Israeli lawyer unlikely defender in Cambodia case

2010-11-17
By DANIEL ESTRIN
Associated Press

A Jewish lawyer here is helping a Cambodian man appeal his conviction for war crimes similar to the Nazis' persecution of Jews.

Nick Kaufman's role in the defense of a former Khmer Rouge prison head has prompted some pointed questions from Israeli TV journalists and the head of a Holocaust survivor group.

"Are you certain that if you succeed in reducing his punishment, you will be doing a good thing?" anchor Yaron London asked on a popular evening news show.

"I am not here to deal with ethics," the Jerusalem-based Kaufman responded. "I am a lawyer and I have a job to do."

From 1975-79, about 1.7 million people died in Cambodia from execution, starvation and overwork under the Khmer Rouge, a communist guerrilla movement that took control of the Southeast Asian country.

Kaing Guek Eav, who is better known as Duch, ran the feared S-21 prison in Phnom Penh, the capital. Most of the roughly 16,000 who entered its gates were tortured before being executed and buried in mass graves, which became known as the killing fields.

Kaufman acknowledged the industrial nature of the Nazi mass killings "raised its head once again in the Cambodian experience."

He noted the meticulous categorization, numbering and records kept of the doomed inmates in the prison overseen by Duch (pronounced Doik).

But "everyone has a right to an effective and strong defense," said Kaufman, even Adolf Eichmann, the top German Nazi officer who was tried in Jerusalem in 1962 and later executed.

He added that Duch has accepted responsibility for what he did, so "the moral dilemma (of whether to assist in his defense) never arose as far as I was concerned."

In July, a U.N.-backed tribunal in Cambodia convicted the 67-year-old Duch of war crimes, crimes against humanity, murder and torture. He was the first person tried by the court. Four other Khmer Rouge leaders are due to go on trial next year.

His sentence of 35 years was reduced to 19 years after taking into account time served and other factors. Many Cambodians think the punishment is too lenient, and prosecutors are seeking to increase it to life in prison. Duch has also appealed, seeking a shorter sentence.

In August, the tribunal's defense support section hired Kaufman as a temporary consultant to prepare a report for Duch's lawyers on possible lines of appeal. He also may be retained to write a friend of the court brief, if the judges agree to accept one.

In his appeal, Kaufman said, Duch will argue that he should not even have been convicted. The tribunal was set up to try senior leaders and those most responsible for the crimes committed during Khmer Rouge rule.

Duch does not deny that he ran the prison. But he believes he was not among "the most responsible" and says that many other officers and prison commanders committed similar crimes, Kaufman said.

The defense is similar to what some Nazis argued unsuccessfully at the Nuremberg trials, said Yuval Shany, an international law professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. "The argument is interesting, but I wouldn't pin too many hopes to this," he said.

Kaufman isn't the first Israeli lawyer to help represent an alleged mass murderer. In 1993, Yoram Sheftel persuaded Israel's Supreme Court to overturn the murder conviction of John Demjanjuk, who was accused of being a Nazi death camp guard. Sheftel was vilified by many Israelis and nearly blinded by a Holocaust survivor who threw acid on his face.

Demjanjuk, a retired U.S. autoworker, is currently on trial on similar charges in Germany.

The Duch case hasn't attracted as much controversy in Israel, because most aren't following the trial closely, Shany said.

Still, Kaufman's role is striking a nerve with some.

"Emotionally, it's hard for me to accept that an Israeli Jew would defend a mass murderer," said Noah Flug, a survivor of the Auschwitz camp and head of an umbrella group of Holocaust survivor organizations in Israel.

The British-born Kaufman has not always represented high-profile defendants. He used to put them behind bars.

After moving to Israel at age 23, Kaufman spent 16 years in the Jerusalem district prosecutor's office, handling rape and murder cases and winning life sentences for Palestinian militants.

His prosecutorial flair and knowledge of international law landed him a job with the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague in 2003, where he helped convict Serbian and Montenegrin generals of war crimes for a 1991 attack on the city of Dubrovnik. He later helped prosecute two Congolese war lords in the International Criminal Court, also in The Hague.

