PHNOM PENH (AFP) - Cambodia said Wednesday it would downsize
its Khmer Rouge war crimes tribunal, following a shortage of funds that
disrupted a major trial of former top regime leaders.
"We have a
financial crisis at the court so we have to restructure its operations
to make it smaller in order to reduce costs," government spokesman Ek
Tha told AFP.
He was unable to say how many of the 400 employees would be affected.
Tribunal
spokesman Lars Olsen played down the significance of the move. "The
court is regularly reviewing its staffing requirements to ensure that we
are cost efficient," he said.
The UN-backed tribunal has been
frequently short of cash since it was set up in 2006 to pursue justice
for the deaths of up to two million people under the fanatical Khmer
Rouge communist regime in the late 1970s.
A two-week strike by
local staff last month over unpaid wages paralysed the trial of elderly
former regime leaders, adding to fears that they will not live to face
verdicts.
One of the defendants, regime co-founder Ieng Sary, died
last month. The court has also been dogged by claims that the Cambodian
government has tried to obstruct progress in the landmark trial.
UN
and Cambodian officials are drawing up recommendations for the court to
hasten the trial of the remaining two suspects, Ek Tha said.
"The
old age of the defendants and the financial issue prompted us to
recommend the judges and the prosecutors to speed up the trial process.
But it does not mean we want them to take short cuts," he said.
Officials would meet donor representatives to seek more funding for the court when the downsizing plan is complete, he added.
The
Cambodian side of the hybrid tribunal -- whose top donors include
Japan, the European Union and Australia -- urgently needs around $7
million to cover costs for this year.
A fresh strike was averted
in late March after Cambodia reached an agreement to borrow money to pay
wages from the budget for international staff.
Led by "Brother
Number One" Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the regime wiped out nearly a
quarter of Cambodia's population through starvation, overwork or
execution in a bid to create an agrarian utopia during their 1975-79
rule.
The two remaining defendants, "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea,
86, and former head of state Khieu Samphan, 81, have denied charges of
war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.
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