Vietnam, a onetime communist ally of the Khmer Rouge, suffered several bloody attacks from them and finally struck back in late 1978, chasing the Khmer Rouge from power in early 1979 and installing a client regime of former members of the Khmer Rouge who had split with the group. However, Nuon Chea never admitted his guilt. Nuon Chea, the chief ideologue of the communist Khmer Rouge regime that destroyed a generation of Cambodians, died Sunday, the country's U.N.-assisted genocide tribunal said. I expect most Cambodians will take this court, warts and all.”, Khmer Rouge take over Cambodia: from the archive, 18 April 1975. Nuon Chea, the chief ideologue of the communist Khmer Rouge regime that destroyed a generation of Cambodians, died on Sunday, the country's UN-assisted genocide tribunal said. Legal experts and the Khmer Rouge tribunal spokesman said the law requires Khmer Rouge regime second-in-command Nuon Chea’s appeal of his genocide conviction to end following his death last week, calling into question whether the 2018 charges will stand. Pol Pot had been CPK general secretary since February 1963. But I had my ideology. The pair are already serving life sentences for crimes against humanity. Nuon Chea at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Phnom Penh on November 16, 2018 (ECCC) Nuon Chea’s Genocide Conviction Stands, but ‘Final Judgement’ Left Unsaid. “The chamber finds that prisoners were brought to interrogation rooms, handcuffed and blindfolded, their legs chained during questioning” said Nil Nonn, adding that interrogation methods included “beatings with sticks, rocks, electrical wire, whips, electric shocks and suffocation and the extraction of of toenails and fingernails.”. “That is worth the money and effort.”. “These tribunals are political through and through and this one is more than most” he said. By the time of the Khmer Rouge victory on April 17, 1975, Pol Pot and his associates occupied the most important positions in the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) and in the state hierarchies. Nuon Chea said he and Pol Pot worked together in mapping out "a strategic path and tactics" that the party adopted at a clandestine congress at the Phnom Penh railway station in September 1960. Nuon Chea, the chief ideologue of the communist Khmer Rouge regime that destroyed a generation of Cambodians, died on Sunday, the country's UN-assisted genocide tribunal said. Nuon Chea was born on 7 July 1926, to a wealthy Sino-Cambodian family in Battambang province in northwestern Cambodia. In Nuon Chea's final years, spent in a purpose-built detention facility, he was in and out of hospital and suffered a number of ailments including high blood pressure, acute bronchitis and heart disease. The charges against them are specified in the Closing Order of Case 002. He studied law at Thammasat University in Thailand. Nuon Chea (Khmer language: នួន ជា; born Lao Kim Lorn;1 7 July 1926 – 4 August 2019), also known as Long Bunruot (Khmer language: ឡុង ប៊ុនរត្ន) or Rungloet Laodi (រុងឡឺត ឡាវឌី Thai language: รุ่งเลิศ เหล่าดี),4 was a Cambodian politician who was the chief ideologist of … "These war crimes and crimes against humanity were not committed by the Cambodian people," Nuon Chea said. For a movement known for paranoia and secrecy, Nuon Chea was as shadowy as Pol Pot, or even more so, according to historians. He was 93. Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea are the two most senior living leaders of regime that presided over deaths of at least 1.7 million in Cambodia, First published on Thu 15 Nov 2018 19.04 EST. The judgment also emphasised that Khieu Samphan “encouraged, incited and legitimised” the criminal policies that lead to the deaths of civilians “on a massive scale” including the millions forced into labour camps to build dams and bridges and the mass extermination of Vietnamese. “In 10 or 20 years from now, when the dust has settled, people will look back on this as a complete waste of time and energy and resources,” he said. Victor Koppe, the lawyer for Nuon Chea, told the Guardian the case at the extraordinary chambers in the courts of Cambodia (ECCC) had been conducted “very unfairly” and had served simply to prop up a version of history that suited the current government. Nuon Chea was known as Brother No. Buddhist monks were forcibly defrocked while Muslims were forced to eat pork. Khieu Samphan, left, and Nuon Chea, right, in 2013. "I wasn't a war criminal," he said in a 2004 interview with the Associated Press. Nuon Chea was known as Brother No 2, the right-hand man of Pol Pot, the leader of the regime that ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. It