Cambodia court begins genocide trial of Khmer Rouge leaders

Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan accused of overseeing mass killings of up to 500,000 people in the 1970s

• Agence France-Presse in Phnom Penh
• theguardian.com, Wednesday 30 July 2014 

Former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan in the Phnom Penh courtroom. Photograph: Mark Peters/ECCC/EPA

Cambodia's UN-backed Khmer Rouge court has begun a second trial of two former regime leaders on charges including genocide of Vietnamese people and ethnic Muslims, forced marriages and rape.

The complex case of the regime's two most senior surviving leaders has been split into a series of smaller trials, initially focusing on the forced evacuation of people into rural labour camps and related crimes against humanity.

The first trial against the most senior surviving Khmer Rouge leader, Nuon Chea, 88, known as Brother Number Two, and former head of state Khieu Samphan, 83, was completed late last year, with the verdict – and possible sentences – due to be delivered on 7 August.

At the opening hearing of the second trial on Wednesday, judge Nil Nonn read out the charges against both suspects as more than 300 people watched the proceedings from the court's public gallery.

Nuon Chea did not attend the hearing for health reasons, while Khieu Samphan sat in court alongside his defence team.

During the inaugural session of the second trial, which focuses on genocide and other crimes against humanity, judges will discuss issues such as reparations for victims.

"The second trial is equally important as the first, and more victims and witnesses will have the opportunity to testify about their experiences and suffering during the Khmer Rouge regime, on a broader range of criminal allegations," court spokesman Lars Olsen told AFP.

The mass killings of an estimated 100,000 to 500,000 ethnic Cham Muslims and 20,000 Vietnamese form the basis of the genocide charges against Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan.

Before these charges were filed, the treatment of the minority Muslim group and Vietnamese community was rarely discussed.

The pair also face a string of other charges for the deaths of up to 2 million people through starvation, overwork or execution during the Khmer Rouge's 1975-1979 rule.

Most of these deaths do not fall under the charge of genocide, which is defined by the UN as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group".

It is not known how long the second trial will last, but Olsen estimated it may go on until 2016 with hearings covering crimes committed at Khmer Rouge labour camps and prisons including the notorious Tuol Sleng, a former Phnom Penh high school that became a jail and execution centre, also known as S-21.

"This trial is very important for me as a victim who lost both parents in Tuol Sleng," said Norng Chan Phal, 45, one of a handful of survivors from the prison.

"Those criminals who committed genocide and killed their own people must be punished seriously."

Led by Brother Number One Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the Khmer Rouge dismantled Cambodian society in an attempt to create an agrarian utopia.

The new trial will also provide the first forum for justice for tens of thousands of husbands and wives forced to marry, often in mass ceremonies, as part of a Khmer Rouge plan to boost the population. The rape charges refer to rape within the forced marriages.

In its historic debut trial, the court in 2010 sentenced former Tuol Sleng prison chief Kaing Guek Eav to 30 years in prison – later increased to life on appeal – for overseeing the deaths of 15,000 people.

But observers and victims have raised concerns that the ageing Khmer Rouge leaders may not survive to see a verdict.

Former regime foreign minister Ieng Sary died aged 87 last year while on trial for war crimes and genocide, while his wife was freed from jail in September 2012 after being ruled unfit for trial because of failing mental health.