Pol Pot's first wife dies

More than a million died under Khmer Rouge rule

Khieu Ponnary, the first wife of the notorious Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, has died in Cambodia, aged 83.

Known as "Sister Number One", she played a key role in the development of the Khmer Rouge in the 1950s and 1960s, and was head of the Cambodian national women's association during the period 1975-9.

She struggled with mental illness from the mid-1970s but eventually succumbed to cancer and old age, according to her nephew Ieng Vuth.

Human rights groups said her death highlighted the need to prosecute former Khmer Rouge leaders before they die of natural causes, following an agreement between the Cambodian government and UN to set up a genocide tribunal.

Several high profile Khmer Rouge figures were expected to attend her funeral.

Her brother-in-law, Ieng Sary, who was foreign minister in the Khmer Rouge era, and sister Khieu Thirith are expected to attend, as well as "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea and former prime minister Khieu Samphan.

Khieu Ponnary was the first Cambodian woman to graduate from high school.

She then went on to Paris to continue her education, and it was there that she met Pol Pot, also known as Saloth Sar, in 1951.

They married in 1956 and returned to Cambodia, where she helped him build his revolutionary ultra-communist movement, the Khmer Rouge.

More than a million Cambodians are thought to have died under Khmer Rouge rule between 1975 to 1979, many of starvation.

Although she was introduced to a cheering crowd as the "mother of the revolution" in 1978, it is thought that her dementia had got the better of her by the mid-1970s, and soon after is reported to have spent time at a mental institution in Beijing.

Khieu Ponnary was at the heart of the Khmer Rouge during their despotic rule, her mental state meant that she was never really a serious candidate for the genocide tribunal, according to Cambodian academic Craig Etcheson.

"It is unlikely that she held any position of responsibility in the Khmer Rouge regime, which might potentially have rendered her liable to indictment under the mandate of the proposed tribunal," Mr Etcheson told the French news agency AFP.

So far, no senior figures have been charged for the genocide, although two men, Ta Mok and Kang Kek Iue, are in prison awaiting trial.

Pol Pot himself died in 1998 without having faced any such inquiry.