Last year he switched sides, joining the defense of former Congolese Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba, who is due to go on trial for war crimes on Monday. He was the first prosecutor to do so at the international court.

Kaufman still fights for victims: He is representing eight people who fled from Darfur to Israel in an International Criminal Court case against Sudanese president Omar Al-Bashir.

But he also represents such defendants as Rwandan rebel leader Callixte Mbarushimana, who was arrested this month on 11 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes.

"What are you doing with all these friends?" Motti Kirshenbaum, a veteran Israeli interviewer, asked Kaufman on TV.

The lawyer chuckled but remained firm. "They are not my friends, they are my clients," he said.

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: Comrade Duch

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Comrade Duch wants a communist Chinese defense lawyer … after his verdict is announced

Monday 12 July 2010
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

Kaing Guech Iev, the former Tuol Sleng jail warden, is currently asking for a Chinese defense lawyer to replace Francois Roux, his French defense lawyer whom he asked to be removed at the end of last week. This was what Kar Savuth, his Cambodian defense lawyer, said on Saturday. In an interview with Radio France Internationale, Kar Savuth said that his client wanted a Chinese defense lawyer after the court will announce his verdict on 26 July. Kar Savuth said that: “The reason that Ta (Grandpa) Duch wants a Chinese lawyer is because China is a communist country and under the Pol Pot regime, it was also a communist country. Therefore, he wants a communist lawyer to come and work on a communist case. He does not want a lawyer from the west to judge on a communist man, it is the opposite of one another.” Kar Savuth declared that the nomination of a foreign lawyer to replace Francois Roux must be done after the announcement of Duch’s verdict on 26 July, and in the event there will be no Chinese lawyer for his client, Duch will not accept any foreign lawyer.

Khmer Rouge war crimes defendant sacks foreign defence lawyer

Fri, 09 Jul 2010
DPA

Phnom Penh - Comrade Duch, the defendant in the first case tried by the UN-backed Khmer Rouge war crimes tribunal, sacked his foreign defence lawyer Friday, weeks before the court is to hand down its verdict.

The tribunal said it would allow Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, to fire Frenchman Francois Roux over what it said were the "exceptional circumstances" of Duch's "loss of confidence" in Roux.

Duch is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the deaths of more than 12,000 people when he headed S-21, the Khmer Rouge's key torture and execution centre in Phnom Penh from 1975 to 1979. He is to hear the verdict in his case July 26.

A tribunal statement said Duch had requested Roux's removal in a June 30 submission to the defence support section of the UN-Cambodian tribunal and accepted that his loss of confidence was genuine.

"This decision is not an endorsement of the underlying reasons for the loss of confidence put forward by Mr Kaing in his request," defence support section head Richard Rogers said. "In the circumstances, it has not been necessary either to accept or to reject the underlying reasons."

The section also noted that the sacking of Roux would not delay proceedings and barred Duch from appointing a replacement foreign defence lawyer ahead of the July 26 hearing.

The tribunal's hybrid nature means foreign and Cambodian nationals jointly hold key positions, including on the prosecution, defence and investigative sides. The court said Duch's Cambodian defence lawyer, Kar Savuth, would continue to represent him.

The latest twist followed the defence team's spectacular implosion in the final days of the 77-day trial when Duch dramatically reversed his plea and asked to be acquitted and released.

Duch's request, which came after months of stating that he accepted responsibility for his role in the deathsat S-21, was endorsed by Kar Savuth but clearly caught Roux by surprise.

In the final days of the trial in November, Kar Savuth told the five-judge bench that Duch ought not to be on trial because international law did not apply as his client had been following orders. He also argued that the court had no jurisdiction over Duch.

Roux revealed the depth of the split in the defence team that week when he told the bench that the two defence lawyers had "disagreements" over their approach to the case but said international law "of course" applied to Duch.

The court's remit is to try those considered most responsible for crimes committed by the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge regime. Four surviving senior leaders are in detention for their alleged involvement in the deaths of 1.7 million people.

