KR trial faces budget crisis

“Duch”, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav. He was the commander of the infamous Toul Sleng (S21) prison.

The NGO has urged donors such as France and Japan to look over the process of the Extraordinary Chamber in the Court of Cambodia (ECCC) and the expenses of the US$56.3 million budget.

Recently, there have been growing concerns among NGOs and the media about the insufficient budget for the threeyear trial.

"It is not true that NGOs have called on donors to look over the ECCC expenses, but the United Nations Development Programme is auditing the ECCC  and will continue to do this auditing," said Reach Sambath, a spokesman for the tribunal.

Reach Sambath said he wasn't concerned about the lack of money for this year - but over the next two years.

The KRT budget of US$56.3 million (Bt18.4 billion) is modest in comparison to the International Criminal Tribunal trials for former Yugoslavia (US$1.2 billion), for Rwanda (US$1.1 billion), and The Association for the Legal Defence of Charles G Taylor SLSC (US$76 million).

Youk Chhang, a Cambodian survivor from the Khmer Rouge regime, who is now a director of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia (DCCam), said people are concerned about the lack of budget because they want to see a successful trial.

DCCam is an independent research institute funded by the United States government. It compiles and organises information for potential evidence for crimes committed during the Democratic Kampuchea regime in late 1970s.

"The main goal is to push for a joint tribunal from the international community to resolve the human rights violations in the past and for memory retention, which is of paramount important to justice," said Youk.

The Open Society Justice Initiative concluded there is no money in the budget for a plenary session before the trial commences, travel for UN staff to engage in outreach programmes, international witness protection, officers to develop trial completion strategies, travel money for prosecutors, scanners, and visual or audio recording equipment.

The tribunal budget is managed  and was negotiated  by the Royal Government of the Cambodia's Task Force with the UN's assistance for the Khmer Rouge Tribunal (UNAKT) in 2004.

The UN has received US$43 million from 18 countries including the European Union and recent donation form Microsoft. This money is being used to pay for the international judges. It isn't enough, according to Reach. They need anotherUS$3.2 million.

Reach Sambath said the money from the Cambodian government amounts to US$13.3 million and it needs another US$4.9 million. The government contributes US$1.5 million directly to the ECCC for the annual salaries and US$5.2 million for indirect costs such as premises, security, detention, medical care, outreach, utilities, and bus services.

Cambodia has also received about US$2 million from India and European Union as well US$30,000 from Thailand. The ECCC decided to use this small amount to build a garden, said Reach.

The trial was established in February 2006, to try the leaders and the most responsible people who committed crimes during 19751979, which killed about two million people. They were either murdered, died of hard work, malnutrition, starvation or complete lack of medical services.

The Cambodian people have waited years for the trial to start.

So far, the judges have officially charged one of the five suspects, "Duch", whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav. He was the commander of the infamous Toul Sleng (S21) prison in Phnom Penh, where thousand people were tortured and killed. Of the 14,000 prisoners who entered this prison, only seven survived.

The other four suspects have not been named publicly yet and still live freely in Cambodia.

Youk said that to push for a prosecution of these people, there are many avenues including documentation, interviews with former Khmer Rouge officials, the search for mass graves, the search for prisons that were used as killing zones, interviews with minority groups, magazine publications, and radio.

"We can't let a massacre pass without a prosecution. I don't believe that reconciliation is possible unless there is first a prosecution," he said.

"If Cambodians and the international community fail to establish an independent tribunal to judge the crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge leaders, we will continue to point fingers at each other for the rest of our lives and for many generations to come."

World history has shown that if traumas, that are part of a country's history, are not dealt with they will continues to haunt the population. "It provokes misery and leads to intolerable levels of hatred and distrust. Such counties cannot move forward," he said.

But the KRT is moving forward.

 "The international tribunal (KRT) will never postponed. If a lack of money takes place, they will try to raise funds again," said Sambath.

In October 10 this year, there will be further fund raising from all 192 UN member states.

Kek Naratevy

The Nation