MOSCOW, October 17 (RIA Novosti) - The UN-supported trial against Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge leaders of the 1970s resumed Friday in the nation’s capital of Phnom Penh, as the two former statesmen face new charges of genocide and violence against the civilian population, in addition to life sentences already given to them in August, when the UN tribunal found them guilty of crimes against humanity.
The 88-year-old Nuon Chea, chief ideologist of the Democratic Kampuchea, and Khieu Samphan, 83, the ex-head of state, are the first leaders of the Khmer Rouge who have been jailed for life for their roles in a regime that killed up to 2 mln Cambodians in 1975 through 1979, the Wall Street Journal reports. Now, two close associates to the former Kampuchean dictator Pol Pot are being charged with genocide of the Vietnamese and Muslim minorities in Cambodia, as well as rape and forced marriages, says the Associated Press.
The court alleges that the Khmer Rouge government killed up to 500,000 ethnic Cham Muslims, as well as 20,000 ethnic Vietnamese during 1975-1979. "The ways in which the Khmer Rouge mistreated us is too heinous to describe in words. Their goal was to exterminate our race," says Seth Maly, a 64-year-old Cham concentration camp survivor as quoted by Al-Jazeera. Ms. Seth Maly says that during the Khmer Rouge era she lost rougly 100 of her relatives, most of whom were executed.
Additionally, Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan are also charged with crimes against humanity for mass executions and murder by starvation, exhaustion and disease in concentration camps. The UN tribunal claims most of the atrocities occurred when the Khmer Rouge regime conducted a forced relocation of millions of Cambodians from cities into the rural areas.
UN deputy co-prosecutor William Smith says the new trial "will ensure a more comprehensive accounting" of the crimes of the Khmer Rouge regime so that "Cambodia's past is not buried but built and learnt from", Al-Jazeera reports. The prosecution will question their first witness Monday. Judicial officials say that the new trial could last till 2016, the Wall Street Journal reports.
There is still some uncertainty surrounding the legal proceedings against the former Democratic Kampuchea leaders. One of the opponents of the continuing prosecution of the two ex-statesmen is the Prime Minister of Cambodia Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge, who defected to Viet Nam in 1977. Hun Sen claims the condemnation of the Khmer Rouge regime undermines national reconciliation efforts.
On the other hand, labor camp survivors and social activists widely support the UN effort. "We want justice, and this justice is not even for us who have survived the Khmer Rouge genocide, but it is for our children and many generations to come. This justice would help to prevent genocide to happen again here and elsewhere", says Youk Chhang, head of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, as quoted by the Associated Press.
