Original subtitles

NARRATOR: August 2021.

The last surviving leader of Pol Pot’s inner circle,

90-year -old, Khieu Samphan,

asks for his 2018 conviction for complicity

in the Cambodian genocide to be overturned.

Even if his attempt were to be successful, however,

he knows he will die in prison.

His appeal against an earlier conviction

for crimes against humanity has already been dismissed.

Samphan was Head of State for the Khmer Rouge,

which ruled Cambodia with an iron fist from 1975 and 1979.

- Somewhere between 1.7 million

and 2.2 million people

died during the Khmer Rouge regime.

NARRATOR: The Khmer Rouge - the popular name for the Communist Party

of Kampuchea - came to power in Cambodia in 1975,

at the end of the Vietnam War.

Its real leader was self-styled workers’ revolutionary

Saloth Sar, or Pol Pot, as he became known.

The question is how did Pot’s small band of guerrillas

manage to take hold of an entire nation so rapidly

and with such terrifying force?

- China, the Soviet Union - later Russia,

France, the United States,

Japan, Indonesia,

have all found themselves interested

in Cambodian politics and economics.

NARRATOR: At the end of World War II,

Cambodia was under French mandate.

Prince Norodom Sihanouk was nominally ruler,

but his power was limited.

French Indochina - encompassing Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam -

was still controlled by the government in Paris.

- There was widespread sentiment

among Cambodia's urban elite

that the monarchy in Cambodia was archaic and needed to be replaced.

These people formed various resistance groups

based in various places around the periphery of Cambodia.

Sometimes they cooperated. Sometimes they were in conflict.

NARRATOR: Some of these opposition elites combined

to form the Cambodian Democratic Party.

The CDP quickly became the main political force in the country.

In these early post-war years,

the movement for Cambodian independence

gained significant momentum.

In 1953, Sihanouk travelled to Paris

to meet with the authorities of the Fourth French Republic

to make his case.

On July the 3rd of that year

France announced that it was ready to grant

full independence to Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia.

Thus, the sovereign Kingdom of Cambodia

was created and French Indochina was dissolved.

The following year, the Geneva Conference

recognised King Sihanouk as the sole authority in the kingdom,

granting him the recognition and approval

of the international community.

- Once Cambodia obtained independence from France in 1954,

King Sihanouk decided that he wanted

to continue to dominate political life in Cambodia.

So he abdicated the throne

and formed a political vehicle that he called the Sangkum Reastr Niyum,

or Popular Socialist Community.

He decided everyone should join his political vehicle.

Those who didn't, found themselves running into all manner of bad luck

with Sihanouk's security forces.

NARRATOR: In the elections of September 1955,

Sihanouk was elected Prime Minister and the Sangkum

became the sole political institution in the kingdom.

The authoritarianism of this new government,

however, triggered an armed insurgency,

to which the response was swift and furious.

- Sihanouk unleashed his security forces

on these would-be Communist guerrillas,

and largely decimated them, driving them from the cities

and reducing the revolutionary forces to

small, isolated pockets of guerrillas in the jungles.

NARRATOR: In November 1955, the Vietnam War broke out,

tearing the newly independent country in two.

- Vietnam was split into communist-controlled northern part

and a French and later American-controlled southern part.

NARRATOR: The United States wanted to prevent the reunification

of Vietnam under a communist government,

where the Soviets would be able to gain a foothold in the region.

In Cambodia, Sihanouk was caught in a dilemma.

Whilst he feared the ascendancy of the communists in Vietnam,

he also resented the interference of the United States.

He therefore adopted a policy of uneasy neutrality,

trying to avoid confrontation with either side.

But trouble for Sihanouk would come from within Cambodia.

In 1959, with the support of South Vietnam,

Thailand and America, Cambodian governor Dap Chhuon

orchestrated the Bangkok conspiracy to overthrow Sihanouk.

CRAIG: This attitude was encouraged by US intelligence agents

operating out of nearby Bangkok, Thailand.

And US intelligence agents began to supply Dap Chhuon

with money, material and equipment,

such as radio transmitters.

NARRATOR: When word of the Bangkok plot made its way

to a clearly rattled Prince Sihanouk,

he became even more disenchanted with US interference in the region.

- He considered it a foreign-inspired coup plot.

He had Dap Chhuon assassinated.

Sihanouk, thereafter, was very suspicious

of the motives and behaviour of the United States government.

