UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan Monday asked donors to support a special court set up in Cambodia with United Nations assistance to try ageing leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime accused of killing hundreds of thousands of civilians in the country during the 1970s.
The three-year budget for those trials is about 56,3 million US dollar, of which 43 million is to be paid by the UN and 13,3 million dollar by the Government of Cambodia.
And the donors heeded Mr. Annans call. On Monday in New York, donor nations pledged more than 38 million dollar towards the proceedings, less than five million dollars short of the UN-portion of the 56 million budget.
– We are within a hairs breadth of the target on the international side, said Helen Jarvis, an adviser to the government task force preparing for the trial of the leaders of the “Killing Fields” regime.
– There are several expected donors who did not speak today for various reasons and they are expected to come forward in the next couple of days to bring us up to target, she noted.
Cambodia has undertaken to pay 1,5 million dollar of its required 13 million, and Jarvis said several countries had given an indication they would provide funds to the kingdom.
At the pledging conference at UN headquarters, Japan announced a contribution of 21,6 million US dollar, representing about 50 percent of the UN portion.
In setting up the two Extraordinary Chambers – one court will conduct trials and the other will hear appeals within the existing Cambodia justice system – the Security Council established that the UN funding would come from voluntary contributions.
The communist Khmer Rouge, who held power in the late 1970s, are accused of killing at least 1,7 million of their countrymen through starvation, disease, overwork and execution.
None of the regimes top leaders has been brought to justice. Khmer Rouge chief Pol Pot died in 1998. Several of his top lieutenants, aging and infirm, still live freely in Cambodia.
Cambodia and the United Nations finally agreed to a UN-supported tribunal in June 2003, but the Cambodian Parliament only ratified the pact in October due to a long domestic political deadlock.
Annan has said the process of setting up the tribunal will only begin once pledges for the first three years of the courts operation have been received and enough money for its first year of operation has been deposited in a trust fund.
Before the trials begin, the UN has to certify that the Cambodian court meets international justice standards. The tribunals will have a sprinkling of international judges and prosecutors working alongside their Cambodian colleagues.
Sok An, Cambodias chief negotiator on the accord, hopes the tribunal will be set up this year to try up to 10 former leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime. The trials are eagerly awaited by many Cambodians, many of whom are too young to remember the horrors of the 1975-79 regime ousted by a Vietnamese invasion.
In a message Monday to the pledging conference in New York, Kofi Annan said:
– The crimes committed under the Khmer Rouge were of a character and scale that it is still almost impossible to comprehend. The victims of those horrific crimes have waited too long for justice.
– By your generous contributions today, you can send a message that the international community will do its part to ensure that, however late, and however imperfect, impunity will not remain unchallenged, and a measure of justice will be done.
– That will be a precious and important gift to Cambodia, he added.
Kilder: FNs nyhedstjeneste og www.worldbank.org
