Cambodian staff at Khmer Rouge Court

KRouge court cannot pay Cambodian staff: official
Mar 1, 2009

PHNOM PENH (AFP) — Cambodia's UN-backed Khmer Rouge court does not have enough money to pay local salaries this month, said a leading judge Monday, following corruption claims that have made donors wary.

Kong Srim, head of the Khmer Rouge tribunal's supreme court chamber, told a plenary session of the tribunal that donations have dried up for Cambodian staff salaries as proceedings start against leaders from the 1975-1979 regime.

"Unfortunately the national side of the court will not have sufficient funds for the staff salaries for this month," Kong Srim told Cambodian and international judicial officials in an opening speech.

"I see this as our most important challenge, as it hardly seems reasonable for judicial officers and staff to be expected to continue working without remuneration," he said.

Under the complicated hybrid tribunal agreement, Cambodian and international staff have separate budgets funded through donations from countries such as Japan, France, Australia, Germany and the United States.

But donors have appeared hesitant to give more cash to the Cambodian side of the court after claims of political interference and a scandal in which local staff were allegedly forced to pay kickbacks for their jobs.

Kong Srim said he was confident "this problem will shortly be resolved" after recent meetings between the Cambodian government and the UN.

Tribunal judge Silvia Cartwright from New Zealand said international judges at the court encouraged the talks in an effort to crack down on corruption.

"As we all know, the problems mentioned by His Excellency Kong Srim concerning funding can be resolved once the international community is confident of a corruption-free environment in which to hold trials," she said.

"International judges have said clearly and repeatedly that they will not allow corruption to interfere with the tribunal's delivery of justice for the people of Cambodia," she added.

Up to two million people died of starvation and overwork, or were executed as the communist Khmer Rouge dismantled modern Cambodian society in a bid to forge an agrarian utopia during its 1975-1979 rule.

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