asianews

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - Cambodia's foreign minister says he first wants to check his schedule before deciding whether to testify at a tribunal for Khmer Rouge leaders accused of genocide. Foreign Affairs Minister Hor Namhong is one of the six senior members of Prime Minister Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party summoned before the U.N.-backed court. All of them also exercised some authority during the Khmer Rouge reign of terror in the mid-1970s and appear reluctant to become involved with the tribunal. The tribunal is seeking justice for the estimated 1.7 million people who died in Cambodia from execution, overwork, disease and malnutrition as a result of the communist Khmer Rouge's radical policies.