Anne Barrowclough
Times Online
The prison chief in charge of the Khmer Rouge's main torture centre was integral to the genocidal regime that killed nearly two million Cambodians, a war crimes tribunal heard today.
Comrade Duch - also known as Kaing Guek Eav - presided over S-21, the regime's most notorious prison, where up to 17000 men, woman and children were tortured and killed between 1977 - 1979.
Today, as the prosecution described in grim detail the atrocities that went on behind the walls of S-21, the court heard how Duch also played a central role in Pol Pot's hardline communist regime which devastated Cambodia in its four year rule.
"S21 formed an integral and indeed vital role in a widespread attack on the population of Cambodia," said co-prosecutor Chea Leang. "The accused's crimes were part of this attack."
The wood panelled court room on the outskirts of Phnom Penh was once more packed with survivors of the regime and international observers as Duch's trial entered its second day. The former maths teacher, now a frail 66-year-old is the first of five former Khmer Rouge leaders to go on trial before the Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). His co-defendants, including Pol Pot's sister-in-law Ieng Thirith, formed part of the leader's inner cricle.
The ECCC is seeking to establish responsiblity for the deaths of 1.7 million Cambodians - a quarter of its population - from disease, starvation, and execution between 1975 - 1979. For the three decades since the fall of Pol Pot, the leaders of his regime have enjoyed impunity while their victims have continued to suffer the physical and mental effects of the nightmare of Pol Pot's 'Year Zero'.
"Today in this courtroom before the Cambodian people and the world, at long last this process begins and justice will be done," Chea Leang told the court while, behind a bullet proof screen, Duch jotted notes.
Duch, who has been charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture and premeditated murder, has admitted that he was director of S-21. He has refused to acknowledge responsibility for many of the atrocities committed under his aegis.
But international co-prosecutor Robert Petit said that people detained at Tuol Sleng, also known as S21, had been tortured "under the accused's direct orders and sometimes by his own hand."
"The policy was that no one could leave S21 alive," Mr Petit told the court.
"Victims were beaten with rattan sticks and whips, electrocuted, had toenails and finger nails pulled out, were suffocated with plastic bags forcibly tied over their heads and were stripped naked and had their genitals electrocuted," he said.
"The accused has stated that beatings by a stick was used the most because other forms of torture took too much time."
The prosecution went on to link the former maths teacher intimately with the inner workings of the regime. "Once detained there (at S-21),... new prisoners would in turn be tortured until they confess to being enemies, implicating their friends, colleages, and neighbours, creating a new list of traitors to be arrested, tortured and smashed," said Chea Leang
"By his knowledge of this attack ... Duch, as head of S-21, plays a key role in its implementation."
She said there were about 380 mass grave sites spread throughout the country and about 195 Khmer Rouge security centers of which S-21 was the main prison.
A 45 page indictment read to the court described S-21 as a place where victims were sent only to be executed. Prisoners were tortured into confessing imaginary crimes against the state then were blugeoned to death, had their throats and stomachs slit open, or were literally bled to death. Witnesses told prosecution lawyers that child prisoners were dropped from the prison's upper floors to break their necks, while a group of foreign prisoners were burned alive.
Duch taught his guards their interrogation techniques including electric shocks and pulling out finger and toe nails, according to the indictment which went on to describe how he would also join in the beatings. One witness described how Duch himself electrocuted a woman and then beat her until he was too tired, at which point another interrogator took over the torture. "He said the interrogators were laughing and joking while they adnministered the torture," the indictment states.
Duch, who faces life in prison, said he acted under orders from his superiors in the Khmer Rouge, and was often scared for his own life as he saw his peers taken to be executed.
The trial has brought back evil memories to the victims of the regime. Bou Meng, one of only 15 survivors of S-21 said film footage shown to the court, which included a corpse chained to a bed, reminded him of his wife's murder at the hands of prison guards.
"I cannot forgive Duch because of my wife's enormous life," he told reporters. "I want to punch him to death, but I respect the law and now is the time to use the law."
