The Australian Embassy announced on Dec 27 that Australia would provide $1.1

million in funding to the Cambodian Mine Action Center (CMAC). The funding announcement

indicates that Australia is seeking to renew serious financial support for CMAC that

was cut in mid-1999 by revelations that CMAC deminers had used donor funds to illegally

engage in "contract demining" for former Khmer Rouge leader Chhouk Rin,

who at the time was implicated in the 1994 murder of Australian backpacker David

Wilson. Both CMAC and donors have consistently refused to release a Jan 2000 investigative

report into the circumstances of the "contract demining" fiasco.