PHNOM PENH, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Pol Pot's sister-in-law told Cambodia's Khmer Rouge "Killing Fields" court on Tuesday she only worked with Chinese experts on humanitarian issues and had no hand in the deaths of the regime's estimated 1.7 million victims.
Ieng Thirith, 76, the ultra-Maoist movement's social minister, is charged with crimes against humanity but said she only oversaw teams rebuilding hospitals destroyed by the years of civil war that preceded the fall of Phnom Penh in 1975.
"I don't know why a good person like me has been accused of such crimes. I have suffered a great deal," she said during a bail hearing at the joint Cambodian-international court, which opened its first case last week against chief torturer Duch.
Duch's trial will resume on March 30, the court said on Tuesday, with at least 40 witnesses expected to testify against the former chief of Phnom Penh's S-21 prison, where an estimated 14,000 people were tortured and killed.
Five senior Khmer Rouge cadres have been charged with various crimes against humanity and could get life sentences if convicted by the court. Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, is the first to be tried by a panel of five Cambodian and international judges. His trial is expected to run until June.
No trial dates have been set for the others. They are "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea, former President Khieu Samphan, ex-foreign minister Ieng Sary and his wife Ieng Thirith. She is almost certain to lose her bail application.
"I have been wrongly accused. We worked very hard at the pharmaceutical factories. There were four factories and we had two Chinese experts helping us," she said.
Ieng Thirith blamed other senior cadres for the 1.7 million people who were executed or died of starvation, disease and overwork from 1975-79.
In particular, she said Nuon Chea -- Pol Pot's right-hand man -- ordered Duch to kill Cambodians who had graduated from universities and colleges in France, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union.
(Reporting by Ek Madra; Editing by Darren Schuettler and Paul Tait)
Ieng Thirith, 76, the ultra-Maoist movement's social minister, is charged with crimes against humanity but said she only oversaw teams rebuilding hospitals destroyed by the years of civil war that preceded the fall of Phnom Penh in 1975.
"I don't know why a good person like me has been accused of such crimes. I have suffered a great deal," she said during a bail hearing at the joint Cambodian-international court, which opened its first case last week against chief torturer Duch.
Duch's trial will resume on March 30, the court said on Tuesday, with at least 40 witnesses expected to testify against the former chief of Phnom Penh's S-21 prison, where an estimated 14,000 people were tortured and killed.
Five senior Khmer Rouge cadres have been charged with various crimes against humanity and could get life sentences if convicted by the court. Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, is the first to be tried by a panel of five Cambodian and international judges. His trial is expected to run until June.
No trial dates have been set for the others. They are "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea, former President Khieu Samphan, ex-foreign minister Ieng Sary and his wife Ieng Thirith. She is almost certain to lose her bail application.
"I have been wrongly accused. We worked very hard at the pharmaceutical factories. There were four factories and we had two Chinese experts helping us," she said.
Ieng Thirith blamed other senior cadres for the 1.7 million people who were executed or died of starvation, disease and overwork from 1975-79.
In particular, she said Nuon Chea -- Pol Pot's right-hand man -- ordered Duch to kill Cambodians who had graduated from universities and colleges in France, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union.
(Reporting by Ek Madra; Editing by Darren Schuettler and Paul Tait)
2 comments:
If you voted for CPP (Cambodian People's Party):
Also known as:
Communist People's Party
Khmer Rouge People's Party
Khmer Krorhorm People's Party
You're support the killing of 1.7 million Khmer peoples.
You're support the killing of innocent men, women and children in Cambodia on March 30, 1997.
You're support murder of Piseth Pilika.
You're support assassination of journalists in Cambodia.
You're support political assassination and killing.
You're support attemted assassination and murder of leader of the free trade union in Cambodia.
You're support corruption in Cambodia.
You're support Hun Sen Regime burn poor people's house down to the ground and leave them homeless.
These are the Trade Mark of Hun Sen Regime.
Hun Sen, Chea Sim and Heng Samrin are Khmer Rouge commanders.
When is the ECCC going to bring these three criminals to U.N. Khmer Rouge Trail?
Khmer Rouge Regime is a genocide organization.
Hun Sen Regime is a terrorist organization.
Hun Sen Bodyguards is a terrorist organization.
Hun Sen Death Squad is a terrorist organization.
Cambodian People's Party is a terrorist organization.
I have declare the current Cambodian government which is lead by the Cambodian People's Party as a terrorist organization.
Whoever do business with the current Cambodian government are associate with a terrorist organization.
deny all they want. the court must make them understand that when they were in the position of leadership, of responsibility in that gov't that conduct those kind of policy upon khmer people and the entire country of cambodia, they are to be held responsible for whatever happened under their stupid, stone age rules. they must understand that, even they did not directly killed the khmer people and ruined or damaged the entire country of cambodia, they are held responsible based on their influential policy, and it was their stupid fault for being blinded to what's going on then. the court should not take this case lightly as there are overwhelming evidence to rule against them e.g. the thousands of mass graves that scattered all across cambodia, the death of millions and milliions of people due to their crazy, fanatical, radical, stupid, to say the least, of their stupid backward vision, policy, etc... that encouraged the killing and injustice for khmer people back then. these criminals should be condemned to the seven circles of hells whatever she's talking about! let them die with remorse and shame for what they've done to cambodia!
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