DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia

PHNOM PENH, June 30, Kyodo - A U.N.-backed tribunal concluded a four-day preliminary hearing Thursday, the first move in cases against four senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge blamed for the deaths of at least 1.7 million Cambodians in the late 1970s.

Presiding Judge Nil Nonn of the Trial Chamber of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia said decisions stemming from the hearing will be handed down at a later date.

It is unclear if the tribunal will considered more preliminary matters, as requested by defense teams, before the trial begins later this the year.

After the hearing, Avocats Sans Frontieres issued a statement saying the ECCC appears willing to work with all people who want to play a part in the trials.

Martine Jacquin, project manager for Avocats Sans Frontieres, was quoted in the statement as saying the preliminary hearings were ''encouraging.''

Only the defense team for ''Brother No. 2'' Nuon Chea, 84, expressed dismay with the first sessions, saying the team feels its concerns have yet to be addressed.

Among the preliminary arguments heard this week were those concerned with witnesses, victims and experts and who and how many will be allowed to testify at trial.

Those concerns and other motions will be considered and decided by the five-member Trial Chamber panel ahead of the trial itself.

Beyond legal niceties and legal wrangling, for many watching the court proceedings, the health of the four accused seemed the more pressing matter.

Ieng Sary, 85, who was the Khmer Rouge's foreign minister, suffers from back pain and made only brief appearances in the courtroom.

Nuon Chea, the regime's chief ideologue, asked leave to be absent on three days and Ieng Thirith, 79, Ieng Sary's wife who was Khmer Rouge social affairs minister, missed the first two days of the hearing.

Only Khieu Samphan, who was head of state, stayed in court and monitored the whole process.

Khieu Samphan, 79, told the court Thursday it is ''fortunate'' he is in good health and promised to ''work with the court'' as long as his health remains good.

He also insisted he did not know everything that happened from 1975 to 1979 but pledged to relate, to the best of his knowledge, what he knew.

Nuon Chea asked the court to allow him to wear a blue and white knitted-ski cap and dark sunglasses during the hearing because he is ''allergic'' to air-conditioning and bright lights.

He then turned the floor over to his defense team to explain his contention the crimes and deaths during Khmer Rouge rule involved the United States and Vietnam.

For Ieng Sary, the hearing centered on the contention that because he was convicted in absentia in 1979 for genocide and sentenced to death he should not be tried a second time.

In 1996, he was pardoned by then King Norodom Sihanouk at the behest of the government for delivering a mass defection of Khmer Rouge fighters to the government.

All four defendants in what is referred to as Case 002 were arrested in 2007 and are charged with crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes.

All have denied guilt.

Case 001 against former prison chief Kaing Guek Ieu, alias Duch, ended in conviction and a sentence of 19 years in prison in addition to time already served.