AUSTRALIA is to give $A3.25 million extra support to the UN-backed Khmer Rouge war crimes tribunal, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) says.
"The ECCC hearings play a vital role in delivering justice for the Cambodian people, who endured unspeakable suffering at the hands of the Khmer Rouge," Foreign Minister Bob Carr said, according to a statement released by the ECCC on Wednesday.
The contribution would help the tribunal to continue its operations without interruption, the ECCC statement said.
The court needs $US35 million ($A37 million) this year to continue the trials, but is still short of funding, ECCC spokesman Lars Olsen told DPA on Wednesday.
At the end of last year, experts said the court was close to bankruptcy. Cambodian staff were forced to wait several months for their salaries in late 2012 and early 2013.
Australia is the second-largest international donor to the ECCC and has contributed $A23 million so far including its most recent funding. Japan is the largest contributor.
The ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge movement ruled Cambodia from 1975-79 when an estimated two million people died from execution, overwork, starvation and disease.
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