Cambodia's torture prison survivors testify at tribunal

July 3, 2009
ABC Radio Australia

In Cambodia, evidence is being heard against the former head of the notorious Tuol Sleng prison, Comrade Duch.

Only a handful of prisoners survived Tuol Sleng, during the four years of Khmer Rouge rule. Yesterday, a former child survivor, now aged 39, cried as he told the Khmer Rouge Tribunal of being separated from his mother at the jail.

Presenter: Robert Carmichael
Speakers: Bou Meng, S21 survivor

Click to listen to the audio program (Windows Media)

(sounds from court)

CARMICHAEL: There is a famous black and white photograph taken in Cambodia in the early 1980s. It shows seven men standing with their arms around each other outside a non-descript building.

The photograph is remarkable not for its quality or composition, but for the experience the seven men shared. They were the only known survivors of the former Khmer Rouge prison known as S-21, where perceived enemies of the Khmer Rouge state were imprisoned, tortured and murdered.

More than 15,000 people were sent to S-21 between 1975 and January 1979, when the Khmer Rouge regime was finally overthrown. Just a handful survived.

Although the seven men were prisoners and therefore marked out for certain death, they survived because they had skills useful to the prison commander, Comrade Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav.

In the three decades since that photograph was taken outside S-21, four of the seven men have died.

But this week in Phnom Penh, the remaining three gave evidence to the UN-backed tribunal, where the former commander of S-21, Comrade Duch, is on trial for crimes against humanity.

Their testimony brought to life the horrors of the time, during which two million Cambodians died.

Bou Meng, an artist who testified on Wednesday, survived 18 months at S-21. When he was arrested and taken to S-21 in mid-1977 he was shackled with other prisoners to a metal bar in what had been a classroom at the former school.

MENG (translated): In that room there were about 30-40 of us. In one corner I saw a tall, white foreigner who was detained there as well near me. He received the same thin gruel ration as the rest of us. We had very little rice. I was so skinny. I had no strength.

CARMICHAEL: All three men spoke of the agonising lack of food and water, and of being treated worse than animals. And they told of torture - beatings and whippings, electric shocks, toenails pulled out with pliers. The purpose was to get them to confess to being part of an imagined KGB/CIA plot against the state, after which they would be killed. It was standard procedure at S-21.

The presiding judge asked Bou Meng whether he was told why he and his wife - whom he never saw again - had been arrested.

They didn't tell us anything, Bou Meng replied. They just told them that the Orwellian state - known as Angkar - was all-seeing and all-knowing.

MENG (translated): I said, 'My wife and I are orphans. What mistakes have we made?' They replied, 'You, you contemptible. You don't have to ask. You know that Angkar has many eyes like a pineapple. If you hadn't made a mistake, Angkar would not have arrested you.'

CARMICHAEL: Bou Meng and his wife were falsely accused. So were many of S-21's inmates, including the other two witnesses who spoke this week.

Vann Nath, who is also an artist, told the court that S-21 had robbed him of his dignity.

Up to 60 prisoners were shackled in large common rooms. He said prisoners died one after another, and late in the evening the corpses would be unshackled and removed.

He told the judges that he ate his meals next to the dead, and said he didn't care because the prisoners had become like animals.

After more than a month, one of the guards came for him. Vann Nath gave up hope, knowing he would now be killed.

But Comrade Duch, the prison commander, put Vann Nath to work alongside Bou Meng painting giant canvases of the senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge. Vann Nath survived for a year.

The third witness, a mechanic called Chum Mey, told the court how he was arrested and taken to S-21. He too was tortured and forced to confess to being part of a spurious CIA/KGB network designed to bring down the state.

But as with the two artists, Chum Mey had a skill. Duch needed someone who could fix sewing machines, a water pump, typewriters. And so Chum Mey was put to work.

Recalling their memories was unsurprisingly distressing. All three men broke down in the witness box during the day they were given to testify.

Their harrowing testimony highlights the personal losses carried by millions of Cambodians. Bou Meng's wife disappeared at S-21 and was almost certainly murdered there. Chum Mey's wife and four children all died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. Vann Nath's wife survived the Khmer Rouge years, but their two children died.

The three made it clear that they can't escape their pasts. As Vann Nath told the court: Even though I have tried my best to forget, what happened at S-21 still haunts me.

It haunts Chum Mey and Bou Meng too, as Bou Meng said over and over again. The former painter still can't understand why he was arrested.

