Infamous Khmer Rouge Chief Held in Cambodia, Faces Trial

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia —  The last senior leader of the Khmer Rouge guerrilla army was arrested Saturday and flown to Phnom Penh, where authorities said he will be tried for his alleged role in a regime that killed more than 1 million people.

Soldiers captured Ta Mok, known as “the Butcher” for his ruthlessness, near the northern border with Thailand, senior Cambodian generals said.

The one-legged guerrilla chief topped the most-wanted list of senior Khmer Rouge figures after the death last year of the movement’s leader, Pol Pot.

Most of the group’s aging leadership has either died or defected to the government as part of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s strategy of destroying the guerrillas. Only about 100 rebels were still loyal to Ta Mok.

Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea, Pol Pot’s top henchmen, surrendered in a December deal that so far has allowed them to avoid arrest for atrocities committed during the regime’s 1975-79 rule over Cambodia.

However, military officials said Ta Mok, 72, was targeted solely for arrest and will not be offered a similar surrender deal.

“We have nothing to negotiate with him. We are looking for him in order to arrest him--and castrate him as well,” Gen. Tea Banh said with a laugh.

The arrest came as pressure is building on the Cambodian government to bring Khmer Rouge leaders to trial and just two days after Secretary of State Madeleine Albright discussed the Khmer Rouge and Ta Mok with Thai government leaders during a trip to the Thai capital, Bangkok.

Speaking in London, where he was with Albright on a working visit, State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said the Clinton administration welcomed the arrest.

“We are encouraged that we now have the opportunity to bring one of the most notorious war criminals in the recent past to justice, and we will now be focusing our efforts on working with the Cambodian government to that end,” Rubin said.

U.N. legal experts have recommended the creation of an international tribunal to try senior Khmer Rouge figures for crimes against humanity, but the Cambodian government says it favors the creation of a South African-style truth commission with the power to grant amnesty to investigate the brutalities of the regime.