NARRATOR: For Sihanouk, threats were coming from all sides.

While his distrust of the Americans grew,

deep in the Cambodian jungle,

a movement was gaining strength.

- In 1960, a very small group of communist revolutionaries -

most of whom had been educated in Paris -

broke away from the existing Khmer People's Revolutionary Party

and formed an organisation they called the Khmer Workers Party.

In 1963, the leader of that party

disappeared, probably killed by Sihanouk's security forces,

and Pol Pot -

at that time known as Saloth Sar -

became the top leader.

NARRATOR: Preoccupied with concerns about the Vietnam war

and American influence in the region,

Sihanouk paid little attention to this

incipient left-wing guerrilla movement.

But his growing mistrust of America

meant that he was willing to allow incursions into the Cambodian jungle

by the Vietcong, in order to resupply their troops.

The series of secret supply routes

in and out of Cambodia became known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

In response, and due to its growing concern

at the strengthening ties between North Vietnam and Cambodia,

the United States began secretly bombing areas

in and around Cambodia's borders from 1965 on.

- The total tonnage of bombs that was dropped on Cambodia

was in excess of all of World War II Europe,

including on the Japanese side,

Hiroshima and Nagasaki tonnage equivalent.

NARRATOR: Not only were American bombings and raids

threatening the Sihanouk government, but from within Cambodia

a rebellion was brewing.

NARRATOR: In 1965, the US started to secretly bomb

Cambodia’s borders to break the supply routes

to the North Vietnamese.

American troops, supported by South Vietnamese forces,

also attacked several villages in Cambodian territory.

The attacks went unnoticed by the American press,

and Cambodia did nothing to raise the alarm

to the international community either.

- It was not an open fact

that the US was incurring into Cambodia.

The American public did not know what was happening.

CRAIG: The long-term effect of this bombing,

for its intended purpose -

stop the flow of supplies along the trail -

was largely a failure, as the supplies continued to flow

and the Vietnamese simply repaired the trails

that were damaged by the bombing

and replaced the personnel and material

that was destroyed in the bombing.

NARRATOR: By the mid-1960s, after a decade of fighting,

there was no end in sight to the Vietnam War.

Cambodia, engulfed by the conflict,

was ruled by a leader who pretended to be neutral

whilst secretly allowing communist forces to use his territory.

Sihanouk’s behaviour was now beginning

to seriously antagonise the United States.

- It became clear to the US military that the North Vietnamese

were using the border region with Cambodia as a staging point,

not only for their troops, but as a logistical hub

to move anything they needed - weapons, arms, goods -

down to the south, down to the frontline with the US.

- He essentially was somebody who wanted to balance

between the US and the Vietcong.

And at times, that meant getting closer to the US.

At other times, it meant giving sanctuary to the Vietcong.

Somehow, he wanted to thread that needle for Cambodia.

NARRATOR: In the late 1960s, under relentless American bombardment,

Cambodia’s economy began to deteriorate sharply.

In 1967, a group of Cambodian farmers

were smuggling rice to sell it at higher prices,

avoiding government’s taxes.

Sihanouk sent army troops to normalise the situation,

but it only made things worse.

- An area of Battambang province called Samlaut,

some local farmers decided

to resist this tax on their rice crop

and they actually attacked and killed

several of the troops who were sent to collect those taxes.

Sihanouk reacted very badly to that

and he ordered a scorched earth reprisal,

burning villages and killing villagers in the area.

Unfortunately, it was a serious miscalculation,

because this revolt quickly spread to other areas of Cambodia,

very soon overwhelming the capabilities

of Sihanouk's military forces to suppress this revolt.

NARRATOR: Thus began the Cambodian Civil War,

a conflict that would pit the followers of the Communist Party

of Kampuchea, the Khmer Rouge, together with the Viet Cong,

against the forces of the Kingdom of Cambodia,

South Vietnam, and the United States.

By this point, the United States had begun

covert Operation Daniel Boone.

- The United States launched a series of reconnaissance missions

that were known initially as Daniel Boone,

where US soldiers would be inserted

into Cambodia to hide out along the trail

and observe what was happening there.

- In many ways, Operation Daniel Boone was successful.

They detected a massive buildup of Vietnamese forces

on the Cambodian border and General Westmoreland,

who was running this, said back to US HQ,

we need to launch massive attacks

to try and degrade the Vietnamese forces, stop them moving down.

