Khieu Samphan, detained in November,denies repsonsibility (Photo: Reuters)Khieu Samphan, the former Khmer Rouge head of state, was charged with genocide by a UN court today but has always denied having a prominent role in the regime, saying he was kept out of Pol Pot's inner circle.
18 Dec 2009
Profile by an AFP writer in Phnom Penh
The 78 year-old had already been charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity as a member of the central committee of the regime that oversaw the deaths of up to two million people by starvation, overwork, torture and execution.
Khieu Samphan has never denied the bloodletting suffered under the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979, but the former head of state of Cambodia's radical Communist government has also never admitted to a role in the regime's brutal excesses.
Instead, he has styled himself as an intellectual and nationalist who claims he knew little, until long afterwards, of the devastation that was wrought during the Khmer Rouge's nearly four years in power.
"To the compatriots who lost loved ones during this period ... I ask them to excuse my naivete," he wrote in his 2004 memoir Cambodia's Recent History and the Reasons Behind the Decisions I Made.
"I thought I was carrying out my duty for my nation's survival and prosperity. I did not imagine it would lead to such killing," he wrote in the book, which was published as momentum built for genocide trials.
Like most Khmer Rouge leaders at the height of the regime's power, Khieu Samphan was a shadowy figure, his identity cloaked by the secrecy of the movement's inner circles.
But as the Khmer Rouge struggled for power in the civil war that followed their 1979 ousting, he became the public face of the movement as it sought, and was to some extent granted, international credibility.
Born in 1931 in Cambodia's south-eastern Svay Rieng province, Khieu Samphan was highly educated, graduating from high school and university in France.
There he rose to prominence in leftist circles and became a Cambodian student leader.
In late 1966 he served as Cambodia's secretary of commerce, a post he kept for nine months before he fled to the jungle in April 1967 and joined the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) - the Khmer Rouge.
The party eventually seized the country in 1975 and during the regime years Khieu Samphan was appointed head of state as well as to more powerful positions within the party and government.
It was in these roles that genocide researchers say he would have had to have been aware as one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century unfolded.
"Available documentation points to Samphan's knowledge of... atrocities and suggests that he personally contributed to those crimes by making public statements supporting the underlying policies," researchers Stephen Heder and Brian Tittemore write in their book Seven Candidates for Prosecution.
"He publicly endorsed taking measures against the enemies of the revolution in a way that suggests knowledge and support of the policy of executing purported enemy agents."
18 Dec 2009
Profile by an AFP writer in Phnom Penh
The 78 year-old had already been charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity as a member of the central committee of the regime that oversaw the deaths of up to two million people by starvation, overwork, torture and execution.
Khieu Samphan has never denied the bloodletting suffered under the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979, but the former head of state of Cambodia's radical Communist government has also never admitted to a role in the regime's brutal excesses.
Instead, he has styled himself as an intellectual and nationalist who claims he knew little, until long afterwards, of the devastation that was wrought during the Khmer Rouge's nearly four years in power.
"To the compatriots who lost loved ones during this period ... I ask them to excuse my naivete," he wrote in his 2004 memoir Cambodia's Recent History and the Reasons Behind the Decisions I Made.
"I thought I was carrying out my duty for my nation's survival and prosperity. I did not imagine it would lead to such killing," he wrote in the book, which was published as momentum built for genocide trials.
Like most Khmer Rouge leaders at the height of the regime's power, Khieu Samphan was a shadowy figure, his identity cloaked by the secrecy of the movement's inner circles.
But as the Khmer Rouge struggled for power in the civil war that followed their 1979 ousting, he became the public face of the movement as it sought, and was to some extent granted, international credibility.
Born in 1931 in Cambodia's south-eastern Svay Rieng province, Khieu Samphan was highly educated, graduating from high school and university in France.
There he rose to prominence in leftist circles and became a Cambodian student leader.
In late 1966 he served as Cambodia's secretary of commerce, a post he kept for nine months before he fled to the jungle in April 1967 and joined the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) - the Khmer Rouge.
The party eventually seized the country in 1975 and during the regime years Khieu Samphan was appointed head of state as well as to more powerful positions within the party and government.
It was in these roles that genocide researchers say he would have had to have been aware as one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century unfolded.
"Available documentation points to Samphan's knowledge of... atrocities and suggests that he personally contributed to those crimes by making public statements supporting the underlying policies," researchers Stephen Heder and Brian Tittemore write in their book Seven Candidates for Prosecution.
"He publicly endorsed taking measures against the enemies of the revolution in a way that suggests knowledge and support of the policy of executing purported enemy agents."
3 comments:
what an Evil Face you can tell! hang him!
People interested in testifying and groups with survivors who would like to become involved can contact ASRIC via e-mail at asric.apa@nyu.edu or by calling Nou at 562-985-7439.
Khiev Samphan, after 1975 war, you ordered your subordinates to kill Khmers. Those killed Khmers come to haunt you now.
Poor idiot, educated and listen to crazy man like Pol Pot.
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