MENG (translated): In our cooperative my wife and I worked hard every day. Even today I cannot think what mistake I made.

CARMICHAEL: This is Robert Carmichael in Phnom Penh for Connect Asia.

Third Survivor Takes Stand in Duch Trial

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
02 July 2009

Continuing a week of survivor testimony at the Khmer Rouge tribunal, Bou Meng, who lived through Duch’s infamous Tuol Sleng killing machine, described to the court Wednesday suffering and torture as an inmate.

Bou Meng and his wife were taken as they planted vegetables at Talay village, in Kandal province in mid-1977 and sent to Tuol Sleng.

Bou Meng told the court that Khmer Rouge security guards arrived in a car, telling them they were needed to teach students at the School of Fine Arts.

“I felt much satisfaction with that news,” he recalled.

That satisfaction soon turned to suffering, as the two were brought to Tuol Sleng.

Bou Meng, now 68, choked with tears in the court on Wednesday, recalling his time in the prison, where prosecutors say Duch, whose real name is Kaing Kek Iev, sent 12,380 people to their deaths, following confessions coerced through torture.

Bou Meng and his wife were handcuffed and blindfolded and taken to a cell within the prison, where Bou Meng was then beaten with a cane, made perhaps of rattan or bamboo, and was electrocuted.

“Each of the five interrogators beat me until he was exhausted,” Bou Meng said.

Bou Meng developed gangrene on his back, which hurt worse than his beatings and left behind scars he showed tribunal judges. “The treatment of my gangrene was without medicine,” he said. “Only salt water covered my gangrene.”

Guards at the prison, known to the Khmer Rogue as S-21, would beat the inmates and interrogate them twice a day, from 7 am to noon or 1 pm, and again from 2 pm to 7 pm, he said.

“All the inmates in S-21 prison looked like ghosts, because they had long hair, deep-set eyes and were very thin,” he said. “They looked like ghosts in the real world.”

Duch, who is now 66 and faces charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture and murder, for his role at the prison, sat silently through Bou Meng’s testimony.

He has already admitted to orchestrating torture and killings, and has apologized to victims and their families. Now a Christian, he has sought forgiveness, and he has never admitted to doing any killing himself.

Bou Meng said Wednesday he hoped the tribunal could find at least some justice for him.

“If I cannot receive 100 percent justice, I can receive between 50 percent and 60 percent,” he said.

“Even 50 or 60% of justice is fine with me”: Bou Meng

01 July 2009
By Florent Chevalier
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Tola Ek
Click here to read the article in French

On Wednesday 01 July, the ECCC questioned the third survivor of S-21, he is one of the 9 people called in for hearing.

For three hours in the morning, Judge Nil Nonn asked Bou Meng about details of this imprisonment in Tuol Sleng. The witness, a small stooping man with white hair, slowly approached the dock with a bunch of black and white photos in his hand.

“I am 68-year-old, I live in Kampong Kong, Kandal province. Since my detention at S-21, I am physically weak, I have hearing and sighting problems. I remarried, my first wife died under Pol Pot’s regime,” he declared.

Then, he went on to tell that, prior to 17 April 1975, he joined “the maquis [resistance] to fight for king Norodom Sihanouk.” He then obeyed the order issued by Angkar for him to teach at the technical school in Russey Keo, or to work at a farming cooperative “up to his physical limit,” in order to dig canals, or grow vegetables treated with “human waste, i.e. the so-called no. 1 fertilizer.”

One day, several men in black arrived, he and his wife were loaded into a Jeep under false pretext, and they were brought to S-21. Once their pictures taken, they no longer saw each other. After facing torture and questioning, Bou Meng found the strength to deny over and over his membership to foreign secret services. “I didn’t even know what was the CIA or the KGB network!” he explained. But when he talked about the beatings, he broke down. “I soaked in my blood, I was in shock, and I felt extreme pain.”

Regarding his wife’s fate, he does not know about it. The only thing he knew was when somebody said to him one day from a window: “your wife works in the rice field!” “I knew she died,” he said with his head hung low. “Duch said that they could use human fertilizer, I knew what it meant.”

Like the witness of the day before, it was thanks to painting that he is still able to testify today. “I survived because I was able to paint Pol Pot’s portrait faithfully,” he explained to the court while showing a photo of one of the four large size portraits of Pol Pot.

Regarding Duch, Bou Meng added: “He sat near me and looked at me painting the portrait of Ho Chi Minh on a dog body, for example.”

