A former member of Cambodia's genocidal Khmer Rouge regime became the first from the ultra-Maoist movement to stand trial before a U.N.-backed tribunal Tuesday.
Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, faces charges that include crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Convention during the regime's 1975-79 rule.
He is standing trial just outside the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, which is made up of Cambodian and international judges.
At least 1.7 million people -- nearly one-quarter of Cambodia's population -- died under the Khmer Rouge, from execution, disease, starvation and overwork, according to the Documentation Center of Cambodia.
More than 500 people -- including three survivors from the prison Duch ran -- filled the tribunal. About 50 people came from Kampong Thom province, the birthplace of now-dead Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot.
"I have been waiting for this hearing for 30 years. I never thought that it would happen. Now I hope that the ECCC will bring justice to all Khmer Rouge victims. I lost three members of my family during the regime and I am a sufferer of the regime," Luch Bunthort, of Kampong Thom, told The Phnom Penh Post newspaper.
The initial hearing was primarily procedural and was likely to last a few days. No one -- Duch, witnesses or experts -- was expected to speak, though Duch was in the courtroom.
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