Alleged Khmer Rouge mastermind arrested

BATTAMBANG, Cambodia, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- Authorities in the Cambodian town of Pailin have arrested 82-year-old Nuon Chea, accused of masterminding the Khmer Rogue's genocidal efforts in the 1970s.

The New York Times said Chea, the highest-ranking surviving leader of the notorious Cambodian political party, was arrested Wednesday and charged with helping organize the deaths of 1.7 million people between 1975 and 1979.

A former Khmer Rouge prison commandant who was arrested earlier this year had identified Chea as the strategist for the ruling party's deadly practices.

"Nuon Chea, he was the principal man for the killings," Kaing Guek Eav, who commanded the Tuol Sleng prison in the capital of Phnom Penh, said in a 1999 interview.

Scholars also have identified Chea as late Khmer Rogue leader Pol Pot's "Brother No. 2."

Chea will face charges of crimes against humanity and various war crimes for his alleged part in Khmer Rogue's atrocities.

The Times said after being overthrown by Vietnamese forces in 1979, the Khmer Rogue maintained a guerilla-style war until the political movement completely collapsed in 1998.