Police in Cambodia have arrested the most senior surviving member of the notorious Khmer Rouge regime, as part of a UN-backed genocide investigation.

Nuon Chea was flown from his jungle home to the capital, Phnom Penh, to appear before Cambodian and foreign jurists in a special genocide tribunal.

The 82-year-old was second-in-command to Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot.

More than a million people are thought to have died during the four years of Khmer Rouge rule between 1975-79.

Nuon Chea, who was also known as "brother number two", has been living alongside Khieu Samphan, once the Khmer Rouge's head of state, in Pailin, the movement's former jungle headquarters.

Police and court officials went to his home near the Thai border early on Wednesday to question him, witnesses said.

He was then taken under police escort to a helicopter for the flight to Phnom Penh.

Five suspects

The UN-backed tribunal has taken years to get off the ground, triggering fears that the ageing Khmer Rouge leaders would never be brought to justice.

But in July, prosecutors charged their first suspect, an ex-Khmer Rouge prison chief, with crimes against humanity.

Kang Kek Ieu, also known as Duch, was in charge of the notorious S21 jail, where thousands of people were imprisoned, tortured and killed.

Duch was the first of five suspects whom prosecutors have asked the tribunal to investigate over their role in the brutal Khmer Rouge regime.

But the man most wanted for crimes against humanity in Cambodia will never be brought to justice.

Pol Pot, the founder and leader of the Khmer Rouge, died in a camp along the border with Thailand in 1998.

PHOTO CAPTION

Nuon Chea (brother No.2) arrested.

BBC