By Robert Carmichael
DPA
Kampong Chhnang, Cambodia – Few aircraft have bothered the parallel concrete runways at Kampong Chhnang airfield in the three decades since they were laid, and the buildings that dot its perimeter are frequented by chickens rather than passengers.
The only sounds at the end of the 2,400-metre-long main runway are the chatter of birds and the breeze pushing through spiky sugar palm trees that dot the central plain 100 kilometres north-west of Phnom Penh.
It is a peaceful scene, and one that is hard to reconcile with its history. Kampong Chhnang airfield is one of six sites investigated by the UN-backed war crimes tribunal in the trial of the surviving leaders of Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge government.
The initial hearing is scheduled for June 27.
The four elderly defendants – party ideologue Nuon Chea, known as Brother Number Two; head of state Khieu Samphan; foreign minister Ieng Sary; and his wife, the social affairs minister Ieng Thirith – face an array of charges including genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, all of which they deny.
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