INTERNATIONAL donors approved the 2010 and 2011 budgets for the Khmer Rouge tribunal on Tuesday night, UN court spokesman Lars Olsen said.

The donor countries, Olsen said, allocated US$42 million to the court for 2010 and $43 million for 2011, not including “contingencies”. The new figures mark an increase from the $36.4 million budgeted for 2009, as the court seeks to accommodate the increasing demands it may face in the coming months.

“The budget reflects the possibility that we will have in the near future maybe three different processes going on at the same time,” Olsen said.

These processes may include an appeal in the tribunal’s first case, that of Tuol Sleng prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, as well as a trial of the regime leaders investigated in Case 002 and investigations of additional suspects not yet in custody.

The new figures, set to be released in full later this week, include $1.5 million in funding for outreach activities over the next two years. This is an increase by “four to five times” from previous budgets, Olsen said, calling the new funds “a breakthrough for the outreach efforts of the court”.