The communist movement's chief ideologist did not directly respond to the horrors that prosecutors described a day earlier at the start of the U.N.-backed tribunal for him and two other top Khmer Rouge leaders.
Instead, Nuon Chea gave a political history of the movement and Cambodia, insisted his role was patriotic, and blamed neighboring Vietnam for much of the country's troubles.
``I had to leave my family behind to liberate my motherland from colonialism and aggression and oppression by the thieves who wish to steal our land and wipe Cambodia off the face of the Earth,'' Nuon Chea said in his first public comments at the trial.
``We wanted to free Cambodia from being a servant of other countries, and we wanted to build Cambodia as a society that is clean and independent, without any killing of people or genocide,'' he said.
The tribunal is seeking justice on behalf of the 1.7 million people _ as much as a quarter of Cambodia's then-population _ estimated to have died from executions, starvation, disease and overwork when the Khmer Rouge held power in 1975-79.
The three most senior surviving leaders _ Nuon Chea, 85; former head of state Khieu Samphan, 80; and former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary, 86 _ are charged with crimes against humanity, genocide, religious persecution, homicide and torture. They have long denied blame.
Nuon Chea was the Khmer Rouge's second-highest leader after Pol Pot, who died in 1998 in a jungle while a prisoner of his own comrades. Prosecutors earlier Tuesday said the defendants cannot blame Pol Pot alone for the atrocities that took place.
Prosecutor Andrew Cayley said that like Pol Pot, the defendants exercised life-and-death authority over Cambodia while in power.
``The accused cannot credibly claim they did not know and had no control over the crimes that occurred,'' he said.
Prosecutors have described a litany of horrors, large and small, saying the Khmer Rouge sought to crush not just all its enemies, but seemingly, the human spirit.
Khmer Rouge rule began April 17, 1975, when it captured Phnom Penh to end a bitter five-year civil war and immediately forced the evacuation of the capital, where 1 million people had sheltered. The country was almost sealed from the outside world and most people were forced to work on giant rural communes as the Khmer Rouge attempted to create a pure agrarian socialist society.
People were deprived of any private life, and forced marriages took the place of love. Intellectuals, entrepreneurs and anyone considered a threat were imprisoned, tortured and often executed in so-called ``killing fields.''
Economic and social disaster ensued, but the failures only fed the group's paranoia, and suspected traitors were hunted down, only plunging the country further into chaos.
Vietnam, whose border suffered bloody attacks by Khmer Rouge soldiers, sponsored a resistance movement and invaded, ousting the Khmer Rouge in 1979 and installing a client regime.
Nuon Chea did little to directly address the allegations of atrocities when he spoke for about an hour and a half Tuesday in time allotted for defense rebuttals of the prosecutors' statements.
He told the tribunal he has waited a long time to explain ``a proper history'' of Cambodia to its people and thanked Cambodian heroes who devoted their life to defending the country.
Nuon Chea's co-defendants were very much the public face of the Khmer Rouge as they sought diplomatic support after being ousted. He was more secretive but became more familiar last year with the release of a documentary, ``Enemies of the People.''
I have always said I made mistakes. I am regretful and I have remorse. I am sorry for our regime. I am sorry,'' Nuon Chea told Cambodian filmmaker Thet Sambath.
But he was clear the Khmer Rouge leaders had seen their primary duty as safeguarding the revolution and said suspected traitors were killed because they ``were enemies of the people.''
In court Tuesday, Nuon Chea reiterated the Khmer Rouge's longstanding position that concern about Vietnamese intentions contributed to the Khmer Rouge's decision to forcibly evacuate Phnom Penh in 1975.
The capital's evacuation is expected to be a focus of the current trial, as the tribunal grouped similar charges together to speed the process. Allegations involving the forced movement of people and crimes against humanity are being handled now, with genocide, torture and other charges being decided later.
Even streamlined, the proceedings are likely to be lengthy. After prosecution and defense statements, actual testimony is to begin Dec. 5.
``Here in Cambodia, a unique opportunity has been given ... to set a powerful example, and to send a strong warning from the past to the future so that human beings everywhere can rightfully expect to live in peace under the law,'' Cayley said.
The defendants are old and infirm, and there are fears they won't live long enough for justice to be achieved. A fourth defendant, the Khmer Rouge's social affairs minister, was ruled unfit to stand trial because of Alzheimer's disease.
Judge Nil Nonn denied a second request Tuesday for defendant Ieng Sary to follow the proceedings from another room to ease his physical burden. The judge said it was important for all the defendants to be present for the prosecution's statement.
