Monday, June 27, 2011

Khmer Rouge leaders go on trial in Cambodia

Former Khmer Rouge leader
Former Khmer Rouge leader 'Brother Number Two' Nuon Chea (centre) in the courtroom at the ECCC in Phnom Penh. Photograph: Mark Peters/AFP/Getty Images

A UN-backed tribunal in Cambodia is holding the trial of the four most senior surviving members of the Khmer Rouge regime

Monday 27 June 2011
Reuters

The United Nations-backed trial of the four most senior surviving members of Cambodia's murderous Khmer Rouge regime has begun, three decades after its "year zero" revolution marked one of the darkest chapters of the 20th century.

The defendants, all 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.

An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians - a quarter of the population - were killed through torture, execution, starvation and exhaustion from 1975-1979.

The quartet, "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea, former president Khieu Samphan, ex-foreign minister Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith, a former social affairs minister, are accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, among other charges.

Please click here to read more...

No comments: