in addition to the $56.3 million already budgeted.

The corruption allegations involve reports of kickbacks from Cambodian employees to Cambodian officials in return for their jobs, a system that reflects a common practice in Cambodia.

Such kickbacks might not affect the quality of justice at the tribunal, but they raise questions about the possibility of more damaging corruption, trial monitors say.

“Can you support a judicial institution that is willing to tolerate serious allegations of corruption without addressing them?” asked Heather Ryan, the Cambodia representative of the Open Society Justice Initiative, a legal monitoring group based in New York.

“Funding a court that is unwilling to address credible allegations of corruption is a significant problem,” she said. “It makes it appear that you are in some respect condoning the situation.”

The Cambodian side is insisting on parallel reporting mechanisms in which Cambodian staff report corruption allegations only to Cambodian officials. Critics say this system would have a chilling effect on whistle-blowers.

“The United Nations continues to believe that, for the ethics monitoring system to be credible, the staff should have the freedom to approach the ethics monitor of their choice and put forward complaints without fear of retaliation,” Mr. Taksoe-Jensen said in his statement.

“Such freedom of choice is an imperative element of a trustworthy ethics monitoring system,” he said.

The corruption allegations were originally made two years ago by the Justice Initiative and were followed by news media reports that Cambodian staffers had complained about having to make payments of as much as 30 percent of their salaries.

The United Nations has investigated the allegations — which the Cambodian side denies — and has come under criticism for refusing to disclose its findings.

The impasse over a corruption reporting mechanism reflects a broader problem at the tribunal, which has been in place for nearly three years: an uncomfortable and sometimes adversarial relationship between the Cambodian and foreign staffs.

“One problem in the court is that the two sides don’t trust each other,” said Panhavuth Long, a project officer at the Justice Initiative. “The national side and the U.N. side, after two or three years working together, have not established a network of trust that allows them to sit together and have a frank discussion.”

No Agreement in Corruption Talks: UN

Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sok An, right, talks with UN Assistant Secretary-General Peter Taksoe-Jensen, left, during a meeting in Phnom Penh.

By Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
09 April 2009

A senior-level UN representative ended three days of talks with Cambodian officials Wednesday with no agreement on how to improve the Khmer Rouge tribunal’s nettling allegations of corruption and mismanagement.

In a statement released after talks with Council Minister Sok An, UN Assistant Secretary-General Peter Taksoe-Jensen said both sides had failed to find a way that mismanagement or corruption accusations could be fed through an ethics monitor.

“I met with H.E. Sok An with the ambition to work together to put the issue of corruption behind us by concluding an agreement, which would establish a credible mechanism addressing allegations of corruption,” Taksoe-Jensen wrote Wednesday. “We did not manage to reach final agreement today.”

The Khmer Rouge tribunal, which was established in 2006 only after years of wrangling between the UN and Cambodia, has faced repeated allegations that Cambodian staff pay kickbacks to high-ranking officials in order to work at the UN-backed court.

Those allegations have been investigated by the UN, but no report has been made public. The accusations were enough to have funding frozen to the Cambodian side of the court, which is now facing empty coffers and was only able to pay its staff in March because of an emergency infusion from the Japanese government.

Other donors have proven unwilling to fund an international court that does not meet international standards, and rights groups and monitors say the corruption allegations continue to undermine the court.

The breakdown in talks comes as the hybrid court is undertaking its first trial of five jailed leaders, Kaing Kek Iev, better known as Duch, who commanded a prison system responsible for the deaths of up to 16,000 Cambodians.

Taksoe-Jensen acknowledged the progress of the court, but said it still needed ethics monitoring.

“The United Nations continues to believe that for the ethics monitoring system to be credible the staff should have the freedom to approach the Ethics Monitor of their own choice and put forward complaints without fear of retaliation,” Taksoe-Jensen wrote, at the conclusion of a third round of talks. “Such freedom of choice is an imperative element of a trustworthy ethics monitoring system. It remains critical to the United Nations that allegations of corruption and other misconduct are effectively addressed.”

