Cambodia's Khmer Rouge made its first public apology yesterday for the "killing fields" reign of terror in which almost two million people died during the 1970s.
Asked at a news conference if he was sorry for the suffering that claimed the lives of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians, the former Khmer Rouge head of state, Mr Khieu Samphan, looked straight at the questioner and answered in English: "Yes, sorry, very sorry."
"I would like to say sorry to the people," he continued in Cambodian.
"Please forget the past and please be sorry for me. Please, brothers and sisters, forget the past and join together to develop the country."
He said it was up to the Cambodian people to decide if he should stand trial.
It was the first apology ever issued by a senior leader of the Khmer Rouge for the deaths from torture, overwork, starvation and execution during the catastrophic 1975-1979 agrarian revolution.
Mr Nuon Chea, who defected to the government with Mr Khieu Samphan and was "brother number two" to the late Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, also apologised to all the victims of the Cambodian war.
"Naturally, we are sorry; not only for the lives of the people, but also for the animals. They all died because we wanted to win the war," he said.
But asked how many people he thought had died under Khmer Rouge rule, he said: "Please leave this to history. This is an old story, please leave it to the past."
Mr Khieu Samphan and Mr Nuon Chea returned to Phnom Penh yesterday after receiving a "no arrest" pledge from the government.
They came after the Prime Minister, Mr Hun Sen, who in the past has said they should face an international tribunal, said on Monday it was time "to bury the past" and it might not be in Cambodia's best interests to put them on trial.
Mr Hun Sen held talks with the two earlier yesterday.
In news conferences and interviews in the past, Khmer Rouge leaders, including Mr Khieu Samphan, have always brushed questions about deaths under Khmer Rouge rule contemptuously aside.
Just hours earlier, Mr Khieu Samphan (67), his normally grey hair dyed black, had smiled and expressed no remorse in response to questions about the killing fields.
While the government says the door is still open for a trial, political analysts doubt this will happen.
"It does seem as if they are reassessing the situation," said a diplomat. "If they really wanted to deliver these people to court, they could. There's nothing really to stop them."
An Asian diplomat said Mr Hun Sen was putting his domestic goal of national reconciliation above calls for a trial.
"But I don't think he's really closed the door one way or the other. If the Khmer Rouge start being troublesome again he can always raise the issue of a trial again," the diplomat said. "He's very crafty. He's a chess player after all."
Mr Thomas Hammarberg, the senior UN human rights official in Cambodia, said it would be extremely sad if the two Khmer Rouge leaders escaped justice.
"How can you have big criminals and murderers go free and only the petty thieves thrown into prison?" he asked.
Mr Nuon Chea (71), described by historians as the chief Khmer Rouge ideologue responsible for many brutal purges, appeared frail and had to be assisted while walking and carried a stick.
A founding member of the Cambodian Communist Party who has always preferred to remain in the shadows, he was making his first trip to the capital since the Khmer Rouge was driven from power by invading Vietnamese 20 years ago.
Ordinary citizens whose lives were shattered by the Khmer Rouge are incensed by the apparent unwillingness to try the men.
"I would like to see them shot," said a businessman, Mr Cheuon Heng, who lost seven of his family, including two sons.
"We want to see them sentenced. At least put them in prison to let them know what it was like for the people they made suffer. But ordinary people like us have no power."
The US State Department said the Cambodian government had made several requests to the international community in the past 18 months for help to bring Khmer Rouge leaders to justice.
"We hope, and will continue to ensure, that this apparent surrender marks the first step in a process that will lead to account ability for Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan, as well as for other, most senior, Khmer Rouge leaders," said an acting spokesman for the State Department, Mr Lee McClenny.