Key Khmer Rouge figures charged

PHNOM PENH – Ieng Sary and his wife, both taken into custody yesterday by Cambodia’s genocide tribunal, were part of the Khmer Rouge inner circle, rising to power alongside its notorious leader, Pol Pot.

But in the 1990s, when the Khmer Rouge were guerrillas in the countryside, the couple defected with a large coterie of followers, effectively setting the stage for the group’s collapse by the end of the decade. Their change of heart earned them a limited amnesty but left open the question of how much responsibility they bore for the atrocities the Khmer Rouge regime committed in the late 1970s, when 1,7 million Cambodians died of starvation, disease, overwork and execution.As deputy prime minister and foreign minister of the regime, Ieng Sary was one of a few key decision makers in the group’s policy-making central committee.Ieng Thirith, who was Pol Pot’s sister-in-law, served as social affairs minister.Ieng Sary has long been accused of personally persuading several diplomats and intellectuals based overseas to return to Cambodia to join the revolution after the Khmer Rouge overthrew a pro-American government in 1975.The returnees were arrested and put in re-education camps, and most were later executed.Ieng Thirith’s participation included the ‘planning, direction, coordination and ordering of widespread purges …and the unlawful killing or murder of staff members from within the Ministry of Social Affairs’, according to prosecution documents obtained by The Associated Press.Ieng Sary, born as Kim Trang on January 1 1930 – the date is sometimes disputed – received a government scholarship in the 1950s to study in France.There he married Ieng Thirith, a fellow student who went on to become one of Cambodia’s first prominent female academics.In Europe the couple were active in Marxist politics and when they returned home in 1957 became involved in clandestine communist activities.The two fled into the jungles in 1965 to join the then fledgling Khmer Rouge.While Pol Pot was known as ‘Brother No.1’, and Nuon Chea, the movement’s chief ideologist – arrested in September – was ‘Brother No.2’, Ieng Sary was ‘Brother No.3’.Yet Ieng Sary has long denied any responsibility for the Khmer Rouge atrocities.At a press conference following his defection to the government in 1996, he said Pol Pot ‘was the sole and supreme architect of the party’s line, strategy and tactics’.”Nuon Chea implemented all Pol Pot’s decisions to torture and execute those who expressed opposite opinions and those they hated, like intellectuals,” Ieng Sary claimed.”Do I have remorse? No,” said Ieng Sary.”I have no regrets because this was not my responsibility.”Cambodian newspapers recently questioned the state of Ieng Thirith’s mental health, reporting that she showed signs of dementia – a condition that could ensure she is considered unfit to stand trial.Nampa-APTheir change of heart earned them a limited amnesty but left open the question of how much responsibility they bore for the atrocities the Khmer Rouge regime committed in the late 1970s, when 1,7 million Cambodians died of starvation, disease, overwork and execution.As deputy prime minister and foreign minister of the regime, Ieng Sary was one of a few key decision makers in the group’s policy-making central committee.Ieng Thirith, who was Pol Pot’s sister-in-law, served as social affairs minister.Ieng Sary has long been accused of personally persuading several diplomats and intellectuals based overseas to return to Cambodia to join the revolution after the Khmer Rouge overthrew a pro-American government in 1975.The returnees were arrested and put in re-education camps, and most were later executed.Ieng Thirith’s participation included the ‘planning, direction, coordination and ordering of widespread purges …and the unlawful killing or murder of staff members from within the Ministry of Social Affairs’, according to prosecution documents obtained by The Associated Press.Ieng Sary, born as Kim Trang on January 1 1930 – the date is sometimes disputed – received a government scholarship in the 1950s to study in France.There he married Ieng Thirith, a fellow student who went on to become one of Cambodia’s first prominent female academics.In Europe the couple were active in Marxist politics and when they returned home in 1957 became involved in clandestine communist activities.The two fled into the jungles in 1965 to join the then fledgling Khmer Rouge.While Pol Pot was known as ‘Brother No.1’, and Nuon Chea, the movement’s chief ideologist – arrested in September – was ‘Brother No.2’, Ieng Sary was ‘Brother No.3’.Yet Ieng Sary has long denied any responsibility for the Khmer Rouge atrocities.At a press conference following his defection to the government in 1996, he said Pol Pot ‘was the sole and supreme architect of the party’s line, strategy and tactics’.”Nuon Chea implemented all Pol Pot’s decisions to torture and execute those who expressed opposite opinions and those they hated, like intellectuals,” Ieng Sary claimed.”Do I have remorse? No,” said Ieng Sary.”I have no regrets because this was not my responsibility.”Cambodian newspapers recently questioned the state of Ieng Thirith’s mental health, reporting that she showed signs of dementia – a condition that could ensure she is considered unfit to stand trial.Nampa-AP