The UN side of the tribunal “will further strengthen our own anti-corruption mechanism within the Court,” he wrote. The UN side would continue to file complaints with UN headquarters in New York, informing the “as appropriate” the Cambodian government, “while respecting confidentiality in a way that ensures full protection of staff of the ECCC against any possible retaliation for good faith reporting of wrongdoing.”

Sok An declined to comment to reporters after talks Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, but Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan said the Cambodian side remained opened to more meetings with the UN. He said Cambodia “welcomed” the remarks of Taksoe-Jensen.

Long Panhavuth, a tribunal monitor for the Open Society Justice Initiative, which itself has reported hearing allegations of kickbacks, appealed to the UN to continue its meetings with the government.

Tribunal officials were not available for comment late Wednesday after the talks.

Taksoe-Jensen did not indicate in his remarks whether more talks were pending, but said he had left an exchange of letters “setting out an ethics monitoring mechanism acceptable to the United Nations, which in my view should also be acceptable to the Cambodian Government.”

“The United Nations continues to be convinced that the Court will meet the principle of fair trial,” he wrote, and said the agreement on the tribunal between the government and the UN “must be able to carry out its functions with full respect to the need for judicial independence.”

'Monster' tried many torture methods

April 9, 2009
AP

IN THE courtroom, Duch, main jailer for the Khmer Rouge during their 1975-79 regime, listened with apparent fascination as Mr Bizot spoke forcefully and sometimes with emotion as he described his conversations while being interrogated by Duch nearly four decades ago.

'Speaking of this monster in front of me, it was his duty to be the interrogator. His job was to write up reports on the people sent to him for execution purposes,' Mr Bizot testified.

He said he was interrogated daily but he was never beaten and Duch always interrogated him 'in a polite way.' Mr Bizot showed the judges a worn notebook that Duch gave him to write his confessions.

'I wrote childhood memories and notes of my scholarly work in Buddhism to show him I was a scholar,' he said.

On Tuesday, Duch told the court how he experimented with many torture methods including tying prisoners to posts, beating them with tree branches and tossing them into communal pits before they were executed.

'The torture at that time was monitored by me closely,' Duch said, detailing how he routinely ordered prisoners to be placed in communal pits until the monsoon flooded the pits, then forced them to stand out in the cold air while soaking wet.

'In general the detainees were beaten with tree branches or detainees were tied to a pole apart from one another so they could not communicate with each other,' he added.

Duch is the first senior Khmer Rouge figure to face trial, and the only one to acknowledge responsibility for his actions. Four more are in custody and are scheduled to be tried sometime over the next year.

An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died under the Khmer Rouge from forced labor, starvation, medical neglect and executions.

Meanwhile, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Peter Taksoe-Jensen has been in Cambodia meeting government and tribunal officials about allegations that Cambodian personnel taking part in the UN-backed tribunal were forced to pay kickbacks to obtain their positions.

Defence lawyers and human rights groups suggest that the allegations, if unanswered, could sink the tribunal's credibility.

They also pose a financial threat, since foreign aid donors who provide the budget for Cambodian personnel are withholding their funds until the issue is resolved.

UN spokesman Michele Montas told reporters on Wednesday at the UN headquarters in New York that Taksoe-Jensen held several meetings over the past three days with Deputy Prime Minister Sok An.

Mr Taksoe-Jensen and Mr An worked on creating an ethics monitoring mechanism.

'The United Nations continues to believe that, for an ethics monitoring system at the chambers to be credible, the staff should have the freedom to approach the ethics monitor of their own choice and put forward complaints without fear of retaliation,' Ms Montas said.

'It remains critical to the United Nations that allegations of corruption and other misconduct are effectively addressed,' she said, adding that Taksoe-Jensen stated that the UN will also further strengthen its own anti-corruption efforts at the court.

UN suggests anti-corruption measures for Cambodian genocide court [... what good is it when Cambodia shrugs it off?]

Source: UN News Centre

8 April 2009 – A senior United Nations legal official today underscored the need to address allegations of corruption surrounding the genocide tribunal in Cambodia, which has begun the first trial of a suspect accused of crimes committed during the notorious Khmer Rouge “killing fields” regime of the late 1970s.

