Britain pledges £1.4 mn for Cambodia war crimes court

Journalists take pictures of a car at the main gate of the Extraordinary Chamber in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) in Phnom Penh on September 16, 2012. Britain pledged £1.4 million ($2.1 million, 1.6 million euros) on Monday to fund Cambodia's Khmer Rouge war crimes court, which is close to running out of money 

Britain pledged £1.4 million ($2.1 million, 1.6 million euros) on Monday to fund Cambodia's Khmer Rouge war crimes court, which is close to running out of money.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the court, which is trying top leaders of the murderous communist regime that ruled Cambodia in the late 1970s, was one of the most important since the post-World War II Nuremberg trials.

"Both the international and national sides of the court are facing severe financial shortfalls," Hague told parliament.

"We will continue to call on international partners, including states in the region, to contribute to the court."

The court, whose top donors include Japan, the European Union, Australia, France and Germany as well as Britain, urgently needs $9.5 million for 2013.

Some 270 of its Cambodian employees, including drivers, prosecutors and judges, have received no pay since November.

The tribunal has been hit by a string of high-profile resignations since it was set up in 2006, as well as allegations of corruption, political interference and slow progress.

Led by "Brother Number One" Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the Khmer Rouge wiped out nearly a quarter of Cambodia's population through starvation, overwork or execution in a bid to create an agrarian utopia.

Ex-foreign minister Ieng Sary, "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea and one-time head of state Khieu Samphan are on trial and deny charges of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.

The tribunal has so far spent $179 million but has achieved just one conviction, sentencing former prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, to life in jail for overseeing the deaths of some 15,000 people.

Hague also pledged £1 million for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which is probing the 2005 bombing that killed former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri.

He said the funding showed Britain's continuing support for the tribunal's bid to end Lebanon's "climate of impunity for political assassination".