The Khmer Rouge is the name that was popularly given to members of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) and by extension to the regime through which the CPK ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. The name was coined in the 1960s by then Chief of State Norodom Sihanouk to describe his country's heterogeneous,communist-led dissidents,with whom he allied after the 1970 Cambodian coup d'état.
Kang Kek Iew,also spelled Kaing Guek Eav,aliasComrade Duch or Hang Pin,was a Cambodian convicted war criminal and leader in the Khmer Rouge movement,which ruled Democratic Kampuchea from 1975 to 1979. As the head of the government's internal security branch (Santebal),he oversaw the Tuol Sleng (S-21) prison camp where thousands were held for interrogation and torture,after which the vast majority of these prisoners were eventually executed.
Hor Namhong is a Cambodian diplomat who served in the government of Cambodia as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1990 to 1993 and again from 1998 to 2016. He is a member of the Cambodian People's Party and has been a Deputy Prime Minister since 2004. He served as Cambodia's foreign minister for a combined tenure of 20 years.
Khieu Samphan is a Cambodian former communist politician and economist who was the chairman of the state presidium of Democratic Kampuchea (Cambodia) from 1976 until 1979. As such,he served as Cambodia's head of state and was one of the most powerful officials in the Khmer Rouge movement,although Pol Pot remained the General Secretary in the party.
Ieng Sary was the co-founder and senior member of the Khmer Rouge and one of the main architects of the Cambodian Genocide. He was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kampuchea led by Pol Pot and served in the 1975–79 government of Democratic Kampuchea as foreign minister and deputy prime minister. He was known as "Brother Number Three",as he was third in command after Pol Pot and Nuon Chea. His wife,Ieng Thirith,served in the Khmer Rouge government as social affairs minister. Ieng Sary was arrested in 2007 and was charged with crimes against humanity but died of heart failure before the case against him could be brought to a verdict.
The Killing Fields are sites in Cambodia where collectively more than 1.3 million people were killed and buried by the Communist Party of Kampuchea during Khmer Rouge rule from 1975 to 1979,immediately after the end of the Cambodian Civil War (1970–75). The mass killings were part of the broad,state-sponsored Cambodian genocide. The Cambodian journalist Dith Pran coined the term "killing fields" after his escape from the regime.
Nuon Chea,also known as Long Bunruot or Rungloet Laodi,was a Cambodian communist politician and revolutionary who was the chief ideologist of the Khmer Rouge. He also briefly served as acting Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea. He was commonly known as "Brother Number Two",as he was second-in-command to Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot,General Secretary of the Party,during the Cambodian genocide of 1975–1979. In 2014,Nuon Chea received a life sentence for crimes against humanity,alongside another top-tier Khmer Rouge leader,Khieu Samphan,and a further trial convicted him of genocide in 2018. These life sentences were merged into a single life sentence by the Trial Chamber on 16 November 2018. He died while serving his sentence in 2019.
Ieng Thirith was an influential intellectual and politician in the Khmer Rouge,although she was neither a member of the Khmer Rouge Standing Committee nor of the Central Committee. Ieng Thirith was the wife of Ieng Sary,who was Minister of Foreign Affairs of Democratic Kampuchea's Khmer Rouge regime. She served as Minister of Social Affairs from October 1975 until the fall of the Khmer Rouge in 1979.
International criminal law (ICL) is a body of public international law designed to prohibit certain categories of conduct commonly viewed as serious atrocities and to make perpetrators of such conduct criminally accountable for their perpetration. The core crimes under international law are genocide,war crimes,crimes against humanity,and the crime of aggression.
Andrew Thomas Cayley,,is a King's Counsel and was His Majesty's Chief Inspector of the Crown Prosecution Service from 2021 until February 2024. He was appointed by the Attorney General of England and Wales,Suella Braverman MP,KC on 19 January 2021. He is now a Principal Trial Lawyer at the ICC.
The United States is not a state party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court,which founded the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2002.
Gregory H. Stanton is the former research professor in Genocide Studies and Prevention at the George Mason University in Fairfax County,Virginia,United States. He is best known for his work in the area of genocide studies. He is the founder and president of Genocide Watch,the founder and director of the Cambodian Genocide Project,and the Chair of the Alliance Against Genocide. From 2007 to 2009 he was the president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars.
The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia,commonly known as the Cambodia Tribunal or Khmer Rouge Tribunal (សាលាក្ដីខ្មែរក្រហម),was a court established to try the senior leaders and the most responsible members of the Khmer Rouge for alleged violations of international law and serious crimes perpetrated during the Cambodian genocide. Although it was a national court,it was established as part of an agreement between the Royal Government of Cambodia and the United Nations,and its members included both local and foreign judges. It was considered a hybrid court,as the ECCC was created by the government in conjunction with the UN,but remained independent of them,with trials being held in Cambodia using Cambodian and international staff. The Cambodian court invited international participation in order to apply international standards.
Stephen J. Rapp is an American lawyer and the former United States ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues in the Office of Global Criminal Justice.
Michael P. Scharf is co-dean,Joseph C. Hostetler –BakerHostetler professor of law,and the director of the Frederick K. Cox International Law Center at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. Scharf is also co-founder of the Public International Law &Policy Group (PILPG),a non-governmental organization (NGO) which provides pro bono legal assistance to developing states and states in transition. Since 1995 PILPG has provided pro bono legal assistance to states and governments involved in peace negotiations,drafting post-conflict constitutions,and prosecuting war criminals. Since March 2012,Scharf has also been the producer and host of Talking Foreign Policy,a one-hour radio program aired on a quarterly basis on Cleveland’s NPR affiliate WCPN 90.3 ideastream.
The People's Revolutionary Tribunal was a tribunal established by the People's Republic of Kampuchea in 1979 to try the Khmer Rouge leaders Pol Pot and Ieng Sary in absentia for genocide.
Brenda J. Hollis is an American lawyer. She was appointed by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone in February 2010,replacing Stephen Rapp. Hollis was the Chief Prosecutor at the Special Court and served as the lead prosecutor in the trial and appeal of the case against Charles Taylor,the former President of Liberia. Hollis previously served as the Prosecutor of the Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone,which replaced the Special Court in December 2013;currently James Johnson,an adjunct professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law,serves as the Chief Prosecutor for the Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone. She also serves as the Reserve International Co-Prosecutor for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia,and works as a consultant in international criminal law and procedure.
The Cambodian genocide was the systematic persecution and killing of Cambodian citizens by the Khmer Rouge under the leadership of Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea,Pol Pot. It resulted in the deaths of 1.5 to 2 million people from 1975 to 1979,nearly 25% of Cambodia's population in 1975.
The following lists events that happened during 2007 in Cambodia.
Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people in whole or in part. The term was coined in 1944 by Raphael Lemkin. It is defined in Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) of 1948 as "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy,in whole or in part,a national,ethnical,racial,or religious group,as such:killing members of the group;causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;deliberately inflicting on the group's conditions of life,calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;[and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."
