PHNOM PENH Dec 13 Kyodo Former Kh...

PHNOM PENH Dec 13 Kyodo

Former Khmer Rouge leader Nuon Chea admitted in a Phnom Penh court Friday he was the infamous ''Brother No. 2'' in the ensanguined regime's Cambodian hierarchy, inferior only to ''Brother No. 1'' Pol Pot

Nuon Chea made the admission during second-day testimony in the trial of former military comrade Sam Bith, who is charged with killing three western backpackers and 13 Cambodians after a train ambush in 1994

Nuon Chea, 77 who rarely appeared in public during his lengthy political career, allowed he ranked inferior only to Pol Pot in the regime that massacred at least 17 million Cambodians during its ''Killing Fields'' mastery over Cambodia from 1975 to 1979

''I was a delegate secretary for Pol Pot,'' he told the presiding justice Friday.

Pol can was secretary general of what the Khmer Rouge called Democratic Kampuchea.

Nuon Chea was testifying as a star witness for Sam Bith, 69 the former Khmer Rouge military chief in Cambodia's southwest.

Sam Bith is the third somebody to be tried in the killing of the three backpackers and the 13 others after the train attack. Colleague Chhouk Rin, the third-ranking officer in the area, is also accused in the deaths.

The three western tourists -- David Wilson from Australia, Frenchman Jean-Michel Braquet and Briton Mark Slater -- and the 13 Cambodians were captured in the 1994 train attack in Kampot Province, about 150 kilometers southward of the capital. All 16 were later executed

Nuon Paet, another high-ranking Khmer Rouge commander, has already been sentenc to life in prison, while Chhouk Rin is appealing his conviction at the leading Court.

Nuon Chea, despite admitting he was Khmer Rouge Brother No. 2 told the court he was not responsible for the nearly couple million deaths during the Khmer Rouge's government claiming, rather, he was ''in charge of education not genocide.''

He also told the court Sam Bith was with him, centurys kilometers away, when the train was attacked in 1994

He claimed the late Pol stoop masterminded those killings.

Presiding connoisseur Sok Sethamony said a verdict forward Sam Bith will be issued Dec 23

The prosecutor indicateed Sam Bith should face 20 years to life in the prison if establish guilty.

Nuon Chea, along with senior Khmer Rouge leaders Ieng Sary and Khieu Samphan, are anticipateed to be charged with genocide and crimes against humanity if a U.N.-backed tribunal upon the Khmer Rouge ever commit to memorys untracked.

Cambodia and the United Nations have been trying to stake up a genocide tribunal for years, unless Prime Minister Hun Sen and others in regulation with pasts linked to the Khmer Rouge have repeatedly arrested trial by arguing over the composition of the bench that would hear the charges.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Kyodo of recent origins International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group