Khmer Rouge war crimes trial opens

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, Feb. 17 (UPI) -- The first war crimes trial for any Cambodian accused of taking part in the 1970s Khmer Rouge genocide opened Tuesday in Phnom Penh, observers said.

The defendant in the first hearing was Kaing Guek Eav, 66, who has already admitted guilt in the torture slayings of at least 14,000 people at the Tuol Sleng prison, The New York Times reported. Known as Duch, he has told investigators his superiors forced him to carry out the atrocities under threat of his own death.

The Times said four senior Khmer Rouge officials who were in a position to give those orders to Duch also are in custody, including the movement's chief ideologue, Nuon Chea, 82; head of state Khieu Samphan, 76; former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary, 82, and his wife, Ieng Thirith, 75, a member of the Khmer Rouge Central Committee.

Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot died in 1998. Under his regime from 1975 to 1979, at least 1.7 million people were executed or died of overwork and other causes, historians say.

Human rights advocates and legal experts say the hybrid tribunal form of the trials is awkward and is meant to protect the current Cambodian government, the Times said.