By Ek Tha
PHNOM PENH, July 10, 2013 (PRU) - Deputy
Prime Minister Sok An exchanged views with new Australian Ambassador on
shortfall of funds for the national side of the Extraordinary Chamber in
the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), preservation and protection of cultural
heritage, and legal and judicial training.
Australian ambassador Alison Burrows told
H.E Dr. Sok An, who is also the Chairman of the Royal Government Task
Force on the Khmer Rouge Trials, that Canberra is quite concerned about
the shortage of funds for the national side of the ECCC and that this
issue needs to be addressed.
Canberra would like to see others to come
up with commitment of more contributions to the ECCC given the fact
that Australia is already the second largest donor to the ECCC and has
recently announced new pledge of AU $ 3.25 million for the international
side. Cambodia’s side of the court still needs U.S. $3.4 million of its
$9.4 million budget for 2013.
His Excellency Dr. Sok An shared her concern since there has been slow response from donors and friends of ECCC.
This financial crisis has prompted
Cambodia to look for different approaches such as restructuring the
existing setup of the court, reducing the number of staff as well as
recommending judges and prosecutors to speed up their work, while
continuing to ensure due process and judicial independence.
His Excellency Dr. Sok An reiterated that
Cambodia has to face the reality that it cannot further increase its
already significant contribution without jeopardising the country’s
judicial reform program, as the funds for the ECCC already exceed the
commitment from the national budget to the country’s Supreme Court by
257% and to the Appeal Court by 300%.
Since 2006, Cambodia has already provided
$7.4 million in cash and $9.5 million in kind for a total of $16.9
million (making it the third largest contributor after Japan and
Australia).
Since 2006, the ECCC has spent $187 million U.S.
Cambodia and the U.N. continue to seek
new donors and contributions from existing friends of the ECCC to
support the latter to complete its mission of providing justice to
nearly 2 million victims who died under the Democratic Kampuchea regime,
known as ‘the killing fields’, which ruled the country from 17 April
1975 to 6 January 1979.
Canberra has contributed more widely to
improving the legal and justice sector in Cambodia, the sector that
plays a vital role in the country’s social and economic development.
His Excellency Dr. Sok An previously
requested the head of the Sydney Law School to provide legal training
for Cambodian legal officials, and this resulted in a positive response.
Under the Australian Government scholarship program of capacity
building for Cambodian judicial practitioners that will support 14
Cambodian legal practitioners to participate in a six-week training
program on commercial law and related fields from September to October
this year at the University of Sydney’s Law School.
The Deputy Prime Minister said that
Cambodia has to comply with the norms and regulations of World Trade
Organization (WTO) to which it became member in 2004. That is to say,
Cambodia needs to set up a commercial chamber within its domestic court
to handle commercial disputes.
Cambodia is also looking to introduce
court management and case management systems within the existing courts
in the near future -- a tangible legacy from the ECCC. This will
facilitate the work of judges and prosecutors to speed up their work in
an appropriate manner.
The good bilateral cooperation between
Canberra and Phnom Penh also extends to the field of cultural heritage,
in particular the Heritage Management Framework project co-funded by
Australia and Cambodia and coordinated by United Nations for Education,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Australia is one among the donors who
have engaged with APSARA (the National Authority for the Protection and
Management of Angkor and the Region of Siem Reap province), where
tourist arrivals have increased by 28.5 per cent in the past year, which
is a very positive development, said the Deputy Prime Minister. But at
the same time, it also poses significant challenges to ensure that the
World Heritage site of Angkor, listed in 1992, retains its outstanding
universal value.
The Heritage Management Framework
included developing a Tourism Management Plan, a risk map of Angkor’s
complex, which encompasses the structural, monumental, environmental and
socio-cultural risks and capacity building for APSARA in developing
several pilot projects such as diversification of destinations like
sunset viewing, air quality monitoring, and sustainable development of
the site.
Dr. Sok An sincerely thanks to Australia
for its $1m contribution to this important project, while expressing the
hope that further funding may be forthcoming for the implementation of
the plans. END