The former foreign minister of Cambodia‘s brutal Khmer Rouge regime has been cremated, with about 1,000 people paying their farewell to Ieng Sary.
His widow, former Social Affairs Minister Ieng Thirith, and many old comrades in the notorious communist movement that ruled Cambodia from 1975-79 attended the ceremony Thursday in the country’s west.
Ieng Sary‘s death from cardiac failure on March 14 ended the chance he might be punished for his role in the regime, which oversaw the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people from starvation, disease, overwork and execution.
He was being tried at the time of his death by a U.N.-backed tribunal for crimes against humanity and other offenses. Two co-defendants remain: former head of state Khieu Samphan and ex-chief ideologist Nuon Chea.