Operation "airlift of Khieu Samphan" who was Hun Sen's former president when he was a KR army commander

Khieu Samphan, wearing white hat at center, the former Khmer Rouge head of state, is led to a helicopter in Pailin, Cambodia, Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2007. Prime Minister Hun Sen dispatched a helicopter to Pailin to bring Khieu Samphan to Phnom Penh for treatment following what is thought to be a stroke. The 76 years old Samphan is expected to be arrested for crimes against humanity soon by a United Nations backed genocide tribunal. (AP Photo/str)

Khieu Samphan, 2nd left, the former Khmer Rouge head of state, is led to a helicopter in Pailin, Cambodia, Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2007. Prime Minister Hun Sen dispatched a helicopter to Pailin to bring Khieu Samphan to Phnom Penh for treatment following what is thought to be a stroke. The 76 years old Samphan is expected to be arrested for crimes against humanity soon by a United Nations backed genocide tribunal. (AP Photo/str)

Former Khmer Rouge leader Khieu Samphan's wife (2nd L) walks with Cambodian police officials at the Calmette hopital in Phnom Penh, 14 November 2007. Khieu Samphan, whose imminent arrest by Cambodia's UN-backed genocide court is widely expected, will be hospitalised, Prime Minister Hun Sen said.(AFP/Tang Chhin Sothy)

Cambodian policemen block journalists from reaching a convoy carrying former Khmer Rouge leader Khieu Samphan as it arrives at the Calmette hopital in Phnom Penh, 14 November 2007. Khieu Samphan, whose imminent arrest by Cambodia's UN-backed genocide court is widely expected, will be hospitalised, Prime Minister Hun Sen said.(AFP/Tang Chhin Sothy)

Military personnel push a cameraman as he films the convoy transporting former Khmer Rouge leader Khieu Samphan to Calmet hospital in Phnom Penh November 14, 2007. Khieu Samphan, a member of the Khmer Rouge's top leadership and Cambodian president during their reign of terror, had arrived at Calmet hospital in Phnom Penh for medical care after police stopped him going to Thailand. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea

Ex-Khmer Rouge leader in hospital

Wednesday, 14 November 2007
By Guy Delauney
BBC News, Phnom Penh

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has arranged for former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan to be airlifted to hospital.

Family members say they believe Khieu Samphan suffered a stroke at his home in Pailin, near the Thai border.

It had been expected that he would be the next senior figure to be charged by the UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal.

The tribunal was established to seek justice for the hundreds of thousands of victims of the brutal Maoist regime.

Denials

Khieu Samphan's arrest was apparently only days away and it would have completed the tribunal's initial round-up of senior leaders.

Now officials at the special courts must decide whether ill health will force a change to their plans.

WHO WERE THE KHMER ROUGE?

• Maoist regime that ruled Cambodia from 1975-1979
• Founded and led by Pol Pot, who died in 1998
• Abolished religion, schools and currency in a bid to create agrarian utopia
• Brutal regime that did not tolerate dissent
• More than a million people thought to have died from starvation, overwork or execution

Prime Minister Hun Sen stepped in personally after he heard reports that Khieu Samphan was unwell.

He said he ordered the airlift so that no-one could blame the government if the former Khmer Rouge head of state died.

More than one million Cambodians died when the Khmer Rouge held power in the late 1970s.

But Khieu Samphan has always denied responsibility, despite his senior position.

He has written books claiming that he had no real power and knew nothing about the killings, the latest of which was published this week.

Four senior Khmer Rouge figures are already in custody at the special courts.

Former foreign minister Ieng Sary and his wife, the social affairs minister Ieng Thirith, were arrested on Monday. They are appealing against their detention.

Khmer Rouge leader hospitalised

Khieu Samphan, second left, is believed to be the final of five ex-leaders wanted by the tribunal [Reuters]

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2007
Al Jazeera

Cambodian police have stopped the former head of state of the Khmer Rouge regime from travelling to Thailand and are instead taking him to the capital, Phnom Penh, for medical treatment.

Khieu Samphan, whose arrest by a UN-backed genocide tribunal has been widely expected, was suffering from high blood pressure, his wife, So Socheat, said.

She said her husband fainted and collapsed to the floor when he tried to get up from a hammock on Tuesday evening.

The news comes just days after the arrest of another former senior Khmer Rouge leader, the former foreign minister, Ieng Sary.

Speaking to reporters Khieu Samphan's daughter, Khieu Rattana, said her father "asked authorities for permission to leave for treatment, but they refused".