Assistant-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Peter Taksoe-Jensen has submitted a provisional ethics monitoring mechanism to Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sok An for his consideration, UN spokesperson Michele Montas told the press in New York.

Mr. Taksoe-Jensen has met with Mr. Sok An, who is also chair of the Royal Government Task Force on the Khmer Rouge Trials, several times this week regarding the UN-backed Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC).

In a statement to the press, Mr. Taksoe-Jensen stressed that for an ethics monitoring system at the ECCC to be credible, the staff should have the freedom to approach the Ethics Monitor of their own choice and put forward complaints without fear of retaliation.

“The United Nations will further strengthen its own anti-corruption mechanism within the Court,” added Mr. Taksoe-Jensen.

The trial of Kaing Guek Eav, also known as “Duch,” got underway last month, when he was charged by the ECCC in Phnom Penh with crimes including torture and premeditated murder while he was in charge of the renowned S-21 detention camp.

The ECCC, established in 2003 under an agreement between the UN and Cambodia, is tasked with trying senior leaders and those most responsible for serious violations of Cambodian and international law committed during the Khmer Rouge rule. It is staffed by a mixture of Cambodian and international employees and judges.

Estimates vary, but as many as two million people are thought to have died during the rule of the Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1979, which was then followed by a protracted period of civil war in the impoverished South-East Asian country.

UN Legal Official Arrives for More Talks

By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
06 April 2009

A senior legal adviser from the UN arrived in Phnom Penh Monday to hold more talks with Cambodian officials over difficulties at the Khmer Rouge tribunal, officials close to the talks said.

Peter Taksoe-Jensen, who is the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs, arrives as the tribunal is reaching a critical point.

Its first trial, for prison chief Duch, is now underway. But the Cambodian side of the court is facing a budget crisis, with donors proving reluctant to fund sub-standard proceedings and with allegations of mismanagement and corruption lingering.

No official announcement was made for the talks, expected between Taksoe-Jensen and Council Minister Sok An, who is the government’s point man for the tribunal, but sources close to the tribunal told VOA Khmer the agenda will include corruption, funding shortages, Duch’s trial and means for gaining donor confidence.

Taksoe-Jensen has been to Cambodia three times to discuss the tribunal, but funding has remained sparse for the national side. Cambodian tribunal staff only received their March salaries after an infusion of $200,000 from Japan.

On his last visit, Cambodia and the UN established a parallel system for staff complaints at the court. Some Cambodian staff members have reported to the UN having to pay kickbacks to senior officials in order to keep their jobs at the tribunal—allegations denied by tribunal administrators but that sparked a UN investigation whose results have not been made public.

Such complaints on the Cambodian side will now be handled through Cambodian channels; UN complaints will flow through UN channels.

Taksoe-Jensen’s trip also comes amid a brewing confrontation in the courts, over whether to try more senior leaders than the five now being held. Prosecutors are at odds, with Chea Leang, on the Cambodian side, saying more arrests would cost the courts too much and could destabilize the country.

Prime Minister Hun Sen has said more arrests could lead the country on a path to war.

Kek Galabru, who is the president of the rights group Licadho, told VOA Khmer she had been invited to talks late Monday and would ask the UN to keep the funding coming.

“We want to see the five, or more, tried for justice,” she said.

Watchdog [OSJI] slams UN over KRT

Peter Taksoe-Jensen shakes hands with Deputy Prime Minister Sok An at the Council of Ministers on Monday. (Photo by: TRACEY SHELTON)

Thursday, 26 February 2009
Written by Georgia Wilkins
The Phnom Penh Post

UNLESS the UN reverses the Khmer Rouge tribunal's latest anti-corruption plan, they risk "lowering the bar for all future efforts to try international crimes", international watchdog the Open Society Justice Initiative said Wednesday.

Referring to a new agreement by the two sides of the court to work separately to protect the court against corruption, the New York-based monitoring group said there were no real changes made to the existing system, which had allowed for graft allegations to arise last year.

