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Rebels still deciding who Pol Pot should be handed to
ASSOCIATED PRESS in Phnom Penh
A senior Khmer Rouge commander said yesterday his forces were ready to hand over their former leader, Pol Pot, but had not yet decided who should receive him.
The comments by General Khem Nuon, commander of forces loyal to Khmer Rouge rebel chief Ta Mok, came as speculation mounted that Pol Pot would be transferred soon for trial.
"We have no problem with handing him over, but we have not yet decided who to approach," said Khem Nuon.
He said he was speaking from inside Cambodia, not more than three kilometres from the Thai border.
Khem Nuon refused to elaborate on the proposed handover, but said: "The conditions must be clear.
"I need nothing. I need to end the war, to get rid of Pol Pot from the movement in order to end the war."
But the Government's key man in getting the Khmer Rouge to defect, Colonel Dom Hak, predicted that no matter what happened to the group's leaders, the movement itself was finished.
"The political and military structure has been destroyed," Colonel Dom Hak said in the northwestern city of Siem Reap.
He said within a week Khmer Rouge remnants holding out along the Thai border would be routed and predicted Pol Pot and Ta Mok would seek sanctuary in another country or try to find political asylum.
Earlier, Hong Kong's Far Eastern Economic Review reported that Khem Nuon wanted to hand over Pol Pot to an international tribunal.
It said the Khmer Rouge rebels had asked its correspondent, Nate Thayer, for advice on how to hand over Pol Pot.
Ta Mok's forces have held Pol Pot, 73, under house arrest since June, when they overthrew him in a bloody internal power struggle.
The magazine quoted Khem Nuon as saying the Khmer Rouge could not get in touch with the US or other countries and asked Thayer to put them in contact with the "right people". |
