Top: Khieu Samphan and (bottom) Ieng Sary.
By Associated Press,
The Washington Post
Monday, November 21, 2011
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Cambodians were bluntly reminded of their tragic history Monday as the trial began of three top Khmer Rouge leaders accused of orchestrating Cambodia’s “killing fields” in the late 1970s.
After Judge Nil Nonn declared the trial open, the prosecution started its case at the U.N.-backed tribunal — more than three decades after the Southeast Asian country witnessed some of the 20th century’s worst atrocities. Two-thirds of Cambodians today were not yet born when the communist group’s reign of terror ended in 1979.
The defendants are old and infirm, and there are fears they won’t live long enough for justice to be done.
On Monday, they sat side by side with their lawyers in the courtroom especially built for the tribunal: 85-year-old Nuon Chea, the Khmer Rouge’s chief ideologist and No. 2 leader; 80-year-old Khieu Samphan, an ex-head of state; and 86-year-old Ieng Sary, the former foreign minister.
No comments:
Post a Comment