Khmer Rouge horrors detailed at opening trial of alleged chief torturer

March 30, 2009
The Chief (Squamish, BC, Canada)

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - Khmer Rouge executioners threw victims to their deaths, bludgeoned them and then slit their bellies, or had medics draw so much blood that their lives drained away, prosecutors alleged Monday at the opening trial of Cambodia's genocide tribunal.

The grisly accounts were part of the indictment read into the record for the regime's chief torturer and prison warden, Kaing Guek Eav, or Duch, the first suspect to face justice a full three decades after the Khmer Rouge 1975-79 reign of terror.

Disabled survivors of the regime joined earnest young law students and other spectators in a modern custom-built courtroom on the outskirts of the Phnom Penh to watch the long-delayed proceedings get under way.

Duch, now 66, commanded the group's main S-21 prison, also known as Tuol Sleng, where as many as 16,000 men women and children are believed to have been brutalized before being sent to their deaths.

"I have mixed feelings. I am angry because the Khmer Rouge killed my wife," said 68-year-old Bou Meng, one of a handful of S-21 survivors. "I am happy because the Khmer Rouge leader was brought here today to be prosecuted.'

"I hope that the court will give me justice, and that justice will come soon," he said.

The tribunal alleges that Duch oversaw such atrocities as execution by bloodletting, and the hurling of children down three storeys to their deaths. He is charged with committing crimes against humanity and war crimes, as well as torture and homicide, and could face a maximum penalty of life in prison. Cambodia has no death penalty.

The UN-assisted tribunal is seeking to establish responsibility for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians from starvation, medical neglect, slave-like working conditions and execution under the Khmer Rouge, whose top leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998.

Duch's job was to extract confessions of counterrevolutionary activity, but "every prisoner who arrived at S-21 was destined for execution," said the indictment against him.

No witnesses testified Monday, and Duch spoke briefly only to confirm his identity and background for the court.

But the reading of the 45-page indictment against Duch provided vivid snapshots of the "Killing Fields" years.

"According to Duch, only four methods of torture were allowed: beating, electrocution, placing a plastic bag over the head and pouring water into the nose," said the indictment.

Among the more lurid accusations was that children of prisoners were taken from their parents to be put to death by dropping them from the third floor of a prison building to break their necks.

"Several witnesses said that prisoners were killed using steel clubs, cart axles, and water pipes to hit the base of their necks," the indictment said. "Prisoners were then kicked into the pits, where their handcuffs were removed. Finally the guards either cut open their bellies or their throats."

The indictment also claims that some prisoners were killed by having large quantities of blood withdrawn by medics, leaving them "unconscious and gasping."

"They took the lifeblood of people. I think it really encapsulates the utter dehumanization," said Prof. Alex Hinton of Rutgers University's Centre for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, who attended Monday's hearing.

"Today we had the historical record laid out in more detail that we ever had it before," said Hinton, author of a book on Cambodian genocide. "It's absolutely critical. So it was a very important day."

Despite the emotional weight of the allegations, a polite calm prevailed among the 500 spectators and the robed judges and lawyers, who conducted the proceedings on a stage behind a glass wall.

The defendant, neatly dressed in a long-sleeved white shirt tucked into his trousers, betrayed no emotion as he peered through glasses as court officials read the accusations aloud.

Duch's French lawyer, Francois Roux, said in February that his client wished "to ask forgiveness from the victims, but also from the Cambodian people. He will do so publicly. This is the very least he owes the victims."

Duch, a teacher before the Khmer Rouge years, disappeared after the group fell from power, living under assumed names. He returned to teaching and converted to Christianity before he was discovered by chance by a British journalist in the Cambodian countryside in 1999.

Since then he has been in detention as political and procedural wrangling delayed the tribunal's work.

Human rights groups such as Amnesty International want the number of defendants increased beyond Duch and the four senior Khmer Rouge leaders being held for trial in the next year or so.

Critics of the tribunal charge that Cambodia's government has sought to limit its scope because other suspects are now loyal to Prime Minister Hun Sen, and to arrest them could be politically awkward.

The trial resumes Tuesday, when the prosecution and defence are supposed to present opening statements. The proceeding are expected to last for several weeks.