NARRATOR: The Americans then launched Operation Menu,

a covert bombing campaign over Cambodia,

authorised by President Nixon and his National Security Adviser,

Henry Kissinger.

- And that resulted, of course, in

113,000 tonnes of bombs

dropped on Cambodia, or more than that,

depending on the period of time you're looking at,

but it was essentially incredibly destructive.

CRAIG: Operation Menu had the effect

of driving Vietnamese forces deeper into Cambodia,

away from the border, and indeed,

destabilising parts of Cambodia for the Cambodian government.

NARRATOR: In the eyes of the international community,

however, and even the US Congress,

Cambodia remained a neutral state

and was not an active participant in the Vietnam war.

- Operation Menu was done without any notice

by the Nixon administration to Congress.

So the relevant congressional committees

that had oversight of US military operations

did not know this was happening.

And when they found out much later, they were very displeased.

NARRATOR: In May 1969, news of the attacks

was leaked to the US press.

It was a serious setback for the Nixon administration.

The President had tried to hide the bombing campaign

from the American people and then pass it off

as a successful way to bring the war to a swift close.

- I think the American people are very thankful

that the President ordered what was necessary

to save the lives of their men and shorten this war.

NARRATOR: By 1970, American bombing raids were ripping through Cambodia

and a huge economic crisis

was threatening the country's urban elites.

In addition, Sihanouk’s inaction

in the face of Viet-Cong incursions into the country

had taken a huge toll on his popularity.

Lon Nol, a long-serving Cambodian military officer,

had been Sihanouk's army commander and defence minister.

But the general's pro-Western tendencies

increasingly clashed with the ruler's policies.

In early 1970, whilst on a mission to Moscow,

Sihanouk was overthrown by his own military and political leaders,

led by Lon Nol.

Although there is no evidence that the CIA was actively involved

in supporting Lon Nol's coup,

the general's rapprochement with the United States was evident

in its aftermath.

- US intelligence was actively monitoring the situation

in Cambodia, and US intelligence agents

became aware of this coup plot before it occurred

and they did nothing to discourage it.

Indeed, they may have even told the coup plotters

that should this occur, the United States would look upon it

with favour. In the immediate aftermath of the coup,

the United States quickly shifted policy

to support this new regime that had emerged in Cambodia,

flying in soldiers from southern Vietnam

to assist them in establishing security,

and soon providing a great deal of

military, political, economic, and diplomatic support.

NARRATOR: Cambodia's neutrality in the Vietnam War

was now officially at an end.

The Khmer Republic was established and Lon Nol's government

promised to expel the North Vietnamese communist forces

operating in Cambodian territory,

as well as dismantling the Khmer Rouge.

Cambodia was now rushing headlong into the war

in support of the Americans

and Sihanouk was plotting his return.

- Sihanouk essentially is a pretty angry figure

at that point. When he loses power in 1970,

he decides that the only way for him to return

is essentially to align himself with the Khmer Rouge.

He goes into these broadcasts to the people of Cambodia,

secret broadcasts, in which he says that he's going to return

and he's going to return with the help of this other movement,

and he creates this kind of provisional government outside

that lends support, essentially, to the Khmer Rouge

and to their eventual victory.

NARRATOR: The overthrown prince aligned himself with the Khmer Rouge

in the hope of overthrowing Lon Nol’s government.

This royal endorsement gave the Khmer Rouge

the legitimacy it craved.

- That caused an explosive growth in the communist

revolutionary movement now that everybody thought

the communist movement was led by Sihanouk;

but in fact, Sihanouk was just a figurehead.

NARRATOR: After long-time Cambodian ruler

Prince Norodom Sihanouk was overthrown in a coup

led by the leader of his armed forces,

General Lon Nol, in 1970, the deposed monarch

threw his support behind the Khmer Rouge

in the hope that it would aid his return to power.

It was not only Sihanouk's support,

however, that gave strength to the radical left.

It was also unwittingly fuelled by the actions of the United States.

- Immediately after Sihanouk was overthrown the United States

launched a major military incursion

from Vietnam into eastern Cambodia,

attempting to attack north Vietnamese base areas

along the Vietnamese-Cambodian border.

This caused North Vietnamese troops,

who were stationed in that area, to withdraw deep into Cambodia,

where they quickly seized territory throughout the country,

9greatly expanding the control

of the Communist Party of Kampuchea

and providing them the base areas they needed

to pursue their fight to overthrow the Lon Nol regime.

