Genocide was for Cambodia's good, trial told

Pol Pot's deputy, accused of orchestrating the Khmer Rouge's "killing fields" of the 1970s, said yesterday that he acted for the sake of Cambodia and to protect the country from invaders.

Nuon Chea responded to the horrors described by prosecutors at a UN-backed genocide trial with a political history of the Khmer Rouge and Cambodia, blaming much of the country's troubles on Vietnam – "thieves who wish to steal our land and wipe Cambodia off the face of the earth".