DEATH FROM AROUND THE GLOBE
Dateline: Cambodia

DEAD MAN EATING...LITERALLY

Cambodian court releases accused crematorium cannibals

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Two men accused of eating human body parts, washed down with a bottle of wine, were freed by a Cambodian provincial court on Saturday because there was no law against cannibalism, a public prosecutor said.

The two men, both crematorium workers, were arrested last week for eating fingers and toes of a body they were cremating.

Military police chief Rath Sreang said police in Banteay Meanchey province, 220 km (140 miles) northwest of Phnom Penh, were alerted to the case by villagers, who said the men often ate human parts after relatives of deceased had left the crematorium.

Eating human parts was common during the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge "killing fields" rule, when an estimated 1.7 million people died from torture, overwork, disease, execution and widespread famine.