ex-Khmer Rouge Genocide Killers Finally Stand Trial For The Deaths Of 1.7 Million People.(Video)

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(CNN) -- Bou Meng walks into a big open room, sits down on the floor and points to a number, which is stenciled on the wall. Number 13. It was his prison number and the spot on the floor where he says he was shackled in Cambodia's infamous Tuol Sleng Prison.

The prisoners who entered were often killed. Bou was one of the few who survived the torture, starvation and executions routine when the Khmer Rouge were in power.

Led by the late Pol Pot, the regime was responsible for the deaths of millions of ordinary Cambodians during a four-year reign of terror that was eventually halted in 1979 by invading Vietnamese forces.

But the memories of this dark chapter continue to haunt victims such as Bou more than 30 years later, as four surviving members of the Khmer leadership, including Pol Pot's "number two," prepare to stand trial for their alleged role in the genocide.

In 1975, the Khmer Rouge ordered everyone out of the capital Phnom Penh and other cities in Cambodia to work in the countryside as farm laborers.


Bou, an artist, was sent off to work in the paddy fields. One day in 1977, he was told he was being moved away from farm life.

"I was supposed to move to the Royal University of Fine Art, but instead I was brought to S-21, also known as Tuol Sleng Prison," he says.

"The first thing I saw was the people that had long hair to the waist. Their eyes were sunken and their bodies were only bone and skin. I was so shocked."

It didn't take long before the plight of the others became his fate. He was tortured mercilessly.

But art saved his life. The prison officials asked him if he could draw Brother Number 1, the man known as Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge.

Bou said yes. They were impressed by his work, so he began working on a huge portrait that would take him months.

The Khmer Rouge government was then wreaking havoc on the entire country. It is said to be responsible for about 1.7 million deaths, roughly a quarter of the population back them.

Its aim was to create a Communist utopia but instead the regime forced Cambodians into a living hell.

City dwellers were marched into the countryside and forced to work as farm laborers. Those already living in rural Cambodia were expected to produce enough food for the country while teaching farming to those who had never done it before. Currency was abolished, and anyone with an education was considered a threat. No one was allowed modern medicine and the country isolated itself trying to become completely self-sufficient.

The results were disastrous: People died of starvation and disease as soldiers tortured and killed anyone suspected of being disloyal.

Eventually, everyone, including the soldiers, became a target due to the leadership's paranoia.

Tan Than was a soldier, although he says he never had a gun and was only given farming tools.

By 1978, a year before the fall of the Khmer Rouge, Tan and all the soldiers in his brigade were arrested and sent to work on an airport. Tan said he saw people dying of hunger as they tried to build the airport and the road leading up to it.
Cambodians have been waiting for more than 30 years for someone to be held accountable for what happened during the years the Khmer Rouge was in power.