Australia donates to Khmer Rouge trials

Australia will donate an extra $1.61 million to fund Cambodia’s UN-backed Khmer Rouge trials.

The nation has donated more than $18 million to the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), the special court set up in 2001 to try former members of the Khmer Rouge regime charged with genocide.

“Australia is the second largest donor to the trials,” Foreign Minister Bob Carr said in a statement.

“The ECCC’s work is vital to ensure justice for the Cambodian people who endured unspeakable suffering at the hands of the Khmer Rouge.”

An estimated 1.6 million Cambodians died under the brutal Khmer Rouge regime.

The communist group ruled Cambodia under the leadership of Pol Pot between 1975 and 1979.

The ECCC’s first trial ended in February with the former head of a Khmer Rouge prison, Kaing Guek Eav, jailed for life.

Kaing, known as Duch, ran the notorious Tuol Sleng S-21 jail from which about 15,000 people are said to have been sent to their deaths.

Three senior members of the regime are on trial at present charged with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Senator Carr made the funding announcement in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, on Monday.

It is Senator Carr’s first overseas trip since being sworn in as foreign minister.

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