Khmer Rouge trio accused of ‘worst horrors’ at UN trial

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.

Prosecutors said former president Khieu Samphan, ex-foreign minister Ieng Sary and second-in-command Nuon Chea had called the shots in the bloody “Killing Fields” revolution that wiped out a quarter of the population and destroyed the lives of millions.

The three were top henchmen of Pol Pot, the late architect of the “Year Zero” revolution under Democratic Kampuchea, as the regime was known. Between 1.7 and 2.2 million people died from 1975-79 of torture, execution, disease, overwork or starvation.