took nine years to get the first case to trial and, 12 years and $320m later, it has convicted only three men. Their second trial, for genocide and mass rape, drew to a close in June last year but the verdict has taken 18 months to reach by the panel of three Cambodian and two international judges. August 2019 in Phnom Penh), auch bekannt als Bruder Nr. Nuon Chea, the Khmer Rouge’s “Brother Number Two” died in hospital on August 4 at the age of 93. The first life sentence was handed to Kaing Guek Eav, known as Comrade Duch, who ran S-21 concentration camp in Phnom Penh where at least 14,000 people were tortured and killed. Nuon Chea, described by the court as “Pol Pot’s right hand”, was found guilty of all charges of genocide of the Vietnamese, former Khmer republic officials and the Cham Muslim minority. image caption Nuon Chea was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity in November Nuon Chea, a key leader in Cambodia's Khmer Rouge who was convicted of genocide … Nuon Chea (Khmer នួន ជា; * 7. Most of those responsible for the killings, including Pol Pot, died before they could be tried. “It has been plagued by accusations of corruption, political interference, and at times less than robust law. He was 93. Pol Pot died in the jungle in 1998, and on Christmas Eve that year, Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan surrendered. After coming to power in 1975 following a brutal war, the Khmer Rouge evicted people from cities and turned the country into a vast labour camp. At one point before his arrest, Nuon Chea told journalists that he had become an adherent of Buddhism — an irony for the man who served a regime that abolished religion and turned Buddhist monasteries into sites for torture and execution. Hinton admitted that the political interference from Hun Sen’s regime had “tarnished” the legacy of the ECCC. Impunity for mass murder.”. In 2014, Nuon Chea received a life sentence for crimes against humanity, alongside another top-tier Khmer Rouge leader, Khieu Samphan, and a further trial convicted him of genocide in 2018. Two of its senior leaders have been on trial on charges of genocide. For decades after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, Nuon Chea lived quietly with his family in a wooden house in Pailin, a former guerrilla stronghold near the border with Thailand. ", Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. Researchers believe Nuon Chea was responsible for the extremist policies of the Khmer Rouge and was directly involved in its purges and executions. Nuon Chea, described by the court as “Pol Pot’s right hand”, was found guilty of all charges of genocide of the Vietnamese, former Khmer republic officials and the Cham Muslim minority. Member of fanatical communist regime dies serving life in prison for genocide, Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile. It condemned for genocide Nuon Chea, 92, who was no. He was serving life in prison after convictions by the UN-backed tribunal on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. “It was such an evil regime and it was the worst example of what a government can do,” said prosecutor Nicholas Koumjian. I don't want them to believe the Khmer Rouge are bad people, are criminals," Nuon Chea testified in 2011 at the age of 85. “I think this verdict is a very timely and very necessary. The history of the Cambodian Genocide is not simply a black and white tale. There are three Khmer Rouge commanders who are still awaiting trial but the future of the ECCC remains uncertain, mainly due to resistance from Hun Sen who has long opposed the trials and said that any more cases risked pushing Cambodia into civil war. Researchers said he was the chief ideologue responsible for devising the Khmer Rouge's most brutal policies, notably at Tuol Sleng — or S-21 — prison, which is now a genocide museum in Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital. In 2014, Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan were then found guilty of crimes against humanity. "I admit that there was a mistake. Juli 1926; † 4. Nuon Chea said in that interview that he and Saloth Sar, Pol Pot's real name, played key roles in building up a homegrown movement free from the dominance of Vietnam, which was to become the Khmer Rouge's arch-enemy. I wanted to free my country. 