NARRATOR: With the Khmer Rouge strengthened,

the civil war was escalating and General Lon Nol’s new regime

was coming under serious pressure.

Sihanouk, living in exile in China,

continued to rely on the communist insurrection

as his best chance of regaining power in the country.

- Sihanouk always believed that China would be a special friend

of Cambodia, and it did, in fact,

behave that way with respect to Sihanouk himself.

I mean, he would always get special welcomes

when he visited China,

and he felt very special

or treated very special by China.

NARRATOR: China provided the Khmer Rouge with large quantities

of arms and supplies.

The Soviets, meanwhile, focused their support on North Vietnam,

to whom they provided sophisticated technological equipment,

aircraft and anti-aircraft weapons that were key

in influencing the final outcome of the war.

- At 12:30 Paris time today, January 23, 1973,

the agreement on ending the war and restoring peace in Vietnam

was initiated by Henry Kissinger on behalf of the United States

and special advisor Le Duc Tho on behalf

of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

NARRATOR: Despite Lon Nol declaring a ceasefire,

the brutal fighting in Cambodia continued unabated

even after the end of the war in Vietnam.

- The communist guerrillas did not agree to this ceasefire.

So in less than two weeks,

by the beginning of February 1973,

the United States resumed bombing in Cambodia,

struggling against the still fighting communist guerrillas there.

- I would not want to rule out

the possibilities that

we might have to take action

beyond the borders of South Vietnam,

particularly since a large part of the problem

involves infiltration through the territories

of Laos and Cambodia.

CRAIG: The Khmer Republic forces were confined

to most of the major cities of Cambodia,

surrounded almost everywhere by communist forces.

So, the Communist guerrillas and their military forces

were, in effect, laying siege to all of the cities.

US airpower beat them back

with extremely high casualties to the communist forces.

But at the same time, the United States Congress

was growing increasingly angry

with policies of the Nixon administration in Cambodia,

and by the end of 1973,

had forced a halt to US bombing in Cambodia.

- We want out of Cambodia. We want the bombing,

the senseless bombing to stop.

NARRATOR: As the United States withdrew its troops

from Vietnam and Cambodia, South Vietnamese forces

were also forced to withdraw,

weakening Lon Nol government's resistance

against the communist guerrillas.

- Due to the vast devastation and the increase in civilian harm,

it's argued that the US bombing campaigns

directly contributed to the rise of Pol Pot,

and the ruthless Khmer Rouge.

Well, it gave the Khmer Rouge a carte blanche

to conduct ruthless attacks and acts of barbarism

that we know the Khmer Rouge are known for.

You can directly link that US bombing campaign

to the genocide that follows.

NARRATOR: On April 17, 1975,

the Khmer Rouge entered the capital of Cambodia,

Phnom Penh, and deposed the military dictatorship

of Lon Nol. Thus ended the bloody Cambodian Civil War,

which had lasted for almost a decade.

However, something far worse

was about to take hold in the country...

the dictatorship of Pol Pot.

Saloth Sar was the youngest of seven sons

from a wealthy landowner’s family.

After studying in Paris in the 1940s

he joined the French Communist Party

before returning to Cambodia in 1953,

where he became one of the leaders of the outlawed

Kampuchea Labor Party.

In the 1960s Saloth Sar hid from government repression

in the jungle and formed the communist militias,

rising to become the General Secretary

of the Communist Party of Kampuchea.

By the '70s, with the power of the Khmer Rouge growing,

he changed his name to Pol Pot

and persuaded the recently deposed Prince Sihanouk to join his cause.

Once Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge swept to power in April 1975,

Prince Sihanouk returned to the country in triumph.

Sihanouk was given the position of nominal head of state,

but it was clear that he was merely a front man

and mouthpiece for the movement.

He felt powerless and began to bicker

with his communist partners. Eventually he resigned

and was held under house arrest.

- He ended up being a prisoner in his own royal palace

and then they replaced him with another Khmer Rouge,

Khieu Samphan.

NARRATOR: In 1976, a new constitution came into force

and Cambodia was renamed Democratic Kampuchea.

The Khmer Rouge’s government aimed to establish a classless society

based on the expansion of its agrarian economy.

Two million people were expelled from Phnom Penh

and forced to retire to the countryside to grow rice.

