Norng Chan Phal weeping during a press conference02 July 2009
AFP
PHNOM PENH: A former child survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime's main torture centre wept Thursday as he told Cambodia's war crimes court of his harrowing separation from his mother as they arrived at the jail.
Norng Chan Phal, 39, was testifying at the trial of jail chief Duch, who is accused of overseeing the torture and execution of around 15,000 people who passed through Tuol Sleng prison during the 1975-79 regime.
"When my jeep took us to that location, I and my brother were happy because we could ride on a jeep. But then we were threatened and my mother was forced to get off the jeep and she was not very well," he told the court.
"They (Khmer Rouge cadres) shouted and threatened her and I was also terrified," Norng Chan Phal said, adding he and his younger brother were separated from his mother a night after arriving at Tuol Sleng.
Norng Chan Pal was just eight or nine years old when Vietnamese-backed forces invaded Phnom Penh in January 1979 to topple the communist Khmer Rouge, finding him with his younger brother and three other children at the prison.
The 66-year-old Duch begged forgiveness from the victims near the start of his trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity after accepting responsibility for his role in governing the jail.
But he has consistently rejected claims by prosecutors that he was a central figure in the hierarchy of the Khmer Rouge and says he never personally executed 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, torture and execution during the 1975-79 regime.
Four other former Khmer Rouge leaders are currently in detention and are expected to face trial next year.
Norng Chan Phal, 39, was testifying at the trial of jail chief Duch, who is accused of overseeing the torture and execution of around 15,000 people who passed through Tuol Sleng prison during the 1975-79 regime.
"When my jeep took us to that location, I and my brother were happy because we could ride on a jeep. But then we were threatened and my mother was forced to get off the jeep and she was not very well," he told the court.
"They (Khmer Rouge cadres) shouted and threatened her and I was also terrified," Norng Chan Phal said, adding he and his younger brother were separated from his mother a night after arriving at Tuol Sleng.
Norng Chan Pal was just eight or nine years old when Vietnamese-backed forces invaded Phnom Penh in January 1979 to topple the communist Khmer Rouge, finding him with his younger brother and three other children at the prison.
The 66-year-old Duch begged forgiveness from the victims near the start of his trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity after accepting responsibility for his role in governing the jail.
But he has consistently rejected claims by prosecutors that he was a central figure in the hierarchy of the Khmer Rouge and says he never personally executed 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, torture and execution during the 1975-79 regime.
Four other former Khmer Rouge leaders are currently in detention and are expected to face trial next year.
8 comments:
Prime Minister Hun Sen, Heing Somrin, Chea Sim and some other is a former KR.
Why all of them don't have a name and be in the trail like Duch too. I don't think this trail are fair for all the Khmer people have been lost a lot family in KR regime.
Now former KR all of them is was a Leader of Cambodia country again, soon they will be please our Land hand to Youn and Siem. This is how Hun Sen government dealing to hold on his evil power.
I'm a Khmer in blood too, so I don't want anything happen to my country agains.
My family a mong of them are got kills.
Khmer Woman in Blood
Very goo act for money.
Very good act for money.
7:38pm
I am glad that Heng, Somrin and Hun, Sen were former K.R.
I don’t know Youn bought them or not. But in fact two of these leaders had courage to save the Cambodians from the bloody hand of Khmer Rouge regime.
Without them you and I may become the skeleton that been display at Tuol Sleng.
One of the K.R. survivor.
That' was fake crying! this asshole is fake...
no children has to go through this. it is sad for children to have to go through this - losing their beloved parents at such a young, tender age. it's very emotionally painful to say the least!
Yep only Cambodian children are special, the rest of the suffering children in the world are nothing. What a laughable.
This fat guy is paid to cry while billion around the world are suffering with no food.
I don't believe that guy named Phal's testimony. I think he makes up more for sympathy and money. If he is now 39, he may be born around 1970. How can he remember all and describe everything like he was over 5 years old? Was not that same guy who're with his daughter and posed for pictures by the 2 Vietnamese agents?
May be we'd better ask Youn's agent PPU for a clarification.
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