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THE first genocide case against Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge regime began today in a UN-backed tribunal.
The 1970s dictatorship’s head of state Khieu Samphan and premier Nuon Chea, who was known as “Brother Number Two” as right-hand man to Pol Pot, received life sentences in August for crimes against humanity, related to the forced movement of millions to the countryside.
The new trial will address additional crimes against humanity, including genocide — the Khmer Rouge are believed to have killed 1.7 million Cambodians before being overthrown by socialist Vietnam — rape and forced marriages.
The genocide charges specifically refer to ethnic cleansing of the country’s Cham and Vietnamese ethnic minorities.
Documentation Centre of Cambodia head Youk Chhang said: “We want justice, and this justice is not even for us who have survived the genocide but for our children and many generations.
“This justice would help to prevent genocide from happening again here and elsewhere.”