Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Phnom Penh - A family member of gravely ill former Khmer Rouge military commander Ta Mok has requested he be moved overseas for medical care in an attempt to save him.
Van Ra, a niece of the 82-year-old and an outspoken activist for the opposition Sam Rainsy Party, said Saturday she had requested the United Nations and the Cambodian government find a way to get her uncle to superior treatment overseas.
'The family have requested this, but so far we have had no reply,' she said by telephone.
A daughter and another niece have been allowed access to the man nicknamed The Butcher for his alleged role in the brutal purges that characterized the final years of the Khmer Rouge's Democratic Kampuchea regime, she said.
Ta Mok was expected to be a key defendant in the joint 56.3- million-dollar joint UN-Cambodian government sponsored Extraordinary Chambers to try former leaders of the ultra-Maoist movement, which finally began initial stages last Monday, 31 years after Phnom Penh fell to Khmer Rouge troops.
Up to 2 million Cambodians died during its 1975 to 1979 rule of starvation, disease, overwork, torture and execution. The movement's supreme leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998 whilst in the custody of Ta Mok, who became its nominal final commander.
Ta Mok has languished in military prison since his capture on the Thai border in 1999. He was expected to have faced charges of crimes against humanity.
Van Ra said she had not been allowed access to her uncle, but understood that his condition was rapidly deteriorating.
'If he dies, it is our wish that he be cremated in a Buddhist ceremony in Anlong Veng,' she said.
It was unclear if that was the wish of all the former commander's family, as despite the fact that he spent his final years of freedom in the former Khmer Rouge stronghold of Anlong Veng in the country's remote north, he was born in the southwestern province of Takeo, where he raised most of his feared Neradey troops responsible for carrying out his orders.
Sources at the military hospital where he remains since June 29 in a serious condition say he is in a coma and has not responded to treatment for a range of illnesses, including respiratory complications, tuberculosis and high blood pressure.
Ta Mok has also previously suffered serious complications around the amputation site of one of his legs, lost in battle.
Van Ra, a niece of the 82-year-old and an outspoken activist for the opposition Sam Rainsy Party, said Saturday she had requested the United Nations and the Cambodian government find a way to get her uncle to superior treatment overseas.
'The family have requested this, but so far we have had no reply,' she said by telephone.
A daughter and another niece have been allowed access to the man nicknamed The Butcher for his alleged role in the brutal purges that characterized the final years of the Khmer Rouge's Democratic Kampuchea regime, she said.
Ta Mok was expected to be a key defendant in the joint 56.3- million-dollar joint UN-Cambodian government sponsored Extraordinary Chambers to try former leaders of the ultra-Maoist movement, which finally began initial stages last Monday, 31 years after Phnom Penh fell to Khmer Rouge troops.
Up to 2 million Cambodians died during its 1975 to 1979 rule of starvation, disease, overwork, torture and execution. The movement's supreme leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998 whilst in the custody of Ta Mok, who became its nominal final commander.
Ta Mok has languished in military prison since his capture on the Thai border in 1999. He was expected to have faced charges of crimes against humanity.
Van Ra said she had not been allowed access to her uncle, but understood that his condition was rapidly deteriorating.
'If he dies, it is our wish that he be cremated in a Buddhist ceremony in Anlong Veng,' she said.
It was unclear if that was the wish of all the former commander's family, as despite the fact that he spent his final years of freedom in the former Khmer Rouge stronghold of Anlong Veng in the country's remote north, he was born in the southwestern province of Takeo, where he raised most of his feared Neradey troops responsible for carrying out his orders.
Sources at the military hospital where he remains since June 29 in a serious condition say he is in a coma and has not responded to treatment for a range of illnesses, including respiratory complications, tuberculosis and high blood pressure.
Ta Mok has also previously suffered serious complications around the amputation site of one of his legs, lost in battle.
1 comment:
Please hang him, shock him, pull his nails, split his body into four pieces, one burries in north east, one in the north west, south east and south west of Cambodia before he dies so he can suffer more....
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