UN finds secret Cambodia jails

PHNOM PENH (Reuter) - UN investigators have freed 12 prisoners held by the government in a secret jail in western Cambodia, a UN official said yesterday.

Officers of the UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia (Untac), mandated to look into human rights abuses and national security, found two prisons in the Battambang area 'not previously known to Untac', the official said.

The official would not comment on the prisoners' status. The government claims to have released all genuine political prisoners, as opposed to criminals, under the Cambodian peace pact signed last October.