Khieu Samphan, the Khmer Rouge's 'naive' head of state
Khieu Samphan, the former Khmer Rouge head of state, was charged with genocide by a UN court today but has always denied having a prominent role in the regime, saying he was kept out of Pol Pot's inner circle.
The 78 year-old had already been charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity as a member of the central committee of the regime that oversaw the deaths of up to two million people by starvation, overwork, torture and execution.
Khieu Samphan has never denied the bloodletting suffered under the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979, but the former head of state of Cambodia's radical Communist government has also never admitted to a role in the regime's brutal excesses.
Instead, he has styled himself as an intellectual and nationalist who claims he knew little, until long afterwards, of the devastation that was wrought during the Khmer Rouge's nearly four years in power.
Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)
The 78 year-old had already been charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity as a member of the central committee of the regime that oversaw the deaths of up to two million people by starvation, overwork, torture and execution.
Khieu Samphan has never denied the bloodletting suffered under the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979, but the former head of state of Cambodia's radical Communist government has also never admitted to a role in the regime's brutal excesses.
Instead, he has styled himself as an intellectual and nationalist who claims he knew little, until long afterwards, of the devastation that was wrought during the Khmer Rouge's nearly four years in power.