Ex-Leader: Khmer Rouge Not 'Bad People

    The Former number two leader of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge regime is denying responsibility for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 milion people during the 1970, insisting that he and his comrades were not "bad people." Noun Chea's testimony cam Monday in a packed courtroom in Phnom Penh, as a United Nations-backed war crimes tribunal began hearing evidence in the long-waited trial.
    The 85-year-old Nuon Chea, who was chief ideologue for communist movement, and his co-defendants((former foreign minister Ieng Sary and ex-head of state Khieu Samphan)) all deny charges of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity during the regim's 1975-1979 reign. Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot died in 1988. Nuone Chea insisted that no Cambodian was responsible for atrocities. He sought to shift the blam to Vietnam, which invaded Cambodia in 1978 and toppled the Khmer Rouge regime a year later. Khieu Samphan also is expected to testify within the next weeks. In opening remarks last month, he indentified himself as a Cambodia patriot who was unware of the mass killings at the time.