KR Banking Chief Says Institution Was Sham
On his first day of questioning at the Khmer Rouge tribunal yesterday, Sar Kim Lomouth, the deputy director of the State Bank of Democratic Kampuchea, described how the national financial institution was nothing but a charade during the Pol Pot regime. Currency had been abolished and financial transactions eliminated under Democratic Kampuchea. But the state bank nevertheless thrived as a foreign affairs institute of sorts, explained Mr. Lomouth. “The bank was managed by the director and deputy director…but as for the other departments, there were no other sections: accounting, finance or so on,” Mr. Lomouth said. “In terms of reporting systems, there were no established mechanisms to report, this bank was a near-empty institution,” he said. …
