Khmer Rouge “Brother No. 2” under house arrest
CAMBODIA: The most senior surviving leader of the Khmer Rouge,
“Brother Number Two” Nuon Chea, was placed under house arrest on
Wednesday and was expected to be moved to Phnom Penh shortly, his son
and officials said.
“Special forces, including police and military, came to surround my
father’s house early this morning,” Nuon Say, the son of Pol Pot’s
right-hand-man, told Reuters.
About 15 police officers, including a western security guard working
for the United Nations-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal, blocked the path
leading to his home in forests along the border with Thailand, Noun Say
said.
A helicopter landed near the village ready to take into custody the
surviving Khmer Rouge leader believed to be most responsible for the
atrocities of the “Killing Fields”, in which an estimated 1.7 million
people died.
“My dad told me last night that he would be sent to Phnom Penh
today,” Nuon Say said. “I was not allowed to give breakfast to my dad. I
had to send it through the police officer guarding the front of the
house.”
The $56 million Cambodian-U.N. tribunal charged chief Khmer Rouge
inquisitor Duch with crimes against humanity in July, the first formal
indictment of any of the top leaders of the ultra-Maoist guerrillas who
overran the capital in 1975.
Their “Year Zero” revolution was meant to transform the heavily
forested Southeast Asian nation into an agrarian peasant utopia. Instead
it descended into the nightmare of the “Killing Fields”, one of the
darkest chapters of the 20th century.
The Beijing-backed regime was toppled by invading Vietnamese troops
in 1979 and Pol Pot died in the last Khmer Rouge redoubt of Anlong Veng
in 1998.
Prosecutors have launched formal cases against four top leaders
besides Duch, but have not named them.
They are widely believed to be former President Khieu Samphan — now
Nuon Chea’s next-door neighour — former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary and
Meas Muth, a son-in-law of military chief Ta Mok who died last year.
Pailin, Wednesday, Reuters |
