War crimes court rules Khmer Rouge’s slaughter in Cambodia as 'genocide'; sentences two former leaders to life imprisonment

A UN-backed war crimes court on Friday said that Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge regime committed “genocide” during its reign of terror from 1975-1979 in a historic ruling and sentenced two former leaders to life imprisonment. “The chamber… finds that the crimes of genocide… were committed” against ethnic Vietnamese and Cham Muslims, presiding judge Nil Nonn said. This is the first time the court has issued such a ruling. Nuon Chea, 92, and Khieu Samphan, 87, the last surviving senior leaders of the communist group that brutally ruled Cambodia in the late 1970s, have been sentenced to life imprisonment. The tribunal convicted Samphan under the joint criminal enterprise rule of the genocide law. It found Chea guilty of genocide based on the principle of command responsibility. They are already serving life sentences after being convicted in a previous 2011-2014 trial of crimes against humanity connected with forced transfers and disappearances of masses of people. [caption id=“attachment_5560851” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Nuon Chea, who was the Khmer Rouge’s chief ideologist and No. 2 leader, sits in a courtroom before a hearing. AP[/caption] The Khmer Rouge sought to achieve an agrarian utopia by emptying the cities to establish vast rural communes. Instead, their radical policies led to what has been termed ‘auto-genocide’ through starvation, overwork, and execution. Chea was brought by ambulance and Samphan by van from the nearby prison where they are held. The prison and the courthouse were custom built for the use of the tribunal, which is officially called the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, or ECCC. Chea and Samphan were being judged on charges of crimes against humanity, such as murder, extermination, enslavement, torture and persecution on political, racial, and religious grounds; genocide, for the killings of members of the Vietnamese and Cham ethnic groups; and more breaches of the Geneva Conventions, including willful killing, torture, or inhumane treatment. The large crowd of spectators attending Friday’s session included members of the Cham, a Muslim ethnic minority. Lah Sath, a 72-year-old Cham man from eastern Kampong Cham province, brought his wife and four young granddaughters to Friday’s session. He said he often heard people talking about the trial and sometimes watched it on TV, but decided it was time to see it with his own eyes. Just talking about the Khmer Rouge brought back horrible memories of life under their rule in 1975-79, he said. The Cham were treated as enemies and exploited without mercy as they were forced to do intensive farm labour, he recalled. Lah Sath said his younger brother was killed by Khmer Rouge for failing to take good care of a cow. In addition to Chea and Samphan, the tribunal has carried out one other prosecution, resulting in the 2010 conviction of Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, who as head of the Khmer Rouge prison system ran the infamous Tuol Sleng torture centre in Phnom Penh. There are fears that politics will thwart the tribunal from undertaking any further prosecutions. Cambodia’s long-serving, autocratic Prime Minister Hun Sen has declared he will allow no further case to go forward, claiming they would cause instability. Sen was a Khmer Rouge commander who defected when the group was in power and was installed in government after the Khmer Rouge were ousted from power by a Vietnamese invasion. Initial work had been done on two more cases involving four middle-ranking members of the Khmer Rouge, but they have been scuttled or bottled up by the tribunal, which is a hybrid court in which Cambodian prosecutors and judges are paired with international counterparts. The failure to have more extensive proceeding has discomfited some observers, but others point to the tribunal’s accomplishments. “International tribunals are better than the alternative, impunity. They will always be political and fall short of expectations,” said Alexander Hinton, an anthropology professor at Rutgers University and author of two books about the tribunal. “But justice is usually delivered, even if at times, as has been the case with the ECCC, it staggers across the finish line.” With inputs from agencies