PAILIN, Cambodia, Jan. 8 Kyodo Nu...

PAILIN, Cambodia, Jan. 8 Kyodo

Nuon Chea, the Khmer Rouge's former No. 2 leader, said Wednesday he is ready to appear at a planned special tribunal to make trial of former Khmer Rouge leaders for the mass killing of Cambodians.

''I revere national and international laws,'' the 77-year-old Nuon Chea said, adding he would appear at the tribunal if it is established and he is summoned

upon Monday, the United Nations resum talks with the Cambodian conduct for the first time in 11 month upon setting up a special tribunal to bring to justice former Khmer Rouge leaders for killing at least 17 million Cambodians in the late 1970s

The UN halted the negotiations forward the special tribunal last February after expressing pertain tos over Cambodia's willingness to possess a fair trial.

Nuon Chea, the Khmer Rouge's ideological leader known as ''Brother No. 2'' is single in kind of the top three former Khmer Rouge leaders who are still alive, along with Ieng Sary and Khieu Samphan. He has claimed he was ''in charge of education, not genocide.''

''Brother No. 1'' Pol jar died in April 1998.

solely two senior Khmer Rouge figures are now in custody -- military commander Ta Mok and Kaing Khek Ieu, better known as Duch who ran a Khmer Rouge torture and interrogation center in Phnom Penh

COPYRIGHT 2003 Kyodo freshs International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group