Cambodia's prime minister, Hun Sen, said he had ordered a helicopter to fetch the former Khmer Rouge president from the border town of Pailin and fly him to the capital after hearing reports that he had fallen ill.

Avoiding blame

"If he dies, people will blame the government," Hun Sen said.

Critics of the UN-backed tribunal say the process has been delayed too long and suspects may die before ever facing trial.

Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge, died in 1998, while his military chief, Ta Mok, died in 2006.

Chea Chandin, Pailin's deputy police chief, said Khieu Samphan was not under arrest.

"We are preparing to send him for medical treatment. This does not mean he is under house arrest or has been arrested," he told Reuters.

Khieu Samphan, believed to be 76, was expected to arrive in the capital later on Wednesday.

His wife said he was recovering and was now able to speak more clearly, walk with some help and eat food after receiving home care from doctors.

"He was suffering from high blood pressure but he's back to normal now," she told AFP.

Prepared for trial

She said her husband was ready to face the tribunal.

"He is not worried about being arrested. He has been ready to face the tribunal for a long time now," she said, speaking from Pailin, the former Khmer Rouge stronghold where Khieu Samphan has lived since surrendering to the government in 1998.

Khieu Rattana said her father knew his arrest was imminent, but added that she did not think this caused his condition, which came just a day after two of his former colleagues were arrested by the tribunal.

Earlier this week Ieng Sary, the former Khmer Rouge foreign minister, and his wife Ieng Thirith, were arrested in a dawn police raid on their Phnom Penh home.

On Tuesday both were formally charged by the UN tribunal with crimes against humanity.

The Khmer Rouge is blamed for the deaths of about 2 million people during their rule between 1975 and 1979.

Most died from starvation, disease, overwork and execution.

The UN-assisted tribunal was created last year after seven years of contentious negotiations between the United Nations and Cambodia.

Along with Ieng Sary and his wife, Nuon Chea, the former Khmer Rouge ideologist, and Kaing Khek Lev, better known as Duch, the former head of the notorious S-21 or Tuol Sleng prison, have also been arrested.

However, no Khmer Rouge leader has been tried and trials are expected to begin only next year.

According to prosecutors' papers, the final of five suspects they seek to charge is Khieu Samphan.

French-educated Khieu Samphan, whose Marxist theories influenced the communist Khmer Rouge's policies, published a book portraying himself as a virtual prisoner of the Khmer Rouge during its reign.

KRouge leader Khieu Samphan to be hospitalised in Phnom Penh [on Hun Sen's order]

PHNOM PENH, Nov 14, 2007 (AFP) — Former Khmer Rouge leader Khieu Samphan, whose imminent arrest by Cambodia's UN-backed genocide court is widely expected, will be hospitalised Wednesday, Prime Minister Hun Sen said.

The 76-year-old will be flown from his home in the former rebel stronghold of Pailin, in northwest Cambodia, to the capital Phnom Penh for treatment after suffering unusually high blood pressure Tuesday night, Hun Sen said.

"I have ordered a helicopter to transfer him to hospital," he said at a graduation ceremony.

Earlier Wednesday, Khieu Samphan's wife, Sor Socheat, said her husband's health had returned to normal after an apparent panic attack overnight.

"He was suffering from high blood pressure but he's back to normal now," Sor Socheat told AFP.

Khieu Samphan, the Khmer Rouge's former head of state, was ready to face court, she said, just days after two other senior regime cadre were arrested for their alleged roles in one of the 20th century's most brutal regimes.

"He is not worried about being arrested. He has been ready to face the tribunal for a long time now," she said, speaking from Pailin, where Khieu Samphan has lived since surrendering to the government in 1998.

A family friend who did not want to be named said Khieu Samphan had been "happily" discussing the tribunal, which was established last year to try former Khmer Rouge leaders for crimes committed during their 1975-79 rule.

Up to two million people were executed, or died of starvation and overwork when the regime tried to forge an agrarian utopia, abolishing religion, money and schools, and driving nearly the entire population onto vast collective farms.

Former regime foreign minister Ieng Sary and his wife Ieng Thirith, who was social affairs minister, were arrested Monday and charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity, bringing to four the number of former Khmer Rouge facing the tribunal.

Khmer Rouge ideologue Nuon Chea and prison chief Duch have also been detained.

Khieu Samphan, a French-educated radical whose Marxist theories loosely influenced the communist Khmer Rouge's policies, is widely believed to be the fifth person who will be arrested by the court.