Up to now, he still does not know why Angkar, which he was devoted to, sent him to S-21. When the judge questioned him, Bou Meng turned to Duch who was listening passively, like a bystander of his own trial. “Like a pineapple, Angkar has eyes everywhere. We know that you have committed offenses,” a Khmer Rouge allegedly replied to him during that time. Bou Meng swore that he never detracted from the regulation. But, now, he is asking for justice. “Even 50 or 60% of justice is fine with me!” he shouted with tears choking his voice and the presiding judge asking him to compose himself.

Where is my wife? Khmer Rouge survivor begs tormentor

Jul 1, 2009
DPA

Phnom Penh - A survivor of a notorious Khmer Rouge torture prison on Wednesday begged his former jailer to reveal where and when his wife was executed during the Maoist group's bloody rule more than 30 years ago.

Bou Meng, 68, who is one of only a handful of survivors from the S-21 prison in Phnom Penh, told Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes tribunal that he had not seen his wife since the couple was imprisoned in 1977.

He then addressed his testimony to the defendant, Kaing Guek Eav, who is known by his revolutionary alias Duch and is the former chief of S-21, also known as Tuol Sleng.

'I would like to ask him if she was smashed at Tuol Sleng or at Choeng Ek,' Bou Meng asked, referring to a 'killing field' on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. 'If he can tell me, then I can go there and collect her ashes and pray for her soul.'

Duch, who faces charges of crimes against humanity and breeches of the Geneva Conventions, said he had never heard of Bou Meng's wife but apologized for her death.

'It would have been done by my subordinates, and it probably would have been done at Choeng Ek,' he said. 'Emotionally, I am responsible for all these crimes, but they were ordered by people higher up.'

Bou Meng told the court he was tortured at S-21 but escaped death by painting portraits of Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot. However, he said his wife suffered the same fate as more than 15,000 people who were murdered after being detained at the torture facility.

'They regularly beat me, and one day, they used an electrical wire to electrocute me, and I immediately fell unconscious,' Bou Meng said. 'They also poured water over my face, and then I also fell unconscious.'

Duch is one of five former Khmer Rouge leaders facing trial for their roles in the deaths of up to 2 million people through execution, starvation or overwork during the group's 1975-1979 rule.

He has admitted guilt and apologized for his crimes, but his lawyers have sought to prove his role in the torture and executions was minimal because, they said, he was only acting on orders.

But Bou Meng told the court he had witnessed Duch instruct guards to beat prisoners and recounted the horrific scenes he saw when he first arrived at the prison.

'I arrived in the group cell, and everyone in there looked like hell,' he said. 'I was dizzy when I entered the room and so scared.'

The artist and teacher said Khmer Rouge soldiers fooled him and his wife into travelling to the prison by telling them they had been given jobs at a college of fine arts.

'I was planting vegetables and digging canals, so I was happy that I would teach students at the college of fine arts because I thought then I would be working in my profession,' he said.

When they arrived in Phnom Penh, the two were handcuffed and blindfolded and, like all prisoners sent to S-21, taken to be photographed, interrogated and forced to sign confessions, Bou Meng said.

'That photograph is the only photograph I have of my wife,' he said. 'The others were destroyed after the Khmer Rouge came to power.'

He said interrogators beat him with sticks and whips, asked him when he joined the CIA, the US intelligence agency, and how many people he had recruited as well as interrogated him about the Soviet intelligence agency.

'They asked me all about the KGB and the CIA but did not even know what they were,' he said.

Like fellow S-21 survivor Vann Nath, Bou Meng was eventually taken to a separate part of the facility and forced to paint portraits of Pol Pot, who eventually died in 1998 without being brought before a court.

Bou Meng never saw his wife again.

'I survived because I could paint the perfect portrait of Pol Pot,' he said. 'I am here because I do not know what happened to my wife and why she is gone and why she was tortured.'

The tribunal was established in 2006 after a decade of negotiations between the Cambodian government and the United Nations.

Duch is so far the only one of the five former Khmer Rouge leaders to be indicted on war crimes charges, and if convicted, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

"I was ordered to paint a picture of Ho Chi Minh's head on the body of a dog": Bou Meng

Khmer Rouge survivor's paintings saved his life

Thursday, July 02, 2009
By SOPHENG CHEANG

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — A survivor of the Khmer Rouge's main prison said Wednesday that his ability to paint larger-than-life images of the regime's late leader, Pol Pot, and portraits of other communist icons helped save his life.

