VOA常速英语2007年-Former Khmer Rouge Leader Flown to Cambodian Ca

By Claudia Blume
Hong Kong
14 November 2007

Former Khmer Rouge¹ leader Khieu Samphan has been flown to the Cambodian capital to receive medical treatment. Officials say he is not under arrest. But he is expected to be arrested and tried by the country's genocide tribunal for his role in the deaths of almost two million Cambodians in the 1970's. Claudia Blume reports from Hong Kong.

The former Khmer Rouge head of state was flown to a Phnom Penh hospital by helicopter Wednesday from his home in the former rebel stronghold of Pailin, in northwestern Cambodia.

Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered the medical evacuation, saying he does not want people to blame the government if the former revolutionary leader dies.

Khieu Samphan, who is 76, reportedly suffers from high blood pressure, and reports Wednesday said he hurt himself in a fall. One report says he suffered a stroke.

Reports from Pailin said he was preparing to seek treatment in Thailand, but the Cambodian authorities stopped him from leaving the country.

Cambodia's United Nations-backed genocide tribunal has been investigating the Khmer Rouge era, and has arrested other former high-ranking members of the organization in preparation for trial. Khieu Samphan is expected to be one of those arrested and tried.

But tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath said Wednesday that Khieu Samphan is not yet under arrest.

"In his case, the court did not issue any court warrant to arrest him yet, so we don't have comment," he said.

Khieu Samphan's hospitalization highlights fears that the aged² former Khmer Rouge leaders could die before being brought to trial. The group's top leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998.

It is widely expected, however, that assuming he does survive, Khieu Samphan will be prosecuted³ for his role in the Khmer Rouge's brutal⁴ rule of Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. Up to two million people were executed or died of starvation, disease and overwork when the ultra-radical communist group tried to turn the country into a classless agrarian⁵ utopia.

A total of four former Khmer Rouge leaders are already in detention⁶, and have been charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The group's former foreign minister, Ieng Sary, and his wife, Ieng Tirith, were arrested on Monday. The regime's second in command, Noun Chea, was detained in September. And in July, the court arrested Duch, the head of the Khmer Rouge's notorious torture center in Phnom Penh.

The court says Duch's trial, the first to be heard by the international genocide tribunal, is scheduled to start at the end of November.

1 rouge   

n.胭脂，口红唇膏；v.(在…上)擦口红

参考例句：

• Women put rouge on their cheeks to make their faces pretty.女人往面颊上涂胭脂，使脸更漂亮。
• She didn't need any powder or lip rouge to make her pretty.她天生漂亮，不需要任何脂粉唇膏打扮自己。

2 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

3 prosecuted   

a.被起诉的

参考例句：

• The editors are being prosecuted for obscenity. 编辑因刊载污秽文字而被起诉。
• The company was prosecuted for breaching the Health and Safety Act. 这家公司被控违反《卫生安全条例》。

4 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

5 agrarian   

adj.土地的，农村的，农业的

参考例句：

• People are leaving an agrarian way of life to go to the city.人们正在放弃农业生活方式而转向城市。
• This was a feature of agrarian development in Britain.这是大不列颠土地所有制发展的一个特征。

6 detention   

n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下

参考例句：

• He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
• He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。