Khmer Rouge
Nuon Chea, one of three Khmer Rouge leaders accused of war crimes, appears at a UN-backed tribunal in Phnom Penh. Photograph: Mark Peters/AFP/Getty Images
Three senior regime members appear at UN-backed tribunal accused of playing key part in death of 1.7 million people
Peter Walker and agencies
Read original article at guardian.co.uk,
Monday 21 November 2011
Three surviving members of the Khmer Rouge leadership have gone on trial at a UN-backed tribunal in Cambodia, accused of playing a key role in the death of at least 1.7 million people during one of the 20th century's most brutal regimes.
In their opening statements, prosecutors emphasised the chaos and horror that overran Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge's brief, paranoid and bloody rule from 1975 to 1979.
"Every Cambodian who was alive during this period was affected by the criminal system of oppression which these accused put in place. The death toll is staggering," Chea Leang, the Cambodian co-prosecutor, told a packed tribunal in the capital, Phnom Penh.
Facing charges including crimes against humanity, genocide, religious persecution, homicide and torture, are three of the Khmer Rouge's top leaders under the supreme ruler, Pol Pot, who died in 1998. Nuon Chea, 85, was the Khmer Rouge's chief ideologist and "Brother Number Two" to Pol Pot; Khieu Samphan, 80, served as president; and 86-year-old Ieng Sary was the regime's foreign minister. All showed little reaction as the charges were read out.
Chea Leang gave an overview of the alleged offences, before more detailed testimony next month: "The forced evacuations of Cambodian cities, the enslavement of millions of people in forced labour camps, the smashing of hundreds of thousands of lives in notorious security centres and the killing fields, and the extermination of minorities, the countless deaths from disease, abuse and starvation – these crimes ordered and orchestrated by the accused were among the worst horrors inflicted on any nation in modern history."
It is the first time that such senior regime figures have faced trial, and, given their ages, many presume they will die before the long and complex case is completed. A fourth defendant, 79-year-old Ieng Thirith, Ieng Sary's wife and the Khmer Rouge's minister for social affairs, was ruled unfit to stand trial last week because she has Alzheimer's disease.
The joint tribunal, set up in 2006 after long negotiations between the UN and Cambodia's government, has thus far only completed one case. Kaing Guek Eav, known as Comrade Duch, was jailed for his role in the deaths of more than 14,000 people while running the notorious Tuol Sleng torture centre.
Andrew Cayley, the international co-prosecutor, said the defendants' ages and the decades that have passed since the crimes should not tempt the court into compassion. "They murdered, tortured and terrorised their own people, they unleashed a radical social reformed process … to create a living nightmare for all Khmer. They took from the people everything that makes life worth living. Let us never for one moment forget in this trial that this is the tragic legacy that these elderly people represent."
The Khmer Rouge in effect turned the entire country into a forced labour camp as they pursued their goal of a pure, agrarian socialist society, purging the middle classes and intellectuals in particular. Between 1.7 million and 2.2 million people – from a pre-regime population of about 7 million – were murdered or died from illness, overwork or starvation.
The tribunal is intended to act in part as a reminder of the Khmer Rouge's crimes in a country in which the great majority of the population was born after its fall.
Many of those attending the opening day of the case had their own appalling stories of life under the Khmer Rouge. Chim Phorn, 72, said that as chief of a commune in the country's north-west he had been forced to beat to death an unmarried young couple who became romantically involved. "I was ordered to kill the young couple because they fell in love without being married. If I did not kill them, my supervisor would have killed me, so to save my life, I had no choice but to kill them," he said.
Chum Noeu, 62, who lost 13 relatives under the regime, said: "We want justice so that the dead can finally close their eyes. What is the truth behind all of torture and killings? What happened?"
The defendants have shown no willingness so far to co-operate and are expected to deny any responsibility.
