Khmer Rouge leader denies mass murder, blames Vietnam

 

 

A leader of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge denied on Friday that he and his colleagues were responsible for the death of an estimated 1.7 million people during their 1975-79 rule, saying their sworn enemy Vietnam invented the idea of genocide as propaganda.

 

Former president Khieu Samphan, 85, and Khmer Rouge "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea, 90, face charges of crimes against humanity and genocide in the second case before a U.N.-backed tribunal known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.

 

The pair were among a small clique, led by Pol Pot, of mostly French-educated communists who rose to lead a bloody revolution against a U.S.-backed government after their country was engulfed by the Vietnam War.

Their regime sought to turn Cambodia back to "year zero" in its quest for a peasant utopia.

 

Most of the victims of the Khmer Rouge died of starvation, torture, exhaustion or disease in labor camps or were bludgeoned to death during mass executions in "killing fields".

Khieu Samphan and co-defendant Nuon Chea are the last two surviving members of the top leadership clique. Pol Pot, "Brother Number One", died in 1998.

 

"The term 'murder', I categorically reject it," Khieu Samphan told the court in the final stage of the trial.

"The Communist People of Kampuchea leaders did not exterminate our people. What was the interest in so doing?"

Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea were found guilty of crimes against humanity in the fist phase of the complex trial and sentenced to life in prison in 2014.

 

The Khmer Rouge split amidst bloody purges of their ranks during their rule and many members from eastern zones fled to neighboring Vietnam to return with a Vietnamese army in December 1978, which ousted the Khmer Rouge and sent them fleeing to the border with Thailand.

Ever since, the Khmer Rouge have blamed Vietnam for the disaster of their rule.

 

Khieu Samphan repeated that on Friday saying Vietnam had invented the notion of genocide as propaganda to justify their invasion with the "blessing of the current Cambodian leaders".

"Vietnam has never cooperated with this tribunal and finally it has invented the unacceptable idea of the Cambodian genocide," he said.

Many of Cambodia's current leaders, including veteran Prime Minister Hun Sen, were members of the Khmer Rouge who fled to Vietnam and were later installed in a Vietnamese-backed government in Phnom Penh.

 

Nuon Chea did not appear at the hearing on Friday due to "back pain", the court was told. He followed proceedings via a live video link to a holding cell.

Khieu Samphan said people were forced to work in labor camps because of "the immediate need to solve the problem of hunger", adding: "Is this something criminal? Of course not."

 

Nuon Chea's international defense lawyer, Victor Koppe, said the proceedings against his client were "a show trial ... to serve the interest of the American and Vietnamese aggressors".

After being forced from power, the Khmer Rouge became part of a U.N.-recognized and U.S.-backed government in exile that opposed the decade-long occupation of Cambodia by Soviet-backed Vietnam.

The tribunal has not set a date for a verdict.

 

(Reporting by Prak Chan Thul; Editing by Robert Birsel)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 23/06

 

Has he been watching Fox News or perhaps WH press conferences? Jeez.... get real dude

Why should,nt he deny it ? I think if I had murdered a couple of million I would deny it as well :)

7 hours ago, Emster23 said:

Has he been watching Fox News or perhaps WH press conferences? Jeez.... get real dude

That's what I was thinking.  The WH has banned recording devices at the briefings.  I'm not sure for how long, but it's not a good sign.

Instead of wasting any more money on  more of these BS trials , what about spending the courts huge budget on health and educational facilities for the Cambodian people, rather than on  already wealthy lawyers and legal eagles ? These murderers  already got life sentences ...whats the point of debating any further? And before anyone suggests this massive waste of money may lead to  the death sentence - then they should know that at 90 years old , a painless and clean death is probably what these  mass murderers really  want.

I was in PP when Brother  Duch  from S-21 was sentenced .

There was no dancing in the streets.

The Cambodian people have had enough of watching outsiders capitailze from , and politicians gain from , the terrors of the past.

Another country I have no plans to visit at least for the next 10 years

Geezer

It is a country that fought a war which nobody really understood. Who is fighting who? Does a trial after so many years still serves its purpose? At 80 or 90 years old your dick is impotence, your teeth falling out, your hair all thin out, you could hardly walk far. You have pains all over the body. What is the point of putting them in prison now, too late isn't it?