Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Phnom Penh - Heavy monsoon rains were posing problems for family and friends organizing the burial of former Khmer Rouge leader Ta Mok in a remote former Khmer Rouge jungle stronghold, his niece Van Ra said Sunday.
Van Ra said by telephone that the service would certainly be held Monday, but because of the heavy rains they were still unsure of what time it would be held.
'We want to put the body in the ground on Monday. The rain is making it difficult to predict what time we can do it,' she said.
In the meantime, hundreds of mourners loyal to the man the rest of the world knew as 'The Butcher' have Paid their respects in the small former Khmer Rouge community of Anlong Veng, in the far north of the country, leaving offerings of incense and money. Some wept openly.
The former military chief of the regime, who never surrendered to the government, spent his final years of freedom in the remote former stronghold before his capture by Cambodian government troops in March 1999.
His lawyer, Benson Samay, said he was 82 at the time of his death.
Ta Mok died of natural causes in a Phnom Penh military hospital Friday after failing to respond to treatment for a number of ailments including tuberculosis, respiratory complications and high blood pressure.
He had spent the past seven years in a military prison awaiting almost certain trial by a 56.3-million-dollar Extraordinary Chambers to hear charges of genocide and crimes against humanity against a handful of surviving former Khmer Rouge leaders.
The long-awaited trial proceedings began the initial prosecution phase even as Ta Mok lay dying in hospital, but too late for him to ever take the stand and face justice.
Van Ra did not say why the family were taking the unusual step of burying her uncle. Buddhists are usually cremated, and despite the fact that the Khmer Rouge abolished religion as well as money and markets during its 1975 to 1979 rule, his mourners have given him days of traditional Buddhist rites.
Up to 2 million Cambodians are believed to have perished under the ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge's Democratic Kampuchea regime.
Ta Mok's grave will be located close to that of the movement's former leader, Pol Pot, who was unceremonially cremated on a pile of tyres after dying as a prisoner of Ta Mok in 1998.
Van Ra said by telephone that the service would certainly be held Monday, but because of the heavy rains they were still unsure of what time it would be held.
'We want to put the body in the ground on Monday. The rain is making it difficult to predict what time we can do it,' she said.
In the meantime, hundreds of mourners loyal to the man the rest of the world knew as 'The Butcher' have Paid their respects in the small former Khmer Rouge community of Anlong Veng, in the far north of the country, leaving offerings of incense and money. Some wept openly.
The former military chief of the regime, who never surrendered to the government, spent his final years of freedom in the remote former stronghold before his capture by Cambodian government troops in March 1999.
His lawyer, Benson Samay, said he was 82 at the time of his death.
Ta Mok died of natural causes in a Phnom Penh military hospital Friday after failing to respond to treatment for a number of ailments including tuberculosis, respiratory complications and high blood pressure.
He had spent the past seven years in a military prison awaiting almost certain trial by a 56.3-million-dollar Extraordinary Chambers to hear charges of genocide and crimes against humanity against a handful of surviving former Khmer Rouge leaders.
The long-awaited trial proceedings began the initial prosecution phase even as Ta Mok lay dying in hospital, but too late for him to ever take the stand and face justice.
Van Ra did not say why the family were taking the unusual step of burying her uncle. Buddhists are usually cremated, and despite the fact that the Khmer Rouge abolished religion as well as money and markets during its 1975 to 1979 rule, his mourners have given him days of traditional Buddhist rites.
Up to 2 million Cambodians are believed to have perished under the ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge's Democratic Kampuchea regime.
Ta Mok's grave will be located close to that of the movement's former leader, Pol Pot, who was unceremonially cremated on a pile of tyres after dying as a prisoner of Ta Mok in 1998.
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