The four, whose trials are expected to start early next year, are former Brother Number Two Nuon Chea, the movement's ideologue; former head of state Khieu Samphan; former foreign minister Ieng Sary; and his wife, the former social affairs minister Ieng Thirith.

The movement's leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998 without being tried.

K.Rouge prison chief sacks his international lawyer

François Roux (L) with Duch (R), his client (Photo: AFP/Getty)

Friday, July 09, 2010
By Patrick Falby
AFP

PHNOM PENH — Former Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch has sacked his international lawyer just weeks before a verdict in his war crimes trial, the UN-backed court said Friday, after a rift emerged in his defence.

Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, cited "loss of confidence" in his decision to dismiss Francois Roux as counsel at the Cambodian tribunal, where there has been discord between his international and local lawyers.

Duch's defence strategy imploded on the final day of his trial in November when he suddenly demanded his release after months of admitting responsibility for overseeing the murders of around 15,000 people at the Tuol Sleng prison.

During most of the trial, Duch's defence team focused on getting a lighter sentence by downplaying his position within the regime and by highlighting his remorse, his time already served and his cooperation with the court.

Prosecutors said at the time that the 67-year-old's sudden U-turn had raised doubts about his admissions of responsibility and his pleas for forgiveness.

Roux said in November the change in plea was a "bad surprise" and apparently linked to political interference in the trial, noting that Prime Minister Hun Sen had previously said he hoped the tribunal would fail.

His appeal for release "calls into question Duch's plea of culpability, but also the competence of the court," the French lawyer told AFP at the time.

At his verdict on July 26, Duch will continue to be represented by his Cambodian co-lawyer, Kar Savuth, who is also known to work for Hun Sen.

Kar Savuth in November argued that Duch wanted to be acquitted on the grounds that he was not a senior member of the Khmer Rouge hierarchy, while Roux had argued for leniency based on his contrition.

Both the Cambodian lawyer and Roux refused to comment on the sacking.

Theary Seng, founder of non-profit organisation the Centre for Justice and Reconciliation, called the timing of Roux's sacking "really suspicious", saying it could "create confusion and cynicism" about the tribunal.

"We are already very concerned that Cambodian officials at the court take orders from the government and now we have this on the eve of the verdict, so I'm perplexed -- as are many others following this process," she said.

The court, set up in 2006 as a final chance to find justice for victims of the blood-soaked regime, had already been mired in controversy over alleged political interference and allegations about kickbacks in return for jobs.

Duch is charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture and premeditated murder.

In hearings over nine months last year, the defence repeatedly said he only carried out orders out of fear he and his family would be killed.

Duch's jail was at the heart of the 1975 to 1979 Khmer Rouge regime's security apparatus. Men, women and children were taken from there for execution at a nearby orchard that served as a "Killing Field".

Under their leader Pol Pot, the hardline communist Khmer Rouge wiped out nearly two million people as they abolished money and property and set up huge labour camps in their bid to take Cambodia back to a rural "Year Zero".

Pol Pot died in 1998. The joint trial of four other more senior Khmer Rouge leaders is expected to start in 2011, while the court is considering whether to open cases against five other former Khmer Rouge cadres.

Sok Samoeun, president of Cambodia Defenders Project, a legal aid organisation that helps represent Khmer Rouge victims, said he was surprised Duch had sacked Roux as all the arguments in the case were completed.

"It looks like it's useless because the case is finished," he said.

Duch in surprise call for his acquittal and release as trial ends

Nov 27, 2009
DPA

Phnom Penh - Cambodia's war crimes tribunal concluded its final week on Friday with war crimes suspect Comrade Duch asking judges to acquit him and release him when they hand down judgement early next year.

'I would like the chamber to release me,' Duch told the court, in a move that stunned observers.

Until now, a key plank of the defence's strategy has been to get Duch to take responsibility for his crimes and show remorse in the hope of getting a reduced sentence.

Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, ran S-21, the Khmer Rouge's most notorious prison where thousands of perceived enemies of the regime were tortured and murdered between 1975-79. Duch has admitted his complicity in ordering the tortures and executions of more than 12,000 people at S-21 prison.

