The UN and a leading human rights group criticised Cambodia on Thursday for failing to pay its share of costs for the UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal, which has been hit by striking Cambodian staff who have been unpaid for months.
Human Rights Watch said the failure to pay employees’ salaries is the latest “delaying tactic” by a government led by former Khmer Rouge members.
“The government has demonstrated it has plenty of cash to pay a bloated army and buy elections, making its refusal to put money into the Khmer Rouge tribunal a symbol of its utter contempt for justice in Cambodia,” said Brad Adams, Human Rights Watch’s Asia director.
Cambodian government spokesmen Phay Siphan and Ek Tha declined to comment and refused to discuss the funding issues facing the tribunal.
The tribunal is tasked with seeking justice for atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge in the late 1970s, when an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died from starvation, disease, forced labour and executions.
Under the agreement with the Cambodian government that established the tribunal, the UN pays the salaries of the foreign staff, while it is the Cambodian government’s responsibility to pay Cambodian employees. In reality, international donors have often supplemented Cambodia’s inadequate contributions.