Cambodian police officials arrested the former foreign minister of the Khmer Rouge along with his wife Monday and brought before the U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal to face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Officials detained Ieng Sary and his wife, Ieng Thirith, at the tribunal headquarters in Phnom Pehn at dawn. A filing by the prosecutor at the tribunal said Ieng Sary “promoted, instigated, facilitated, encouraged and/or condoned the perpetration of the crimes” during the Khmer Rouge reign including “policies of forcible transfer, forced labor and unlawful killings.”
The Khmer Rouge were an ultra-communist regime who ruled Cambodia from 1975-79 with the goal of creating a classless, utopian society based on an agrarian economy. The starvation, forced labor, and death camps allegedly resulted in the death of nearly 2 million people. The leader of the regime, Pol Pot, died in 1998 and his military advisor, Ta Mok, died in custody in 2006. Kaing Guek Eav, known as “Duch,” and Nuan Chea, a Khmer Rouge ideologists, were arrested earlier this year on war crimes charges. “Duch” was the chief overseer of operations at the notorious S-21 detention camp.
Ieng Sary was interviewed in October while in Thailand for a routine medical check-up where he fervently maintained his innocence. “I am a gentle person. I believe in good deeds. I even made good deeds to save several people's lives (during the regime). But let them (the tribunal) find what the truth is,” he said without elaborating.
His wife is charged with “planning, direction, coordination and ordering of widespread purges … and unlawful killing or murder of staff members from within the Ministry of Social Affairs,” the prosecutors’ filing said.
