Khmer Rouge "Brother No. 2" To Face Trial

From Reuters:

Khmer Rouge "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea, Pol Pot's top surviving henchman, was arrested on Wednesday at his house on the Thai border and taken to Phnom Penh to face the U.N. "Killing Fields" tribunal for the first time.

A terse, two-sentence statement by the $56 million court said the octogenarian communist guerrilla would "be informed of the charges which have been brought against him" -- in all likelihood genocide or crimes against humanity.

..........

Nuon Chea is accused of being the surviving Khmer Rouge commander most responsible for the atrocities of the "Killing Fields," in which an estimated 1.7 million people died.

In July, the long-awaited tribunal charged chief Khmer Rouge inquisitor Duch with crimes against humanity, the first formal indictment of any of the top cadres of the 1975 "Year Zero" revolution.

An article by me from last month on the endurance of the pop culture the Khmer Rouge tried to destroy.

A Yale University site examining Cambodian communist crimes.

Comments

Charles | September 20, 2007, 11:24am | #

I'm glad to see justice served, but aren't they rushing things a bit? Cooler heads, gentlemen. Cooler heads.

tk | September 20, 2007, 11:30am | #

Good work, UN!
Now if they could only get Pauly Shore...

Lurker Kurt | September 20, 2007, 11:34am | #

Well, the crimes of the Khmer Rouge were horrible, but at least they provided free health care, something U.S. has yet to do.

Warren | September 20, 2007, 11:37am | #

I agree with Charles. Holding some 80 year old's feet to the fire doesn't do much to assuage my sense of, just about anything.

Which makes me think. How quickly do we have to act to let justice be done in any meaningful way. Especially since even when we do act in a timely fashion, the process is so corrupt as to actually demean the righteousness of bringing the bastard down (Saddam, Noriega e.g.)

No doubt, it's better to keep tyrants out of power than to try to clean up after them. How to do that? I say it all boils down to property rights.

bigbigslacker | September 20, 2007, 12:09pm | #

Since this genocide never happened, Nuon Chea has little to worry about?

joe | September 20, 2007, 12:10pm | #

No, Kurt, they didn't.

The Khmer Rouge executed doctors as enemies of the people.

Douglas Gray | September 20, 2007, 12:24pm | #

According to WIKIPEDIA, the Khymer Rouge was finally defeated by the Vietnamese in 1979,(after they beat us). So, the feared dominoes did fall but........looks like it wasn't such a bad thing in this case.

joe | September 20, 2007, 12:28pm | #

And they came to power after we'd undermined the previous Cambodian government and killed a couple hundred thousand Cambodians with aerial bomging.

But remember, the only thing we did to influence politics in Cambodia was to leave Vietnam.

Rickm | September 20, 2007, 12:32pm | #

Wait, how can Yale University document crimes of the Khmer Rouge? Isn't Yale part of the liberal academic establishment, full of left wing moonbats who love communism?

VM | September 20, 2007, 12:37pm | #

*fails to think of a "Pol Pot calling Nuon red" joke. punishes self severely by listening to 8 track of Mr. Steven Crane singing "MacArthur Park"*

Lurker Kurt | September 20, 2007, 12:39pm | #

The Khmer Rouge executed doctors as enemies of the people.

That is what was so good about it. It was fair. Everyone had the same access to the same amount of care for free.

joe | September 20, 2007, 12:41pm | #

Harder, Kurt! Backpedal harder!

robc | September 20, 2007, 12:45pm | #

joe,

actually, from a logically standpoint, executing doctors says nothing one way or another about whether they provided health care. It does tell us a lot though about the quality of health care that may or may not have been provided.

Warty | September 20, 2007, 12:49pm | #

Well, the crimes of the Khmer Rouge were horrible, but at least they provided free health care, something U.S. has yet to do.

Is he making a funny, or being a dumbass?

joe | September 20, 2007, 12:55pm | #

Why, both, Warty.

dhex | September 20, 2007, 12:59pm | #

Is he making a funny, or being a dumbass?

that is the soul of internet, is it not?

J sub D | September 20, 2007, 1:00pm | #

I'm against the death penalty. Fortunately, my opinions carry no weight in Cambodia. I smell hypocrisy there, but it doesn't stink. I'll toast Nuon Chea's death.

Leftist Believer | September 20, 2007, 1:24pm | #

I'm feeling trolly today.

Inevitably, whenever the crimes of communists come up, either on this board or on other sites, someone either uses moral relativism and cites the shortcomings of the U.S. or blames actions/inactions of the U.S. for causing directly or indirectly the communist's actions.

Lurker Kurt | September 20, 2007, 1:24pm | #

Oops! Forgot to change my screen name back.

joe | September 20, 2007, 1:32pm | #

J sub D,

I'm against the death penalty, too.

But that's not because the bastards don't deserve it. I don't think anything wrong was done to Ted Bundy. I just don't think it was wise.

J sub D | September 20, 2007, 2:22pm | #

But that's not because the bastards don't deserve it. I don't think anything wrong was done to Ted Bundy. I just don't think it was wise.

So we pretty much agree on this. But you see where I'm coming from?

John | September 20, 2007, 4:27pm | #

I wonder if Norm Chomsky is going to come and speak on the guy's behalf? Or maybe then Congressman Chris Dodd who while arguing for abadoning Cambodia to its fate stated "calling the Lon Nol regime an ally is to debase the word.... The greatest gift our country can give to the Cambodian people is peace, not guns. And the best way to accomplish that goal is by ending military aid now." Thanks Chirs.

rob | September 21, 2007, 11:03am | #

"Inevitably, whenever the crimes of communists come up, either on this board or on other sites, someone either uses moral relativism and cites the shortcomings of the U.S. or blames actions/inactions of the U.S. for causing directly or indirectly the communist's actions." - LB

Ouch. To paraphrase Bill Hicks, "here's joe with the weather..."

joe | September 21, 2007, 1:20pm | #

Wow, rob, you wrote a comment about me?

Didn't need a weatherman to know that was coming.

rob | September 21, 2007, 2:36pm | #

Yeah, I'm trying to limit myself to posting only in response to you - of course, that means that I could post all day, every day, on every thread on Hit & Run.

Honestly, man, don't you ever sleep?!?