2, the right-hand man of Pol Pot, the leader of the regime that ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. His associates functioned as the party's Political Bureau, and they held a majority of the seats on the Central Committee. The group's fanatical efforts to realise a utopian society led to the death of some 1.7 million people — more than a quarter of the country's population at the time — from starvation, disease, overwork and executions. Posts about Nuon Chea written by jfowlerenglish. I wanted people to have well-being.". On the 4 th August 2019, Nuon Chea, second only to Pol Pot in the leadership of the Khmer Rouge, passed away. But it’s better than no justice. PHNOM PENH: Cambodia's UN-assisted genocide tribunal says Nuon Chea, the chief ideologue of the communist Khmer Rouge regime that destroyed a generation of Cambodians, has died. 2, war ein kambodschanischer Politiker.Er war der Chefideologe der Roten Khmer und Stellvertreter von Pol Pot.Im November 2018 wurde er wegen Völkermordes an ethnischen Vietnamesen und der muslimischen Minderheit von einem internationalen Tribunal zu lebenslanger Haft verurteilt. Once leader Pol Pot's most trusted deputy, he was arrested in September 2007 on charges of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity that occurred during the brutal Khmer Rouge reign from 1975 to 1979. He was second-in-command to Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot from 1975-79, when some 1m people are thought to have died. “This is comparable, in Cambodia, to the Nuremberg judgment after world war two,” Scheffer told the Guardian. The verdict, read by Judge Nil Nonn, gave a detailed account of some of the most horrific actions carried out by the regime, particularly focusing on the infamous S-21 security prison and execution site where tens of thousands were killed. On 15 September 2010, Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan (together with Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith) were indicted on charges of crimes against humanity, genocide and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 in what is referred as Case 002 before the ECCC. One of them was Cambodia's current prime minister, Hun Sen. Nuon Chea's fellow defendants also denied any wrongdoing: Khieu Samphan, the regime's former head of state, who also told the court he bore no responsibility for atrocities, and Ieng Sary, the regime's former foreign minister. What is drawing thousands of tourists to Chernobyl and killing fields? "He was born like all of us, but he was driven by power and he later committed crimes against his own people," Youk Chhang said on Sunday. That was a time when communist and nationalist groups, struggling to oust French colonialists, were gaining strength in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Arrogant, intimidating and above all unrepentant, Nuon Chea is considered the chief ideologue of the Khmer Rouge and a key architect of its killing machine, according to AFP. Want an ad-free experience?Subscribe to Independent Premium. Woolly mammoth DNA found in illegal ivory samples seized in Cambodia, From Newcastle and New Zealand to the Killing Fields of Cambodia, Film director jailed for six years in Cambodia for espionage. The two most senior Khmer Rouge leaders still alive today have been found guilty of genocide, almost 40 years since Pol Pot’s brutal communist regime fell, in a verdict followed by millions of Cambodians. "Except for Nuon Chea, Pol Pot was the least accessible Cambodian leader since World War II," David Chandler, an American scholar on Cambodia, wrote in Brother Number One, a biography of Pol Pot. But Alexander Hinton, director of the Centre for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, and UNESCO chair on genocide prevention at Rutgers University, said: “Justice is not perfect. He will face Cambodian and foreign judges at a special genocide tribunal. Hun Sen, the prime minister, welcomed the duo at his home and gave them and family members a beach holiday, providing sports utility vehicles and security escorts. David Scheffer, who was UN secretary general’s special expert on assistance to the Khmer Rouge trials and the former US ambassador at large for war crimes issues, described the genocide verdict as “very significant”. VOD English - November 28, 2019. Interrogations, and executions were carried out under the direct instruction of those in the “upper echelons, including Nuon Chea”, who oversaw S-21 for two years. Ieng Sary died before the trials concluded, but Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea were found guilty in the tribunal's final verdicts in November 2018. And what’s the alternative? Rural areas were the basis for cities to rely on and ignite" the revolution, Nuon Chea said. The two most senior Khmer Rouge leaders still alive today have been found guilty of genocide, almost 40 years since Pol Pot’s brutal communist regime fell, in a verdict followed by millions of Cambodians.