Cambodia court races death, dwindling resources to rule on Khmer Rouge war crimes

Former Khmer Rouge leader Nuon Chea (L), also known as Brother Number Two, attends the testimony of former Khmer Rouge S-21 prison chief Kaing Guek Eav (not pictured), also known as Duch, at the Court Room of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) on the outskirts of Phnom Penh March 20, 2012. REUTERS/Nhet Sokheng/ECCC/Handout

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - The clock is ticking at Cambodia's Khmer Rouge war crimes tribunal, where the two elderly defendants are in poor health and funds vital for bringing some semblance of justice for the horrors of the "Killing Fields" era are fast drying up.

On trial are 87-year-old "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea and former president Khieu Samphan, 81, the right-hand men of the late Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, whose dream of a peasant utopia claimed as many as 2.2 million Cambodian lives from 1975-1979.