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| Students re-enact the crimes of the Khmer Rouge regime to mark the annual 'Day of Anger' at the Choeung Ek killing fields memorial in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on May 20. Tang Chhin Sothy / AFP - Getty Images |
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| A woman wipes her eyes during the annual 'Day of Anger' at the Choeung Ek killing fields memorial in Phnom Penh. Tang Chhin Sothy / AFP - Getty Images |
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| Students from a fine arts school take part in a performance to mark the annual 'Day of Anger' at the Choeung Ek killing fields memorial. Tang Chhin Sothy / AFP - Getty Images |
CHOEUNG EK, Cambodia - Tearful
Cambodians attended a re-enactment of a massacre by the Khmer Rouge at a
"Day of Anger" ceremony Friday and demanded long jail terms for
ex-regime leaders facing trial.
Thousands of people, including monks and children, watched black-clad students mime raping, bludgeoning and shooting victims near the mass graves of thousands of prisoners at a former killing field outside Phnom Penh.
"I am speechless about my suffering under the Khmer Rouge. It was more than 30 years ago now, but I still remember my pain," said Tim Pho, 75, who lost 15 family members during the communist movement's 1975-79 rule.
The annual "Day of Anger" ceremony comes just weeks before the start of a high-profile genocide trial involving the movement's four most senior surviving leaders, including "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea.
"I want the four Khmer Rouge leaders to get very serious sentences so that they will be in jail for life," Tim Pho told AFP.
Led by "Brother Number One" Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the Marxist regime emptied cities and abolished money and schools in a bid to create an agrarian utopia.
Up to two million people were executed or died from starvation, overwork or torture during the brutal reign.
Former Khmer Rouge prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, was sentenced to 30 years in jail last July for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
He was the first person to face justice at Cambodia's UN-backed court. The case is now under appeal.
Thousands of people, including monks and children, watched black-clad students mime raping, bludgeoning and shooting victims near the mass graves of thousands of prisoners at a former killing field outside Phnom Penh.
"I am speechless about my suffering under the Khmer Rouge. It was more than 30 years ago now, but I still remember my pain," said Tim Pho, 75, who lost 15 family members during the communist movement's 1975-79 rule.
The annual "Day of Anger" ceremony comes just weeks before the start of a high-profile genocide trial involving the movement's four most senior surviving leaders, including "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea.
"I want the four Khmer Rouge leaders to get very serious sentences so that they will be in jail for life," Tim Pho told AFP.
Led by "Brother Number One" Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the Marxist regime emptied cities and abolished money and schools in a bid to create an agrarian utopia.
Up to two million people were executed or died from starvation, overwork or torture during the brutal reign.
Former Khmer Rouge prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, was sentenced to 30 years in jail last July for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
He was the first person to face justice at Cambodia's UN-backed court. The case is now under appeal.
AFP
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