Bou Meng is one of only three living survivors of S-21 prison — all of them apparently spared because of skills deemed useful to the "killing fields" regime of the 1970s.

The artist was put to work painting portraits that glorified Mao Zedong of China and North Korea's Kim Il Sung and another that mocked Ho Chi Minh, the father of Vietnam's communist revolution.

"I was ordered to paint a picture of Ho Chi Minh's head on the body of a dog," 68-year-old Bou Meng told a U.N.-backed tribunal. Cambodia's archenemy was neighboring Vietnam, which eventually invaded to oust the Khmer Rouge in 1979.

Bou Meng was the third and final S-21 survivor to testify at the U.N.-backed trial of Kaing Guek Eav — better known as Duch — who headed the Khmer Rouge's notorious facility in Phnom Penh between 1975-1979. An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died from forced labor, starvation, medical neglect and executions under the regime.

Duch is accused of overseeing the torture of some 16,000 prisoners before they were executed. Seven people are believed to have walked out of S-21 alive, only three of whom are alive today.

Bou Meng, like the other two survivors, said torturers beat him relentlessly to force a confession that he was a CIA spy.

"I didn't even know what the CIA was," he said. "I kept repeating my answer and they kept beating me."

The beatings stopped when his jailers found out he had a skill that could serve them.

"I survived because I could paint exact portraits of Pol Pot," he said. His first job was to copy Pol Pot's image from a photograph and make a towering painting that was 10 feet high and 5 feet wide (3 meters high and 1.5 meters wide). It took three months to complete.

Duch then ordered him to make three more paintings of Pol Pot and the other communist leaders.

Duch would sometimes oversee his work and smile at him when he did a good job or give him cigarettes, Bou Meng said.

Survivor Chum Mey, 79, testified Tuesday that he endured beatings, electric shocks and had his toenails pulled out but was spared execution because he knew how to fix cars, tractors, sewing machines and typewriters.

The only other living survivor, 63-year-old Vann Nath, testified Monday that he too escaped execution because he was an artist and painted portraits of Pol Pot.

Duch, (pronounced Doik), is charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes and murder. He has previously testified that being sent to S-21 was tantamount to a death sentence and that he was only following orders to save his own life.

Duch is the first senior Khmer Rouge figure to face trial and the only one to acknowledge responsibility for his actions. Senior leaders Khieu Samphan, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary and Ieng Sary's wife, Ieng Thirith, are all detained and likely to face trial in the next year or two.

Khmer Rouge survivor tells how painting saved his life

One of only three remaining survivors of the Khmer Rouge's most notorious prison has testified how his life was saved because of his skill at painting.

01 Jul 2009
By Thomas Bell, South East Asia Correspondent
The Telegraph (UK)

Over 14,000 men, women and children were sent to the S-21 torture centre, also known as Toul Sleng, housed in a disused Phnom Penh high school.

Only seven prisoners are known to have survived of whom only three are alive today. They have become the first victims of the Khmer Rouge to confront their persecutor in court as the commandant of S-21, known as Duch, goes on trial for crimes against humanity.

"I survived because I could paint exact portraits of Pol Pot," said Bou Meng, 68, referring to the Khmer Rouge leader described as "Brother Number One".

Bou Meng also painted other propaganda pictures, including attacks on the regime's enemies in neighbouring Vietnam. "I was ordered to paint a picture of Ho Chi Minh's head on the body of a dog," he testified.

Up to two million Cambodians were executed or died of starvation and overwork in little over three years of the Khmer Rouge's ultra-Maoist rule between 1975-79. It has taken 30 years of negotiation and procedural wrangling for the first trial of a senior commander to begin in a court jointly run by Cambodia and the United Nations.

Another witness, Bou May, was sent to S-21 with his wife in 1977.

"There is a question I would like to ask to Mr Kaing Guek Eav," he told the court, using Duch's full name.

"I want to know if he asked his subordinates to smash my wife at [S-21] or Choeung Ek [the so-called killing field where prisoners were executed] so I can collect her ashes to make her soul rest in peace."

Duch replied calmly: "I expect she was killed by my subordinates."

Duch (pronounced Doik) was a senior official but not one of the leaders of the regime.

Some leaders, including Pol Pot, have already died but the four most senior survivors are all in custody awaiting trial.