Some of those attending the trial have provided their own vignettes of the terror: a commune chief who said he killed others because otherwise he would have been killed himself; a man who lost four siblings and law school and police academy students born long after the regime ended.
Two-thirds of Cambodians today were not yet born when the communist group's reign of terror ended in 1979.
The tribunal, which was established in 2006, has tried just one case, convicting former prison chief Kaing Guek Eav for war crimes, crimes against humanity and other offenses. His sentence was reduced to 19 years due to time served and other technicalities.
That case is seen as much simpler than the broader current case against three higher-ranked regime leaders. Kaing Guek Eav confessed and was implicated by meticulously kept prison records.
The case has been overshadowed in the past year by claims that political interference would keep the tribunal from pursuing more suspects. Prime Minister Hun Sen has publicly declared he is against further trials, which he claimed could destabilize the country. More prosecutions could target political allies who used to be with the Khmer Rouge -- as he was himself, before defecting.
<한글기사>
170만 국민 학살 주범 '나라 위한 일'
킬링필드 주역 누온 체아, 크메르루주 전범 재판서
"숙청은 베트남의 캄보디아 합병과 민족말살 기도에 맞서기 위 한 애국적인 행동이었다."
캄보디아 `킬링필드' 주범 가운데 한명인 누온 체아(85)는 22일 크메르루주 전 범 재판에서 이렇게 말했다고 인터내셔널해럴드트리뷴(IHT)이 23일 보도했다.
누온 체아는 크메르루주 정권의 2인자였다. 1975년부터 1979년까지 집권한 캄푸 치아공산당의 부서기장을 지낸 인물이다.
그는 폴 포트가 이끈 크메르루주 집권 기간 170만명을 학살한 킬링필드의 주역 가운데 한명이다.
그는 1998년 훈센 정권에 투항한뒤, 유엔이 후원하는 크메르루주 전범재판소(EC CC)의 법정에 서게 됐다.
크메르루주 지도자가 킬링필드에 대해 법정에서 증언한 것은 이번이 처음이다.
누온 체아는 법정에서 킬링필드가 베트남의 침략 위협에 맞서기 위한 애국적인 행동이라고 주장했다.
그는 "오랫동안 기다려 왔는데 오늘에서야 말할 기회를 얻게 됐다"면서 "혁명 과정에서 나의 입장은 국가와 국민의 이익을 위해 봉사하는 것이었다"고 말했다.
그는 이어 "나는 캄보디아를 도둑질해 지구상에서 없애 버리려고 한 도적(베트 남)과 싸우기 위해 나의 가족을 돌보지 못했다"고 강조했다.
그는 이와 관련, "베트남 공산주의자들은 사이공을 함락하기 2주전인 1975년 4 월 17일 크메르루주가 캄보디아의 수도 프놈펜을 먼저 장악하자 매우 실망했다"면서 "베트남 전쟁이 끝난 이후에도 베트남 공산주의자들은 여전히 캄보디아를 침공해 병 합하려는 꿈을 버리지 않았다"고 덧붙였다.
유엔과 캄보디아 정부가 공동설립한 크메르루주 전범재판소는 지난 21일 공판을 열고 사건 발생 32년 만에 누온 체아를 비롯해 키우 삼판(80) 전 국가주석, 아엥 사
리(85) 전 외교부 장관 등 대량학살을 주도한 4인을 법정에 세웠다.
그러나 사리 전 외교부 장관의 아내이자 정권의 '퍼스트 레이디'로 불린 아엥
타리트(79) 전 사회부 장관은 치매를 이유로 재판 불출석이 허용됐다.
피고인들은 전쟁범죄, 반(反)인도적 범죄, 학살, 고문 등의 혐의를 받고 있으나 모두 이를 부인하고 있다.
크메르루주의 집권 4년은 20세기 어느 좌파정권에서도 찾아볼 수 없는 잔인함과 무자비한 보복으로 얼룩졌다.
170만명에 가까운 캄보디아인이 학살되었고, 지식인과 기술자 계층이 기회주의 자라는 죄명으로 죽어갔다.
이러한 비인간적인 야만과 학살이 `킬링필드'라는 영화로 제작되어 전 세계에 알려지기도 했다.
크메르루주 정권은 1979년 베트남군대와 이를 지지하는 캄보디아 공산동맹군의 공격으로 전복되고, 이후 캄보디아에는 베트남의 지원을 받는 헹삼린 정부가 들어섰다. (연합기사)