Duch's national defence counsel, Kar Savuth, then told the court his client should go free since he was not a senior leader of the Khmer Rouge and had merely followed orders issued by the movement's leaders.

'He was not one of those most responsible - the Communist Party of Kampuchea [was responsible and] should be prosecuted, not those under duress,' Kar Savuth said.

'That's why my client has asked to be released,' Kar Savuth concluded.

Legal observers said Kar Savuth's statements that Duch was simply following orders ran counter to international law, which does not recognize that as a defence.

It was a remarkable end to a trial whose closing days revealed a significant divide in the defence, with Duch's national lawyer advancing a legal argument utterly at odds with that of Duch's international defence lawyer, Francois Roux.

On Friday the judges insisted that the defence lay out a single position and tell the joint UN-Cambodian tribunal that it was either seeking Duch's acquittal, or that it wanted the court to reduce an expected lengthy sentence on the grounds that Duch has shown cooperation, remorse and spent five years in illegal pre-trial detention.

'I did say that [he should be acquitted], because release means acquittal,' Kar Savuth eventually told the bench.

It was a remarkable turn of events that led international co-prosecutor William Smith to tell a press conference Friday that the prosecution would have discussed a harsher sentence request than the 40 years it sought Wednesday had it known Duch would seek to have himself acquitted.

Earlier Friday Smith pleaded with the court to hand down the maximum sentence sought by the prosecution.

'We implore you that you do not come back with a sentence of less than 40 years,' Smith told the court.

Duch is 67, so the prosecution's demand would effectively translate to life in prison. There is no death penalty in Cambodia.

Witnesses at the 72-day hearing this year have told how some prisoners at S-21 had their blood entirely drained, while others suffered simulated drowning, electrocution and beatings. Very few prisoners sent to S-21 survived.

Four senior surviving Khmer Rouge leaders are currently in jail and awaiting trial.

The Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979 before being forced out of power by neighbouring Vietnam. Around 2 million people died of starvation and disease or were executed under the radical regime.

Duch Team at Odds in Final Remarks

Left to Right: Kar Savuth, François Roux and Duch

By Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
26 November 2009

The French defense attorney for Kaing Kek Iev told Khmer Rouge tribunal judges Thursday he was in disagreement with his Cambodian colleague over whether the court should drop two atrocity crimes charges against the former prison chief know better as Duch.

Instead, Francois Roux, in his final arguments to the UN-backed court, said he would rather see a prison sentence shortened for Duch, who is accused of killing more than 12,000 people as administrator for one of the Khmer Rouge’s most notorious prisons, Tuol Sleng.

International prosecutors have called for at least 40 years of imprisonment for war crimes, crimes against humanity, murder and torture.

Roux’s statement Thursday was at odds with arguments from Duch’s Cambodian attorney, Kar Savuth, who said Wednesday the charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his client should be dropped.

Kar Savuth told the court the prison chief, now 67, had been trapped under a revolutionary hierarchy led by Pol Pot, security chief Son Sen and Nuon Chea. (Nuon Chea, the regime’s chief ideologue, is currently awaiting his own trial at the UN-backed court, along with three other senior leaders of the regime, under whom as many as 2 million Cambodians died in less than four years.)

“Duch did not commit crimes against humanity or war crimes,” Kar Savuth told the court. “Please, Trial Chamber, drop these charges.”

There were 195 other prison chiefs like Duch, he said.

“The disaster within and without [the Khmer Rouge cadre] was really the sole responsibility of the Cambodian communist party,” Duch told the court in his own concluding remarks. “I promise in any case in the future, I will do everything for the need of my people. Please the court, take this under consideration and decide on this matter.”

Prosecutors, meanwhile, have urged the court to hand down heavy punishment, due to the scale of the crimes.

“The crime for which he is being sentenced is a grave crime, which was against numerous people,” Cambodian prosecutor Chea Leang told the court Tuesday. “It is simply understood that nothing can replace the sentencing of him for a very long time in jail.”