Three senior regime members appear at UN-backed tribunal accused of playing key part in death of 1.7 million people
Peter Walker and agencies
Read original article at guardian.co.uk,
Monday 21 November 2011
Three surviving members of the Khmer Rouge leadership have gone on trial at a UN-backed tribunal in Cambodia, accused of playing a key role in the death of at least 1.7 million people during one of the 20th century's most brutal regimes.
In their opening statements, prosecutors emphasised the chaos and horror that overran Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge's brief, paranoid and bloody rule from 1975 to 1979.
"Every Cambodian who was alive during this period was affected by the criminal system of oppression which these accused put in place. The death toll is staggering," Chea Leang, the Cambodian co-prosecutor, told a packed tribunal in the capital, Phnom Penh.
Facing charges including crimes against humanity, genocide, religious persecution, homicide and torture, are three of the Khmer Rouge's top leaders under the supreme ruler, Pol Pot, who died in 1998. Nuon Chea, 85, was the Khmer Rouge's chief ideologist and "Brother Number Two" to Pol Pot; Khieu Samphan, 80, served as president; and 86-year-old Ieng Sary was the regime's foreign minister. All showed little reaction as the charges were read out.
Chea Leang gave an overview of the alleged offences, before more detailed testimony next month: "The forced evacuations of Cambodian cities, the enslavement of millions of people in forced labour camps, the smashing of hundreds of thousands of lives in notorious security centres and the killing fields, and the extermination of minorities, the countless deaths from disease, abuse and starvation – these crimes ordered and orchestrated by the accused were among the worst horrors inflicted on any nation in modern history."
It is the first time that such senior regime figures have faced trial, and, given their ages, many presume they will die before the long and complex case is completed. A fourth defendant, 79-year-old Ieng Thirith, Ieng Sary's wife and the Khmer Rouge's minister for social affairs, was ruled unfit to stand trial last week because she has Alzheimer's disease.
The joint tribunal, set up in 2006 after long negotiations between the UN and Cambodia's government, has thus far only completed one case. Kaing Guek Eav, known as Comrade Duch, was jailed for his role in the deaths of more than 14,000 people while running the notorious Tuol Sleng torture centre.
Andrew Cayley, the international co-prosecutor, said the defendants' ages and the decades that have passed since the crimes should not tempt the court into compassion. "They murdered, tortured and terrorised their own people, they unleashed a radical social reformed process … to create a living nightmare for all Khmer. They took from the people everything that makes life worth living. Let us never for one moment forget in this trial that this is the tragic legacy that these elderly people represent."
The Khmer Rouge in effect turned the entire country into a forced labour camp as they pursued their goal of a pure, agrarian socialist society, purging the middle classes and intellectuals in particular. Between 1.7 million and 2.2 million people – from a pre-regime population of about 7 million – were murdered or died from illness, overwork or starvation.
The tribunal is intended to act in part as a reminder of the Khmer Rouge's crimes in a country in which the great majority of the population was born after its fall.
Many of those attending the opening day of the case had their own appalling stories of life under the Khmer Rouge. Chim Phorn, 72, said that as chief of a commune in the country's north-west he had been forced to beat to death an unmarried young couple who became romantically involved. "I was ordered to kill the young couple because they fell in love without being married. If I did not kill them, my supervisor would have killed me, so to save my life, I had no choice but to kill them," he said.
Chum Noeu, 62, who lost 13 relatives under the regime, said: "We want justice so that the dead can finally close their eyes. What is the truth behind all of torture and killings? What happened?"
The defendants have shown no willingness so far to co-operate and are expected to deny any responsibility.
6 comments:
Wait a minute ! U forgot another one, Sihanouk.
For crying out loud, how long we have to wait to see the trial moving forward. Should we wait for them to die then trial in absentee?
Noun Chea should be execute...
Noun Chea is the one who ordered the purge..
I'm affraid these KR leaders got away from their crimes...
They(Judges) must finish up these leaders as soon as possible...People can't no longer waiting?
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