Khmer Rouge "Brother No. 2" To Face Trial

Brian Doherty | September 20, 2007

From Reuters:

Khmer Rouge "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea, Pol Pot's top surviving henchman, was arrested on Wednesday at his house on the Thai border and taken to Phnom Penh to face the U.N. "Killing Fields" tribunal for the first time.

A terse, two-sentence statement by the $56 million court said the octogenarian communist guerrilla would "be informed of the charges which have been brought against him" -- in all likelihood genocide or crimes against humanity.

..........

Nuon Chea is accused of being the surviving Khmer Rouge commander most responsible for the atrocities of the "Killing Fields," in which an estimated 1.7 million people died.

In July, the long-awaited tribunal charged chief Khmer Rouge inquisitor Duch with crimes against humanity, the first formal indictment of any of the top cadres of the 1975 "Year Zero" revolution.

An article by me from last month on the endurance of the pop culture the Khmer Rouge tried to destroy.

A Yale University site examining Cambodian communist crimes.

Comments

Charles|9.20.07 @ 11:24AM|#

I'm glad to see justice served, but aren't they rushing things a bit? Cooler heads, gentlemen. Cooler heads.

|9.20.07 @ 11:30AM|#

Good work, UN!
Now if they could only get Pauly Shore...

|9.20.07 @ 11:34AM|#

Well, the crimes of the Khmer Rouge were horrible, but at least they provided free health care, something U.S. has yet to do.

|9.20.07 @ 11:37AM|#

I agree with Charles. Holding some 80 year old's feet to the fire doesn't do much to assuage my sense of, just about anything.

Which makes me think. How quickly do we have to act to let justice be done in any meaningful way. Especially since even when we do act in a timely fashion, the process is so corrupt as to actually demean the righteousness of bringing the bastard down (Saddam, Noriega e.g.)

No doubt, it's better to keep tyrants out of power than to try to clean up after them. How to do that? I say it all boils down to property rights.

|9.20.07 @ 12:09PM|#

Since this genocide never happened, Nuon Chea has little to worry about?

|9.20.07 @ 12:10PM|#

No, Kurt, they didn't.

The Khmer Rouge executed doctors as enemies of the people.

|9.20.07 @ 12:24PM|#

According to WIKIPEDIA, the Khymer Rouge was finally defeated by the Vietnamese in 1979,(after they beat us). So, the feared dominoes did fall but........looks like it wasn't such a bad thing in this case.

|9.20.07 @ 12:28PM|#

And they came to power after we'd undermined the previous Cambodian government and killed a couple hundred thousand Cambodians with aerial bomging.

But remember, the only thing we did to influence politics in Cambodia was to leave Vietnam.

|9.20.07 @ 12:32PM|#

Wait, how can Yale University document crimes of the Khmer Rouge? Isn't Yale part of the liberal academic establishment, full of left wing moonbats who love communism?

VM|9.20.07 @ 12:37PM|#

*fails to think of a "Pol Pot calling Nuon red" joke. punishes self severely by listening to 8 track of Mr. Steven Crane singing "MacArthur Park"*

|9.20.07 @ 12:39PM|#

The Khmer Rouge executed doctors as enemies of the people.

That is what was so good about it. It was fair. Everyone had the same access to the same amount of care for free.

|9.20.07 @ 12:41PM|#

Harder, Kurt! Backpedal harder!

robc|9.20.07 @ 12:45PM|#

joe,

actually, from a logically standpoint, executing doctors says nothing one way or another about whether they provided health care. It does tell us a lot though about the quality of health care that may or may not have been provided.

|9.20.07 @ 12:49PM|#

Well, the crimes of the Khmer Rouge were horrible, but at least they provided free health care, something U.S. has yet to do.

Is he making a funny, or being a dumbass?

|9.20.07 @ 12:55PM|#

Why, both, Warty.

dhex|9.20.07 @ 12:59PM|#

Is he making a funny, or being a dumbass?

that is the soul of internet, is it not?

|9.20.07 @ 1:00PM|#

I'm against the death penalty. Fortunately, my opinions carry no weight in Cambodia. I smell hypocrisy there, but it doesn't stink. I'll toast Nuon Chea's death.

|9.20.07 @ 1:24PM|#

I'm feeling trolly today.

Inevitably, whenever the crimes of communists come up, either on this board or on other sites, someone either uses moral relativism and cites the shortcomings of the U.S. or blames actions/inactions of the U.S. for causing directly or indirectly the communist's actions.

|9.20.07 @ 1:24PM|#

Oops! Forgot to change my screen name back.

|9.20.07 @ 1:32PM|#

J sub D,

I'm against the death penalty, too.

But that's not because the bastards don't deserve it. I don't think anything wrong was done to Ted Bundy. I just don't think it was wise.

|9.20.07 @ 2:22PM|#

But that's not because the bastards don't deserve it. I don't think anything wrong was done to Ted Bundy. I just don't think it was wise.

So we pretty much agree on this. But you see where I'm coming from?

|9.20.07 @ 4:27PM|#

I wonder if Norm Chomsky is going to come and speak on the guy's behalf? Or maybe then Congressman Chris Dodd who while arguing for abadoning Cambodia to its fate stated "calling the Lon Nol regime an ally is to debase the word.... The greatest gift our country can give to the Cambodian people is peace, not guns. And the best way to accomplish that goal is by ending military aid now." Thanks Chirs.

|9.21.07 @ 11:03AM|#

"Inevitably, whenever the crimes of communists come up, either on this board or on other sites, someone either uses moral relativism and cites the shortcomings of the U.S. or blames actions/inactions of the U.S. for causing directly or indirectly the communist's actions." - LB

Ouch. To paraphrase Bill Hicks, "here's joe with the weather..."

|9.21.07 @ 1:20PM|#

Wow, rob, you wrote a comment about me?

Didn't need a weatherman to know that was coming.

|9.21.07 @ 2:36PM|#

Yeah, I'm trying to limit myself to posting only in response to you - of course, that means that I could post all day, every day, on every thread on Hit & Run.

Honestly, man, don't you ever sleep?!?