‘We Only Killed the Bad People’: 2 Khmer Rouge Leaders, Forever Linked

Those who inflicted great harm and misery in the past serve for their actions in the present. The ghosts of the past, a potent totem to remind others that stains of inhumanity can never be sanitized by mea culpa’s. Actions have consequences, trials produce verdicts and the guilty serve for their crimes. The world has learned much since that time. Genocide, forced expulsions and re-education camps as tools to sanitize and homogenize tidy borders.

It’s so infortunate that they can’t ask the innocent 1.7 million they murdered if they should be forgiven. I will take the audacious liberty to speak for their victims and say NO.

Obviuosly, these men are terrible. But is it possible that there is some genuine sympathy or remorse in the statement by Mr. Nuon Chea that he is sorry? What about that statement indicates a “vey strange mind-set”? That his sympathy and remorse extend to non-human animals? Sympathy with non-human animals is completely appropriate and much more ethical than its absence. So why does a reporter editorialize and call it “very strange”?

Millions of people are killed and the remaining leaders say, "Let bygones be bygones." They should not live out their remaining years in comfort. It is unfortunate that they have had the freedom that they have had." Richard Nixon had "his plan to end the war in Vietnam." By expanding the war to Cambodia he destabilized the government there which opened the door to the Khmer Rouge. He kept the war going and over 20 thousand more American soldiers died. While the Western World cried against the Killing fields of the Khmer Rouge Vietnam ended the slaughter.

Criminals always want to "forget the past". Heroes want to celebrate it.

I was In Cambodia with my son and some of our Cambodian friends during this trial. As we walked through some of the "killing fields" that are now sanitized enough for tourists to enter, one of my Cambodian friends remarked that he remembered a certain tree there. He was close to weeping. My husband and I volunteered with American Refugee Committee medical group in the Kao I Dang refugee camp in Thailand in 1980. Daily we heard the histories of the refugee families' suffering. The children obviously suffered from kwashiorkor, the protein deficiency the makes their hair lose its melanin. Their knees where huge and knobby, compared to their stick-like legs. Their stomachs protruded, full of parasitic worms. In the French OB-GYN and Neonatal hospital there was a mother, pregnant, with a bullet hole in her abdomen and the xray showed the 7 month baby with the bullet in his leg. She had walked for weeks through the jungle full of mine fields, to get to the refuge camp. I recommend the autobiography of Haing Ngor (Academy Award winner for his role in "The Killing Fields" and "Cambodia Year Zero" by Francois Ponchaud. Hun Sen was a Khmer Rouge cadre who escaped to North Vietnam to avoid being murdered in the never-ending purges of the ranking cadres. The Khmer Rouge leaders were murderously paranoid, killing each other with efficiency; while the common people died of simple starvation and lack of medical care, the doctors having been targeted and killed first. Justice at last!

In countries that want to achieve dominance over their population, its common to nuke thinking people, teachers, lawyers doctors, journalists, the press etc to retain power. These people pose a threat because they can think for themselves. As for these 2 guys they should pay for what they did.

They are behaving just like Trump will once his secret "re-education camps" are discovered on remote off-limits military bases.

Thank you NY Times for exposing the truth: gentle, frail, elderly, grand parents tending gardens -- in their youth were vicious holocaust leaders. I would contrast that with hipocracy of The Economist continued defense of Islamist in Bangladesh, who in their youth killed 3M Bangalis for being "Hindu." The Economists laments repeatedly at "the injustice of hauling elderly, frail men to prison for something that happened 40 years ago."

Long overdue guilty verdict for men who killed with impunity and then passed it off as something to forget, to "bury in a hole". And now for Cambodia to move on, they will need the world's support in ridding themselves of Prime Minister Hun Sen. But I wouldn't count on America's support under the current administration. If anything, our leader will pass off the crimes as fake news.

The lesson here? Well meaning leftists/communists do engage in murderous activities for 'the greater good' on a regular basis for a century now.. about a 100 million so far.

I have traveled to the killing fields in Cambodia. You could almost hear the cries of anguish coming from the unmarked graves. In one field there was a tree that the Khmer soldiers used to bash children's brains out while their mothers watched. In an nearby internment center there were pictures of old men and women, young girls who had been raped and then murdered: student, physicians, teachers, the intelligentsia. Are these the "bad people" these men are referring to? This is one of the worst genocides in history and everyone must be held accountable. At least these men had the luxury of reaching old age.

Here we have two more examples of pathological narcissists.

Until the current leadership is dead and gone; Cambodia will never develop and grow. The Chinese and Koreans and Russians and Indians and Japanese conduct business and build roads. The masses beg on the streets. Young girls and boys are trafficked. Journalists are silenced with arrests. The Khmer rouge was brutal, vicious and they committed atrocities I will never forget. They beat babies against trees to save bullets! The torture museum and killing fields are only two of the reminders. I recommend the book, "First they Killed my Father," by Loung Ung if you want to learn more about this terrible time in history. Hun Sen is still the leader of Cambodia. He is arrogant, corrupt and brutal to his enemies.

To buy these arguments, you would have to believe that the Nuremberg trials were a gross miscarriage of justice. How many of their victims would have relished the forgiveness and mercy they now seek?

They are so old , already one step in the grave.what was the point of spending so much money on their trail instead the money could have been given to Cambodian people.The only guys who profited are the lawyers.

"In his final statement to the court, he pointed to his 500-page closing brief .... which his lawyer ... said presented the real history of the Khmer Rouge, “and not some quote-unquote FAKE history.”" The truth has been the biggest casualty of the last few years following Donald Trump's full-frontal assault on the truth. The world's most murderous despots have lined up to follow Trump's lead and have even adopted his language.

Such narcissism. They seem to think they're entitled to forgiveness. How can we forgive someone who doesn't think he's done anything wrong? Even God won't forgive you unless you ask.

I have seen firsthand the cells these men used against their “enemies.” 18” square concrete vertical“coffins”. Let bygones be bygones is insulting. Those that suffered at their hands were guilty of being educated. There can be no true justice. They are fortunate that the tribunal that holds their fate does not reflect their own inhumanity.

The Khmer Rouge is yet another example (one of the grimmest) of what happens when ideologues take over. When you're willing to kill people for nothing more than your beliefs, you're on the wrong side.

An extreme example of why dedicated radicals - of any stripe - are so dangerous. In their case, I am amazed that neither has been murdered by descendants of the victims. Willing to destroy all "enemies", as defined by themselves, to create the utopia of their dreams. Or at minimum, to root out every single reminder of what they see as "evil." They allow for no compromises -accept no voice for the opposition. Osama Bin Laden, the ISIS organizers, the Aryan Brotherhood types, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar, Venezuela's single minded leaders.... you can go on and on.

"Let by-gones be by-gones." Monstrous. These people turned Cambodia into an insane asylum. See the movie The Killing Fields to get just a taste of the unspeakable crimes they committed.