A UN delegation will make a two-day visit to the Khmer Rouge tribunal starting on January 27 to discuss court funding following a sidelines meeting between UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Prime Minister Hun Sen at last year’s ASEAN summit, a court spokesman said yesterday.
According to tribunal spokesman Lars Olsen, the delegation will consist of UN legal counsel Miguel de Serpa Soares, UN budget office head María Eugenia Casar and UN special expert to the tribunal David Scheffer.
“The purpose of the mission will be to discuss matters relating to the financing and work of the ECCC with senior officials of the royal government of Cambodia and to meet with officials of the ECCC,” Olsen said.
Late last year an emergency UN loan ended a weeks-long strike by unpaid national staffers.
The Cambodian government ultimately agreed to pay the $1.8 million shortfall to provide for national-side salaries through the end of 2013, but the court’s Cambodian staffers went unpaid again this month, court spokesman Neth Pheaktra said. Currently, the only pledge towards the national side’s $12.4 million budget for 2014-2015 is $1.7 million from the Cambodian government.
The UN-run side of the court has enough money to pay employees through the end of March, Olsen said.
