By Sopheng Cheang Associated Press PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Ieng Thirith, a Khmer Rouge leader who was the highest-ranking woman in the genocidal regime that oversaw the death of nearly 2 million Cambodians in the late 1970s, died Aug. 22, her family and U.N. officials said. She was 83 years old. Ieng Thirith was […]
1st Cambodia genocide trial aims to expose crimes
By Sopheng Cheang Associated Press PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP)—The first trial on charges of genocide against Cambodia’s brutal 1970s Khmer Rouge regime opened Friday with a prosecutor saying it will show that Cambodians were enslaved in inhumane conditions that led to the deaths of 1.7 million people from starvation, disease, and execution.
Life terms sought for Khmer two
By Justine Drennan and Sopheng Cheang The Associated Press PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Prosecutors at Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge tribunal requested life imprisonment for two of the regime’s surviving leaders, issuing an emotional appeal for justice for the millions who died or suffered through the group’s reign of terror nearly 40 years ago.
Ex-leader in court says Khmer Rouge not ‘bad people,’ blames Vietnam
By Sopheng Cheang The Associated Press PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — A former leader of Cambodia’s brutal Khmer Rouge regime told a court that he and his comrades were not “bad people,” denying responsibility last Monday, Dec. 5, for the deaths of 1.7 million people during their 1970s rule and blaming Vietnam for any atrocities.
‘Killing fields’ victims await Khmer Rouge trial
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) _ Survivors of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge regime held a remembrance ceremony in an infamous “killing field” Sunday, a day before a U.N.-backed tribunal begins a trial for three of the accused architects of some of the 20th century’s worst atrocities. Relatives of the victims wept as they chanted and burned incense […]
Khmer Rouge torturer recounts baby-killing policy
By Sopheng Cheang The Associated Press PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Khmer Rouge guards killed babies by battering them against trees under an official policy to ensure the children of the brutal Cambodian regime’s victims could never take revenge for their parents’ deaths, the group’s chief jailer testified on Monday, June 8.