U.S. Asks Canada to Seek Pol Pot Extradition

The United States reportedly asked Canada on Sunday to take the lead role in bringing former Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot out of Cambodia to face an international court.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright asked Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy for his country’s help during a private meeting at the summit of leading industrialized nations in Denver, the Canadian Press news agency reported.

Albright said Canada may be able to apply its genocide law to obtain the guerrilla’s extradition so he can be held to answer for the policies that led to the deaths of more than 1 million Cambodians during his 1975-79 rule.

Amid confusion over the weekend of Pol Pot’s fate, Gen. Nhek Bunchhay, Cambodia’s chief negotiator with the rebels, said Sunday that he had seen him alive and held captive by dissident guerrillas in the north.