- It's difficult for most people to comprehend

how horrible life was under the Khmer Rouge regime.

The very first thing they did

was to empty Cambodia's cities

of all of their inhabitants.

Millions of people -

bankers, shopkeepers, policemen,

mothers, fathers, everyone - were marched into the jungle

and ordered to hack out new settlements,

basically, with their bare hands.

And if this turned out to be too difficult for you,

then you just died.

NARRATOR: Soon, the relentless search for "traitors within"

the revolution, began.

- So, they began to execute students,

people who were not

effectively parroting communist slogans.

As their economic policies continued to fail,

they decided there must be enemies

within their own organisation and they began to

heavily purge their own communist movement,

drastically weakening their own forces,

executing their own most well-educated members.

NARRATOR: The Khmer Rouge prison system

and torture centres were barbaric.

In just one of them, located in the capital

and known as S21,

it is estimated that at least 14,000 people died.

- The brutality of the Khmer Rouge government was legendary.

A friend of mine has written about his sister

being killed by the Khmer Rouge

when they said that she had stolen rice

or eaten rice without permission or something or another

and so, she denied it and they said she did.

And so, the way that they got to the bottom of this

was to open her up, slice her open

and see whether there was rice in her belly.

It's legendary what they did,

they just, you know, did whatever it is they needed to do

to get the answers they wanted, which tended to be

scripted answers for the party leadership.

NARRATOR: Terror reigned during Pol Pot's five-year reign,

a dictatorship that would change Cambodia forever.

- The Khmer Rouge eliminated money,

markets, modern medicine,

they eliminated religion.

They banned families and broke them up,

insisting that all love and affection

must be directed only to the Communist Party.

- Cambodians lived in complete dictatorship,

in fear of their lives. My own father was killed.

My wife's father, my father-in-law was also killed.

It was a regime that essentially did not care about life.

NARRATOR: Between 1975 and 1979,

it’s estimated that the Cambodian genocide,

led by Pol Pot's regime, killed nearly two million people.

The consequences of the Khmer Rouge regime

were also experienced outside its borders.

Its relationship with Vietnam was particularly volatile.

- After the Khmer Rouge seized power in 1975,

communist forces throughout the world -

Soviet Union, China, and North Vietnam -

considered it a great victory.

However, immediately following the Khmer Rouge victory...

..the Khmer Rouge began to attack Vietnamese forces

along the border area and offshore islands

that were disputed between Cambodia and Vietnam,

and they also expelled

all ethnic Vietnamese-Cambodian citizens.

These accumulating tensions

created conflict between Cambodia and Vietnam,

which eventually resulted

in combat between their forces.

NARRATOR: At the end of 1978,

after three years of tensions and almost continual skirmishing

along their shared border, Vietnamese forces

invaded Cambodia and began

a powerful offensive towards Phnom Penh.

The significantly smaller Khmer Rouge military

could do little to stop them.

With Vietnam's victory imminent,

the Khmer Rouge released Sihanouk to act as a spokesman,

in a plea for support from the international community.

- Vietnam has aggressed us

since the beginning

of the present...

..dry season.

Vietnam has launched against us...

..hundreds of tanks,

made in USSR.

Hundreds or thousands of tanks, I must say.

NARRATOR: In January 1979,

Vietnam forces arrived in the Cambodian capital

and seized power, establishing

the People's Republic of Kampuchea, backed by the Soviet Union.

Pol Pot's brutal rule was finally at an end.

But the arrival of a pro-Soviet government in Cambodia

further intensified the global tensions of the Cold War.

Pol Pot found refuge in Thailand,

from where the Khmer Rouge continued their struggle

to regain power in Cambodia.

Sihanouk broke away from them and founded a new political party,

the United National Front for a Neutral, Peaceful

and Cooperative Cambodia.

This would form part of an anti-Vietnam coalition.

Joining Sihanouk’s United National Front Party

in this coalition was the Khmer National Unity Front,

founded in 1979 by former Cambodian Prime Minister Son Sann,

and Pol Pot's Democratic Kampuchea Party.

- They were supported by the United States,

China, to a certain extent, European forces,

Australian forces and countries

of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

NARRATOR: On the 22nd of June 1982,

the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea

was established in exile, headed by Sihanouk,

with Son Sann as Prime Minister.

