PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- The U.N.-backed tribunal for the Khmer Rouge announced four surviving members of the former regime were charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The Extraordinary Chamber in the Courts of Cambodia announced Thursday that Khmer Rouge acting Prime Minister Nuon Chea, Deputy Prime Minister Ieng Sary, Social Affairs Minister Leng Thirith and Khieu Samphan, the head of state, were indicted on war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide.
The U.N.-backed chamber said an estimated 1.7 million to 2.2 million people died under the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia from 1975-79. Roughly 800,000 of those deaths were considered "violent," the chamber said.
The court said it focused on forced displacements, the regulation of marriage, crimes perpetrated against certain ethnic and religious communities, so-called killing fields and the "re-education of 'bad elements' and the elimination of 'enemies' in security centers and execution sites".
Kaing Guek Eav, a 67-year-old math teacher, Christian convert and Khmer Rouge prison chief, was convicted in July of crimes against humanity committed during the Khmer Rouge reign.
UPI
