Tribunal Administrator Answers Allegations

Sean Visoth, the chief administrator of ECCC, is now on medical leave. (Photo: AP)

By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
02 April 2009

With corruption allegations continuing to hound the Khmer Rouge tribunal and with the Cambodian side of the courts continually cash-strapped, the chief administrator said in a rare interview Wednesday the allegations leveled against his office were products of ulterior motives, politics, and even “destructors.”

The man at the center of the court’s corruption woes is Sean Visoth, the director of administration for the tribunal. He has not been to work in four months, even though the tribunal has begun its first trial, of prison chief Duch. He spoke to VOA Khmer by phone from Phnom Penh.

“I can say that this is a power struggle,” he said of allegations his office had mismanaged the tribunal and that Cambodian staff have been forced to pay kickbacks in order to work at the tribunal. “Who controls this court? This issue is what is causing this problem. All these elements are politically motivated.”

By way of explaining, he quoted a Cambodian proverb: “If you want to get a dog killed, say the dog is mad.”

Corruption allegations have followed the tribunal from the get-go, just after the court stood up in 2006. By February 2007, the Open Society Justice Initiative had issued a statement saying its monitors were hearing about kickbacks. And in 2008, several Cambodian whistleblowers reported to the UN they were forced to pay senior officials to keep their jobs. The UN investigated but has not made those findings public.

Sean Visoth said Wednesday he had been to the United Nations in New York twice at the end of 2008, “for discussions,” but he would not elaborate. He denied any allegations of corruption in his office, and said seven different auditing teams had been unable to find evidence to support the claims.

These investigations made a clean bill of health, he said, and the so-called whistleblowers were in fact disgruntled Cambodian staff members who had moved over to the UN side of the court. He declined to say whether he could take legal action against them for their allegations, but said instead the former staff members could “only cheat children” and were “tribunal destructors.”

Meanwhile, he said, the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Service did no t have jurisdiction over his office, which is on the Cambodian side of the UN-backed tribunal.

Still, the allegations have been enough for some donors to freeze funding, and the Cambodian side of the court was only able to pay its staff for March with the help of an emergency $200,000 from Japan.

Sean Visoth said the Cambodian side has always had difficulties with funding, so it would make no difference whether he stepped down amid the allegations. He has been on medical leave since November 2008, but his doctors have not yet cleared him to return to work.

“Since the start-up, this court has not received a big budget package,” he said. The donors “drop [funds] just like they’ve hung up an IV, drop by drop, and wait and see.”

Even in these conditions, he said, the court was able to pass its internal rules more quickly than expected, arrested five suspects in just four months, and had a lower cost and wider public participation than other war crimes tribunals

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Ieng Sary's court appearance for bail appeal

Ieng Sary, center, a former Khmer Rouge foreign minister, stands in the dock in the courtroom for a hearing at the U.N.-backed genocide tribunal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Thursday, April 2, 2009. The U.N.-assisted tribunal represents the first serious attempt to hold Khmer Rouge leaders accountable for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians from starvation, medical neglect, slave-like working conditions and execution. (AP Photo/Chor Sokunthea, POOL)
Former Khmer Rouge Foreign Minister Ieng Sary stands in the dock for his pre-trial public hearing on the outskirts of Phnom Penh April 2, 2009. Cambodia's "Killing Fields" court charged Ieng Sary with crimes against humanity three decades after the end of a regime blamed for 1.7 million deaths. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea
Ieng Sary, right, a former Khmer Rouge foreign minister, looks through a computer as he sits in the dock in the courtroom for a hearing at the U.N.-backed genocide tribunal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Thursday, April 2, 2009. The U.N.-assisted tribunal represents the first serious attempt to hold Khmer Rouge leaders accountable for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians from starvation, medical neglect, slave-like working conditions and execution. (AP Photo/Chor Sokunthea, Pool)
Former Khmer Rouge Foreign Minister Ieng Sary stands in the dock for his pre-trial public hearing on the outskirts of Phnom Penh April 2, 2009. Cambodia's "Killing Fields" court charged Ieng Sary with crimes against humanity three decades after the end of a regime blamed for 1.7 million deaths. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea
Ieng Sary, the Khmer Rouge's foreign minister, looks on as he sits in the dock in the courtroom for a hearing during a U.N.-assisted tribunal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Thursday, April 2, 2009. Sary was charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. (AP Photo/Chor Sokunthea, Pool)

