Khmer Rouge leader slams 'fairytale' accusations

A top Khmer Rouge leader accused the prosecution at his historic war crimes trial Wednesday of telling "fairytales", insisting that most Cambodian people had supported the brutal regime. Ex-head of state Khieu Samphan is on trial along with two other defendants on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide over the deaths of up to two million people during the Khmer Rouge's 1975-79 reign of terror. Prosecutors opening the long-awaited trial this week told the packed courtroom of the horrors inflicted in the "Killing Fields" era, describing the defendants as "common murderers of an entire generation of Cambodians". Such accusations were rebuffed by 80-year-old Khieu Samphan as he took the stand at the UN-backed tribunal in Phnom Penh.  "You seem to want everybody to listen to your fairytales," he said, during his hour-long statement. "I have the feeling that you really want my head on the block." Khieu Samphan, "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea and ex-foreign minister Ieng Sary all deny the charges against them relating to the hardline communist regime. Led by "Brother Number One" Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the Khmer Rouge emptied cities, abolished money and religion and wiped out nearly a quarter of Cambodia's population in a bid to create an agrarian utopia. Pol Pot's right-hand man Nuon Chea on Tuesday also rejected the allegations against him, claiming he had served "the nation and the people" by defending Cambodia from Vietnamese aggressors. In a similar vein, Khieu Samphan said he was acting to "defend my country" after a 1970 coup that installed a US-friendly government led by Lon Nol.  "Regardless of whether you like or dislike it, the majority of Cambodian people gave their support to us for our opposition to the Lon Nol regime," he said. The prosecution has said the defendants knew about and participated in crimes such as forced evacuations, enslavement at labour sites, the "smashing" of enemies and the genocide of Cham Muslims and the Vietnamese. But Khieu Samphan denied he knew what was happening. "Do you really think... that when I visited these worksites alone or accompanied by the king (Norodom Sihanouk), workers were being murdered in front of us with holes or bullets in the back of their necks?" But victims at the court weren't convinced. "He wants to be acquitted. I don't believe him." said farmer Kang Sopheap, 52, who lost five relatives under the regime.  Khieu Samphan's famed French lawyer Jacques Verges, who has acted for some of the world's most infamous figures including Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie, urged judges to remember the accused were "human beings". "They suffered and made mistakes but to paint them as monsters totally responsible for the situation is totally unreasonable." Third defendant Ieng Sary, the international face of the secretive movement, also took the stand on Wednesday. Sitting in a wheelchair, the frail-looking 86-year-old said he would take part although he disagreed with the court's ruling that a royal pardon and amnesty granted to him in 1996 did not bar him from further prosecution. The trio's case, the tribunal's second and most important, is seen as vital to healing wounds in the still-traumatised nation. Absent from the courtroom was the fourth accused, Ieng Thirith -- the regime's "First Lady" and the only female leader to be charged by the court -- after she was ruled unfit for trial last week because she has dementia. Owing to fears that not all of the elderly accused, who suffer from various medical ailments, will live to see a verdict, the court recently split their complex case into a series of smaller trials. With the opening statements now concluded, the tribunal will begin hearing evidence on December 5 in the first mini-trial, which will focus on the forced movement of the population and related crimes against humanity. In its first case, the court sentenced Khmer Rouge jailer Duch to 30 years in jail last year for overseeing the deaths of some 15,000 people. Duch is expected to be a witness in case two.