Khmer Rouge’s Chea Charged With War Crimes
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Nuon Chea, the most senior surviving leader of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge movement, was arrested yesterday and charged for involvement in the deaths of more than a million Cambodians in the 1970s.
A United Nations-backed court charged him with crimes against humanity and war crimes, Helen Jarvis, the court’s chief of public affairs, said by telephone yesterday from the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh. The court, known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, also issued an order for provisional detention.
The Khmer Rouge, which ruled from 1975 until the regime was overthrown in 1979, drove people out of Cambodia’s cities to work at forced-labor collective farms as it attempted to impose a communist agrarian state. An estimated 1.7 million people died during its years in power.
Nuon Chea told Agence France-Presse in an interview in July he wasn’t involved in the killings. “I am ready to explain myself to the court when it summons me,” he said.
He was questioned by police and court officials yesterday at his home near Pailin in northwestern Cambodia and flown by helicopter to the capital, AFP reported, citing its correspondent.
“He was shaking. His legs looked like they would collapse,” said Sok Sothera, one of hundreds of villagers who watched Nuon Chea being led away, according to AFP.
The Associated Press gave his age as 82.
The U.N. court had its inaugural session in June and issued its first charges in July, accusing the movement’s former prison chief, Kang Kek Ieu, known as Duch, of crimes against humanity.
Between five and 10 surviving Khmer Rouge leaders may be brought to trial in proceedings beginning next year.
Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge leader, died in his jungle hideout in 1998. Seven officials still living were named in 2003 by the Washington-based Coalition for International Justice as the main leaders who should stand trial. They include a former foreign minister, Ieng Sary, a former head of state, Khieu Samphan, and Nuon Chea, who, according to AFP, has lived freely since surrendering to the government in 1998.
Ta Mok, the movement’s military chief, died in July 2006. He was detained in a military prison after his capture in 1999.
