Khmer Rouge Death Camp Commander Awaits Sentence

30 Nov 2009
Luke Hunt
World Politics Review

However, Theary Seng -- an author, lawyer and human rights activist -- argued that Duch should be sentenced to two or three life sentences, even after taking into consideration his cooperation with the court. "There are too many counts on which he could be found guilty and each one carries a life sentence," she said.

PHNOM PENH -- The trial of a Khmer Rouge prison commandant who oversaw the deaths of at least 12,000 people has wrapped up. But in his final statement, Kang Guek Eav, also known as Duch, stunned the court by asking for an acquittal.

It was a complete about-face from a desperate man who had acknowledged he was guilty of crimes against humanity and breaches of the Geneva Conventions, although claiming he acted under orders and amid fear of retribution.

The three Cambodian and two international judges declined the request and ended the trial. Sentencing is expected early next year.

In summing up, Duch's lawyers attempted to downplay the role of S-21, an extermination camp converted out of a Phnom Penh school at Toul Sleng during the Khmer Rouge's rule, from April 1975 to January 1979.

Helen Jarvis, head of the court's victims unit, said many of the victims will be relieved that the court had wrapped up the trial, which began in February. "For the last seven months they have been here almost every single day, and have been following the ups and downs," she said. "They've been on the edge of their seats, crying, angry, upset, worried. Their emotions have been absolutely high-pitched for seven months."

About 1.7 million people died under the Khmer Rouge's rule -- from murder, starvation and illness caused by forced migration around the country -- as the ultra-Maoists attempted to establish their vision of an agrarian utopia.

At S-21, the court heard, prisoners were routinely beaten and whipped, had their toenails torn out, and faced electric shocks and water-boarding. Surgery was performed on prisoners without anesthesia, and blood was extracted from them until they lay dying. Westerners were burnt alive.

Prosecutors asked for 40 years in prison, instead of a life sentence, because Duch had admitted running the prison, apologized for his role and provided evidence against other senior leaders slated for trial.

However, Theary Seng -- an author, lawyer and human rights activist -- argued that Duch should be sentenced to two or three life sentences, even after taking into consideration his cooperation with the court. "There are too many counts on which he could be found guilty and each one carries a life sentence," she said.

Defense lawyer François Roux told the court that Duch was full of remorse, drawing comparisons with Albert Spear, Adolf Hitler's defense minister in World War II, who was sentenced to 20 years in jail at the Nuremberg war crimes trials.

Roux said Duch had shed tears over the graves of the children who, after being processed at S-21, were subsequently transported to the Killing Fields on the outskirts of town, where, like their parents, they were bludgeoned to death.

The Khmer Rouge established 196 such camps around the country, all based on a prototype developed by Duch in 1971.

S-21 remained the principal camp among them, and Duch was central to the Khmer Rouge's policy of purging potential enemies of the state. "S" was derived from Santabel, the name of the Khmer Rouge secret police. "Twenty-one" was Duch's secret personnel number.

Prosecutors said Duch's crimes were comparable with those of Nazi Germany and Stalin's Russia. But Greg Stanton, president of Genocide Watch, said that footage shot by a Vietnamese cameraman who entered Toul Sleng along with invading Vietnamese troops in late 1978 indicated that the brutality under Pol Pot may have been much worse.

The film was ruled inadmissible by judges after it was challenged by the defense for its authenticity, and the footage remains unseen. But Stanton described the 10-minute, black-and-white, silent film as showing bodies chained to beds and burnt alive. "Bodies were shackled at the ankles and disemboweled. It's the most horrible thing on earth," he said. "You could tell the film was shot just after those people were burned alive."

But in comparing the evidence offered before the court with the information Duch surrendered a decade ago, photographer and author Nic Dunlop said the truth had been told -- if in varying degrees.

"He's been truthful up to a point, there is a measure of sincerity. There is consistency in what he says, but he's had 10 years to script it," Dunlop said. "The prosecution asserts he lacks sincerity and lacks empathy for the victims, perhaps, but 10 years ago he wasn't reading an apology from a piece of paper."

Dunlop is credited with tracking down Duch, who he found working at his old profession as a teacher in the countryside in 1999. As a consequence, Duch surrendered to the authorities. Dunlop later published a book about him, titled, "The Lost Executioner."

"It's like we are taking down a brick wall, brick by brick," Dunlop said, "a wall that separates his emotional life and reality. . . . He always seemed disconnected."

