A UN-backed war crimes court on Monday sentenced a former Khmer Rouge prison chief to 30 years in prison for his role in Cambodia's "Killing Fields" atrocities in the late 1970s. Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, is the first Khmer Rouge cadre to be convicted in an international tribunal over the deaths of up to two million people through starvation, overwork and execution at the hands of the regime. The 67-year-old was initially given 35 years but the court reduced the jail sentence after ruling that he had been detained illegally for years before the UN-backed tribunal was established. Duch apologised during his trial in Phnom Penh for overseeing the murders of around 15,000 men, women and children at Tuol Sleng prison, also known as S-21, but shocked the court in November by finally asking to be acquitted. The maths teacher-turned-revolutionary was convicted of charges including crimes against humanity and war crimes. "The role of the accused as the undisputed head of … [Read more...]

Three top Khmer Rouge leaders accused of orchestrating Cambodia's "killing fields" face a court Monday as a U.N.-backed tribunal begins their trials more than three decades after some of the 20th century's worst atrocities. Survivors of the regime held a remembrance ceremony outside Phnom Penh on Sunday. Relatives of the victims wept as they chanted and burned incense near a glass case filled with skulls at Choeung Ek Genocide Center, a memorial built in a field where bones still jut out from the ground, remnants of the Khmer Rouge mass executions. The emotional ceremony was held to allow Cambodians an opportunity to share their concerns and remember loved ones ahead of the trials of three of the Khmer Rouge's surviving inner circle — all now in their 80s — on charges including crimes against humanity, genocide and torture in connection with the Khmer Rouge's 1975-79 reign of terror. An estimated 1.7 million people died of execution, starvation, exhaustion or lack of … [Read more...]

Badly hampered tribunal could end up letting leaders of genocidal regime go unpunished for their crimes Tourists visit the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (S-21) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The recent death of Ieng Sary, foreign minister of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime, has raised the specter of one of the most brutal crimes of the 20th century going virtually unpunished as the remaining two survivors are in their eighties and in frail health The old axiom of justice delayed being justice denied acquired particular poignancy on March 14 with the death of Ieng Sary, foreign minister of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime. Ieng Sary was 87. He had been admitted to a hospital in Phnom Penh days earlier with heart problems, high blood pressure and other ailments. Sary was one of the five most senior surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge on joint trial for committing Crimes Against Humanity involving the deaths of almost two million people (more than three million by some accounts), most of … [Read more...]

The Khmer Rouge's former foreign minister, Ieng Sary, died on Thursday as he stood trial for crimes against humanity over his role in the regime, which killed an estimated 1.7 million people in Cambodia from 1975-1979. Ieng Sary, who was standing trial for crimes against humanity during his time as the Khmer Rouge's foreign minister in Cambodia in the 1970s, died on Thursday, the court said. Ieng Sary's death will dismay victims of the regime who fear those most responsible for their suffering will escape justice. An estimated 1.7 million people died during the ultra-maoist "killing fields" revolution of the Khmer Rouge and its leader, Pol Pot. A U.N.-backed tribunal was set up in Cambodia to try those responsible, but so far only one relatively low-level prison chief has been found guilty and jailed. The court's work has been hampered by funding problems and alleged interference by the Cambodian government. Ieng Sary was one of three top Khmer Rouge leaders on trial in the … [Read more...]

Under Cambodia's murderous Khmer Rouge, Meas Mut and Sou Met, now two-star generals in their 80s, are said to have hauled prisoners to S-21, a torture center that symbolized the horrors of a regime that wiped out nearly a quarter of the population. Another soldier, Im Chaem, now a Buddhist nun in her 60s, is suspected of running a forced labor camp where fellow Khmer Rouge cadres Ta An and Ta Tith oversaw massacres in the "Killing Fields" revolution of 1975-79. Those allegations, contained in cases known as 003 and 004 at a UN-backed tribunal, are plunging Cambodia into soul searching over how far to pursue war-crimes accusations against former commanders, some of whom now occupy senior roles in government. They are also fuelling criticism of the United Nations over whether its cash-strapped joint Cambodian tribunal will ever deliver justice for victims of the ultra-Maoist regime that tore Cambodia apart and was responsible for up to 2.2 million deaths. The European … [Read more...]

VietNamNet Bridge - We came to Ba Chuc Commune on the afternoon of New Year's Day 2013 at the suggestion of a friend who knew we would pass through An Giang Province on our trip to Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta. "You must go. It's a place where you can see close-up how Vietnamese people suffered from Khmer Rouge's crimes," she said. "However be careful, because it's very scary and upsetting." Searching for information on the commune, we discovered that Ba Chuc Commune was once massacred by the Khmer Rouge, when more than 3,000 local peasants including children, woman and elderly people were killed in 13 days and nights from March 18 to March 30, 1978. To remember the victims of the massacre, the local authority built a tomb to keep the remains of 1,100 victims. The information about the massacre really shocked us and we decided to choose the tomb as a destination during our four-day trip to the Delta. The road to Ba Chuc Commune was very beautiful and peaceful as it runs … [Read more...]

Nine Vietnamese-Cambodians among 351 dead as festival-goers panic … [Read more...]

Khmer Rouge "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea, Pol Pot's top surviving henchman, was charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity on Wednesday by the U.N.-backed "Killing Fields" tribunal. A court spokesman said the octogenarian communist guerrilla had been placed behind bars in the compound of the $56 million court after a short hearing before Cambodian and international judges. Nuon Chea looks on at the cremation of his brother Pol Pot's first wife Khieu Ponnary on July 3, 2003 in Cambodia's remote northwestern province of Pailin … [Read more...]

The Khmer Rouge revolution in the 1970s was aimed at freeing Cambodia from colonialism and protecting it from invasion by Vietnam, the party's ideologue, Nuon Chea, told a court on Tuesday, opening his defense against a charge of genocide. Former Khmer Rouge leader ''Brother Number Two'' Nuon Chea attends his trial at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) on the outskirts of Phnom Penh in this November 22, 2011 handout. Photo: REUTERS/Mark Peters/ECCC/Handout The testimony marked the first time a leader of the Khmer Rouge has defended the motives of the ultra-communist regime since the U.N.-backed court started to try cases last year related to the bloody "Killing Fields" revolution that wiped out a quarter of the population from 1975-1979. Former President Khieu Samphan, ex-Foreign Minister Ieng Sary and "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea are charged with crimes against humanity … [Read more...]

Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court on Monday opened the trial of three top Khmer Rouge leaders more than three decades after the country's brutal "Killing Fields" era. … [Read more...]