Khmer Rouge leader asks why Cambodia's ex-king not in dock

Cambodia's former President Khieu Samphan attends his trial at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) on the outskirts of Phnom Penh November 23, 2011. REUTERS/Mark Peters/ECCC/Handout

By Prak Chan Thul

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - The former head of state in Cambodia under the ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge denied involvement in mass killings under the regime in the 1970s and asked prosecutors on Wednesday why ex-King Norodom Sihanouk, a sometime ally, was not also in the dock.

The U.N.-backed court started a case on Monday against Khieu Samphan and two other leaders of the "Killing Fields" regime blamed for the deaths of as many as 2.2 million people, or about a quarter of Cambodia's population, from 1975-1979.

They are charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide for transforming Cambodia into a mass labour camp where people were executed or died from torture, starvation, disease and overwork.

Paris-educated Khieu Samphan accused the court of re-writing history with "fairy tales" extracted from books and newspapers, and said that as a leader he promoted a communist administration but had no control over those who carried out killings.

"At that time, communism was the one movement that gave hope to millions of youths around the world. What I actually wanted at that time was the best experience for my country," he said.

The Chinese-backed Khmer Rouge, led by 'Brother Number One' Pol Pot, declared war on modernity, emptying towns and cities and abolishing money and markets, after seizing power in 1975 by toppling a U.S.-backed general, Lon Nol, who five years earlier had overthrown Sihanouk in a coup.

Khieu Samphan said that at the time, Cambodia was poised for a "major disaster of human life" following waves of carpet bombing by U.S. fighter planes from 1969 until 1973 and he accused the United States of destabilising the country.

Designed to create a resurgent and pure peasant society, the policies of 'Year Zero' instead gave birth to one of the darkest chapters of the 20th century.

But Khieu Samphan said his role was limited. At the 14 of 19 policy meetings he attended, he said, he only spoke twice on subjects that had nothing to do with mass killings.

"It had nothing at all to do with the crimes that you alleged against me," he said.

"NOT MONSTERS"

International co-prosecutor Andrew Cayley told the tribunal this week it should not be tempted by feelings of compassion for elderly and infirm defendants in their 80s as these were people who had "murdered, tortured and terrorised" fellow Cambodians.

Historians say Khieu Samphan was the leading intellectual among the small group of Cambodian students in 1950s Paris who became imbued with communism and returned home to the Southeast Asian country to form the core of the guerrilla movement that became the Khmer Rouge.

He published a book in 2004 portraying himself as a virtual prisoner of the regime and denying knowledge of any atrocities. He was arrested three years later at his jungle home in the old Khmer Rouge stronghold of Pailin on the Thai border.

In court, he suggested that if he witnessed mass killings as prosecutors allege, so too would have former King Norodom Sihanouk, who was briefly head of state when the Khmer Rouge took over. He became king again in 1993 and abdicated in 2004.

"Why don't you invite King Sihanouk to join me in the dock?" Khieu Samphan said. "Do you really think, Mr. Prosecutor, when I visited these work sites accompanied by the king, workers were murdered in front of us with hoes or bullets in the back of the neck?"

His French lawyer, Jacques Verges, known for defending reviled figures such as Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie, said the court should take into account the context of Cambodia in the 1970s after the coup d'etat, carpet bombing by the United States and what he called territorial claims by Thailand and Vietnam.

"Your Honours, let me simply say that, in this torment that Cambodia went through, men made mistakes, they even committed crimes, but they are not monsters," Verges said.

Co-defendant Nuon Chea, "Brother Number Two" and chief ideologue of the Khmer Rouge, also denied all the charges on Tuesday, saying his party had acted to free Cambodia from colonialism and protect it from invasion by Vietnam.

The third defendant, former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary, at first refused to read his statement to the court on Wednesday, pleading ill health, but he was ordered to do so by the judges and was brought to the dock in a wheelchair.

He said he had received a pardon and amnesty from Sihanouk in 1996, which had been approved by the national assembly, and would not answer questions in future sessions.

The court was subsequently adjourned until December 5.

A fourth defendant, former Social Affairs Minister Ieng Thirith, was declared mentally ill and unfit for trial last week. She remains in detention pending an appeal by prosecutors.

The Khmer Rouge was finally forced from power when Vietnam invaded in 1979. Remnants fought on until 1998 when Pol Pot, its French-educated leader, died.

This is the second case brought before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, which has spent close to $150 million since its creation in 2005 and has been mired in controversy because of delays, resignations and allegations of political interference.

In the first case, Kaing Guek Eav, known as "Duch", was sentenced to a 35-year jail term, commuted to 19 years, for overseeing the killing of more than 14,000 people at a torture centre. A decision on his appeal is set for February.

(Writing by Alan Raybould and Jason Szep; Editing by Nick Macfie)