[JURIST] UN member countries pledged Monday to contribute over $38 million dollars [UN press release] to finance a tribunal to try surviving Khmer Rouge leaders [BBC News backgrounder] with war crimes. Pledges fell short of the $70 million requested by Cambodian officials [JURIST report], but UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who has estimated the UN-backed court's three-year budget [UN News report] to be about $56 million, said that Monday's pledges moved the UN and Cambodia an important step closer to starting the court. The war crimes tribunal was approved by the Cambodian parliament last October [JURIST report; additional JURIST report]. Thus far, only two Khmer Rouge defendants are in custody [JURIST report]. AFP has more. Yale's Cambodian Genocide Program [academic website] has background on the Khmer Rouge Tribunal.