Khmer army chief wants swift trial

‘‘Try me now before I die, so that I can tell the court who is the mastermind of the massacre,’’ he quoted Ta Mok as saying of internationally supervised trials of some of the leaders deemed responsible for the deaths of 1.7 million Cambodians.

The 30 judges, including foreigners, appointed to try them will be sworn in on Monday and prosecutors are due to start assembling their cases in July. But no date has been set for the long-delayed trials, and there are fears that surviving Khmer Rouge leaders might not live to see them start.

‘‘The estimated date for the start of the Khmer Rougetrials is the first quarter of 2007,’’ tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath said. ‘‘We know the former Khmer Rouge leaders are getting older and older and that is why we, the court, are trying our best to speed up the legal process,’’ he said.