However they are in failing health and many observers fear that continuing delays effecting the court will make Duch the only man to stand trial for the Khmer Rouge's crimes. In that case the three S-21 survivors will be the only victims to have their day in court.

Another crowded day at the ECCC as third S-21 survivor speaks

Bou Meng testifies at the tribunal, photo courtesy of the ECCC (above)
File photo of Tuol Sleng survivors, Bou Meng third from right (at right).

July 01, 2009
Posted by Elena
The Post.blogs

It was another full house today at the ECCC as Tuol Sleng survivor Bou Meng testified before the chamber. The Public Affairs Office has done a wonderful job of getting people out to the court this week and I hope the trend continues. While hearings have often been sparsely attended in the past -- partly due to the incredibly inconvenient location of the tribunal -- new Public Affairs head Reach Sambath said his office recently ran a series of radio announcements. The public response has been fantastic. The tribunal has hosted hundreds of villagers and students every day this week and another large crowd is expected for tomorrow's hearing.

They have been able to witness compelling testimony. Following fellow Tuol Sleng survivors Vann Nath and Chum Mey, Bou Meng described to the court today the torture he experienced under the Khmer Rouge and how his painting abilities saved his life. He is a strikingly small man, his body heavily scarred and teeth missing from the beatings inflicted on him at Tuol Sleng. The torture also damaged his hearing and he explained to judges that court officials had helped him obtain a hearing aid.

In the morning, Chamber President Nil Nonn asked Meng to remove his shirt to show judges the scars on his back -- a request that was objected to by civil party lawyer Silke Studzinksy. After a brief recess, the judges withdrew the request, which I believe was the right decision. It feels somehow exploitative to have torture survivors strip in open court. If judges decide they need to see the scars, they have agreed that photographs can be taken in private of Meng's injuries.

Along with detailing the torture he suffered, Meng described the psychological toll of the Khmer Rouge years. He said he has sought psychological help and currently takes two tablets daily, one for insomnia.

Although Meng said he believed his testimony would "help bring peace and justice," he added that he was ashamed that he had been unable to save his wife. The last time he saw her was when they were photographed together at S-21.

He asked Comrade Duch whether his wife had been "smashed" at Tuol Sleng or Choeung Ek, because he wants to collect her ashes and pray for her soul.

With some of the most emotion he has shown so far, Duch's face dissolved into tears as he responded to Meng.

"Especially by you I have been moved," he said, turning his face away from cameras to recompose himself. " ... My respect to the soul of your wife."

But he didn't have a definite response. Duch told Meng he believed his wife was killed at Choeung Ek and that he should check with former guard Him Huy, who is expected to testify in the near future.

KRouge survivor begs jail boss over wife's fate

Wednesday, July 01, 2009
By Patrick Falby

PHNOM PENH (AFP) — A distraught survivor of the Khmer Rouge's main prison has urged his former jailer to reveal the truth about his wife's execution three decades ago so he could finally collect her ashes.

Bou Meng was asked by the judge at Cambodia's war crimes court to compose himself as he testified against prison chief Duch, accused of overseeing the extermination of 15,000 people at the communist regime's Tuol Sleng prison.

The 68-year-old also described how his torturers beat him bloody to make him confess to being a CIA spy, but said that he escaped his wife's fate after he was put to work painting pictures of Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot.

"There is a question I would like to ask to Mr. Kaing Guek Eav," Bou Meng said, using Duch's full name.

"I want to know if he asked his subordinates to smash my wife at (Tuol Sleng) or Choeung Ek (the so-called killing field where prisoners were executed) so I can collect her ashes to make her soul rest in peace."

Bou Meng said that under the regime he first worked at a technical school, then was made to build dams and canals and finally planted vegetables before he and his wife were taken in 1977 to Tuol Sleng.

"My wife and I put our hands behind our backs, and then they cut our hands. Then my wife cried and said, 'What did we do wrong? We are both orphans,'" said Bou Meng, the third survivor to testify this week.

The couple were then blindfolded with black cloth, Bou Meng said, and he realised they were being sent to prison as they were taken to be photographed.

"That (Tuol Sleng photo) is the only photograph I have of my wife with me today," Bou Meng said.

The court was shown the photo of his wife, Ma Yoeun, who Bou Meng said was about 25 at the time. With the number 331 pinned to her black shirt, she looks directly from the frame with a worried, pleading expression.

Bou Meng said that during torture sessions blood flowed to the floor.