"Taken together, these provisions do nothing to alter the de facto Cambodian government veto, which has stymied genuine investigations of corruption to date," a press release Wednesday said.

Top UN legal official Peter Taksoe-Jensen met with Deputy Prime Minister Sok An to finalise the new mechanisms Monday. The two sides resolved to set up individual mechanisms that would report back to each other and agree on the type of action to take.

But according to OSJI, the new "parallel" mechanisms mean that staff is restricted to reporting corruption to its own side of the court and does not contain provisions to protect whistleblowers.

"A system where each side handles the complaints of its own staff has

already been tried and shown not to work," James A Goldston, executive director of the Open Society Justice Initiative, is quoted as saying in the statement.

"To be credible going forward, any mechanism must have the confidence of all staff that their complaints will be taken seriously, that whistleblowers will be protected and that effective action will be taken to address valid complaints," he added.

A report by a UN oversight body in August 2008 detailed allegations that the court's Cambodian staff members were paying kickbacks to their bosses. The report was sent directly to the Cambodian government, who have not released results of its review. The UN has also failed to make the report public.

The new mechanisms come after months of diplomatic wrangling over what monitoring system would satisfy both sides. The suggestion of an international, independent monitor by the UN side was turned down by the Cambodian government during talks for a mechanism that better respected national sovereignty.

"The agreement lacks details about the protections afforded to staff who alert authorities to instances of wrongdoing, and contains inadequate
promises of confidentiality," the statement said.

"In addition, it fails to offer provisions for dealing with outstanding allegations of corruption," it added.

Observers of the court say the failure to take action could be the last straw for the court's credibility.

"Allegations of corrupt practices involving the Cambodian side of the court threaten to taint the legal proceedings. This matter must be resolved and cannot be allowed to fester," John Hall, professor at Chapman University School of Law, told the Post via email.

"The joint statement smacks of political compromise and acquiescence"

"It is simply unreasonable to expect Cambodian staff to come forward with complaints of wrongdoing if they must file such reports with Ethics Monitors appointed by the Cambodian government or the Cambodian management at the court," he said.

Hall added that the parallel mechanism envisaged in the Joint Statement could "chill" future complaints of wrongdoing.

"That may be convenient for those who want the accusations of corrupt behavior to simply go away. The Joint Statement smacks of political compromise and acquiescence. Hopefully as the details are announced in coming weeks, the new mechanism will not turn out to be as flawed as it appears at first sight."

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CAT BARTON

Progress in KRouge court corruption talks: UN [-Progress on doing nothing about ECCC corruption?]

PHNOM PENH (AFP) — A UN official Monday said "great headway" has been made during talks with senior Cambodian officials to find ways to stop alleged corruption at the Khmer Rouge genocide tribunal.

The UN-backed court, which opened its first trial last week, has faced controversy over allegations of political interference by the government and corruption claims that Cambodian staff paid kickbacks for their jobs.

"We worked together to try to find solutions to the challenges that are in front of the court," UN assistant secretary general for legal affairs Peter Taksoe-Jensen said after meeting deputy premier Sok An and other officials.

"We have made great headway this morning," Taksoe-Jensen told reporters, adding that they had also discussed an anti-corruption mechanism at the court.

Meetings would continue later Monday after officials "think about the proposals from both sides."

After years of wrangling between the Cambodian government and the United Nations, the court was created in 2006 to try leading members of the communist 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge regime.

The long-awaited first trial started last week when the regime's notorious prison chief, Kaing Guek Eav, better known by the alias Duch, went before the court.

Four other Khmer Rouge leaders are also in detention awaiting trial.

The latest corruption allegations emerged last year, prompting the UN to launch an investigation into claims that Cambodian workers had been forced to pay for their jobs.

International backers have appeared hesitant to pledge more money to the court after allegations of political interference by the government over whether the court will bring charges against more Khmer Rouge figures.

Court officials have said last year's allegations were "unspecific, unsourced and unsubstantiated."

Up to two million people were executed or died of starvation, disease and overwork as the ultra-Marxist Khmer Rouge movement tried to create an agrarian utopia.