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Dissident Khmer Rouge leader Ieng Sary yesterday demanded a personal amnesty as the price of peace between the Cambodian Government and his breakaway guerilla faction.

  The former foreign minister in the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge government told his first press conference in 20 years that his brother-in-law and friend for nearly five decades, Pol Pot, was to blame for the deaths of up to a quarter of the country's population under the infamous 'killing fields' regime.

    He said he had no regrets, 'based on the fact that I had nothing to do with ordering the execution of anyone or even suggesting it'.

  Ieng Sary broke with the 'dictatorial and murderous gang' of the Khmer Rouge last month because they insisted on perpetuating a struggle that divided the Khmer nation, he said.

  The extraordinary press conference was held in the jungle headquarters of troops loyal to Ieng Sary.

   Ieng Sary told the 150 journalists who were taken into Phnom Malai by Cambodian Army helicopters that Pol Pot and a close clique of 'hard men' were to blame for the Khmer Rouge's appalling record of killing, neglect and mistreatment.

  Ieng Sary said Pol Pot was 'the sole and supreme architect of the party's line, strategy and tactics' and other Khmer Rouge leaders could only follow orders.

   'Pol Pot never tolerates others' opinions,' Ieng Sary said, adding that he had taken a different political path to Pol Pot 35 years ago.

   Where Pol Pot emphasised class struggle, he emphasised national unity.

   Ieng Sary said he stayed in the Khmer Rouge because 'I wanted to preserve our unity and thought it was still possible for me to express my opinion to a certain extent'.

   He would not reveal more about his political plans if he was granted an amnesty or say what his breakaway faction's relationship with Phnom Penh would be.

    Second Prime Minister Hun Sen has talked of the group defecting to the Cambodian Government, but Ieng Sary appears to envisage an autonomous community keeping its guns and lucrative business links with the Thai army and other Thai friends.

  The return of the remains of a German tourist killed by the Khmer Rouge two years ago was a chilling postscript to an unusual day.

   When Ieng Sary had finished the press conference he formally handed over the cremated remains of Matthias Wolf, a 31-year-old German, to a go-between for the German Government, Jacques Bekaert.

   Mr Wolf had hired a motorcycle in the holiday resort in Pattaya in December 1994 and driven over the Thai border into Khmer Rouge territory.

   He was held for a week and then executed on the orders of Khmer Rouge hardliner Son Sen, Ieng Sary said.



Ieng Sary demands amnesty for peace