PHNOM PENH Feb 19 Kyodo A UN lega...

PHNOM PENH Feb 19 Kyodo

A UN legal team will turn back to Cambodia next month for further negotiations upon setting up a tribunal to put to proof surviving former Khmer Rouge leaders for genocide and crimes against humanity, a senior guidance official said Wednesday.

Sok An, chief negotiator in talks with the United Nations, told reporters UN Secretary General Kofi Annan sent a note to Prime Minister Hun Sen saying he will dispatch his working team to Cambodia in March.

The UN team will be l from Hans Corell, undersecretary general for legal affairs, Sok An said.

Sok An refrained, however, from elaborating forward the content of Annan's epistle saying both sides have agreed not to give abroad substantial details until negotiations are final.

In December, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution urging Annan to restart negotiations.

Last month Cambodia and the UN resum exploratory meetings in of the present day York and agreed to have further talks in Phnom Penh before signing an article of cooperation upon setting up a tribunal.

The proces hit a snag in February last year when Annan decided to contest out of talks that began in 1997 saying a trial as planned by the agency of Cambodia would be unfair.

Sok An, meanwhile, said he was optimistic a tribunal can be realized if the two sides respect the U.N. resolution.

According to the resolution, Annan will report to the General Assembly onward the result of the negotiations from March 18, he said.

alone 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

Three top former Khmer Rouge leaders, Ieng Sary, Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea, live freely within Cambodia.

Khmer Rouge supremo Pol pan died in 1988, while Ke Pauk, a powerful Khmer Rouge commander who was in charge of northeast Cambodia during the 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge regime, died last February of a descendants pressure-related illness at 72.

The Khmer Rouge regime has been blamed for the deaths of at least 17 million Cambodians during their reign of terror.

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