Ex-Khmer Rouge head of state arrested

Ex-Khmer Rouge head of state arrested

By SOPHENG CHEANG, Associated Press Writer

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - The U.N.-backed genocide tribunal in Cambodia arrested the former Khmer Rouge head of state Monday following his release from a hospital in the capital, officials said.

Khieu Samphan, 76, was the fifth senior Khmer Rouge official to be detained by the long-delayed tribunal ahead of trials that are expected to begin next year. The arrests come almost three decades after the group fell from power, with many fearing the aging suspects might die before they ever see a courtroom.

Police escorted Khieu Samphan from the hospital that he checked into last Wednesday after suffering a stroke. They held his arms for support and led him to a police car that sped away in a convoy of a half dozen police vehicles.

Khieu Samphan's arrest by the U.N.-backed tribunal had been widely expected. It was not immediately clear what charges Khieu Samphan will face. He was expected to appear before investigating judges later in the day, tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath said.

The 1975-79 Khmer Rouge regime was blamed for the deaths of some 1.7 million people from starvation, disease, overwork and execution.

Khieu Samphan has repeatedly denied responsibility for any atrocities. In a book published last week, he defended many of the policies of the ultra-communists although he has admitted that some killings took place.

He claimed he was awaken to the reality of his regime's brutality only after watching a 2003 documentary about the Khmer Rouge S-21 prison, where as many as 16,000 people are believed to have passed through its gates before being taken for execution. Only about a dozen are thought to have survived.

"When I saw the film, it was hard for me to deny (the killings). There's no more doubt left," Khieu Samphan said in an AP interview then.

"Everything has to go the trial's way now, and there's no other way," he said. "But I also want the public to understand about me, too. I was not involved in any killings."

The U.N.-assisted tribunal was created last year after seven years of contentious negotiations between the United Nations and Cambodia .

A week ago, authorities arrested Ieng Sary, the Khmer Rouge's ex-foreign minister, and his wife Ieng Thirith, its social affairs minister. Both were charged with crimes against humanity; Ieng Sary also was charged with war crimes.

Two other suspects — former Khmer Rouge ideologist Nuon Chea and Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, who headed the group's S-21 torture center — were detained earlier this year on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Associated Press Writer Ker Munthit contributed to this report.

http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/071119055555.wwqwkor2.html

KRouge leader arrested by genocide court says spokesman

©AFP - Luke Hunt

PHNOM PENH (AFP) - Former Khmer Rouge leader Khieu Samphan was arrested Monday by Cambodia 's UN-backed genocide tribunal, a court spokesman said without elaborating on the charges.

"He has been arrested and brought to the tribunal," spokesman Reach Sambath told AFP.

The regime's former head of state had earlier been taken from a hospital in the capital Phnom Penh by about 30 armed security forces and driven away in a police convoy, witnesses said.

Khieu Samphan had been hospitalised last Wednesday on the orders of Prime Minister Hun Sen, who said he feared the government would be blamed if the ailing regime leader died.

The 76-year-old was suffering abnormally high blood pressure, although medical tests conducted at Calmette Hospital found nothing immediately wrong, Khieu Samphan's wife, Sor Socheat said last week.

Khieu Samphan was the last of five top regime cadres currently under investigation by the tribunal to be detained.

Last week two former Khmer Rouge ministers, Ieng Sary and his wife, Ieng Thirith, were arrested by the tribunal and charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity for their alleged role in Cambodia 's 1970s genocide.

Regime ideologue Nuon Chea and prison chief Duch were arrested earlier this year and also charged with crimes against humanity.

All have been widely implicated in atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge, including "murder, extermination, imprisonment, enslavement and forced labour," according to court records.

While genocide researchers admit that there is not as much evidence against Khieu Samphan as against other regime leaders, they do say he was aware of the Khmer Rouge's execution policies and did nothing to stop them.

Up to two million people were executed or died of starvation and overwork as the communist regime emptied Cambodia 's cities, exiling millions to vast collective farms in a bid to forge an agrarian utopia during its 1975-79 rule.

The Khmer Rouge also abolished money, religion and schools.

Cambodia's genocide court got underway last year following a decade of often tense negotiations between Cambodia and the United Nations.

Since then, the tribunal has been buffeted by infighting and corruption accusations, suffering further delays. Trials are not expected now until mid-2008 amid fears that death could come before a court verdict for the tribunal's ageing defendants.

But the tribunal will hold its first public hearing on Tuesday when lawyers for Duch, who is accused of overseeing tens of thousands of deaths at the regime's Tuol Sleng prison, appeal against their client's pre-trial detention.

Duch, who was arrested by the tribunal in July, had been previously jailed without trial for eight years by a military court.

This lengthy detention had seriously violated his rights, argue Duch's lawyers, who have demanded that he be immediately released on bail.