Top KR Leader blames Vietnam and US over People Evacuation

Phnom Penh (13 Dec, 2011): Former Khmer Rouge number 2 leader Nuon Chea on Tuesday defended his genocidal rule saying that the removal of the Cambodians from Phnom Penh capital and other cities to the rural areas on 17 April 1975 was to protect their lives from a war between America and Vietnam. Speaking in the tribunal, Nuon Chea said the removal was just temporarily in order to see how Vietnam and the United States reacted so that his regime could prevent its people’s lives in case there was fighting of the two nations. Nuon Chea told the court that the urban citizens were evacuated to the rural zones and the regime needed them to follow the farmers’ living style and they were allowed to have three meals a day: porridge for breakfast, rice for lunch and dinner while providing desert once a week. However, he said, there were betrayers who did not give enough food to the people and without spoons and forks for eating which he blamed Vietnam standing behind the scene. At least 1.7 million people died by torture, over work and starvation during the Khmer Rouge time in 1975-79. (CN)