Pol Pot's deputy has told a court the Khmer Rouge were not bad people, blaming deaths of Cambodians under the Maoist regime on neighbouring Vietnam.
Nuon Chea made the comments at his genocide trial at a UN-backed court in Phnom Penh.
The BBC reports it was the first time he had faced questioning over his role in the regime's four-year rule, which left as many as two million Cambodians - about a third of the population - dead.
Nuon Chea, 85, is being tried with two other senior members of the Khmer Rouge. All three deny the charges. The trial began last month.
He said the killings between 1975 - 1979 were carried out by rogue elements and the Vietnamese.
The case against the three elderly men is split into a number of smaller trials, in case they die before the proceedings are completed.
The first mini-case focuses on the forced movement of urban populations into the countryside, where many city-dwellers died from starvation and overwork, and associated crimes against humanity.
Khieu Samphan is also due to address the court but Ieng Sary has refused to testify.
first case was the trial of Duch, the former Khmer Rouge prison chief who oversaw the torture and execution of thousands of inmates at Tuol Sleng prison.
He was convicted of crimes against humanity last year.
