Former Khmer Rouge foreign minister hospitalised in Cambodia

PHNOM PENH (AFP) — Former Khmer Rouge foreign minister Ieng Sary was rushed to hospital Friday after he discovered blood in his urine, said a spokesman for Cambodia's UN-backed genocide court.

Ieng Sary, 82, is one of five top regime cadres charged in connection with the Khmer Rouge's bloody rule over Cambodia from 1975-79, when up to two million people died from starvation, overwork or execution.

"Doctors informed us that Mister Ieng Sary was taken to the hospital this morning because he had blood in his urine," Khmer Rouge trial spokesman Reach Sambath told AFP.

Ieng Sary was rushed from his jail cell to Phnom Penh's Calmette Hospital for treatment by doctors, said the spokesman.

He has been hospitalised several times for a heart condition since he and his wife, former Khmer Rouge social affairs minister Ieng Thirith, were arrested for war crimes and crimes against humanity in November.

Last month Ieng Sary's lawyers argued that he should be released before trial because he was so ill that jail could kill him.

The joint Cambodia-UN tribunal was established two years ago, after nearly a decade of haggling, to bring to justice those responsible for one of the 20th century's worst atrocities.

The four other defendants at the tribunal are mostly in their 70s and 80s, and worries for their health have also cast a cloud over the proceedings as critics worry they could die before trials are completed.

Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot died in 1998. Tribunal officials have said they expect the court's first trial to begin in September with proceedings against Kaing Guek Eav or "Duch," who ran a notorious torture centre in Phnom Penh.