AFP
KHMER ROUGE TRIALS
PHNOM PENH - A FORMER Khmer Rouge interrogator told Cambodia's war crimes court on Wednesday that his boss at the regime's main torture centre indoctrinated staff to consider their prisoners as animals.
Prak Khan, 58, was testifying at the UN-backed court against prison chief Duch, who is accused of overseeing the torture and execution of around 15,000 people held at Tuol Sleng prison, known as S-21, in the late 1970s.
'At S-21, it was only Duch who indoctrinated our stance, our absolute stance against the enemies (prisoners) and that we had to take it seriously. We had to consider the enemies as animals,' he told the tribunal.
Prak Khan's statements represent some of the trial's most damning testimony against Duch, whom he described as an enthusiastic leader who terrified staff.
But the witness also admitted his own involvement in the crimes at S-21, after the prosecution showed a video in which he told prison survivor Vann Nath that he beat a young female prisoner with branches until she urinated herself.
In testimony Tuesday, Prak Khan had told the court that Duch taught staff to torture by using electric shocks, suffocation and inserting needles under prisoners' nails.
The 66-year-old Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, has accepted responsibility for his role governing the jail and begged forgiveness for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
But the defendant has consistently rejected claims by prosecutors that he held a central leadership role in the Khmer Rouge, and says he never personally killed anyone.
Led by Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the Khmer Rouge emptied Cambodia's cities in a bid to forge a communist utopia. Up to two million people died of starvation, overwork and torture or were executed during the 1975-1979 regime.
Four other former Khmer Rouge leaders are in detention and are expected to face trial next year at the court, which was formed in 2006 after nearly a decade of wrangling between the United Nations and the Cambodian government.
Prak Khan, 58, was testifying at the UN-backed court against prison chief Duch, who is accused of overseeing the torture and execution of around 15,000 people held at Tuol Sleng prison, known as S-21, in the late 1970s.
'At S-21, it was only Duch who indoctrinated our stance, our absolute stance against the enemies (prisoners) and that we had to take it seriously. We had to consider the enemies as animals,' he told the tribunal.
Prak Khan's statements represent some of the trial's most damning testimony against Duch, whom he described as an enthusiastic leader who terrified staff.
But the witness also admitted his own involvement in the crimes at S-21, after the prosecution showed a video in which he told prison survivor Vann Nath that he beat a young female prisoner with branches until she urinated herself.
In testimony Tuesday, Prak Khan had told the court that Duch taught staff to torture by using electric shocks, suffocation and inserting needles under prisoners' nails.
The 66-year-old Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, has accepted responsibility for his role governing the jail and begged forgiveness for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
But the defendant has consistently rejected claims by prosecutors that he held a central leadership role in the Khmer Rouge, and says he never personally killed anyone.
Led by Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the Khmer Rouge emptied Cambodia's cities in a bid to forge a communist utopia. Up to two million people died of starvation, overwork and torture or were executed during the 1975-1979 regime.
Four other former Khmer Rouge leaders are in detention and are expected to face trial next year at the court, which was formed in 2006 after nearly a decade of wrangling between the United Nations and the Cambodian government.
2 comments:
i wonder where that idea came from? they have to learn that concept from somewhere as people do not bornt with it. they acquired knowledge not born with it. think about it!
again, IGNORANCE was the root of all evil in cambodia and anywhere in the world for that matter! get rid of ignorance! wake up cambodia! stop thinking like the proud tadpole in the fish bowl. it helps to think outside of the box sometimes! learn from everybody wise in the world! stop being ignorant! no more excuses for choicing to be ignorant!
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