Court lists charges for next phase of Khmer Rouge trial
Cambodia's UN-backed Khmer Rouge court on Monday listed charges in the next trial of two former regime leaders, including the genocide of Vietnamese people and ethnic Muslims, forced marriages and rape. The complex case of the regime's two most senior surviving leaders has been split into a series of smaller trials, initially focusing on the forced evacuation of people into rural labour camps and related charges of crimes against humanity. The first trial against "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea, 87, and former head of state Khieu Samphan, 82, was completed late last year. Verdicts are due in the first half of this year. The court said in a statement that their next trial, for which a date has yet to be set, would cover charges including genocide over the slaughter of Vietnamese people and ethnic Cham Muslims as well as forced marriages and rape. It said other charges relate to crimes at Khmer Rouge labour camps and at four prisons, including the notorious Tuol Sleng known as S-21. The next trial would focus on crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide charges, according to court spokesman Lars Olsen. "The parties will now be invited to file witness, expert and civil party lists, as well as a list of evidentiary documents," the court statement said, adding a trial date would then be set. Estimates for the number of Chams who died under the Khmer Rouge range from 100,000 to 400,000, but it is not known how many Vietnamese were killed, according to Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia which researches the regime's crimes. Experts say the Khmer Rouge also forced tens of thousands of men and women to marry, often in mass ceremonies, as part of leader Pol Pot's plan to boost the population. The trial will provide the first forum for these husbands and wives to seek justice. Prosecutors are demanding life imprisonment for Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan for atrocities during the "Killing Fields" era, which left up to two million people dead between 1975-79. In the court's historic debut trial in 2010 it sentenced former S-21 prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, to 30 years in prison -- later increased to life on appeal -- for overseeing the deaths of 15,000 people.
