UN legal chief to travel to Cambodia for talks

Nov 18, 2008
DPA

Phnom Penh - UN Assistant Secretary-General Peter Taksoe-Jensen will travel to Cambodia this week to discuss the country's troubled Khmer Rogue tribunal with Deputy Prime Minister Sok An, national media reported on Tuesday.

Taksoe-Jensen requested the meeting amid ongoing allegations of corruption on the Cambodian side of the UN-backed court, the Phnom Penh Post reported.

The tribunal was established in 2006 after a decade of negotiations between the UN and the Cambodian government and will put on trial five former leaders of the genocidal Khmer Rogue regime.

The first trial is due to begin in early 2009.

UN Official To Arrive for Tribunal Talks

The courts are moving toward their first trial of a Khmer Rouge leader, Duch, above.

By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
17 November 2008

Click here to listen to the Khmer audio program

UN Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Peter Taksoe-Jensen will meet with Council Minister Sok An in coming days over the Khmer Rouge tribunal, a UN spokeswoman said.

The meeting would "address a number of issues of common concern to the United Nations and the Cambodian authority," the spokeswoman, Choi Sung-ah, said, declining to elaborate.

The visit comes amid standing allegations of corruption and mismanagement on the Cambodian side of the courts, which led to the delay of hundreds of thousands of dollars in donor funding earlier this year.

The courts are preparing for the first trial of five jailed Khmer Rouge leaders, of prison chief Duch, which is expected to get underway early next year.

Tribunal observers said Taksoe-Jensen's visit was to review budgets and future plans, as well as management and cooperation and a meeting with donors in Phnom Penh.