That lack of empathy and disconnection perhaps explains why Duch ignored seven months' worth of his own defense in asking for an acquittal.

International politics and three decades of war in Cambodia prevented a tribunal until now, with Duch the first Khmer Rouge leader to face trial. Trials of former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary, his wife Ieng Thirith, former head of state Khieu Samphan and Brother Number Two Nuon Chea, are not expected to begin until late next year.

Other Khmer Rouge leaders -- including Brother No. 1 Pol Pot -- have died.

Luke Hunt is a Hong Kong-based correspondent and a World Politics Review contributing editor.

Cambodian Trial, Though Grim, Broke New Ground

Kaing Guek Eav, left, sat in the courtroom at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, during the closing statements in Phnom Penh on Friday. (Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, via European Pressphoto Agency)

November 29, 2009
By SETH MYDANS
The New York Times

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — The first trial to showcase the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge three decades ago concluded with the regime’s chief torturer still seemingly unable to grasp the magnitude of his actions. Yet despite that surprising end, the trial may have helped Cambodia begin to move beyond the horrors of its past.

The defendant, Kaing Guek Eav, 67, known as Duch, was the first leading Khmer Rouge figure to be tried in connection with the deaths of 1.7 million people when the brutal Communist regime ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. Throughout the trial, he described in detail his role as the commandant of Tuol Sleng prison, also known as S-21, where at least 14,000 people were tortured and sent to their deaths.

After admitting his guilt and asking for forgiveness, Duch (pronounced DOIK) seemed on the final day of the trial on Friday to think that he had done enough, asking the court to set him free.

Duch’s plea seemed to contradict a carefully constructed strategy to seek leniency by admitting guilt, apologizing and cooperating with the court. He faces a possible term of life in prison for crimes against humanity and other crimes. Prosecutors are seeking a sentence of 40 years, taking into account his cooperation and the five years he already spent in a military jail. The judges are expected to announce a verdict early next year.

Despite long delays and concerns about corruption and possible political interference, “Case One” of the United Nations-backed tribunal mostly overcame doubts that it would meet international standards of justice.

The case broke new ground as a hybrid of national and international justice systems with the support of the United Nations. In another innovation, it included the participation of some victims as “civil parties” represented in court by their own lawyers.

After a slow start, the trial began to draw the attention of a nation that for the past three decades has mostly hidden from the traumas of the Khmer Rouge years. Coinciding with the trial, a new textbook about the Khmer regime began distribution to the high schools, breaking a silence in the education system that has contributed to widespread ignorance.

Human rights groups and legal experts said they hoped the trial would act as an example to help reform Cambodia’s corrupt justice system and erode a culture of impunity, in which powerful people often act beyond the reach of the law.

“The Duch trial itself proceeded methodically and, in the end, was a success,” said Alex Hinton, director of the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights at Rutgers University. “Duch received the fair trial his victims never had.”

A more difficult challenge lies ahead in “Case Two” with the trials of four senior Khmer Rouge leaders who are accused of more far reaching responsibility in the mass killings but against whom the evidence is less concrete.

Unlike Duch, they have denied their guilt and refused to cooperate; their lawyers have already begun complicating the process with legal challenges. Their trial is not expected to get under way until 2012.

Beyond the legal and historical issues examined in the trial, the past nine months have been an exploration of more fundamental questions of human behavior — of guilt and responsibility, and the legal and moral weight of an apology.

“I am accountable to the entire Cambodian population for the souls that perished,” Duch said in a final statement to the court. “I am deeply remorseful and regret such a mind-boggling scale of death.”

But as with a similar statement at the start of the trial, he read on Friday from a prepared text with little sign of emotion, and both the prosecutors and many analysts derided his apology as insincere and tactical.

Nevertheless, “He has apologized and asked to be forgiven, and he has willingly assisted in many aspects of the case,” said Nic Dunlop, the author of a book about Duch called “The Lonely Executioner.”

“We can talk about his lack of empathy. We can talk about his detachment. But these are things he has done that nobody else has done,” Mr. Dunlop said.

For Cambodians who attended the final week of the trial, though, these apologies seemed far too little and the legal fine points of the prosecutors’ request for a reduced sentence seemed irrelevant.

“I can’t accept his apology,” said Peon Tol, 26, a villager who said her grandparents and aunt had been killed by the Khmer Rouge. “It’s not like he was stealing chickens. These crimes are too much to forgive.”

