Cambodian former Khmer Rouge
leaders found guilty of genocide
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| Former Khmer Rouge leaders found guilty of genocide.- ANSA |
A United Nations-backed tribunal has found two leaders of
Cambodia’s former Khmer Rouge regime, guilty of genocide.
By Seàn-Patrick Lovett
Nearly two million men, women and children, died at the
hands of the Khmer Rouge regime during its brief but barbaric rule of Cambodia
at the end of the 1970’s.
A horrific regime
The Khmer Rouge was a radical Maoist led movement that
targeted mostly Cham Muslims and ethnic Vietnamese for mass execution. The
horrors of the regime were graphically depicted in the 1984 award-winning
movie, “The Killing Fields”.
This week’s guilty verdict is the first official ruling by
an international tribunal that recognizes these crimes as “genocide”. According
to international law, genocide includes the "intent to destroy, in whole
or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group".
In order to move on
The two men are Nuon Chea, deputy of infamous Khmer Rouge
leader, Pol Pot, and Khieu Samphan, who was Cambodia’s head of state at the
time.
They are, respectively, 92 and 87 years of age. Both have
been found guilty of crimes against humanity, murder, enslavement, and torture.
They are already serving life sentences for all of the
above, and are two of only three people convicted by the tribunal which was
first convened in 2006.
The verdict is important because it is likely to be the last
conviction of its kind. Cambodians say they want to move on and that it’s time
to shed their country’s image as “The Killing Fields”.
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