Ta Mok 'The Butcher' is Dead

Khmer Rouge 'butcher' dies at 80

A former army chief of the Khmer Rouge who was accused of genocide has died at the age of 80 in Cambodia.

Ta Mok, nicknamed "The Butcher", was linked to atrocities dating to the leadership of Pol Pot in the 1970s.

Some 2 million people died under the brutal Khmer Rouge regime - of starvation, disease or execution.

Ta Mok was expected to be one of the first people tried for genocide and crimes against humanity at UN-backed hearings due to start next year.

"Ta Mok passed away this morning," military doctor Tuoth Nara told Reuters news agency.

"He was an old man and died of natural causes, given his poor health and respiratory problems."

One of only two surviving Khmer Rouge commanders in detention, Ta Mok had been unwell since last month and slipped into a coma last week.

Evading trial

Of all the Khmer Rouge leaders Ta Mok was regarded by many as the most brutal, the BBC's Guy Delauney reports from Phnom Penh.

He played a key role in a series of massacres and purges, which started even before the Khmer Rouge took power.

Ta Mok was in charge of the forces which destroyed the former royal capital Oudong in 1974, expelling civilians and killing officials and government soldiers.

Later he instigated purges as the Khmer Rouge went to war with itself.

He eventually became the overall leader of the organisation in 1997 but he was captured two years later and spent the rest of his life in jail.

Ta Mok's death leaves a Khmer Rouge prison boss, Kaing Khek Iev, more commonly known as Duch, as the group's only surviving leader in detention.

Pol Pot died in his jungle hide-out in April 1998 from an apparent heart attack.

Many Cambodians fear they will never get a chance to see justice, because ageing Khmer Rouge defendants are dying before they face trial.