Cambodia To Try Khmer Warlord
Ta Mok, the last senior leader of the Khmer Rouge guerrilla army, was arrested Saturday and flown to Phnom Penh, where authorities said Sunday that he will face a Cambodian trial for his alleged role in a regime that killed up to 2 million people.
"A tribunal will be set up. Prosecutors will collect evidence," said government spokesman Khieu Kanharith.
"It will be held under Cambodian law. There is no international tribunal to settle the case yet," he said.
Officials said military prosecutors were preparing charges. The Khmer Rouge is a banned organization, outlawed in 1994. Khieu Kanharith said charges could include genocide.
"Perhaps massacre or genocide. It's up to the prosecutor, but the sooner the better," he said.
If he is prosecuted, Ta Mok will be the first Khmer Rouge leader to appear in a court to answer for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people during their 1975-79 rule.
The one-legged guerilla, known as "the butcher" and believed to be 72, was the last Khmer Rouge leader still on the run. All other surviving leaders of the group, and troops, have surrendered.
The United States welcomed Ta Mok's arrest as a "very positive step" and said it hoped he and his comrades would appear before an international tribunal.
"It is important that the work proceed now on the establishment of an international criminal tribunal covering the atrocities of the Pol Pot regime of 1975-79," the U.S. said in a statement released by its Phnom Penh embassy on Sunday.
Soldiers captured Ta Mok near the northern border with Thailand, senior Cambodian generals said.
The guerrilla chief topped the most-wanted list of senior Khmer Rouge figures after the death last year of the movement's leader, Pol Pot.
©1999 CBS Worldwide Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report