Khmer Rouge duo gets life

A UN-backed tribunal in Cambodia sentenced the top two surviving cadres of Khmer Rouge regime to life in jail on Thursday after finding them guilty of crimes against humanity for their part in the 1970s ‘killing fields’ revolution. ‘Brother Number Two’ Nuon Chea, 88, and former President Khieu Samphan, 83, were complicit in forced evacuations, murders and executions orchestrated by the regime as part of its ultra-Maoist revolution, judge Nil Nonn said. The verdict was only the second delivered in the tribunal’s 9 years of operation. The two men will remain in court to face separate charges of genocide in a 2nd phase of the complex trial that started last week. The judge, taking an hour and 20 minutes to read out the verdict, said their crimes included ‘extermination encompassing murder, political persecution and other inhuman acts, comprising forced transfer, enforced disappearances and attacks against human dignity’. Between 1.7 million and 2.2 million people are believed to have died under the Khmer Rouge, led by late Pol Pot. The regime sought to turn Cambodia back to ‘year zero’ in its quest for a peasant utopia, according to a news agency.