"(My torturer) asked me to count the lashes. And when I got to 10 lashes he said, 'How can you get to 10 lashes? You've only had one lash,'" he recalled, taking out a handkerchief to wipe his eyes.

"Every time they beat me up, they asked me questions. When did I join the CIA and who introduced me to the CIA network? I did not know what a CIA agent or network was, so how could I respond?" he added.

As Bou Meng wept, the presiding judge at the UN-backed tribunal, Nil Nonn, asked him to "be strong" so he could deliver testimony.

"If your emotion overwhelms you, it is unlikely we'll get another time to hear your account," Nil Nonn said. "This is a day you have been waiting for for so long. I know you are feeling emotional."

Bou Meng recovered and told the court how in late 1977 or early 1978 he was spared because of his artistic ability painting three-metre-high (10 feet) canvasses of the secretive Khmer Rouge "Brother Number One".

"I survived because I could paint an exact portrait of Pol Pot," he said, adding that Duch often visited the workshop and gave instructions -- including to omit an apparent lump on Pol Pot's neck.

"He ordered me: 'You should adjust the throat. It's not a tumour -- it's just fat," Bou Meng said.

But he contradicted testimony by fellow artist and prisoner Van Nath, who said that Duch once kicked Bou Meng in the head. Duch, however, did one day order him and another prisoner to fight each other with black plastic tubing.

"He sat there watching us beat each other up. After a while, he ordered us to stop," Bou Meng said. "He did not treat me like a human being."

Earlier in his trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity, the 66-year-old Duch begged forgiveness from the victims 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 -- under which up to two million people died -- and says he never personally executed anyone.

Former Khmer Rouge prisoner describes torture at S-21

July 1, 2009
Anne Barrowclough in Sydney
The Times Online (UK)

One of the last four survivors of the Khmer Rouge's most infamous jail wept today as he told a Cambodian war crimes tribunal how he lost his wife at Tuol Sleng prison after the couple were arrested by the regime.

Bou Meng, 68, never saw his wife again after the couple were taken to Tuol Sleng, accused of being CIA spies.

He told the UN backed tribunal that he was whipped for hours every day as his torturers tried to force him to confess to being a spy, although he did not even know what the CIA was.

He had to stop several times to compose himself as he described the torture sessions to the court on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, the capital.

"(My torturer) asked me to count the lashes. And when I got to 10 lashes he said, 'How can you get to 10 lashes? You've only had one lash,'" Bou Meng said, taking out a handkerchief to wipe his eyes.

"Every time they beat me up, they asked me questions. When did I join the CIA and who introduced me to the CIA network?... I did not know what a CIA agent or network was, so how could I respond?" he added.

Mr Bou was testifying at the trial of Duch, the notorious director of Tuol Sleng who is accused of crimes against humanity, torture and the murder of 15000 people. Mr Bou was one of only 14 adult prisoners who walked out of Tuol Sleng alive when the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia in 1979, bringing to an end Pol Pot's four year long genocidal regime.

He had survived the horror of Tuol Sleng - where prisoners were brought to be tortured to death - because he was able to paint Khmer Rouge propoganda. He told the court that before his and his wife's arrest in 1977 he had worked at a technical school, was forced to the limit of his physical abilities building dams and canals, and finally planted vegetables.

"My wife and I put our hands behind our backs, and then they cut our hands. Then my wife cried and said, 'What did we do wrong? We are both orphans,'" Bou Meng told the court.

The couple were blindfolded with black cloth, Bou Meng said, and he realised they were being sent to prison as they were taken to be photographed.

"That (Tuol Sleng photo) is the only photograph I have of my wife with me today," he said.

He is the third former prisoner to give evidence at the trial of Duch, who has begged forgiveness from his victims despite refusing to accept full responsibility for the atrocities committed under his rule.

Although he admits culpability for the atrocities carried out atTuol Sleng in general, Duch has denied personally executing or torturing any prisoners.

Earlier this week another former prisoner, artist Vann Nath, told the court that the prisoners were given so little to eat that: "I even thought eating human flesh would be a good meal."

Duch is the first of five former Khmer Rouge leaders to be tried for crimes committed as they presided over the obliteration of their people from 1975 - 79.

Last week the tribunal's Canadian co-prosecutor announced his intention to stand down, denying reports that he was standing down over his Cambodian counter-part's refusal to extend the prosecution to more former Khmer Rouge leaders.

