Watchdog for Rouge tribunal

PHNOM PENH: Cambodia’s UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal has launched a new “ethics monitor” to grapple with ongoing claims of corruption within the court, spokesman Reach Sambath said.

The anti-corruption committee is headed by one of the court’s top judges, Kong Srim, and tribunal spokeswoman Helen Jarvis, Reach Sambath said.
“Our goal is to strengthen the oversight mechanism against corruption,” he said on Friday.
The panel will field complaints from tribunal staffers and look into any graft claims within the joint Cambodian-UN court, he added.

The new watchdog was set up after the UN Development Programme (UNDP) raised fresh allegations of kickbacks on the Cambodian side of the court in late June, forcing international donors to withhold funding for July, including salaries for tribunal staff.
People found guilty of corruption could be sent to prison, Reach Sambath added.
The court is preparing for its first trial, set to begin in late September or early October, against Kaing Guek Eav, better known as “Duch,” who ran a notorious torture centre in Phnom Penh.
The tribunal faces a $43.8mn funding shortfall, and officials travelled to New York in June to petition UN members for more funds.

International backers have appeared hesitant to pledge more money to the court after previous allegations of political interference and mismanagement, including that Cambodian staff paid money in exchange for their jobs.
But court officials have said last year’s allegations were “unspecific, unsourced and unsubstantiated.”

Up to 2mn people died of starvation, overwork and execution as the communist Khmer Rouge dismantled modern Cambodian society in a bid to forge an agrarian utopia during its 1975-1979 rule.–AFP