Khmer Rouge men tried for murder

Mr Howes was killed after being kidnapped in 1998

Five former members of the Khmer Rouge have gone on trial in Cambodia, accused of kidnapping and killing two members of a mine clearance team.

British mine expert Christopher Howes and his interpreter, Houn Hourth, were working in north-west Cambodia when they were abducted and killed in 1996.

The trial is seen as a sign that Khmer Rouge figures no longer enjoy immunity.

Separately, the trial of a senior Khmer Rouge leader facing war crimes charges has reportedly been delayed.

The Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia for a four-year period in the late 1970s.

Forced from power by a Vietnamese invasion, the Maoist guerrillas continued to battle government troops from strongholds in the north-west for two decades.

'Great relief'

Mr Howes, from Backwell in North Somerset, was leading a Mines Advisory Group operation near the city of Siem Reap when his team was abducted.

The kidnappers asked Mr Howes to return to his office to collect ransom money, but he refused to leave his team.

It's a great relief for both the families, who had struggled for many years in anguish to find out what had happened to Chris and Hourth Lou McGrath, Mines Advisory Group

Although more than 30 members of the team were released or escaped, Mr Howes and his interpreter were killed.

A team of British detectives said in May 1998 they had firm evidence the two were taken to the Khmer Rouge stronghold of Anlong Veng and killed soon after the abduction.

One of the suspects, 57-year-old Put Lim, told the court that Mr Howes was killed at night and his body cremated.

The accused include senior Khmer Rouge commander Khem Ngun, who defected to the government in 1998 and was given the rank of major general in the Cambodian army.

Many former Khmer Rouge leaders have taken posts in the government or the army after they surrendered a decade ago.

This trial suggests they are not immune from justice, the BBC's Guy Delauney in Phnom Penh says.

Lou McGrath, executive director of the Mines Advisory Group, said relatives of the two men would welcome the trial.

"It's a great relief for both the families, who had struggled for many years in anguish to find out what had happened to Chris and Hourth," he said.

Genocide 'delay'

Separately, five senior Khmer Rouge leaders are now awaiting trial at a UN-backed genocide tribunal on charges of crimes against humanity.

Duch ran a Khmer Rouge prison where almost all inmates were killed

But the start of the first trial is likely to be delayed until early next year, the Associated Press news agency has reported.

Officials said on Thursday that more time was needed to deal with an appeal for more charges against defendant Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, the agency reported.

Duch headed the former S-21 prison, the Khmer Rouge's largest torture facility.

"The chance to have a trial for Duch could be in 2009, early next year," said Reach Sambath, a tribunal spokesman, but he was unable to give a specific date.

The 65-year-old Duch is the youngest of the five Khmer Rouge who have been indicted, and all have health problems.

The communist group implemented radical policies considered responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people from starvation, disease, overwork and execution.