Soldier Defends Tuol Sleng Film

Former Vietnamese Army photographer, Ho Van Tay, right, and reporter Dinh Phong, left, gather with Cambodian Norng Chanphal, 39, along with his daughters Chen Amara, 6, and Chen Kimty, 13, at Toul Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Sunday, Feb 15, 2009. Chanphal was one of five children discovered by the former Vietnamese Army journalists when the infamous S21 prison was liberated in January of 1979. A U.N.-backed genocide tribunal is set to begin on Feb. 17, 2009, to try five Khmer Rouge leaders accused of crimes against humanity. Kaing Guek Eav, the commander of Toul Sleng under the Khmer rouge, also known 'Duch' will be the first leader tried. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

By Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
20 February 2009

A Vietnamese soldier and cameraman defended as “true” a film he shot of Tuol Sleng prison during the ouster of the Khmer Rouge, which could be used as evidence in tribunal proceedings.

Ding Phong, now 71, shot footage of Tuol Sleng prison as Vietnamese forces liberated Phnom Penh in Januray 1979, but the film has come under criticism from defense lawyers for former Khmer Rouge leaders facing atrocity crimes trials.

“The documentary shot in Tuol Sleng is true,” Dinh Phong said Thursday, before returning to Vietnam after a six-day visit to Cambodia to deliver his film to researchers. “What we shot 30 years ago is the truth.”

Lawyers for Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch, who is the first to face trial under the tribunal, said the films were not unbiased.

“This is a documentary which has a political character,” said Kar Savuth, an attorney for Duch, or Kaing Kek Iev, who saw his initial trial hearing this week. “It cannot be used [as evidence] in the trial.”

“What he mentioned is an accusation,” Dinh Phong said, denying the political assertion.

Tribunal prosecutor Chea Leang has requested that two Vietnamese filmmakers, who have donated their films to the Documentation Center of Cambodia, be brought before the Trial Chamber of the Khmer Rouge tribunal, to defend their work.

Dinh Phong said Thursday he would only answer questions outside the court.

Vietnamese Cameramen Condemn Duch

By Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
17 February 2009

Two Vietnamese cameramen who were among the troops to oust the Khmer Rouge in 1979 hailed the upcoming trial of prison chief Duch as a positive step for justice in Cambodia.

“Comrade Duch,” whose real name is Kaing Kek Iev, faces charges for atrocities committed at Tuol Sleng prison under his supervision. At least 12,000 Cambodians were tortured at the center and later executed at the Choeung Ek killing fields, which was also under Duch’s purview.

An initial hearing for his trial under the Khmer Rouge tribunal opened Tuesday, while his full trial is expected to begin in earnest next month.

“We must show our documents and condemn what was a serious crime,” cameraman Dinh Phong, who was among Vietnamese forces that drove the Khmer Rouge from Phnom Penh in January 1979, told reporters Monday.

As the Khmer Rogue withdrew, they left the bodies of victims behind, not only in Tuol Sleng, but “everywhere,” he said. “Near the road, in the forest and in the ditch, there were bodies.”

Dinh Phong and his fellow cameraman, Ho Van Tay, filmed what they found from the outset, in footage that has been donated for the tribunal.

The two were brought together Monday with a child they had helped rescue from Duch’s prison, Norng Chan Phal.

“I would say that this is the end of Duch,” Norng Chan Phal, now 39, said of the upcoming trial. “He is the chief of the murderers.”