Seung Sophal, 41, a farmer who had traveled here by bus from the countryside, said, “Duch admitted killing people at Tuol Sleng, thousands of people. He committed the crimes and now he is apologizing. It is a little too late to do that.”

Duch’s apologies seemed at odds with the obvious pride he took in his administration of the prison, which the historian David Chandler called “the only institution that functioned” under the Khmer Rouge regime.

“He was an enthusiastic and proud administrator of S-21 who worked out techniques and organizational methodology from scratch,” said Mr. Chandler, who testified at the trial as an expert witness.

Like other analysts, he said Duch seemed to have been motivated by a desire to please his superiors.

“This is not the banality of evil,” Mr. Chandler said. “This guy, he’s a full-time performer. What he is concerned about is the accuracy of his story.”

In abrupt reversal, Khmer Rouge prison chief asks tribunal to release him

The trial of Khmer Rouge prison chief Kang Kek Ieu, better known as Duch, draws a crowd at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, as the U.N.-Cambodian war crimes tribunal is officially known. (Mak Remissa / European Pressphoto Agency / November 27, 2009)

After months of admitting guilt and expressing remorse, Kang Kek Ieu, better known as Duch, challenges the legitimacy of the U.N.-Cambodian war crimes tribunal.

November 28, 2009
By Brendan Brady
Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Phnom Penh, Cambodia - A former Khmer Rouge prison chief who presided over the torture of about 15,000 prisoners who were later executed astonished observers of Cambodia's first genocide trial Friday by asking judges to release him because he had already served enough prison time and arguing that he shouldn't have been prosecuted in the first place.

After months of professed remorse, Kang Kek Ieu, known in tribunal filings as Kaing Guek Eav but best known by his revolutionary name, Comrade Duch, challenged the legitimacy of the 9-month-old U.N.-assisted war crimes tribunal as it ended its hearings in his case.

Duch, 67, argued before the court that its jurisdiction didn't apply because he was neither a senior leader nor among "those most responsible" for the mass killings three decades ago under Cambodia's Khmer Rouge regime. He also contended that because the crimes involved occurred more than a decade ago, they exceeded Cambodia's statute of limitations.

Friday's turnaround came after months of Duch expressing contrition, admitting that he was responsible for the deaths of thousands of people. Most were tortured at the notorious S-21 prison, of which he was commander, before dying in the nearby "killing fields."

As recently as Wednesday, he likened himself to former Nazi Albert Speer, the only member of Hitler's inner circle to cooperate with the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal. Although Duch has claimed to be only a "cog in the machine," he has also said he was prepared for "the highest form of punishment" and would even accept being stoned to death. He has often apologized to the victims' families and all Cambodians.

Duch is one of five aging senior cadres facing trial in the deaths of at least 1.7 million Cambodians who were murdered or died of starvation or overwork. From 1975 to 1979, before being removed after an invasion by the Vietnamese, the ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge regime sought to create an agrarian utopia by abolishing religion, money and schools and forcing most of the population onto collective farms.

The other defendants -- allegedly the Khmer Rouge's chief architects and policymakers -- have denied any involvement in the atrocities, making Duch's cooperation crucial in laying the groundwork for their prosecution.

Duch has said he cooperated with the court to clarify the historical record and to promote healing and reconciliation among Cambodians, both mandates of the tribunal.

Prosecutors weren't impressed, however, remaining skeptical of Duch's tears in court and calling his testimony evasive as they sought to prove that he ran the S-21 prison, also known as Tuol Sleng, with zeal and relative autonomy. They also argued that Duch was at the center of the Khmer Rouge's murderous security apparatus, insinuating himself into the regime's top echelon by encouraging more purges.

Prosecutors asked for a 40-year prison sentence.

Duch's defense team, meanwhile, was split by dissension. Cambodian members insisted that Duch was a scapegoat and should be acquitted because S-21 was only one of nearly 200 Khmer Rouge detention centers across Cambodia. His French lawyers said they weren't seeking an acquittal but wanted any sentence reduced so he could be freed as soon as possible.

The differences underlined an ongoing rift between the Cambodian and international sides of the hybrid court.

After years of negotiations between the United Nations and the Cambodian government, the tribunal was set up in 2006 in a final bid to bring accountability and reconciliation to the Cambodian people in regard to the Khmer Rouge's reign of terror.

The tribunal introduced an innovative system allowing selected Cambodian civilians to air grievances and question the accused. But it has also been mired in controversy amid allegations of Cambodian political interference and corruption.

The judges are expected to deliver a ruling in March. The maximum penalty they can impose is life imprisonment.

