Ta Mok, the last Khmer Rouge guerrilla leader at large, is arrested  Ta Mok biography: • Born 1926 in Takeo province. Studied in Phnom Penh and was briefly a Buddhist monk. • Joined Khmer Issarak, the anti-French independence movement, in the 1940s. Adopted "Ta Mok" as nom de guerre: real name uncertain. • Joined Khmer Rouge when Khmer Issarak split after independence in 1953. • Set up guerrilla stronghold in northern Cambodia after Vietnam deposed Khmer Rouge in 1979.

March 6, 1999
Web posted at: 10:55 a.m. EST (1555 GMT)

In this story: Pol Pot's enforcer Debate over tribunal RELATED STORIES, SITES

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (CNN) -- The last leader of the Khmer Rouge -- the notorious, one-legged Ta Mok -- was arrested Saturday near Cambodia's northern border with Thailand, the Cambodian Army said.

Ta Mok, known as "The Butcher," was captured alone near the frontier and flown by helicopter to Phnom Penh, Defense Minister Gen. Tea Banh said.

He was the last senior leader of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime at large.

Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea, two of the late Khmer Rouge chief Pol Pot's top henchmen, surrendered in a December deal that has so far allowed them to avoid arrest for atrocities committed during the group's rule over Cambodia.

But no similar arrangement awaited Ta Mok, and the government said Saturday he would be brought to trial.

"We have nothing to negotiate with him. We are looking for him in order to arrest him -- and castrate him as well," Gen. Tea Banh said with a laugh, just before Ta Mok's capture.

The brutal tactics of the Khmer Rouge are blamed for the deaths of up to 2 million Cambodians

Pol Pot's enforcer

The Khmer Rouge seized power in 1975, forcing Cambodians into crude farming collectives in an attempt to create a Marxist, agrarian utopia. During its four-year reign, Ta Mok served as the military commander in Cambodia's southwest region.

Pol Pot relied on Ta Mok to conduct sweeping purges of followers whose loyalty fell under suspicion. An estimated two million people died of torture, overwork, starvation, execution or disease before Vietnamese troops overthrew the regime in 1979.

But the group waged a guerrilla campaign for nearly 20 years after its ouster, and Ta Mok's troops were responsible for several massacres of ethnic Vietnamese during the 1990s.

Debate over tribunal

A team of United Nations' jurists has recommended that up to 30 senior Khmer Rouge leaders face charges of crimes against humanity before an international tribunal.

The Cambodian government is fighting the plan, favoring instead the creation of a South African-style truth commission to investigate atrocities.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has told U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan that he fears a trial could anger the thousands of former Khmer Rouge rank-and-file who have made peace with the government. Those Khmer Rouge defectors form part of Hun Sen's constituency.

But many Cambodians who suffered under the Khmer Rouge want its leaders to be put on trial.

"The government must be convinced to support the organization and the functioning of an international tribunal to prosecute the Khmer Rouge," Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy said Saturday. "I am sure that eventually the government will cooperate because it is in the interests of Cambodia and it is in the interests of justice and peace."

Reuters contributed to this report.