Top Khmer Rouge leaders' trial opens in Cambodia

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http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501712_162-57328521/top-khmer-rouge-leaders-trial-opens-in-cambodia/

November 21, 2011 5:11 AM

(AP)

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Cambodians were bluntly reminded of their tragic history Monday as the trial began of three top Khmer Rouge leaders accused of orchestrating Cambodia's "killing fields" in the late 1970s.

An estimated 1.7 million people died of execution, starvation, exhaustion or lack of medical care as a result of the Khmer Rouge's radical policies, which essentially turned all of Cambodia into a forced labor camp as the movement attempted to create a pure agrarian socialist society. snip

"This is the first (trial) of the Khmer Rouge leadership responsible for enacting a series of policies that led to the deaths of nearly 2 million people," said Anne Heindel, legal adviser to the independent Documentation Center of Cambodia, which collects evidence of Khmer Rouge atrocities. snip

When the Khmer Rouge took power in 1975, they all but sealed off the country to the outside world and sent all city dwellers to vast rural communes. Intellectuals, entrepreneurs and anyone considered a threat were imprisoned, tortured and often executed.