Khmer Rouge case goes forward

08/16/2010
Greg Mellen, Staff Writer
Long Beach Press Telegram (California, USA)

The second stage of the Khmer Rouge war crimes tribunal hit an important milestone Monday as prosecutors made their final request to the court of the charges they seek against four defendants.

The final indictments, supported by 931 pages of summary, allow the trial to move to its next stage.

In the request, prosecutors ask that Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Khieu Samphan and Ieng Thirith be indicted and sent for trial for the crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and violations of the 1956 Cambodian Penal Code.

Among the filing are applications and victim complaints, some of which were filled out in Long Beach through the efforts of Cal State Long Beach assistant professor Leakhena Nou and her nonprofit group, Applied Social Research Institute of Cambodia, and other nonprofits.

It remains to be seen whether any of the complainants registered in the U.S. will be called to testify once testimony begins.

Prosecutors say the defendants were part of a joint criminal enterprise to enforce a political revolution in Cambodia and systematically destroy opposition. And through the enterprise, the Cambodian population was enslaved and deprived of fundamental human rights and freedoms and were victims of mass killings.