Tuol Sleng prison, known to the Khmer Rouge as S-21, was the most serious of all the regime’s detention centers, and as its head, Duch intentionally tortured prisoners and sentenced them to inhumane deaths, she said.

The week brought to a close the first-ever trial for the hybrid tribunal, which has struggled since its inception in 2006 and is now facing a second, more complicated trial, for Noun Chea and other leaders.

The Trial Chamber will now begin consideration of a verdict in Duch’s case, though that decision is not expected until early 2010.

Duch's defence in disarray as closing arguments conclude

Thu, 26 Nov 2009
DPA

Phnom Penh - The defence in Cambodia's war crimes tribunal showed signs of falling apart Thursday as the trial of former Khmer Rouge prison camp commander Comrade Duch entered its scheduled final day. Duch's international defence lawyer Francois Roux, in his last appearance as a defence lawyer before taking up a position at the UN's Special Tribunal for Lebanon, told the court that the closing arguments advanced on Wednesday by his Cambodian defence counterpart, Kar Savuth, had undermined Roux's own planned closing statement.

"We have had to revise the entire plan of our pleadings after Mr Kar Savuth's pleading yesterday afternoon," Roux said in his opening remarks at the joint UN-Cambodian tribunal in Phnom Penh.

Roux told the court there had been "disagreements" within the defence team.

On Wednesday Kar Savuth told the tribunal that Duch, who is charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes under Cambodian law, should be freed for a number of reasons, including his contention that international law did not apply and the statute of limitations under the Cambodian law had expired.

The defence's statements were part of its seven-hour closing argument in the trial of Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav. Duch ran S-21, the Khmer Rouge's most notorious prison.

Kar Savuth's argument followed yet another admission Wednesday by Duch accepting responsibility for the torture and murder of more than 12,000 people at the S-21 prison camp he ran in Phnom Penh between 1975-79.

Among Kar Savuth's arguments was that since Duch was following orders while allegedly living in fear of his life, he could not be prosecuted for ordering his subordinates to kill.

Some of Roux's comments Thursday were clearly at odds with his co-defence lawyer, including a outright repudiation of Kar Savuth's comments that international law does not apply.

But for much of the first two hours of his closing arguments, Roux lambasted the prosecution, not least its contention that Duch was at the centre of "a network of terror."

"I apologize in advance to the victims for what I am about to say," Roux told the court Thursday. "But how many people died at S-21? We know 12,380 ... and a total of 1.7 million in Cambodia. That means S-21 was responsible for less than 1 per cent of the deaths in Cambodia."

"And [the prosecution] is telling the chamber that Duch was at the centre of a network that bathed Cambodia in blood - how dare you?" Roux said.

On Wednesday the prosecution called on the tribunal to hand down a 40-year sentence to Duch. The prosecution acknowledged some mitigating factors, including that Duch had shown some cooperation and took limited responsibility for the crimes committed at S-21.

Duch is 67, so the prosecution's demand would effectively translate to life in prison.

Kar Savuth's arguments were described "an almost obscene immunization of a mass murderer" by David J Scheffer, a former US war crimes ambassador, who is attending the closing week of the trial.

Scheffer, a professor of law, said the defence argument "defies 65 years of international criminal law."

"If we accept his argument, it would vitiate the provisions of the [tribunal] law that there is no defence to superior orders," Scheffer said. "He ignores that completely."

Sentencing in Duch's trial is due to take place early next year. There is no death penalty in Cambodia, and he faces a maximum punishment of life in prison.

Witnesses at the 72-day hearing this year have told how some prisoners at S-21 had their blood entirely drained, while others suffered simulated drowning, electrocution and beatings. Very few prisoners sent to S-21 survived.

Four senior surviving Khmer Rouge leaders are currently in jail and awaiting trial.

The Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979 before being forced out of power by neighbouring Vietnam. Around 2 million people died of starvation and disease or were executed under the radical regime.

Free Khmer Rouge jailer, say Phnom Penh lawyers

Thursday, April 02, 2009
Australia Network News

Defence lawyers for the man who headed the Khmer Rouge's main prison and torture centre are demanding his release.

