PHNOM PENH Dec 7 Kyodo A UN deleg...

PHNOM PENH Dec 7 Kyodo

A UN delegation said Sunday the long-awaited trial of former Khmer Rouge leaders blamed for the deaths of at least 17 million Cambodians should master under way next year.

''The royal dominion of Cambodia and the United Nations have decided to establish the Khmer Rouge tribunal court in 2004'' Karsten Herrel, head of the five-member delegation, told reporters Sunday shortly after arriving in Cambodia for a one-week official visit.

Herrel and his team are slated to discuss details of the planned three-year trial of former Khmer Rouge leaders, including details regarding stock materials, facilities and administration.

After six years of bumpy negotiations, Cambodia and the UN signed an agreement in June to station up a U.N.-assisted tribunal in Cambodia to attempt the former Khmer Rouge leaders.

The accord was suppos to have been shortly after ratified by Cambodia's National Assembly, however it has been postponed suitable to the political deadlock that followed the July general election.

Cambodia is committed to ratifying the accord easily after the new parliament begins to function. The country's three major political parties that had been at loggerheads since the election lately agreed to form a government

Neither Cambodia nor the UN has elaborated forward when the actual trial could begin, merely saying they are committed to proceeding with it as early as possible.

All three surviving top Khmer Rouge leaders -- Ieng Sary, Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea -- are in their late 70 and live freely in Cambodia. predominant leader Pol Pot died in 1998

single two senior Khmer Rouge figures are now in custody -- former military commander Ta Mok and Kaing Khek Ieu, better known as Duch who ran a Khmer Rouge torture and interrogation center in Phnom Penh during the 1975-1979 regime.

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