'Killing Fields' trial broke

07/11/2007
Reuters

Phnom Penh - Plans to try Pol Pot's top surviving henchmen for the atrocities of Cambodia's "Killing Fields" are running out of time and cash, the court's leading international prosecutor said on Wednesday.

"We need another year," co-prosecutor Robert Petit told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference about progress of the $56m trial of those "most responsible" for the Khmer Rouge's 1975-79 reign of terror.

An estimated 1.7 million people were executed or died of torture, disease or starvation as Pol Pot's dream of turning the southeast Asian nation into an agrarian peasant utopia descended into one of the darkest chapters of the 20th century.

The regime's chief inquisitor, Duch, and "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea have both been arrested and charged with war crimes, but Petit said the court would run out of money next year, jeopardising efforts to bring more suspects to trial.

"We could end the process next year when we run out of money, but I don't think that is going to satisfy anybody," he said.

Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong has already started to ask donors for more funding for the United Nations-backed court, made up of Cambodian and international judges.

Japan is the major donor to the tribunal, which is expected to reveal the full extent of links between regional rival China and the Khmer Rouge.

Pol Pot died in the final Khmer Rouge redoubt of Anlong Veng in 1998.

International prosecutor calls for more funds for Khmer Rouge trial

Wed, 07 Nov 2007
DPA

Phnom Penh - A top prosecutor for the trial of former Khmer Rouge leaders Wednesday added his voice to calls by the Cambodian government to extend the court's budget. The 56-million dollar joint UN-Cambodia Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) was initially budgeted for three years, ending in 2009.

However, so far only two suspects are in custody after a series of delays to the process and Cambodian deputy prime minister Hor Namhong last month called on international donors for more funds.

"Obviously we could not end the process ... when we run out of money," International co-prosecutor Robert Petit told a press conference at the ECCC, adding that the 2009 deadline to finish investigations, prosecutions and hearings now looked unlikely to be met.

"If we were to do that at this point I don't think we would leave a very credible process," he said. "We need more money and time."

The court has said previously that it expects at least five former leaders of the Khmer Rouge's Democratic Kampuchea regime to be charged, although it has not named the suspects.

So far only former S-21 torture centre commandant Kang Keng Iev, alias Duch, and late former leader Pol Pot's second in command, Nuon Chea, have been charged with crimes against humanity. Nuon Chea has also been charged with war crimes. Up to 2 million Cambodians died under the 1975 to 1979 regime.

Hor Nam Hong appeals for additional KRouge tribunal funds

Cambodia's foreign minister, Hor Namhong, seen here, urged donors to continue funding the country's genocide trials, saying Thursday that more arrests were imminent, but that the court risked running out of money (AFP/File/Tang Chhin Sothy)

Cambodian FM appeals for KRouge tribunal funds

Thursday • October 25, 2007
AFP

Cambodia's foreign minister urged donors to continue funding the country's genocide trials, saying Thursday that more arrests were imminent, but that the court risked running out of money.

The UN-backed tribunal established to try former leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime "could have budget shortages in the near future," Hor Namhong told reporters.

He said the tribunal, which opened last year and was scheduled to last three years, could now extend through 2010.

Officials say the court, budgeted at 56.3 million dollars, has enough money to remain operational through the beginning of 2008.

The international community is funding most of the proceedings, but the Cambodian government has failed to come up with millions of dollars that it was meant to contribute.

"I hope that the international community will help find the budget," Hor Namhong said.

"The process is going smoothly ... I believe there will be more summons or arrests of other senior leaders in the near future," he added.

So far two former Khmer Rouge leaders, prison chief Duch and regime ideologue Nuon Chea, have been arrested by the court.

Three other suspects are being investigated for crimes committed by the 1975-79 communist regime, but their names have not been made public.

Trials are expected to begin in mid-2008.

Up to two million people died of starvation and overwork or were executed under the Khmer Rouge, which abolished religion, schools and currency, exiling millions to vast collective farms with the aim of creating an agrarian utopia.