[Mb-civic] CBC News - UN TO SET UP KHMER ROUGE TRIALS

[CBC News Online]

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UN TO SET UP KHMER ROUGE TRIALS
WebPosted Sat Apr 30 12:46:30 2005

UNITED NATIONS ---The United Nations has decided to go ahead with a
tribunal to prosecute leaders of the Khmer Rouge for genocide and crimes
against humanity.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has told Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen
there are now sufficient international pledges and contributions to fund
trials for a "sustained period of time."

An agreement reached with the UN prevented the tribunal from commencing
until pledges had been received to fund a full three years of its
operations.

The decision to go ahead with the hearings was announced at UN
headquarters a day after the European Commission pledged $1.3 million US
to help fund the tribunal. As of last month, international donors had
pledged $38 million.

Annan says he now looks forward to the trials being established and
functioning as soon as possible.

Up to two million Cambodians, about a quarter of the population, were
either killed, or died of starvation, disease or forced labour during the
rule of the communist regime from 1975-79.

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