Cambodia: Pol Pot's Deputy To Face Trial
The most senior surviving member of the genocidal Khmer Rouge leadership has been arrested at his home in rural Cambodia, close to the Thai border. By Simon Roughneen in Dili
He was Pol Pot's right-hand man during the 1975-1979 reign of terror imposed by the Khmer Rouge, during which almost 2 million people perished due to starvation, disease, enslavement, or execution by the Maoists, in the name of utopian agrarian reforms, of which Chea was a central architect. Formal education, property rights, religious profession and currency were all abolished, as the Khmer Rouge sought to turn the country into a large-scale collective farm cum labour camp, before being overthrown by an invading Vietnamese army in 1979. The number of people killed due the relentless brutality under the Khmer Rouge amounted to almost 20 per cent of the population of Cambodia.
As Chea was led to the helicopter deployed to fly him to Phnom Penh to face trial, a neighbour told Agence-France Press that “he was shaking, he looked like his legs would collapse”. A penchant for Gucci sunglasses aside, the aging Chea lived austerely in a wooden jungle house in recent years.
Nuon Chea with other Khmer Rouges while waiting for a delegation
Photo by Document Center of Cambodia
Four others are under investigation by the Tribunal. While these names have not been released, it is believed that former President Khieu Samphan, a neighbour of Chea's in the Thai borderland, is on the list.
Current Cambodian Prime Minster Hun Sen is a former Khmer Rouge member, as are many of his government colleagues. The tribunal took 9 years to establish, apparently because the government sought to ensure the virtual immunity of many senior officials who were mid or low-ranking members of the Khmer Rouge.
The tribunal, properly known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), is a mixed Cambodian-UN entity. Only those "most responsible for serious crimes" will be tried – likely to be fewer than 10 and guilty verdicts require a national-international ‘super-majority' of 4 out of 5 judges – 3 Cambodian and 2 international. The hybrid national-international nature of the tribunal and the focus on those most responsible is redolent of other initiatives, such as the Special Court for Sierra Leone.
However while the west African tribunal has netted big fish such as Liberia's former warlord President Charles Taylor, the Cambodian ECCC has been further jeopardised by Cambodian government disbandment threats, as the officials believe any ECCC attempt to have Cambodia's retired King Sihanouk testify would amount to discrediting the monarchy. The former King has immunity from prosecution under the Cambodian constitution.
But now it seems the UN-backed tribunal is slipping into gear, and for Cambodians, the sight of Brother Number 2 being led away to stand trial will doubtless represent a cathartic moment.