Khmer Rouge leaders face trial in Cambodia
Four of the surviving members of Cambodia’s murderous Khmer Rouge regime went on trail for war crimes today, 30 years after the “year zero” revolution.
News media report how the defendants were among the inner circle of Pol Pot, the French responsible of the Khmer Rouge’s ultra-Maoist “Killing Fields” revolution that killed an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979.
Nuon Chea, former President Khieu Samphan, ex-Foreign Minister Ieng Sary and former social affairs minister Ieng Thirith, showed no emotion as opening statements to the tribunal were read before a packed auditorium.
Almost a quarter of Cambodia's population was wiped out under the Khmer Rouge through torture, execution, starvation and exhaustion.
The four are charged with committing crimes against humanity and genocide and accused of a litany of crimes under both international and Cambodian laws, including murder, enslavement, religious and political persecution, inhumane treatment and unlawful imprisonment.