A file photo of Bizot with Duch (Photo: AFP)Thursday, April 9, 2009
By SUSAN POSTLEWAITE, Associated Press Writer
AP
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - A French scholar who was imprisoned by a Khmer Rouge official now on trial for crimes against humanity said Wednesday his captor was a "monster" but did not mistreat him.
Francois Bizot testified before Cambodia's U.N.-assisted genocide tribunal in its second week of trying Kaing Guek Eav, the main jailer for the Khmer Rouge during their 1975-79 regime.
Kaing Guek Eav (pronounced Gang Geck EE-UU) - better known by his alias, Duch - commanded Phnom Penh's S-21 prison, also known as Tuol Sleng, where as many as 16,000 men, women and children are believed to have been tortured before being executed.
In addition to crimes against humanity, 66-year-old Duch (pronounced Doik) is charged with war crimes as well as murder and torture.
Bizot was seized in the countryside while doing research into Buddhism in 1971, during the civil war that led to the Khmer Rouge seizure of power. He was held for three months and released on Christmas Day, though he said he had expected to be executed.
Duch has already given the tribunal his account of his activities up to the Khmer Rouge seizure of power, but Bizot was the first witness to take the stand. He has written a book about his experiences.
Bizot said he was testifying in memory of his fellow inmates at Duch's M-13 jungle prison.
In the courtroom, Duch listened with apparent fascination as Bizot spoke forcefully and sometimes with emotion as he described his conversations while being interrogated by Duch nearly four decades ago. Bizot was accused of being a foreign spy.
"Speaking of this monster in front of me, it was his duty to be the interrogator. His job was to write up reports on the people sent to him for execution purposes," Bizot testified.
He said he was interrogated daily but he was never beaten and Duch always interrogated him "in a polite way."
Bizot showed the judges a worn notebook that Duch gave him to write his confessions.
"I wrote childhood memories and notes of my scholarly work in Buddhism to show him I was a scholar," he said.
On Tuesday, Duch told the court how he experimented with many torture methods including tying prisoners to posts, beating them with tree branches and tossing them into communal pits before they were executed.
"The torture at that time was monitored by me closely," Duch said, detailing how he routinely ordered prisoners to be placed in communal pits until the monsoon flooded the pits, then forced them to stand out in the cold air while soaking wet.
"In general the detainees were beaten with tree branches or detainees were tied to a pole apart from one another so they could not communicate with each other," he added.
Duch is the first senior Khmer Rouge figure to face trial, and the only one to acknowledge responsibility for his actions. Four more are in custody and are scheduled to be tried sometime over the next year.
An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died under the Khmer Rouge from forced labor, starvation, medical neglect and executions.
Francois Bizot testified before Cambodia's U.N.-assisted genocide tribunal in its second week of trying Kaing Guek Eav, the main jailer for the Khmer Rouge during their 1975-79 regime.
Kaing Guek Eav (pronounced Gang Geck EE-UU) - better known by his alias, Duch - commanded Phnom Penh's S-21 prison, also known as Tuol Sleng, where as many as 16,000 men, women and children are believed to have been tortured before being executed.
In addition to crimes against humanity, 66-year-old Duch (pronounced Doik) is charged with war crimes as well as murder and torture.
Bizot was seized in the countryside while doing research into Buddhism in 1971, during the civil war that led to the Khmer Rouge seizure of power. He was held for three months and released on Christmas Day, though he said he had expected to be executed.
Duch has already given the tribunal his account of his activities up to the Khmer Rouge seizure of power, but Bizot was the first witness to take the stand. He has written a book about his experiences.
Bizot said he was testifying in memory of his fellow inmates at Duch's M-13 jungle prison.
In the courtroom, Duch listened with apparent fascination as Bizot spoke forcefully and sometimes with emotion as he described his conversations while being interrogated by Duch nearly four decades ago. Bizot was accused of being a foreign spy.
"Speaking of this monster in front of me, it was his duty to be the interrogator. His job was to write up reports on the people sent to him for execution purposes," Bizot testified.
He said he was interrogated daily but he was never beaten and Duch always interrogated him "in a polite way."
Bizot showed the judges a worn notebook that Duch gave him to write his confessions.
"I wrote childhood memories and notes of my scholarly work in Buddhism to show him I was a scholar," he said.
On Tuesday, Duch told the court how he experimented with many torture methods including tying prisoners to posts, beating them with tree branches and tossing them into communal pits before they were executed.
"The torture at that time was monitored by me closely," Duch said, detailing how he routinely ordered prisoners to be placed in communal pits until the monsoon flooded the pits, then forced them to stand out in the cold air while soaking wet.
"In general the detainees were beaten with tree branches or detainees were tied to a pole apart from one another so they could not communicate with each other," he added.
Duch is the first senior Khmer Rouge figure to face trial, and the only one to acknowledge responsibility for his actions. Four more are in custody and are scheduled to be tried sometime over the next year.
An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died under the Khmer Rouge from forced labor, starvation, medical neglect and executions.
7 comments:
Ah, you were captured in 1971 not in 1975 or after. in M-13 prison you had chance. In S-21 you were torture and executed.
i know, they are talking apples and oranges, here; it's not the same tortureous camp here. one was humane perhaps, one the other was pure evil and unjustice, meaning it was unlawful to abuse prisoners, let alone committing the atrocity all over cambodia at the time! irrelevant argument that mr. bizot is talking about here! thank you.
TON TON BIzot,in 1971 Cambodia led by Vietcong,did you see any viets,you was liberated by Vietcong not Kaing Guek Eav.
May Buddha bless khmer!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjYbwNRlX9c
16000 nad 2M cambodians did not have chsnce to testify like Bizot
Would you like to start another revolution, mr duch? You son of a bitch, you are a disgrace to khmer. Most of your associates like pol pot and Ieng sary, etc. are a bunch of stupid khmer who turned against your own people. YOu motherfuca, mr duch, you and your stupid boss pol pot are traitors to khmer people. You let china led you by the nose to start a revolution, and you are so stupid to not know that the chinese are so glad that you killed your own khmer people so that they can start sending chinese to live in cambodia. You are so stupid to understand the mastermind of the chinese who wanted people like you to exterminate all khmer so that they can come over to live in cambodia.
yes, one more thing cambodia should learn from this trial to never be stupid and kill your own people again like during the ignorant KR era! wake up, and see the world. god bless cambodia.
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