An Evening with Ambassador David Scheffer, the UN Secretary General's Special Expert on the United Nations Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials

Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand. Bangkok. August 15, 2012. Ambassador David Scheffer is an experienced and dedicated US diplomat, who is currently representing the Secretary General of the UN in connection with the Khmer Rouge war crimes trials currently taking place in Phnom Pehn, Cambodia's capital city. It is almost 40 years since the beginning of the Cambodian "killing fields" genocide, which murdered 1.7 people, and to date, exactly one person has been convicted, and he actually pleaded guilty. The war crimes tribunal, which started in 2006, has cost about $190 to date, and is out of money, according to Ambassador Scheffer, who spends 50% of his time roaming the world soliciting governments to contribute enough to keep the court going, which requires $2.2 per month. The court itself is not part of the UN budget, but exists on voluntary contributions of governments, the biggest contributor being Japan. Although the history of this court has been a dismal one, due mainly to the efforts of the Cambodian dictatorship to undermine the court, it is still important for it to exist and do its work, even though the time for any imposition of justice has long since passed. As Ambassador Scheffer points out, the purpose of this and other similar trials is to let the tyrants and murders of this world know that there is no impunity for their acts.