Top:Memories of the dead ... photographs of the victims from Cambodia's notorious Tuol Sleng prison.
Bottom:Pledged $1.61 million to tribunal on a rocky road ... Bob Carr, pictured with Cambodian Buddhist monks. Photo: AFP
By Lindsay Murdoch
March 28, 2012
The Sydney Morning Herald
The Foreign Minister, Bob Carr, has pledged a further $1.61 million of taxpayers' money to a United Nations tribunal that is set to allow a Khmer Rouge commander who sent two Australians to their deaths to escape justice.
Senator Carr pledged the money days after the tribunal was rocked by the resignation of the Swiss judge Laurent Kasper-Ansermet, who had been blocked from pursuing prosecutions of former Khmer Rouge commanders, including Meas Muth, a former navy commander.
Meas Muth, now in his 70s, sent the yachtsmen Ronald Keith Dean and David Lloyd Scott to Cambodia's notorious Tuol Sleng interrogation centre where they were tortured and killed in 1978.
Pledged $1.61 million to tribunal on a rocky road ... Bob Carr, pictured with Cambodian Buddhist monks.
Making his first overseas trip as Foreign Minister, Senator Carr praised the tribunal for convicting Tuol Sleng's former head Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, but made no mention of cost over-runs and disputes that prompted mass resignations at the tribunal established in 2006. He made an indirect reference to claims of political interference at the tribunal: ''The independence of the judiciary and the [court] must be allowed to operate free from any external interference.''
Mr Kasper-Ansermet was the second judge in two months to quit the tribunal, citing the blocking of the prosecution of Meas Muth and Sou Met, the Khmer Rouge's air force chief.
Cambodia's Prime Minister, Hun Sen, has told the UN he will not allow further trials after the conclusion of hearings against five ageing Khmer Rouge leaders, including Duch.
Meas Muth and Sou Met were next to face prosecution over the deaths of at least 1.7 million people during the Khmer Rouge's rule from 1975 to 1978. The UN and other investigators have found the men were responsible for the deaths of thousands of people. Neither could be contacted for comment.
Mr Dean, a 35-year-old Sydney hotel and club worker and Mr Scott, from Western Australia, suffered extreme torture at Tuol Sleng. They signed false confessions saying they were CIA agents in an apparent attempt to avoid their executions. A guard at Tuol Sleng told the tribunal that one Westerner at the centre, possibly one of the Australians, was burned alive.
The UN has condemned political interference at the tribunal as its judges and staff have been blocked from pursuing more suspects. Australia is the second largest donor to the tribunal after Japan. The latest contribution brings Australia's total support to $18.3 million.
Bottom:Pledged $1.61 million to tribunal on a rocky road ... Bob Carr, pictured with Cambodian Buddhist monks. Photo: AFP
By Lindsay Murdoch
March 28, 2012
The Sydney Morning Herald
The Foreign Minister, Bob Carr, has pledged a further $1.61 million of taxpayers' money to a United Nations tribunal that is set to allow a Khmer Rouge commander who sent two Australians to their deaths to escape justice.
Senator Carr pledged the money days after the tribunal was rocked by the resignation of the Swiss judge Laurent Kasper-Ansermet, who had been blocked from pursuing prosecutions of former Khmer Rouge commanders, including Meas Muth, a former navy commander.
Meas Muth, now in his 70s, sent the yachtsmen Ronald Keith Dean and David Lloyd Scott to Cambodia's notorious Tuol Sleng interrogation centre where they were tortured and killed in 1978.
Pledged $1.61 million to tribunal on a rocky road ... Bob Carr, pictured with Cambodian Buddhist monks.
Making his first overseas trip as Foreign Minister, Senator Carr praised the tribunal for convicting Tuol Sleng's former head Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, but made no mention of cost over-runs and disputes that prompted mass resignations at the tribunal established in 2006. He made an indirect reference to claims of political interference at the tribunal: ''The independence of the judiciary and the [court] must be allowed to operate free from any external interference.''
Mr Kasper-Ansermet was the second judge in two months to quit the tribunal, citing the blocking of the prosecution of Meas Muth and Sou Met, the Khmer Rouge's air force chief.
Cambodia's Prime Minister, Hun Sen, has told the UN he will not allow further trials after the conclusion of hearings against five ageing Khmer Rouge leaders, including Duch.
Meas Muth and Sou Met were next to face prosecution over the deaths of at least 1.7 million people during the Khmer Rouge's rule from 1975 to 1978. The UN and other investigators have found the men were responsible for the deaths of thousands of people. Neither could be contacted for comment.
Mr Dean, a 35-year-old Sydney hotel and club worker and Mr Scott, from Western Australia, suffered extreme torture at Tuol Sleng. They signed false confessions saying they were CIA agents in an apparent attempt to avoid their executions. A guard at Tuol Sleng told the tribunal that one Westerner at the centre, possibly one of the Australians, was burned alive.
The UN has condemned political interference at the tribunal as its judges and staff have been blocked from pursuing more suspects. Australia is the second largest donor to the tribunal after Japan. The latest contribution brings Australia's total support to $18.3 million.
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