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The UN originally came down in
favour of establishing a third ad hoc International
Criminal Tribunal. Faced with stiff opposition from the
Cambodian Government, the UN compromised successively concerning
the legal status of the court and its structure. A consensus
finally seemed to have been reached in July 2000, when a UN
negotiating team left Phnom Penh with a draft Memorandum of
Understanding concerning ‘significant international
co-operation’ in trials before ‘Extraordinary Chambers’ of the
Cambodian courts (the ‘draft MOU’).
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In the event, the law finally
promulgated by Cambodia on 10 August 2001 in order to set up
these Chambers (the ‘2001
Law’) was not entirely consistent with the terms of the
draft MOU. In the absence of progress concerning these
differences, the Secretary-General pulled the UN out of the
negotiations in February 2002. However, the UN General Assembly
requested him to continue negotiating on the basis of the 2001
Law and, on 17 March 2003, an amended bi-lateral agreement was
negotiated which went some way towards addressing the concerns
of the Secretary-General (the ‘2003
Agreement’).
The Agreement was officially signed in Phnom Penh
on 6 June 2003.
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Yet, it was only ratified by
Cambodia on 19 October 2004, after the formation of a new
government. The 2001 Law was then
amended, on 27 October 2004, to bring it into conformity
with the international Agreement.
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The UN indicated that the
Agreement would not come into force until the budget for the
Chambers had been secured, which occurred on 29 April 2005,
after a donors conference received promises covering the
quasi-totality of the US$43M voluntary international
contributions. At the end of 2005, Cambodia had not yet found
the totality of its share of the budget (US$13.3M).
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