Briton's murder at centre of Cambodia trial
06-OCT-2008 Intellasia | AP
Oct 6, 2008 - 7:00:00 AM
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Five former Khmer Rouge soldiers went on trial Friday for their alleged involvement in the killing of a British mine-clearing specialist and his Cambodian colleague 12 years ago.
Christopher Howes was abducted in March 1996 by the Khmer Rouge along with a group of his Cambodian co-workers while clearing mines near Angkor Wat, the famed 12th century temple complex in the country's northwest.
Howes, who was 37 at the time and a former soldier, persuaded the band of guerrillas to free his colleagues while he and his Cambodian interpreter, Houn Hourth, remained for ransom.
Their fate was a mystery for more than two-years, until a team of detectives from Scotland Yard said in May 1998 they had firm evidence the two were taken to the Khmer Rouge stronghold of Anlong Veng and killed soon after the abduction.
All five defendants appeared in a Phnom Penh court in blue prison uniforms. Among them was Khem Ngun, a former guerrilla commander who witnesses claim gave the order to kill the two men.
The suspects have been charged with premeditated murder and illegal confinement of persons, crimes punishable by life imprisonment.
Khem Ngun defected to the government in 1998 and was awarded the rank of major general in the Cambodian army. At the time, the Cambodian government was unwilling to arrest him, apparently for fear of losing the trust of Khmer Rouge guerrillas who were then in the process of defecting.
Khem Ngun and two other suspects were arrested last November, while the last two suspects, including his former driver, were arrested in May.
At the time of the first arrests, Howes' father, Roy, who lives in Backwell in southwest England, said his family would never recover from Christopher's murder.
"These people have wrecked my family," his father said. "The pain is permanently with us."
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