Khmer Rouge prison boss on trial for war crimes

[Coventina]

Source: ABC (Australia)

MARK COLVIN: Thirty years after the end of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge regime, the first of a series of war crimes trials against the organisation's leadership is properly underway.

The former prison boss Kaing Guek Eav, more commonly known as Comrade Duch, appeared before the court charged with crimes against humanity, torture and premeditated murder.

He's not the most wanted man from the horrific days of the Khmer Rouge, when hundreds of thousands died in the attempt to create an extreme form of communism.

But his trial represents an opportunity for ordinary Cambodians to begin to hear how and why such violence happened from the perpetrators themselves.


Read more: http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2008/s2530244.htm