Jared Ferrie
PHNOM PENH
Mon Dec 21, 2009 7:15am EST
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - A U.N.-backed Cambodian war crimes court on Monday
charged a fourth top Khmer Rouge cadre with genocide, broadening the scope
of a long-awaited trial of the ultra-communist "Killing Fields" regime's top
ranks.
Ieng Thirith, 78, had already been accused of "murder, imprisonment and
other inhumane acts" for her role as social affairs minister in a regime
blamed for the deaths of 1.7 million people.
The new charges relate to the slaughter of Cambodia's ethnic Vietnamese and
Cham Muslim minorities during the 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge era. The tribunal on
Monday also charged her with torture and religious persecution.
Ieng Thirith, a former Shakespeare scholar known as the "Khmer Rouge First
Lady", was arrested in November 2007 with her 85-year-old husband and
ex-foreign minister Ieng Sary.
The French-educated Communist revolutionaries had lived under a government
amnesty granted to Ieng Sary in 1996.
They were the closest associates of Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge leader who died
in 1998. Ieng Thirith's sister, Khieu Ponnary, was married to Pol Pot.
The Khmer Rouge-era president, Khieu Samphan, was dealt an additional charge
of genocide on Friday. Similar charges of genocide were also issued for
"Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea and Ieng Sary last week.
They have also been charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity,
along with two other former leaders.
Experts on the Khmer Rouge have been critical of the additional charges,
which they said would bog down a trial already criticized for taking too
long.
Many of the defendants were in poor health and could die before they see a
courtroom, while some cases were already so complex and politicized that
they may not even go to trial, the experts said.
The first trial of a senior Khmer Rouge cadre, Kaing Guek Eav, better known
as Duch, came to an end three weeks ago. He was accused of overseeing the
torture and murder of more than 14,000 people as head of the notorious Tuol
Sleng prison.
A verdict in that case is expected by March.
(Writing by Jason Szep; Editing by Martin Petty)
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About Me
- Duong Dara
- Dara Duong was born in 1971 in Battambang province, Cambodia. His life changed forever at age four, when the Khmer Rouge took over the country in 1975. During the regime that controlled Cambodia from 1975-1979, Dara’s father, grandparents, uncle and aunt were executed, along with almost 3 million other Cambodians. Dara’s mother managed to keep him and his brothers and sisters together and survive the years of the Khmer Rouge regime. However, when the Vietnamese liberated Cambodia, she did not want to live under Communist rule. She fled with her family to a refugee camp on the Cambodian-Thai border, where they lived for more than ten years. Since arriving in the United States, Dara’s goal has been to educate people about the rich Cambodian culture that the Khmer Rouge tried to destroy and about the genocide, so that the world will not stand by and allow such atrocities to occur again. Toward that end, he has created the Cambodian Cultural Museum and Killing Fields Memorial, which began in his garage and is now in White Center, Washington. Dara’s story is one of survival against enormous odds, one of perseverance, one of courage and hope.
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