Khmer Rouge trial deal reached
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U.N. Deputy Secretary General for Legal Affairs Hans Corell arrives in Phnom Penh
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PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (Reuters) -- The United Nations and Cambodia have hammered out an agreement to set up a special genocide court for former leaders of the Khmer Rouge, a senior Cambodian official said on Monday.
The breakthrough in the protracted neogtiations, which have taken 11 rounds over more than five years, came after a weekend of talks in the Cambodian capital to try to finalise a draft agreement on the format for the trial.
"The technical work is done and we have agreed,," Cambodian negotiator Om Yentieng told reporters.
The draft agreement now has to be approved by the U.N. General Assembly and the Cambodian National Assembly before work can go ahead on establishing the court.
The ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge, who ruled the southeast Asian nation from 1975 to 1979, are held responsible for the deaths of some 1.7 million people as their intended peasant utopia descended into the nightmare of the "Killing Fields."
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