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Japan donating $4 million to underfunded Cambodia genocide tribunal

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] The Japanese government on Thursday pledged to donate USD $4.17 million to assist the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), the tribunal set up to try former members of the Khmer Rouge. The funding comes at an opportune moment for the ECCC, which projected a $4.3 million dollar shortfall for 2009. According to the Japanese Embassy in Cambodia, the funding is in response to a request from the Cambodian government because Japan:strongly support the role of the ECCC created by the international agreement between the Royal Government of Cambodia and the United Nations in delivering justice to the Cambodian people for the atrocities committed under the Khmer Rouge regime.The ECCC is in the midst of the first trial of a former Khmer Rouge leader, Kaing Guek Eav, also known as "Duch." In late April, Kaing admitted to training prison staff to use torture to obtain confessions from prisoners, after he accepted responsibility for the deaths of 12,000 Cambodians in the S-21 prison camp. Kaing's trial is the first of eight that the ECCC hopes to hear against former members of the Khmer Rouge, which has been accused of murdering 1.7 million Cambodians during its nearly four-year reign.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on May 01, 2009 (boomark / email).