THE Khmer Rouge were not “bad people”, the regime’s highest-ranking surviving member said as Cambodia’s UN-backed war crimes tribunal began hearing evidence in a long-awaited atrocities trial.

A senior Khmer Rouge leader has accused a war crimes tribunal of wanting his “head on the block”, and insisted he had no real authority during the regime’s brutal rule of Cambodia in the 1970s.

The former deputy leader of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge, accused over the deaths of 1.7 million people, has claimed the regime was acting in the country’s best interests.

THE top surviving commanders of the 1970s Khmer Rouge regime masterminded one of the “worst horrors” of the 20th century, creating a living nightmare by killing or enslaving millions of Cambodians, a UN-backed war crimes trial has heard.

Three top Khmer Rouge leaders accused of orchestrating Cambodia’s “killing fields” went on trial today before a UN-backed tribunal more than three decades after some of the 20th century’s worst atrocities.

THE top four surviving members of the brutal Khmer Rouge went on trial yesterday before a tribunal aimed at finding justice for the estimated 1.7 million people who died in Cambodia’s “Killing Fields” of the 1970s.

Four now old and infirm members of the Khmer Rouge's ruling elite were facing a war crimes tribunal today, decades after their plans for a Communist Party utopia in Cambodia killed around 1.7 million people by execution, medical neglect, overwork and starvation.

With claims of witness interference and bribery surrounding the trial of the Khmer Rouge leaders, justice for victims may be further away than was hoped, writes Simon Roughneen in Tik Panhao, Cambodia

Cambodia’s genocide tribunal today indicted the four top surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime blamed for 1.7 million deaths in the 1970s, paving the way for the panel’s long-awaited second trial next year.

A notorious torture centre boss went before Cambodia’s genocide tribunal today for its first trial over the deaths of around 1.7 million people at the hands of the Khmer Rouge regime more than three decades ago.

Cambodia’s UN-backed genocide tribunal opened its doors today for the first public court appearance of a Khmer Rouge figure since the regime’s brutal reign of terror in the 1970s.

The UN-backed genocide tribunal in Cambodia arrested the former Khmer Rouge head of state today following his release from a hospital, officials said.

Cambodian police detained the ex-foreign minister of the brutal 1970s Khmer Rouge regime and his wife and took them to a UN-backed genocide tribunal to face charges.

Nuon Chea, the top surviving leader of Cambodia’s notorious Khmer Rouge, whose radical policies were responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people, was charged today with crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Police in Cambodia detained the top surviving leader of the Khmer Rouge today over his role in the notorious regime that caused the deaths of 1.7 million people in the late 1970s.

Prosecutors for an international tribunal reviewing genocide in Cambodia in the 1970s submitted a list yesterday of former top Khmer Rouge leaders they say should stand trial.

Judges and prosecutors from Cambodia and foreign countries were today sworn in to begin the UN-backed judicial process to try former Khmer Rouge leaders for genocide and crimes against humanity.