CAMBODIA / KHMER ROUGE

STORY: CAMBODIA / KHMER ROUGE
TRT:0.38
SOURCE: UNAKRT
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: NATS

DATELINE: 7 AUGUST 2014, PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA / FILE

7 AUGUST 2014, PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA

1. Wide shot, Court Chamber
2. Close up, judge reading verdict
3. Med shot, Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan
4. Wide shot, chamber

FILE - 29 AUGUST 2011, PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA

5. Various shots, people entering the court building
6. Close up, former Deputy Secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea Nuon Chea in court
7. Close up, former Social Actions Minister Ieng Thirith in court
8. Wide shot, judges arrival at the court

STORYLINE:

A United Nations-backed court has found the two most senior surviving leaders of Cambodia’s brutal Khmer Rouge regime guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced them to life in prison.
The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), a hybrid war crimes tribunal established in 2006, convicted Nuon Chea, 88, and Khieu Samphan, 83, of murder, extermination and other charges of crimes against humanity for their roles in the Pol Pot regime which ruled from 1975-1979.
Nearly 2 million people are thought to have died during that period of forced labour, starvation, torture and execution.
The verdict was heralded by both Cambodia’s Government and the UN as a “historic moment in international criminal justice.”
The Trial Chamber found that, together with other Khmer Rouge leaders, both Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan participated in a criminal enterprise to achieve a rapid socialist revolution through a “great leap forward” by whatever means necessary including through the mass evacuation of urban centres to establish an agrarian utopia. According to the court, both had implemented policies that forcibly displaced people.
In April 1975, during the first phase of the movement of the population at least two million people were forcibly transferred from Phnom Penh by Khmer Rouge soldiers often at gunpoint, and in terrifying and violent circumstances. The population was forced to march to rural areas during the hottest time of the year and without adequate food, water or medical care.
According to the Tribunal, there were numerous instances of Khmer Rouge soldiers shooting and killing civilians during the course of the evacuation, while many others died of exhaustion, malnutrition or disease. There was another phase of the movement of the population between September 1975 and December 1977, where scores more were displaced.
Over the trial period, the UN deployed international judges, prosecutors and staff to the ECCC through the UN Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials. The substantive hearings began in 2011 and concluded with closing statements on 31 October 2013. During the 222 days of trial, the Chamber heard testimonies from 92 individuals. An unprecedented 100,000 people visited the court to see the trial, while millions more followed it through live television, radio broadcasts and the internet.
While the war crimes tribunal found only Nuon Chea to be responsible as a superior for all crimes committed, both Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan have the right to appeal their convictions and sentence imposed.