Japanese appointed as spokeswoman for Khmer Rouge tribunal+

TOKYO, July 21 Kyodo -
A Japanese national who once served with the U.N. Mission in Liberia has been
appointed as spokeswoman for the U.N.-assisted tribunal in Cambodia set up to
try former Khmer Rouge leaders for crimes against humanity, Japan's Foreign
Ministry said Tuesday.

Yuko Maeda, 45, has been appointed by the United Nations as public affairs
officer for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, the ministry
said, adding that Tokyo ''heartily welcomes'' the appointment that will take
effect Friday.
Maeda, who worked as a Kobe Shimbun reporter before serving as spokeswoman for
the world body's Liberia mission between 2005 and 2006, is expected to provide
information about court proceedings to the media.
The public affairs officer position had been vacant and the United Nations
publicly sought candidates, ministry officials said.
Maeda, a native of Himeji in Hyogo Prefecture, lived in Cambodia between 1998
and 2003, during which time she worked with the Cambodia Daily newspaper and
represented Women Against Silence, a nongovernmental organization set up to
help rape victims.
The Khmer Rouge are blamed for the deaths of at least 1.7 million Cambodians in
the late 1970s. The trial of the first defendant among five started in February
2009.
Tokyo has so far contributed around $39.55 million to the United Nations and
about $7.36 million to Cambodia, covering about 47 percent of the total
expenditures to support the Khmer Rouge trials, according to the Foreign
Ministry.
In addition to Maeda, Japanese national Motoo Noguchi, professor of the U.N.
Asia and Far East Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of
Offenders, is serving as one of three international judges of the supreme court
chamber for the Khmer Rouge trials. He was appointed in May 2006.
Reach Sambath, chief of the tribunal's public affairs section, welcomed Maeda's
appointment, saying, ''We are very pleased to hear that a Japanese woman, who
has been selected by the U.N., will be working as an international public
affairs officer.''
''We hope her presence in the public affairs section will help to strengthen
the work of the ECCC and her presence will consolidate relations between the
court and the people of Japan,'' he added.
==Kyodo