By Ek Madra
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodia's U.N.-backed "KillingFields" court has trebled its initial budget, seeking an extra$114 million (58 million pounds) from international donors tocontinue its pursuit of Pol Pot's top surviving henchmen, aspokesman said on Thursday.
Under the new proposal, the long-awaited tribunal'sthree-year lifespan would grow by two years, dragging outproceedings until 2011 even though most of the Khmer Rouge'sleading cadres are old and in poor health.
Given the problems with finding the court's initial $56million, the request for such a large sum is unlikely to godown well with donors who already pump $600 million a year intoCambodia's war-scarred but now booming economy.
"We have no choice but to expand," court spokesman PeterFoster told Reuters shortly after the start of a bail hearingfor "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea, charged last year with warcrimes and crimes against humanity.
"I would not call it a delay, but I would call it a morerealistic plan," he said.
An estimated 1.7 million people were executed or died oftorture, disease or starvation under Pol Pot's 1975-79 reign ofterror as his dream of creating an agrarian peasant utopiadescended into the nightmare of the "Killing Fields".
After nearly a decade of delays and tortuous talks with theUnited Nations, the court kicked off in earnest last year withcharges against Nuon Chea and four other senior cadres.
SURPRISE
However, it has long been clear the court was short ofcash.
One Phnom Penh-based diplomat said the request for moremoney had been in the pipeline for some time, but the size ofthe increase was a surprise.
"The original budget was too low and a lot of key elementshad not been costed properly, but this is certainly a prettyhefty rise," the diplomat said.
Foster said he hoped countries such as Japan, which hasbankrolled much of the proceedings so far, would dig deep toensure the court achieved the aim of prosecuting "those mostresponsible" for the atrocities without compromising standards.
"I am optimistic because the extra funding that has beenrequested is for units and staffing that are absolutelyessential for the court to maintain international standards,"he said.
Tokyo hopes the trials will expose the full extent of thelinks between Pol Pot's murderous regime and China, analystssay.
The expanded budget would be mainly for more court staff,translation and transcription facilities and victim and witnesssupport units, and suggested prosecutors would widen their netwell beyond the five already in custody, Foster said.
At his bail hearing, the octogenarian Nuon Chea argued hewas not a flight risk and would not try to influence potentialwitnesses. Fears for his safety were also overblown, he said.
"I have no desire to leave my beloved country," he told acourtroom packed with reporters.
The court is not expected to announce its decision forseveral days, but he is extremely unlikely to be released.
Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot died in 1998 in the final KhmerRouge redoubt of Anlong Veng on the Thai border.
Besides Nuon Chea, members of his inner circle now incustody are former president Khieu Samphan, former foreignminister Ieng Sary and his wife Ieng Thirith, and Duch, head ofPhnom Penh's Tuol Sleng, or "S-21" interrogation and torturecentre.
(Reporting by Ek Madra; Writing by Ed Cropley; Editing byMichael Battye and Sanjeev Miglani)
