AP
IN THE courtroom, Duch, main jailer for the Khmer Rouge during their 1975-79 regime, listened with apparent fascination as Mr Bizot spoke forcefully and sometimes with emotion as he described his conversations while being interrogated by Duch nearly four decades ago.
'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,' Mr Bizot testified.
He said he was interrogated daily but he was never beaten and Duch always interrogated him 'in a polite way.' Mr 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.
Meanwhile, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Peter Taksoe-Jensen has been in Cambodia meeting government and tribunal officials about allegations that Cambodian personnel taking part in the UN-backed tribunal were forced to pay kickbacks to obtain their positions.
Defence lawyers and human rights groups suggest that the allegations, if unanswered, could sink the tribunal's credibility.
They also pose a financial threat, since foreign aid donors who provide the budget for Cambodian personnel are withholding their funds until the issue is resolved.
UN spokesman Michele Montas told reporters on Wednesday at the UN headquarters in New York that Taksoe-Jensen held several meetings over the past three days with Deputy Prime Minister Sok An.
Mr Taksoe-Jensen and Mr An worked on creating an ethics monitoring mechanism.
'The United Nations continues to believe that, for an ethics monitoring system at the chambers to be credible, the staff should have the freedom to approach the ethics monitor of their own choice and put forward complaints without fear of retaliation,' Ms Montas said.
'It remains critical to the United Nations that allegations of corruption and other misconduct are effectively addressed,' she said, adding that Taksoe-Jensen stated that the UN will also further strengthen its own anti-corruption efforts at the court.
'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,' Mr Bizot testified.
He said he was interrogated daily but he was never beaten and Duch always interrogated him 'in a polite way.' Mr 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.
Meanwhile, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Peter Taksoe-Jensen has been in Cambodia meeting government and tribunal officials about allegations that Cambodian personnel taking part in the UN-backed tribunal were forced to pay kickbacks to obtain their positions.
Defence lawyers and human rights groups suggest that the allegations, if unanswered, could sink the tribunal's credibility.
They also pose a financial threat, since foreign aid donors who provide the budget for Cambodian personnel are withholding their funds until the issue is resolved.
UN spokesman Michele Montas told reporters on Wednesday at the UN headquarters in New York that Taksoe-Jensen held several meetings over the past three days with Deputy Prime Minister Sok An.
Mr Taksoe-Jensen and Mr An worked on creating an ethics monitoring mechanism.
'The United Nations continues to believe that, for an ethics monitoring system at the chambers to be credible, the staff should have the freedom to approach the ethics monitor of their own choice and put forward complaints without fear of retaliation,' Ms Montas said.
'It remains critical to the United Nations that allegations of corruption and other misconduct are effectively addressed,' she said, adding that Taksoe-Jensen stated that the UN will also further strengthen its own anti-corruption efforts at the court.
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