The defence call came after the accused apologised in Cambodia's war crimes court for his brutal past.

Kaing Guek Eav, better known as comrade Duch, accepted responsibility for supervising the extermination of about 15,000 men, women and children between 1975 and 1979.

His lawyer, Francois Roux, told the UN-backed court that the trial should continue but that Duch should be freed immediately.

He said his client had been held for an illegal length of time following his arrest in 1999.

Mr Roux suggested moving Duch to a safe house for his own protection against possible revenge attacks, by families of some of the up to two million people who died during the Khmer Rouge's rule.

The trial tribunal, sitting in Phnom Penh, will announce next week its decision on whether to release Duch.

In Trial Remarks, Duch Apologizes to Victims

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
31 March 2009

As Cambodia's first Khmer Rouge trial resumed Tuesday, its defendant, Duch, apologized for killing more than 15,000 people as head of Tuol Sleng prison, and he apologized to anyone who had made it through his killing machine.

"I would like to express my sorrow and great suffering for all kinds of crimes that were committed April 17, 1975, to Jan. 6, 1979," he said, referring to the period when the Khmer Rouge ran the country and when nearly 2 million people died.

As chief of Tuol Sleng, a prison known as S-21 to the Khmer Rouge, Duch oversaw the torture and execution of up 16,000 people. He also oversaw a mass grave site where the bodies of the executed were buried, on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.

"For the crimes in S-21, I would like to recognize my responsibility under the law," Duch said in a clear, strong voice Tuesday. "More importantly, for the acts of torture and killing, I would like to apologize to the witnesses who are still alive, and I would like to apologize to the families of the victims who died at S-21."

Only a handful of people survived the prison. One of them was Bu Meng, who had been a civil servant for the Lon Nol regime and spent nearly three years there.

Now 68, Bu Meng has closely followed Duch's trial. He told VOA Khmer that Tuesday's apology was not enough to assuage the mental anguish caused by his time in the prison.

"I need justice from the courts to try Duch," he said.

Y Lay Theng, 62, an audience member watching Tuesday's proceedings, said Duch had made "serious mistakes" as a member of the Khmer Rouge. "So the court of law will not allow him to be freed from the charges." The apology was unlikely to have an effect on the outcome of the trial, he said.

Duch's Cambodian attorney, Kar Savuth, told the court Tuesday that 14 top Khmer Rouge leaders were responsible for serious crimes and violence under the regime, but Duch was not one of them.

"Among the 14, there is no name 'Kaing Kek Iev,'" he said. "So: the person other than these 14 gets to be tried. This violates the one article of the law on the establishment of the [tribunal]."

The tribunal is tasked with trying the senior-most leaders of the regime, and is currently holding only four of its top leaders: ideologue Nuon Chea, head of state Khieu Samphan, foreign minister Ieng Sary and social affairs minister Ieng Thirith.

Duch was the head of what has become a well-known prison, now converted into a torture museum, but researchers point out there were 197 other such prisons under the Khmer Rouge.

Duch said Tuesday he was willing to cooperate closely with the tribunal and would answer "all questions" from judges, prosecutors and civil parties.

“Duch must not be sentenced”: Kar Savuth, Duch’s lawyer

Kar Savuth (Photo: ALG, Cambodge Soir Hebdo)

30 March 2009
By Ky Soklim and Adrien le Gal
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Luc Sâr
Click here to read the article in French

According to the Cambodian defense lawyer of the former S-21 boss whose trial is opening on Monday 20 March, it is “impossible” that a sentence could be handed down to his client.

Cambodge Soir Hebdo: How is your client feeling?

Kar Savuth: When his trial started, Duch was very happy and he was not worried at all. He knows that if the tribunal is fair, he will be freed because he is not part of the high-ranking KR officials who should be the only ones to be tried by the KR Tribunal (KRT).

Is there still an uncertainty on the sentence that will be handed over to him?

