To millioner døde – men det var aldrig Pol Pots og hans håndgangne mænds skyld
Pol Pot’s deputy has told a court the Khmer Rouge were not “bad people”, blaming deaths of Cambodians under the Maoist regime on neighbouring Vietnam, BBC online reports Monday.
Nuon Chea made the comments at his genocide trial at a UN-backed court in Phnom Penh. It is the first time he has faced questioning over his role in the regime’s four-year rule, which left as many as two million Cambodians dead.
His trial began last month – only the second at the court. Nuon Chea is being tried alongside Khieu Samphan, the Khmer Rouge’s former head of state, and Ieng Sary, its former foreign minister. All three deny the charges.
– I do not want the next generations to misunderstand the history, Nuon Chea told the court, adding: – I do not want them to misunderstand that the Khmer Rouge are bad people, are criminals. Nothing is true about that.
The 85-year-old said he had devoted himself to serving his country, and said killings under the regime were carried out by rogue elements and the Vietnamese.
The UN-backed court’s first case was the trial of Duch, the former Khmer Rouge prison chief who oversaw the torture and execution of thousands of inmates at Tuol Sleng prison. He was convicted of crimes against humanity last year.
Khmer Rouge is the Maoist regime that ruled Cambodia from 1975-79, led by Saloth Sar, better known as Pol Pot.
The movement abolished religion, schools and currency in effort to create an agrarian utopia. Pol Pot fled and remained free until 1997 – he died a year later.
