Cham Muslims Center Stage At Khmer Rouge Tribunal

A United Nations-backed court began a new phase Wednesday in the trial of two surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge—with charges related to the genocide of Cambodia's Cham Muslim minority expected to take center stage.



The ultra-Maoist group, which seized control of Cambodia in 1975 and ruled for four years, oversaw the murder of around 1.7 million people through execution, starvation and overwork. Under the Communist regime all religion—the main faith being Buddhism - was banned, and places of worship and religious documents destroyed.



When the Khmer Rouge took over, around 200,000 Cham Muslims - believed to have arrived in Cambodia centuries before from the ancient kingdom of Champa in what is now Vietnam - lived in Cambodia. At least a third of them were killed during the regime, according to Minority Rights Group International.



"The charges in Case 002/02 include genocide of Cham and Vietnamese, crimes against humanity [including murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, imprisonment, torture, persecution on political grounds, persecution on religious grounds, persecution on racial grounds, other inhumane acts of rape, forced marriage and attacks against human dignity, and enforced disappearances]," the tribunal said in a statement.



A verdict in the first phase of the multi-layered trial against Brother Number Two Nuon Chea and former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan, both in their eighties, is due August 7 but relates mainly to the forced evacuation of Phnom Penh—the biggest mass evacuation in history.



This second phase will include charges of genocide relate specifically to the minority ethnic Vietnamese and Cham Muslims—many of whom are civil parties, or witnesses. 



There is a population of about 400,000 Cham Muslims living in Cambodia today.



Other charges to be heard during the second phase of the trial include the genocide of the ethnic Vietnamese, internal purges, rape, forced marriage and forced labor on worksites.



www.aa.com.tr/en - Phnum Penh