Robert Petit, a highly respected prosecutor who has presided over some of the most notorious war crimes tribunals of recent years including Sierra Leone and the Balkans, was reported to have collated enough evidence to prosecute another six members of Pol Pot's regime.

However Cambodian prosecutors argued that extending the tribunal to include more cases would make it unnecessarily complicated and drawn out.

Mr Petit said he was resigning from the tribunal for family reasons.

Khmer Rouge victim weeps over torture

July 1, 2009
AAP

A distraught survivor of the Khmer Rouge's main prison has told Cambodia's war crimes court how torturers beat him bloody in an attempt to make him confess to being a CIA spy.

Bou Meng, 68, one of only a handful of people to live through the communist regime's Tuol Sleng jail, stopped several times to compose himself as he told the UN-backed tribunal that blood from his many lashes flowed to the floor.

"(My torturer) asked me to count the lashes. And when I got to 10 lashes he said, 'How can you get to 10 lashes? You've only had one lash,'" Bou Meng said, taking out a handkerchief to wipe his eyes.

Bou Meng, who escaped death when put to work painting Khmer Rouge propaganda, is the third survivor to testify at the trial of Tuol Sleng chief Duch, accused of overseeing the torture and extermination of 15,000 people.

"Every time they beat me up, they asked me questions. When did I join the CIA and who introduced me to the CIA network? ... I did not know what a CIA agent or network was, so how could I respond?" he added.

Bou Meng said under the regime he had worked at a technical school, was forced to the limit of his physical abilities building dams and canals, and finally planted vegetables before he and his wife were taken in 1977 to Tuol Sleng.

"My wife and I put our hands behind our backs, and then they cut our hands. Then my wife cried and said, 'What did we do wrong? We are both orphans,'" Bou Meng told the court.

The couple were then blindfolded with black cloth, Bou Meng said, and he realised they were being sent to prison as they were taken to be photographed.

"That (Tuol Sleng photo) is the only photograph I have of my wife with me today," Bou Meng said.

Earlier in his trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity, the 66-year-old Duch begged forgiveness from the victims after accepting responsibility for his role in governing the jail.

But he has consistently rejected claims by prosecutors that he had a central role in the Khmer Rouge's rule and says he never personally executed anyone.

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

Khmer Rouge jail survivor weeps over lost wife

File photo of Bou Meng, a survivor of Toul Sleng prison (S21), revisits the former school used by the Khmer Rouge as a torture centre. The distraught survivor of the Khmer Rouge's main prison told Cambodia's war crimes court how he lost his wife and torturers beat him bloody in an attempt to make him confess to being a CIA spy. (AFP/Cambodge Soir/File/Khem Sovannara)

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

PHNOM PENH (AFP) — A distraught survivor of the Khmer Rouge's main prison told Cambodia's war crimes court how he lost his wife and torturers beat him bloody in an attempt to make him confess to being a CIA spy.

Bou Meng, 68, one of only a handful of people to live through the communist regime's Tuol Sleng jail, stopped several times to compose himself as he told the UN-backed tribunal that blood from his many lashes flowed to the floor.

"(My torturer) asked me to count the lashes. And when I got to 10 lashes he said, 'How can you get to 10 lashes? You've only had one lash,'" Bou Meng said, taking out a handkerchief to wipe his eyes.

Bou Meng, who escaped death when put to work painting Khmer Rouge propaganda, is the third survivor to testify at the trial of Tuol Sleng chief Duch, accused of overseeing the torture and extermination of 15,000 people.

"Everytime they beat me up, they asked me questions. When did I join the CIA and who introduced me to the CIA network?... I did not know what a CIA agent or network was, so how could I respond?" he added.

Bou Meng said under the regime he had worked at a technical school, was forced to the limit of his physical abilities building dams and canals, and finally planted vegetables before he and his wife were taken in 1977 to Tuol Sleng.

"My wife and I put our hands behind our backs, and then they cut our hands. Then my wife cried and said, 'What did we do wrong? We are both orphans,'" Bou Meng told the court.

The couple were then blindfolded with black cloth, Bou Meng said, and he realised they were being sent to prison as they were taken to be photographed.

"That (Tuol Sleng photo) is the only photograph I have of my wife with me today," Bou Meng said.

Earlier in his trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity, the 66-year-old Duch begged forgiveness from the victims after accepting responsibility for his role in governing the jail.

But he has consistently rejected claims by prosecutors that he had a central role in the Khmer Rouge's rule and says he never personally executed anyone.

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