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Debt strains Cambodian New Year celebration

The Cambodian New Year parade on Anaheim Street in Long Beach is still on track for Sunday. But a celebration set for April 25 may be in jeopardy. The organizer of the two events is $40,000 in debt. Festivities from 2007 are pictured. (Jeff Gritchen / Staff Photographer)

04/01/2009
By Greg Mellen Staff Writer
Long Beach Press Telegram (California, USA)

LONG BEACH - Regardless of the weather, the Cambodian New Year parade will step off Sunday attempting to clear a financial fog that surrounds the annual event.

Just last week, the Cambodian Coordinating Council, which organizes the annual parade and a separate New Year's celebration at El Dorado Park on April 25, put the finishing touches on a multi-year payment plan to make up a shortfall of about $40,000. The group has already made a $5,000 payment.

How organizers ended up $40,000 in debt for an event that costs about $40,000 in city fees and for which there are sponsors, fundraising, and - in the case of the El Dorado Park event, a hefty admission charge - depends on whom one asks.

And then there are the looming costs.

In the wake of the economic downturn, leaders of this year's parade and celebration say they are somewhere between $10,000 and $20,000 short of the money they need.

Although the parade is good to go, the April 25 celebration is still in limbo, although leaders assure it will happen.

Much of the parade and celebration leadership this year is new and the group says these board members are bringing new vitality and business acumen to the group. They are promising to open their books and be "transparent," but not quite yet.

Parade organizers say the city boosted its fees for the event last year from about $25,000 to $40,000 and they never recovered. Some say the city never adequately explained why the costs rose so sharply or gave them fair warning.

David Ashman, manager of special events in the city, said in the first few years of the parade the city "capped" its fees. Also, then-6th District City Councilwoman Laura Richardson's office was able to provide help and the parade had several major donors, including Sound Energy Solutions, which has left Long Beach.

"We capped city costs and absorbed costs to help them get on their feet," Ashman said of the first three years. "It was a different time and we could afford to do that."

With the city's burgeoning budget deficit, Ashman says the city can no longer take on those costs, especially in areas such as public safety, public works and traffic management.

"We're under a directive to recover the full costs for those," Ashman said.

Still, the question of how a $15,000 increase in costs translates into a $40,000 deficit is unclear.

Late last year, the city began negotiating the debt with the Cambodian Coordinating Council and settled on the current payment plan.

Some organizers said they had to keep some money in their account for operating expenses and emergencies and they are still working on the books to figure out where the rest went.

Others say money had to be paid up front to put on this year's parade and celebration.

Ashman says about $13,000 has been paid in advance for a traffic vendor and other costs.

Anthony Kim, who is now heading finances, says about $20,000 has been raised this year.

When asked if he worries the celebration may not happen, Kim is adamant.

"It never crossed my mind," Kim says.

Kim and others on the finance committee are trying to raise the needed money and promise they'll get there.

One initiative they are particularly hopeful about is the One Dollar Donation Campaign. They say if every resident went online to their Web site, www.cam-cc.org, and donated $1, the group would be flush.

The cost of putting on the events this year was originally estimated at $44,000, but the Department of Parks, Recreation and Marine has waived a number of rental and application fees and helped organizers find a variety of cost-cutting measures that reduce the bill.

Also, post-parade activities have been moved from MacArthur Park to an empty Redevelopment Agency lot on Anaheim Street and Walnut Avenue to pare costs.

Phylypo Tum said the new board debated whether to drop the parade because of the added costs, but couldn't do it.

"The board decided we owe it to the community. We said, `We'll stick together no matter what it costs."' Tum said.

greg.mellen@presstelegram.com, 562-499-1291

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