Cambodia genocide: Khmer Rouge trio go on trial

By Dilip -

Nuon Chea, also known as Brother Number Two, and right-hand man of the Maoist regime's supreme leader Pol Pot; former head-of-state Khieu Samphan, and Ieng Sary, who was foreign minister and international face of the organisation, now all in their eighties, face charges including genocide and crimes against humanity. The Khmer Rouge regime fell in 1979, and the process of trying its senior figures has taken many years.
The regime attempted to create an ideal communist society by forcing city residents to work as peasants in the countryside, and by purging intellectuals, middle class people and any supposed enemies of the state. About 1.7 million people - about one-third of the population - are believed to have been murdered, or died of over-work, starvation or torture from 1975 to 1979.
But it is unclear how much the court will hear from the three accused. Ieng Sary has already said he does not intend to testify, and Nuon Chea walked out of an earlier hearing. Pol Pot died in 1998 before facing a full trial for his crimes. The only senior Khmer Rouge figure to be convicted so far is Kaing Guek Eav - better known as Comrade Duch. He was head of the notorious Tuol Sleng prison - a torture facility located in a school building - where he presided over the torture and murder of thousands of people.

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