Comrade Duch - also known as Kaing Guek Eav - presided over S-21, the regime's most notorious prison, where up to 17000 men, woman and children were tortured and killed between 1977 - 1979.
Today, as the prosecution described in grim detail the atrocities that went on behind the walls of S-21, the court heard how Duch also played a central role in Pol Pot's hardline communist regime which devastated Cambodia in its four year rule.
"S21 formed an integral and indeed vital role in a widespread attack on the population of Cambodia," said co-prosecutor Chea Leang. "The accused's crimes were part of this attack."
The wood panelled court room on the outskirts of Phnom Penh was once more packed with survivors of the regime and international observers as Duch's trial entered its second day. The former maths teacher, now a frail 66-year-old is the first of five former Khmer Rouge leaders to go on trial before the Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). His co-defendants, including Pol Pot's sister-in-law Ieng Thirith, formed part of the leader's inner cricle.
The ECCC is seeking to establish responsiblity for the deaths of 1.7 million Cambodians - a quarter of its population - from disease, starvation, and execution between 1975 - 1979. For the three decades since the fall of Pol Pot, the leaders of his regime have enjoyed impunity while their victims have continued to suffer the physical and mental effects of the nightmare of Pol Pot's 'Year Zero'.
"Today in this courtroom before the Cambodian people and the world, at long last this process begins and justice will be done," Chea Leang told the court while, behind a bullet proof screen, Duch jotted notes.
Duch, who has been charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture and premeditated murder, has admitted that he was director of S-21. He has refused to acknowledge responsibility for many of the atrocities committed under his aegis.
But international co-prosecutor Robert Petit said that people detained at Tuol Sleng, also known as S21, had been tortured "under the accused's direct orders and sometimes by his own hand."
"The policy was that no one could leave S21 alive," Mr Petit told the court.
"Victims were beaten with rattan sticks and whips, electrocuted, had toenails and finger nails pulled out, were suffocated with plastic bags forcibly tied over their heads and were stripped naked and had their genitals electrocuted," he said.
"The accused has stated that beatings by a stick was used the most because other forms of torture took too much time."
The prosecution went on to link the former maths teacher intimately with the inner workings of the regime. "Once detained there (at S-21),... new prisoners would in turn be tortured until they confess to being enemies, implicating their friends, colleages, and neighbours, creating a new list of traitors to be arrested, tortured and smashed," said Chea Leang
"By his knowledge of this attack ... Duch, as head of S-21, plays a key role in its implementation."
She said there were about 380 mass grave sites spread throughout the country and about 195 Khmer Rouge security centers of which S-21 was the main prison.
A 45 page indictment read to the court described S-21 as a place where victims were sent only to be executed. Prisoners were tortured into confessing imaginary crimes against the state then were blugeoned to death, had their throats and stomachs slit open, or were literally bled to death. Witnesses told prosecution lawyers that child prisoners were dropped from the prison's upper floors to break their necks, while a group of foreign prisoners were burned alive.
Duch taught his guards their interrogation techniques including electric shocks and pulling out finger and toe nails, according to the indictment which went on to describe how he would also join in the beatings. One witness described how Duch himself electrocuted a woman and then beat her until he was too tired, at which point another interrogator took over the torture. "He said the interrogators were laughing and joking while they adnministered the torture," the indictment states.
Duch, who faces life in prison, said he acted under orders from his superiors in the Khmer Rouge, and was often scared for his own life as he saw his peers taken to be executed.
The trial has brought back evil memories to the victims of the regime. Bou Meng, one of only 15 survivors of S-21 said film footage shown to the court, which included a corpse chained to a bed, reminded him of his wife's murder at the hands of prison guards.
"I cannot forgive Duch because of my wife's enormous life," he told reporters. "I want to punch him to death, but I respect the law and now is the time to use the law."
1 comment:
the bottom line was the KR regime did not have to kill people to achieve their goal. but they did that anyway! we ought to discuss ways to deal with changes, and killing people is not one of these ways. this is what cambodia needs to understand as there are many many ways to do the same thing. please learn to think outside of the box for a good cause! thank you.
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