The former Khmer Rouge "First Lady" Ieng Thirith (centre) has launched an angry tirade at Cambodia's UN-backed genocide tribunal. Ieng Thirith told her accusers they would be "cursed to the seventh circle of hell".(AFP/Pool/Heng Sinith) 24 Feb 2009
Source: Reuters
PHNOM PENH, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Pol Pot's sister-in-law told Cambodia's Khmer Rouge "Killing Fields" court on Tuesday she only worked with Chinese experts on humanitarian issues and had no hand in the deaths of the regime's estimated 1.7 million victims.
Ieng Thirith, 76, the ultra-Maoist movement's social minister, is charged with crimes against humanity but said she only oversaw teams rebuilding hospitals destroyed by the years of civil war that preceded the fall of Phnom Penh in 1975.
"I don't know why a good person like me has been accused of such crimes. I have suffered a great deal," she said during a bail hearing at the joint Cambodian-international court, which opened its first case last week against chief torturer Duch.
The court is almost certain to turn down her bail application.
"I have been wrongly accused. We worked very hard at the pharmaceutical factories. There were four factories and we had two Chinese experts helping us," she said.
Ieng Thirith, whose husband, Ieng Sary -- the Khmer Rouge foreign minister -- has been charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity, blamed other senior cadres for the atrocities.
In particular, she said "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea -- Pol Pot's right-hand-man -- ordered Duch to kill Cambodians who had graduated from France, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union.
Nuon Chea and Duch, who ran Phnom Penh's notorious S-21 torture centre, have both been formally accused of responsibility for the 1.7 million people who were executed or died of starvation, disease and overwork from 1975-79.
(Reporting by Ek Madra; Editing by Ed Cropley)
Source: Reuters
PHNOM PENH, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Pol Pot's sister-in-law told Cambodia's Khmer Rouge "Killing Fields" court on Tuesday she only worked with Chinese experts on humanitarian issues and had no hand in the deaths of the regime's estimated 1.7 million victims.
Ieng Thirith, 76, the ultra-Maoist movement's social minister, is charged with crimes against humanity but said she only oversaw teams rebuilding hospitals destroyed by the years of civil war that preceded the fall of Phnom Penh in 1975.
"I don't know why a good person like me has been accused of such crimes. I have suffered a great deal," she said during a bail hearing at the joint Cambodian-international court, which opened its first case last week against chief torturer Duch.
The court is almost certain to turn down her bail application.
"I have been wrongly accused. We worked very hard at the pharmaceutical factories. There were four factories and we had two Chinese experts helping us," she said.
Ieng Thirith, whose husband, Ieng Sary -- the Khmer Rouge foreign minister -- has been charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity, blamed other senior cadres for the atrocities.
In particular, she said "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea -- Pol Pot's right-hand-man -- ordered Duch to kill Cambodians who had graduated from France, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union.
Nuon Chea and Duch, who ran Phnom Penh's notorious S-21 torture centre, have both been formally accused of responsibility for the 1.7 million people who were executed or died of starvation, disease and overwork from 1975-79.
(Reporting by Ek Madra; Editing by Ed Cropley)
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