Khmer Rouge leader arrested

From Al Jazeera

Police in Cambodia have arrested Ieng Sary, the former foreign minister and public face of the Khmer Rouge, along with his wife, the former social affairs minister of the Khmer Rouge government.

The couple are the third and fourth members of the Khmer Rouge regime to be taken into custody.

Reach Sambath, a spokesman for Cambodia's UN-backed genocide tribunal, said Ieng Sary and his wife, Ieng Thirith, had been brought to court on Monday according to a warrant issued by the tribunal.

Police had earlier cordoned off the street outside Ieng Sary's home in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, at about 5:30am.

Together with tribunal officials they spent about three hours inside the house before taking him away.

Ieng Sary's arrest had been widely anticipated as one of five unnamed suspects earlier listed by tribunal prosecutors.

An estimated two million Cambodians died of hunger, disease, overwork and execution during the Khmer Rouge's rule between 1975 and 1979.

Like other surviving Khmer Rouge leaders, the 77-year-old Ieng Sary who served as deputy prime minister as well as foreign minister, has repeatedly denied responsibility for any crimes.

In Bangkok, Thailand, for a medical check-up in October, Ieng Sary told The Associated Press: "I have done nothing wrong. I am a gentle person.

"I believe in good deeds. I even made good deeds to save several people's lives. But let them [the tribunal] find what the truth is."

According to a July 18 filing by the prosecutors to the tribunal's judges, Ieng Sary, "promoted, instigated, facilitated, encouraged and/or condoned the perpetration of the crimes" when the Khmer Rouge held power.

It said there was evidence of Ieng Sary's participation in planning, directing and co-ordinating the Khmer Rouge "policies of forcible transfer, forced labour and unlawful killings".

His 75-year-old wife participated in "planning, direction, co-ordination and ordering of widespread purges ... and unlawful killing or murder of staff members from within the ministry of social affairs", the prosecutors' filing said.

Critics of the UN tribunal say the process has been left too late and suspects may die before ever being brought before a court.

Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge, died in 1998, while his military chief, Ta Mok, died in 2006.