PHENOM PENH, Cambodia, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- The one-time deputy of dictator Pol Pot Monday told a Cambodian court that neighboring Vietnam had a hand in the systematic deaths of millions of people.
Nuon Chea said at his genocide trial in Phenom Penh the Khmer Rouge were not the "criminals" they have been made out to be and that Vietnam was behind the slayings, the BBC reported.
"These war crimes and crimes against humanity were not committed by the Cambodian people," Nuon testified. "It was the Vietnamese who killed Cambodians."
Nuon, 85, challenged the allegations Pol Pot led the Khmer Rouge on a brutal 4-year program in the 1970s that included the forced removal of city dwellers to rural work camps. An estimated 2 million people were starved, executed or worked to death during the period.
The BBC said Nuon is being tried in a court backed by the United Nations along with Khieu Samphan, the Khmer Rouge's former head of state, and Ieng Sary, its former foreign minister. All three deny the charges and Ieng has refused to testify in the case.
