'Brother Number Two’ Nuon Chea, 87, and ex-head of state Khieu Samphan, 82, are accused of playing a critical role in the communist regime which wiped out a quarter of the population in the late 1970s.
‘Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan killed for power. They spilt blood for it. They brutalised and dehumanised their own people and kept spilling blood for power,’ prosecutor William Smith said in closing statements at Cambodia’s UN-backed war crimes court.
But he said the two leaders ordered others to do ‘their very dirty work’ for them.
‘Seeing your victim’s eyes makes it hard to kill,’ Smith said. ‘If you look close enough you see your own humanity in their eyes. Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan chose not to see the eyes of their victims. They chose not to see their own humanity.’ More than three decades after the country’s ‘Killing Fields’ era, the UN-backed court is moving closer to a verdict in their complex case, which has been split into a series of smaller trials. The first trial has focused on the forced evacuation of people into rural labour camps and the related charges of crimes against humanity.
The evacuation of Phnom Penh in April 1975 was one of the largest forced migrations in modern history.
‘Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan killed for power. They spilt blood for it. They brutalised and dehumanised their own people and kept spilling blood for power,’ prosecutor William Smith said in closing statements at Cambodia’s UN-backed war crimes court.
But he said the two leaders ordered others to do ‘their very dirty work’ for them.
‘Seeing your victim’s eyes makes it hard to kill,’ Smith said. ‘If you look close enough you see your own humanity in their eyes. Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan chose not to see the eyes of their victims. They chose not to see their own humanity.’ More than three decades after the country’s ‘Killing Fields’ era, the UN-backed court is moving closer to a verdict in their complex case, which has been split into a series of smaller trials. The first trial has focused on the forced evacuation of people into rural labour camps and the related charges of crimes against humanity.
The evacuation of Phnom Penh in April 1975 was one of the largest forced migrations in modern history.