It is possible that there will be sentence. It’s the law. Duch should not be in jail. He did not want to be the chief [of S-21], he wanted to do something else, but he was not allowed to. He told me clearly that he never wanted to be in charge of this place where people were being killed. Who wants to kill human beings? No one! But, what could he do? If he refused to obey the orders, he would have been killed also.

The civil parties want to re-open the investigation to determine if Duch was involved in forced marriages…

It’s too late, the investigations are closed. In any case, forced marriages were done everywhere under the KR regime. They should not accuse Duch who is only obeying his bosses.

You fought so that Duch is not charged with “participation in joint criminal enterprise”…

This charge is not right. In any case, there were 196 jails in the country. It is unfair to accuse Duch. In his center, 12,381 people died, whereas in other jails, more than 150,000 died… We seek justice. Duch is a scapegoat, others who killed are still roaming free.

You were Hun Sen’s lawyer… How do you get along with François Roux who, in France, defends civil disobedience followers?

François Roux and I, we have the same strategy. But, it is wrong to say that I defend only people close to power. I am interested in important affairs, and I defended the KR since 1982. Duch must have heard about me, and that’s why he chose me. The other people charged were also interested [in me], but we can only defend one of the accused.

As Cambodian, do you consider yourself a victim of the KR regime?

Yes, I am victim. But, I don’t have a grudge against Duch, nor the other four who were charged. I am not angry against the minor officials, I am angry against those who issued orders, i.e. Pol Pot. The others were only following orders.

Duch's lawyer declares he is ready to describe events at interrogation centre

Mon, 30 Mar 2009
APTN
3 News (New Zealand)

On the eve of the resumption of the trial of the first suspect to face a court for crimes allegedly committed during Cambodia's bloody Khmer Rouge regime, Gaing Kuek Eav's lawyer says his client is ready to describe what happened at the interrogation centre he ran in Phnom Penh.

Gaing Kuek Eav - better known as Duch - has been charged with crimes against humanity, murder, torture and war crimes.

Francois Roux says the answers Duch gives will go some way to helping victims of the regime understand what happened to them and their country in the 1970s.

As Duch prepares to face a court on Monday hundreds of students from outside Phnom Penh have been taken on a tour of the prison - S21, which is now a museum, to educate them in their own history.

Many young Cambodians know very little of what their parents suffered, as it is not taught in schools. The visit was an initiative of volunteers from the US Peace Corps.

Unlike four others who are awaiting trial, Duch, as he's better known, is admitting his guilt and apparently intends to tell all.

Lawyer Francois Roux says he believes Duch's testimony will go some way to helping victims understand what happened and why, during those bleak and brutal years.

But as older Cambodians await answers to long-festering tragedies and sorrows, some Cambodians - born after the collapse of the regime - are only just discovering that anything evil happened at all at that time.

The history of the Khmer Rouge period is not taught in schools so many people grow up knowing very little about it, or even dismissing it as mere stories or exaggerations.

It was to shake that belief that around 200 young Khmer students were brought on Sunday to witness for themselves the evidence of the crimes committed on Duch's orders at S21 prison.

The students looked at the torture implements used on his victims, and at the faces of the victims themselves; hundreds of photographs of the doomed inmates line the walls of the former prison in Phnom Penh, now a museum.

There are also displays of the victims' skulls.

"Sometimes before when my father told me I never believed him. I just said that he just made a story to tell me. But now I believe because I saw the evidence, a lot of evidence, and I feel sorry," said Oeng Kim Heak, one student visitor to the museum.

S21 - also known as Tuol Sleng - was a top secret facility mainly used to interrogate cadres suspected of treachery.

Prisoners were tortured until they confessed to working for foreign powers, then they were executed, as were their families who were often arrested with them.

Many, if not most, of the confessions were wild fantasies, made up under extreme torture in the hope of pleasing and pacifying their tormentors.

The visit to S21 was organised by volunteers from the US Government's Peace Corps, and the Documentation Centre of Cambodia which works to collect evidence of the former regime's atrocities.

The aim, they said, was to teach Cambodians their own history and give them a greater awareness of their past and present so they can rebuild its future. Some of the students will attend Duch's trial next week.