Thursday, April 09, 2009

KRouge prison chief 'held in awe by guards'

Thursday, April 09, 2009

PHNOM PENH (AFP) — A French researcher who survived detention by the Khmer Rouge told Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court Thursday that the regime's prison chief was held in "awe" by his subordinates.

Francois Bizot, who wrote the best-selling book "The Gate" about his experiences under the communist movement, is the first witness to appear at the crimes against humanity trial of Duch.

"The young guards had great respect. They were in awe of the accused due to the long hours that he worked on files and general duties," Bizot told the court.

Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, last week apologised at his trial, accepting blame for the later extermination of 15,000 people who passed through the Khmer Rouge regime's main prison, Tuol Sleng.

The court this week is hearing about M-13, which Duch ran during the 1971 to 1975 Khmer Rouge insurgency against the then US-backed government, to better understand Tuol Sleng's organising structure.

In his second day of testimony, Bizot said Duch 38 years ago interrogated him at M-13 in a "very meticulous and thorough fashion" after he was arrested by Khmer Rouge revolutionaries on suspicion of espionage.

Bizot, an anthropologist, testified Wednesday that Duch was not a monster, but instead was a revolutionary on a "mission".

The 69-year-old has said he was the best treated of 50 prisoners at M-13, where inmates were shackled to a bar and wracked with malaria.

Bizot said he was never beaten and Duch spoke to him politely, making him write several statements of innocence. He was released after a few months of detention, becoming one of 10 who survived the jungle prison camp.

The Khmer Rouge were in power from 1975 to 1979. Duch is accused of supervising Tuol Sleng prison and sending thousands of people to their deaths in the so-called "Killing Fields" during that period.

The former maths teacher has denied assertions by prosecutors that he played a central role in the Khmer Rouge's iron-fisted rule. He faces life in jail at the court, which does not have the power to impose the death penalty.

Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot died in 1998, and many believe the UN-sponsored tribunal is the last chance to find justice for victims of the regime, which killed up to two million people.

No comments: