PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- A defendant in the trial of three top Khmer Rouge officials in Phnom Penh said his actions were to protect Cambodia from annihilation by Vietnam.
Nuon Chea, the movement's chief ideologist, told a U.N.-backed tribunal Tuesday he had been waiting "a long time" to tell his side. He read from a statement that countered the prosecution's allegations that the Khmer Rouge forced the migration from urban centers, the subject of the first "mini-trial" in the case, The Phnom Penh Post reported Wednesday.
Opening statements began Monday for Nuon Chea, 85; Ieng Sary, 86, the former Khmer Rouge foreign affairs minister; and Khieu Samphan, 80, the head of state, on genocide, crimes against humanity and other charges.
Nuon Chea alleged Vietnam had tried to occupy Cambodia and kill the Khmer race for 80 years, beginning with the formation of the communist parties of Indochina in 1930.
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"From the beginning, the Vietnamese employed every trick available to destroy the Khmer people," he said. "Vietnam has [ideas] of invasion, expansion, land-grabbing and racial extermination."
The tribunal split the case into several mini-trials, the first limited to forced movements of the population from urban areas in 1975, and some of the Khmer Rouge's policies and organizational framework. It does not include other criminal charges related to execution sites, forced labor or forced marriages, and genocide.
Noun Chea's defense attorney Michiel Pestman said the tribunal's decision to divide the case made an already complex proceeding more difficult.
"The public is left with the impression that all of the charges would be discussed at this trial, but ... this first trial is very limited," Pestman said.
The Khmer Rouge was responsible for the deaths of 1.7 million people from 1975 to 1979 from execution, torture, forced labor, disease and starvation.
