Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson. UN Photo/Paulo Filgueiras
7 November 2013 – A senior United Nations official today appealed
to the international community to provide funding to the UN-backed
tribunal trying Khmer Rouge leaders accused of mass killings in
Cambodia, which is experiencing financial difficulties preventing it
from completing its work.
“We all agree that there can be no impunity for crimes which tear at the
very fabric of our common humanity. But we have to do more than agree –
and more than speak out. We have to match our words with actions,” the
Deputy Secretary-General, Jan Eliasson, said at the pledging conference
in New York for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia
(ECCC).
“Words do not pay the bills. If we do not pay the bills, we will fail to
live up to our noble declarations. We will let down the millions of
Cambodians who watched their relatives die, who survived atrocities, and
who still live with a burning desire to see justice done. We will fail
future generations who look to history for proof that justice can
triumph over violence.”
The ECCC is a hybrid court established in 2006 to try senior leaders and
those most responsible for the crimes committed during the Khmer Rouge
regime. It is staffed by a mix of Cambodian and international employees
and judges. More than 100,000 people have attended hearings since the
trial began, many of them survivors of the Khmer Rouge regime who
travelled far to watch the proceedings.
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