Saturday, February 17, 2007

There's no kickbacks or bribes in Cambodia, there's only "tea money" and the largest tea drinkers rule the country

Fat cat drinking tea (Painting by Jamie Edwards)

ECCC Denies Allegations of Pay Kickbacks

Mean Veasna
VOA Khmer
Washington
16/02/2007

The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) dismissed an allegation that its judges use their salaries as kickbacks for the government, an official said on Friday.

In addition to denying these charges, Deputy Prime Minister Sok An, accused the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) for trying to smear the Cambodian government’s reputation.

The remarks is in response to a statement from the Open Society Justice Initiative Thursday, which stated that "local judges among the tribunal staff were allegedly forced to give a significant percentage of their wages to Cambodian government officials, in exchange for their positions in the court.”

ECCC spokesman Reach Sambath also denied the allegations and calls the legal group’s allegations unfounded.

Long Panhavudh, a project manager for the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) project has no comment to the government’s response and directed additional questions to its headquarters, based in New York.

The trial is expected to begin in mid 2007 and the entire process will take three years at the cost of 56.3 million U.S. dollars.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

OK Sok Ann learned from french law teacher " Norodomb Ranarith " on Naga Casino!

Anonymous said...

why Mr Sok An have concern about justic in to brong all Khmer Rule evil did he was an DK too?

Anonymous said...

yes, sok an is part of KR regime. like i said before, most cpp staffs 70% are KR comrades.

Anonymous said...

Nope, most CPP staffs liberated
Khmers from the brutal Khmer Rouge
abuses.