Top Khmer Rouge officials found guilty of crimes against humanity, jailed for life - Polidicks

[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-28670568[/url] [quote]Two top Khmer Rouge leaders have been jailed for life after being convicted by Cambodia's UN-backed tribunal of crimes against humanity. Nuon Chea served as Pol Pot's deputy and Khieu Samphan was the Maoist regime's head of state. They are the first top-level leaders to be held accountable for its crimes. Up to two million people are believed to have died under the Khmer Rouge - from starvation and overwork or executed as enemies of the state. The regime, in power from 1975-1979, sought to create an agrarian society. Cities were emptied and their residents forced to work on rural co-operatives. Many were worked to death while others starved as the economy imploded. During four violent years, the Khmer Rouge also killed all those it perceived as enemies - intellectuals, minorities, former officials - and their families. Nuon Chea was seen an ideological driving force within the regime. Khieu Samphan was its public face.[/quote]

So idiotic. I hope they enjoy their cells.

been a long time coming

Hopefully Congress is next EDIT: Although I think you have to be human to commit crimes against humanity so nvm

shouldve been thrown off a cliff instead

Pol Pot- the communist leader so awful that other communists invaded to save his people.

These guys are both over 80 years old. Isn't that supposed to exonerate them like the Nazis who get tried in Europe?

I actually want them to write books and stuff about their history and stuff, or have people interview them instead of jailing them I think it'd be interesting or jail them anyways idc the khmer rouge were awful

[QUOTE=Explosions;45616658]These guys are both over 80 years old. Isn't that supposed to exonerate them like the Nazis who get tried in Europe?[/QUOTE] There's a difference between 20 year old guards and middle-aged top officials who engineered a genocide though.

[QUOTE=sloppy_joes;45617015]There's a difference between 20 year old guards and middle-aged top officials who engineered a genocide though.[/QUOTE] Right, one signed the papers and the other beat the prisoners. [editline]7th August 2014[/editline] The rank or role of the person is never given as a reason for why they should be left alone when it's a Nazi anyway, so your criticism doesn't really work. It's always "they're so old and harmless now, why waste time on dying men?"

I think its more to do with the fact that this shit went down in the 70's as where the Nazi shit happened in the 40's. From what I am reading about these guys is that the Nazi's looked like fucking saints compared to this mob

[QUOTE=fruxodaily;45617126]I think its more to do with the fact that this shit went down in the 70's as where the Nazi shit happened in the 40's. From what I am reading about these guys is that the Nazi's looked like fucking saints compared to this mob[/QUOTE] uh let's not go crazy, nazi's were just as deplorable as khmer rouge and members of both regimes deserve to be persecuted for their crimes

[QUOTE=Explosions;45617056]Right, one signed the papers and the other beat the prisoners. [editline]7th August 2014[/editline] The rank or role of the person is never given as a reason for why they should be left alone when it's a Nazi anyway, so your criticism doesn't really work. It's always "they're so old and harmless now, why waste time on dying men?"[/QUOTE] I don't get why you're even bringing this up. The rank and role of a person in this case should always be considered, and usually it's discussed in every single Nazi prosecution thread on here in great detail. Very few on this board think the people who performed live experimentation, ordered the mass execution of prisoners, actively participated in the torture and execution of detainees, or was involved in the upper hierarchy should get away with their crimes because of age. People here do reasonably question the decision of prosecutors to create a case against those who simply operated infrastructure or were stationed in the same camp. There's no reason to pursue charges against a now 80 year old camp gate guard, who was there solely to protect the German part of the camp from external threats, for the actions of his superiors and peers in the concentration camp. That would just be a witch hunt. Yet people out there are still hunting anyone even remotely connected to these camps, treating it like an obsession. Plus, this happened only 35 years ago. We still have people in jail here in the US from that time period for committing murder. You aren't exempt from trial and conviction at the age of 45, like these two were. Some Nazi camp guards were barely 18, maybe even younger, and can reasonably have made bad decisions.