PAILIN, Cambodia (AFP) — The murderous Khmer Rouge regime's most senior surviving leader was detained Wednesday, taken from his home in the Cambodian jungle by police and officials from a UN-backed genocide court.
An AFP correspondent saw Nuon Chea being driven from his home in northwest Cambodia and put on a helicopter.
He was expected to be flown to the capital Phnom Penh.
"Nuon Chea has been shown a warrant but I don't know what it is for or what crimes he has been charged with," a source close to him told AFP while also boarding the chopper.
The 82-year-old, known as "Brother Number Two", was Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot's most trusted lieutenant and allegedly a key architect of the regime's horrific execution policies.
Police earlier blocked the road leading to Nuon Chea's house as officials from the genocide tribunal swept in at dawn.
Ou Boran, a relative, told AFP that authorities were searching through the house looking for documents and correspondence.
Nuon Chea is the first of a small group of former top cadres living freely in Cambodia to be questioned by tribunal authorities, prompting many who lost relatives to wonder why they have been left alone for so many years.
His rank in the communist hierarchy and alleged decision-making role would make him the most significant defendant to be tried for crimes committed under the 1975-79 regime by the tribunal, which was established last year.
Up to two million people died of starvation, disease and overwork, or were executed under the Khmer Rouge.
The regime abolished religion, schools and currency, exiling millions to vast collective farms in a bid to create an agrarian utopia.
The convoy of police and tribunal vehicles was seen arriving at Nuon Chea's house, where he has lived freely since surrendering to the government in late 1998, shortly after 6:00 am (2300 GMT Tuesday).
Surviving former leaders have repeatedly denied any role in the mass deaths that occurred under the regime.
Only one suspect, a Khmer Rouge jailor known as Duch, has been detained by the court.
Four others are under investigation. Their names have not been made public but they are widely thought to include former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan, as well as Nuon Chea and foreign minister Ieng Sary.
In July, Nuon Chea told AFP in an interview at his modest wooden home here that he was not responsible for deaths.
"I was not involved in the killing of people," he insisted. "I don't know who was responsible."
"I know I'm included because the five suspects are high-ranking leaders," he added. "I'm ready to explain myself to the court when it summons me."
His questioning follows the arrest of Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, in July.
Duch headed the notorious Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh where as many as 16,000 men, women and children were brutalised before being killed. Many were allegedly sent there by Nuon Chea.
In their book "Seven Candidates for Prosecution," genocide scholars Stephen Heder and Brian Tittemore said that he "gave orders to Duch, some in writing, to execute specific officials and groups."
A Thai-trained lawyer, Nuon Chea turned early to radicalism and soon rose through the ranks of Cambodia's burgeoning Maoist insurrection.
By the time the communists took Phnom Penh in April 1975, Nuon Chea -- the most secretive of the Khmer Rouge's already enigmatic leadership -- was firmly in the power structure.
Trials at the tribunal, under a complex joint arrangement between foreign and Cambodian jurists, are expected next year. Many observers see the court as a last chance to get justice.
Rights groups and legal advocates are concerned that elderly figures from the regime will die before being brought to court.
An AFP correspondent saw Nuon Chea being driven from his home in northwest Cambodia and put on a helicopter.
He was expected to be flown to the capital Phnom Penh.
"Nuon Chea has been shown a warrant but I don't know what it is for or what crimes he has been charged with," a source close to him told AFP while also boarding the chopper.
The 82-year-old, known as "Brother Number Two", was Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot's most trusted lieutenant and allegedly a key architect of the regime's horrific execution policies.
Police earlier blocked the road leading to Nuon Chea's house as officials from the genocide tribunal swept in at dawn.
Ou Boran, a relative, told AFP that authorities were searching through the house looking for documents and correspondence.
Nuon Chea is the first of a small group of former top cadres living freely in Cambodia to be questioned by tribunal authorities, prompting many who lost relatives to wonder why they have been left alone for so many years.
His rank in the communist hierarchy and alleged decision-making role would make him the most significant defendant to be tried for crimes committed under the 1975-79 regime by the tribunal, which was established last year.
Up to two million people died of starvation, disease and overwork, or were executed under the Khmer Rouge.
The regime abolished religion, schools and currency, exiling millions to vast collective farms in a bid to create an agrarian utopia.
The convoy of police and tribunal vehicles was seen arriving at Nuon Chea's house, where he has lived freely since surrendering to the government in late 1998, shortly after 6:00 am (2300 GMT Tuesday).
Surviving former leaders have repeatedly denied any role in the mass deaths that occurred under the regime.
Only one suspect, a Khmer Rouge jailor known as Duch, has been detained by the court.
Four others are under investigation. Their names have not been made public but they are widely thought to include former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan, as well as Nuon Chea and foreign minister Ieng Sary.
In July, Nuon Chea told AFP in an interview at his modest wooden home here that he was not responsible for deaths.
"I was not involved in the killing of people," he insisted. "I don't know who was responsible."
"I know I'm included because the five suspects are high-ranking leaders," he added. "I'm ready to explain myself to the court when it summons me."
His questioning follows the arrest of Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, in July.
Duch headed the notorious Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh where as many as 16,000 men, women and children were brutalised before being killed. Many were allegedly sent there by Nuon Chea.
In their book "Seven Candidates for Prosecution," genocide scholars Stephen Heder and Brian Tittemore said that he "gave orders to Duch, some in writing, to execute specific officials and groups."
A Thai-trained lawyer, Nuon Chea turned early to radicalism and soon rose through the ranks of Cambodia's burgeoning Maoist insurrection.
By the time the communists took Phnom Penh in April 1975, Nuon Chea -- the most secretive of the Khmer Rouge's already enigmatic leadership -- was firmly in the power structure.
Trials at the tribunal, under a complex joint arrangement between foreign and Cambodian jurists, are expected next year. Many observers see the court as a last chance to get justice.
Rights groups and legal advocates are concerned that elderly figures from the regime will die before being brought to court.
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