'First lady' of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge, dies at 83

[SubZero]

Ieng Thirith, 'first lady' of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge, dies at 83

The Khmer Rouge wiped out nearly a quarter of the population through starvation, forced labour and execution in an attempt to forge an agrarian utopia.

PUBLISHED : Saturday, 22 August, 2015, 10:34pm
UPDATED : Saturday, 22 August, 2015, 10:34pm

Agence France-Presse in Phnom Penh

Ieng Thirith appeals for release in court in 2008. Photo: AFP

The former "first lady" of Cambodia's murderous Khmer Rouge regime died yesterday, according to a UN-backed war crimes tribunal, without victims ever seeing her stand trial on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.

Ieng Thirith, 83, was a French-educated revolutionary who became one of the few women in the leadership of the communist movement behind the horrors of the "Killing Fields" era.

She was among a handful of suspects charged by the UN-backed Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.

But the court found she was unfit to stand trial because of progressive dementia. The case against her was suspended and she was freed in 2012.

This year, she was warded in a Thai hospital with heart, bladder and lung problems.

She died in a former Khmer Rouge stronghold on the border with Thailand where many regime leaders settled after they were ousted by the Vietnamese.

"The accused passed away at approximately 10.30am on August 22 in Pailin, Cambodia," the tribunal said.

"She was released under a regime of judicial supervision. She remained under judicial supervision until her death."

Her husband Ieng Sary, former Khmer Rouge foreign minister, died in 2013, aged 87, before a verdict was delivered in his trial.

Family ties helped Ieng Thirith reach the upper echelons of power in a murderous totalitarian regime that tore children from parents and husbands from wives. The sister-in-law of late Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, she served as the regime's social affairs minister.

The Khmer Rouge wiped out nearly a quarter of the population through starvation, forced labour and execution in an attempt to forge an agrarian utopia.

The suspension of the case against Ieng Thirith was a bitter blow to many who survived the regime. Her charges of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity were never dropped, however.

As social affairs minister, she oversaw the regime's tight control of medicine supplies and allegedly ordered purges of suspected traitors in her ministry.

"Ieng Thirith was personally and directly involved in denying Cambodians even the most basic of health care," said Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which researched the atrocities.

"Justice should not be buried with the death of criminals."