Although this government was recognised by the United Nations,

within Cambodia's borders the Vietnamese proxy government

continued to rule.

- This led to a very long standoff

throughout the 1980s, when neither Vietnamese forces

backing the People's Republic of Kampuchea

or Western forces and China,

backing the Khmer-Rouge-dominated

Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea

could achieve victory over one another.

NARRATOR: The UK, seeking to undermine Soviet influence

in the region, began covert intelligence operations

in support of the Cambodian opposition,

conducted by its Special Forces.

- In the late 1970s,

Cambodia had a puppet Soviet regime installed

and Thatcher sanctioned special forces

to train rebels

who were engaged in civil war, against the communist government.

The Americans were quite happy that Britain

was doing this because this is post Iran-Contra scandal.

And so, Reagan was quite happy that Britain and Thatcher

were taking the lead here,

it took the heat off the Americans a little bit.

NARRATOR: During the 1980s, Cambodian cities

were repopulated and freedom of movement within the country

was restored, strengthening its economy.

Schools reopened and some religious practices resumed.

But recovery was incredibly slow.

Western diplomatic and economic sanctions

imposed on the nation due to its Soviet affiliation,

remained in place.

- And as a result, Cambodia was not allowed to receive aid.

And there was an embargo on Cambodia.

NARRATOR: Hundreds of thousands of Cambodians fled the country.

The refugee camps - some of which had been set up

on the border with Thailand in the Pol Pot era - were overflowing,

and the conflict continued with little hope of resolution.

Many of these refugees joined the struggle

of the Democratic Kampuchea Coalition in exile.

By this time, the Khmer Rouge was in decline,

riddled by factionalism and desertions.

Although Pol Pot ostensibly remained in charge,

his influence was waning.

His removal from the political and military leadership

of the Khmer Rouge in the mid-1980s, finally paved the way for peace.

- This ultimately led to the Paris Peace Agreements

that resulted in a United Nations peacekeeping operation

in Cambodia between 1991 and 1993.

And, ultimately, elections,

which led to a new coalition government in Cambodia,

although the Khmer Rouge finally did not agree

to participate in that government or in the peace process.

So, there was effectively

another ten years of war in Cambodia

until the Khmer Rouge were finally defeated.

NARRATOR: With peace agreements finally in place,

a forensic examination of the full horrors

that had persisted in the country under Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge,

could finally be carried out.

- Experts studying this question over the last several decades

have come to the conclusion that somewhere between

1.7 million and 2.2 million people

died during the Khmer Rouge regime,

which was approximately one quarter

of the entire population of Cambodia.

SOPHAL: Cambodia has been set back decades economically.

Human resources lacking, their targeting of educated individuals,

people who wear glasses, for example, seen as

that means you may be able to read, therefore you should be killed.

Really targeted.

Like, when we talk about these days and complain about lawyers,

they really did kill all the lawyers in Cambodia.

There were no more lawyers as a result

and so, you can just imagine how can laws be drafted?

How can you have judicial processes?

Judges today in Cambodia, some of them are...

barely have even a high school education

and they're sitting in judgement of processes, people,

and so on that they have no idea,

really, what in the world they're doing,

and that's thanks to the Khmer Rouge,

that's what happened to the country.

NARRATOR: In 2006 a body was established

by the Cambodian government and the United Nations,

to put the leaders of the Khmer Rouge on trial.

The Extraordinary Chamber of the Cambodia Tribunal,

as it was called, raised the prospect of prosecutions

for war crimes, as well as compensation

for those who lost loved ones in the genocide.

But progress has been slow,

and convictions and settlements hard to arrive at.

- In 2021,

15 years after it was founded and began operations,

the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Cambodia

is still in operation and over that entire time,

they have only managed to achieve

three convictions of individuals

for war crimes, genocide, and other crimes against humanity in Cambodia.

International prosecutors at the tribunal

wanted to charge and try several more people,

but the Cambodian government has resisted that

on the fear that this could have

a negative impact on national reconciliation in Cambodia.

NARRATOR: Reconciliation for many survivors

of the Khmer Rouge genocide cannot be achieved until justice is done.

Pol Pot may have died in April 1998,

but the very fact that he was allowed to die peacefully,

from natural causes, rather than be tried for his horrific crimes,

has only strengthened the resolve

of those courageous survivors in their on-going fight for justice.

- (speaking Khmer)

Subtitles by Sky Access Services