PHNOM PENH (AFP)— Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court Friday charged Khmer Rouge former head of state Khieu Samphan with genocide, a tribunal spokesman told AFP. "This morning Khieu Samphan has been brought before the court and informed that the charges against him have been extended to include genocide against the Chams and the Vietnamese," Olsen said.
The UN-backed court issued genocide charges for the first time this week, a gainst two other leaders of the brutal regime -- former Khmer Rouge number two Nuon Chea and foreign minister Ieng Sary.
All three men had already been charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Last month the court announced it was investigating incursions into Vietnam as well as executions of Cambodia's Cham minority committed by the 1975-1979 regime.
Final arguments were heard last month in the trial of prison chief K aing Guek Eav, known by the alias Duch, who was charged with war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture and premeditated murder in the court's first trial.
Khieu Samphan is in detention at the court, awaiting trial along with Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary and the former foreign minister's wife, former social affairs minister Ieng Thirith.
Led by Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the Khmer Rouge emptied Cambodia's cities in a bid to forge a communist utopia, wiping out up to two million people through starvation, overwork, torture and execution.
There are now nearly 240,000 Cham Muslims in Cambodia, mainly in the central provinces, forming 1.6 percent of the population in the predominantly Buddhist country, ac cording to a recent survey by the US-based Pew Research Centre.