In pictures: Cambodia tribunal

Canadian Prosecutor, Robert Petit (L), and Cambodian Prosecutor Chea Leang, prepare to sit in the Extraordinary Chamber in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) - 17/2/2009

The long-awaited UN-backed trial of a former Khmer Rouge leader in Cambodia has started in the capital, Phnom Penh. The trial is the result of over a decade of negotiations.

Buddhist monks line up as they arrive at the Extraordinary Chamber in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) in Phnom Penh

Hundreds of people queued for hours to attend the hearing, including survivors of the Khmer Rouge's time in power and Buddhist monks, who were persecuted by the regime.

Duch talking to lawyers at the tribunal on 17 February 2008

Kaing Guek Eav - better known as Duch - was the commander of a notorious prison camp and is accused of presiding over the murder and torture of at least 15,000 inmates.

Guards and foreign journalists outside the tribunal

Duch is the first senior Khmer Rouge figure to stand trial for the crimes of the Maoist regime, which is thought to have killed up to two million people between 1975 and 1979.

Moeung Sonn, a Cambodian survivor of the Khmer Rouge, outside the courts

Cambodia asked the United Nations and international community to help set up a tribunal into the genocide more than a decade ago, but the process has faced delays.

View of the tribunal judges and spectators

Duch's testimonies may help in the trial of four leading, elderly Khmer Rouge commanders, which is due to begin later this year.

Tourists visiting Choeung Ek, one of Cambodia's "Killing Fields"

Today, tourists continue to visit the "Killing Fields" - the farmland where those who were deemed to oppose the regime's vision of an agrarian utopia were brutally executed.

Tourist taking picture of skulls at Choeung Ek

The tribunal will not be able to punish the man most responsible for the holocaust - Khmer Rouge founder Pol Pot died in 1998 in a camp on the border with neighbouring Thailand.

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