Originally published by the Voice of America (www.voanews.com).
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September 19, 2007

Cambodian Police Arrest Former Khmer Rouge Leader
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http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=198ED82:A6F02AD83191E1602D86D19CBA0908A49574F7DCC14957C0 Nuon Chea taken
into custody Wednesday in hometown of Pailin, a former Khmer Rouge
stronghold





Former Khmer Rouge number two leader Nuon Chea, top, boards helicopter
in Pailin, 19 Sep 2007Cambodian police have arrested former Khmer
Rouge leader Nuon Chea for his role in the former regime that caused
the deaths of nearly two million people.

Witnesses say police took Nuon Chea into custody Wednesday in his
hometown of Pailin, the Khmer Rouge former stronghold in Cambodia's
northwest. Nuon Chea was transferred to the capital, Phnom Penh, by
helicopter.

Witnesses say he has been taken to the U.N.-backed tribunal assigned
to prosecute former Khmer Rouge leaders.

Nuon Chea, in his early 80s, is the group's senior surviving member.
Known as "Brother Number Two," he was the deputy of the late Khmer
Rouge leader Pol Pot and the group's chief political ideologue during
its reign from 1975 to 1979.

The Khmer Rouge cleared Cambodians from the cities and forced them to
toil on work farms in the countryside in a quest to create a
self-sufficient agrarian society devoid of social classes. Most of
their victims died from overwork, starvation, or murder.

Nuon Chea is the second person to be served an arrest warrant by the
tribunal. The former Khmer Rouge prison chief, Kaing Guek Eav,
commonly known "Duch," was taken into custody in July on charges of
crimes against humanity.

Pol Pot died in 1998.



Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.


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