Top Khmer Rouge leaders' trial begins in Cambodia

PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA: Three top leaders of Cambodia's 1970s "killing fields" regime are finally facing trial for some of the 20th century's worst atrocities.
The senior Khmer Rouge leaders' trial opened Monday in a UN-backed tribunal in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh. The proceedings come more than 30 years after the reign of terror that killed some 1.7 million people.
The charges against the elderly leaders of the communist movement include crimes against humanity, genocide, religious persecution, homicide and torture.
The defendants are 85-year-old Nuon Chea, the Khmer Rouge's chief ideologist; 80-year-old Khieu Samphan, an ex-head of state; and 86-year-old Ieng Sary, the former foreign minister.
The Khmer Rouge supreme leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998.