Khmer Rouge Leaders Accused of Brutality 'Defying Belief'
By SETH MYDANS
Published: November 21, 2011
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Opening statements in the most significant stage of a United Nations-backed trial of Khmer Rougeleaders began here on Monday with a horrifying and detailed account by the prosecution of the atrocities of a regime that she said was responsible for the deaths of one-fourth of the population.
Reuters
Khieu Samphan, the Khmer Rouge's former head of state, attended trial on Monday.
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Nuon Chea, left, the party's chief ideologue, talked with his lawyer on Monday.
Though the wide-ranging accusations were familiar, their presentation in a coherent narrative, studded with specific examples, was powerful and caused some elderly Cambodians to shed tears.
The three defendants, former leaders of the Khmer Rouge, also listened as one of two prosecutors, Chea Leang, accused them of turning the country into "a massive slave camp producing an entire nation of prisoners living under a system of brutality that defies belief."
This complex trial involving tens of thousands of documents and a roster of aging witnesses is the centerpiece of the prosecution of leading figures in the Khmer Rouge under a U.N.-Cambodian tribunal that was established in 2003.
The defendants include Nuon Chea, 85, the party's chief ideologue, who the prosecution said received reports and gave specific directions as to "who would be arrested and who would be killed."
The other prosecutor, Andrew Cayley, said that one witness who would testify to receiving these instructions was Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, the commandant of the movement's main prison, who was sentenced in July 2010 to 35 years in jail, later commuted to 19.
Mr. Cayley cited an incident in which he said Mr. Nuon Chea ordered the immediate execution of a large number of prisoners, dispensing with time-consuming interrogations and torture.
A second defendant is Ieng Sary, 86, the foreign minister, who prosecutors said had recalled Cambodian diplomats serving in embassies abroad, many of whom were immediately arrested and killed.
Mr. Cayley said that Mr. Ieng Sary had in effect confessed in what he asserted was a statement made at some earlier point: "I am very regretful for the deaths of the intellectuals because I was the one who gathered them to come home and help build the country."
The third defendant is Khieu Samphan, 80, the head of state, whom Mr. Cayley accused of having thorough knowledge and involvement in the Khmer Rouge crimes despite his frequent claims to have been unaware of the atrocities taking place around him.
The defendants, who have visibly aged since they were arrested in late 2007, mostly appeared to be following the hearing closely: Mr. Nuon Chea wearing the large dark glasses that have become his hallmark; Mr. Khieu Samphan looking intently, sometimes with his chin in his hands; and Ieng Sary who seemed alternately to listen and doze.
At one point Mr. Ieng Sary attempted to rise from his seat and leave the courtroom but was prevented by a guard, a court spokesman said.
Mr. Ieng Sary has said that he would not participate in the trial, leaving only Mr. Khieu Samphan and Mr. Nuon Chea to address the court, a central hope of many Cambodians who see the trial as a means to try to understand their history.
The two men have already proclaimed their innocence.
"That's a big problem for many of us here and also back at home" said Khy Sovanratana, vice rector of Preah Sihanouk Raja Buddhist University in Phnom Penh. "We want to hear directly from them, especially their words, what they did and why they did it. We're very sad for their silence. We want them to speak out."
In an almost daylong presentation, Ms. Chea Leang, the co-prosecutor, asserted several times that the atrocities she described were part of an "organized and systematic" system with a "high level of integration" that kept the defendants constantly informed of the actions of their subordinates at all levels.
"These crimes were committed in accordance with the Communist Party center," she said. "The accused participated in the giving of these orders or were fully aware of the crimes. They failed to act in their capacity as superiors to prevent the crimes or to punish the perpetrators."
Her statements and those of Mr. Cayley emphasized a key accusation in the case, that the defendants were engaged in a "joint criminal enterprise" in which they had knowledge of and supported the implementation of a common criminal plan.
"None of the accused here ever soiled his hands with blood," Mr. Cayley said, "but all set in motion a series of policies which unleashed an ocean of blood."
The three men are charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide.
Mr. Cayley broke down the allegations into five categories. Among these are the forced evacuation of 2 million residents from Phnom Penh, during which many people died; the enslavement of people in work sites and agricultural cooperatives where many died of overwork, malnutrition and illness; and the use of violence to eliminate perceived enemies through a nationwide network of 200 re-education and security offices such as Tuol Sleng, the main Khmer Rouge prison.
He also said the prosecutors would focus on the targeting of ethnic Cham and Vietnamese and the crushing of the Buddhist religion, which are the bases for the charge of genocide; and the practice of forced marriage, involving rape and the abuse of women.
"These were not unauthorized, random crimes," Ms. Chea Leang said, but involved implementation of official policies. "The Khmer Rouge leadership, which included the three defendants, was kept constantly informed by periodic reports," she said, and were "often directly involved in purges."
