Khmer Rouge ‘Brother Number Two’ Nuon Chea admits shared ‘responsibility’
The Khmer Rouge’s former number two admitted for the first time on Thursday he shared responsibility for the actions of a regime blamed for the deaths of up to two million people in the late 1970s.
“I am not trying to evade my responsibility,” Nuon Chea, 86, who has denied charges of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity, said during his trial at a UN-backed court in Phnom Penh.
“As a leader, I must take responsibility for the damage, the danger to my nation,” he said, expressing his “deepest condolences” to witnesses testifying at the tribunal who lost relatives under the regime.
At the same time Nuon Chea said that he was not aware of all of the Khmer Rouge’s actions in his role overseeing propaganda and education.
“As for the executive branch, I had no power whatsoever. So about what happened during the Khmer Rouge period – certain things I was aware of, but other things I was not aware of,” he added.
