In opening statements in one of the world's most high-profile genocide trials on November 21, prosecutors said former President Khieu Samphan, ex-Foreign Minister Ieng Sary and second-in-command Nuon Chea had called the shots in the bloody "Killing Fields" revolution that wiped out a quarter of the population and destroyed the lives of millions of survivors.

The three were top henchmen of Pol Pot, the late architect of the "Year Zero" revolution under Democratic Kampuchea, as the regime was known. Between 1.7 and 2.2 million people died from 1975-79 of torture, execution, disease, overwork or starvation.

The defendants, who are charged with war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, showed no emotion as Cambodian co-prosecutor Chea Leang delivered powerful opening statements to a packed tribunal.

"Every Cambodian who was alive during this period was affected by the criminal system of oppression which these accused put in place. The death toll is staggering," Chea Leang said.

Reuters