PHNOM PENH – The four most senior surviving members of Cambodia’s murderous Khmer Rouge regime went on trial for war crimes yesterday, over three decades after their “year zero” revolution marked one of the darkest chapters of the 20th century.
The defendants, all now elderly and infirm, were among the inner circle of the late Pol Pot, the French-educated architect of the Khmer Rouge’s ultra-Maoist “Killing Fields” revolution that killed an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians from 1975-1979.
Dressed in casual clothes, “Brother Number Two” Nuon Chea, former president Khieu Samphan, former foreign minister Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith, a former social affairs minister, showed no emotion as opening statements to the UN-backed tribunal were read before a packed auditorium in proceedings screened on national television.
Almost a quarter of Cambodia’s population was wiped out under the Khmer Rouge through torture, execution, starvation and exhaustion. Virtually every Cambodian alive today lost family and many want to know why.
“I lost three children, my father and husband,” said Som Hoeun, a 66-year old villager from the southern province of Kompong Speu. “No matter how long it has been, Im always hopeful there will be justice.”
The four are charged with committing crimes against humanity and genocide and are accused of a litany of crimes under both international and Cambodian laws, including murder, enslavement, religious and political persecution, inhumane treatment and unlawful imprisonment.
All four defendants are expected to enter not guilty pleas. “Brother Number One” Pol Pot, died in 1998.
The opening exchanges yesterday centred on Ieng Sary’s move to have his case thrown out for double jeopardy. He was sentenced to death in absentia by a court created by Vietnamese invaders in 1979 and pardoned by Cambodia’s then King Norodom Sihanouk in 1996. – (Reuters)