Brady is a special correspondent.

Khmer Rouge chief Duch stuns court with release bid

Friday, 27 November 2009
BBC News

Former Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch has shocked the UN-backed war crimes tribunal by asking to be released on the final day of the trial.

Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, had admitted being responsible for overseeing the deaths of 15,000 people.

Duch commanded a prison from where thousands were killed in an orchard now known as the "Killing Fields".

His request for clemency cast doubt over the sincerity of his requests for forgiveness from the victims' families.

Duch, a former maths teacher, said he had co-operated fully with the tribunal and had been detained since 1999.

"I would ask the chamber to release me. Thank you very much," he said at the end of his closing statement to the court.

Tortured and killed

His lawyer confirmed he was asking to be acquitted on the grounds that he was not a senior member of the Khmer Rouge hierarchy.

The judges did not act on Duch's request and closed proceedings. They are expected to make a ruling on the verdict early next year.

Up to two million Cambodians died under Pol Pot's brutal Khmer Rouge rule in the 1970s.

As many as 17,000 inmates are thought to have passed through the gates of the prison which Duch controlled, known as S-21.

The vast majority were tortured, forced to "confess" to crimes against the regime and then put to death just outside Phnom Penh.

Duch is the first of five leading Khmer Rouge figures to face the UN-backed tribunal.

The joint trial of four other - more senior - Khmer Rouge leaders is expected to start in 2011.

Khmer Rouge torturer had to "kill or be killed"

Thu Nov 26, 2009
By Ek Madra

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - The Khmer Rouge's chief torturer and jailer had to "kill or be killed" and operate like an "obedient machine," his lawyer said on Thursday in defending the first member of Cambodia's murderous regime to face justice.

In the final two days of testimony in the U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal, a lawyer for the commander of the Khmer Rouge's notorious S-21 prison said his client's life was at stake when he ordered the murder of more than 14,000 people in the 1970s.

Speaking a day after prosecutors asked the court to sentence Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, to 40 years in prison, the lawyer said the tribunal should show leniency because the 67-year-old former maths teacher had fully cooperated.

"Without Duch, the trial could not have unfolded if he, like others, had decided to remain in silence," Francois Roux, Duch's lawyer, told a courtroom packed with more than 600 people, including many survivors of the ultra-communist regime blamed for 1.7 million deaths in 1975-79.

"The accused was absolutely, himself, in the hands of the party. And in fact, he had to operate like a machine, an obedient machine," said Roux. "He himself was in a situation where he had to choose to kill or be killed."

"We do not wish our client to be the scapegoat," he added.

Duch is scheduled to take the stand again on Friday on the final day of the trial. A verdict is expected by March.

He is accused of "crimes against humanity, enslavement, torture, sexual abuses and other inhumane acts" as commander of Tuol Sleng prison, a converted high school also known as S-21, during one of the darkest chapters of the 20th century.

Only seven of 14,000 people who passed through S-21 survived.

Prosecutors have urged the tribunal's five-judge panel to reject Duch's assertion he had little choice but to carry out orders, saying Duch was "ideologically of the same mind" as the Khmer Rouge leaders and did nothing to stop prison guards from inflicting rampant torture.

QUARTER OF POPULATION DIED

Lead prosecutor William Smith told the court this week "the accused was neither a prisoner, nor a hostage, nor a victim. He was an idealist, a revolutionary, a crusader - prepared to torture and kill willingly for the good of the revolution."

The tribunal seeks justice for nearly a quarter of Cambodia's population who perished from execution, overwork or torture during the Khmer Rouge's agrarian revolution, which ended with the 1979 invasion by Vietnam.

Duch faces up to life in prison if convicted. Smith said on Wednesday he should get 40 years. Cambodia does not have capital punishment.

Now a born-again Christian, Duch expressed "excruciating remorse" on Wednesday for the S-21 victims, most of them tortured and forced to confess to spying and other crimes before they were bludgeoned to death at the "Killing Fields" execution sites.

Witnesses in 72 days of hearings spoke of beatings with metal pipes, electrocution, near-starvation, violent rape and prisoners forced to eat their own excrement.

Duch has asked if he could apologise in person to his victims' families, and has said he was convinced he was fighting to free Cambodia from U.S. imperialism during the Vietnam War.

Four other senior Khmer Rouge cadres are in custody awaiting trial. They are ex-president Khieu Samphan, former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary, his wife Khieu Thirith and "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea. Unlike Duch, they have not publicly apologised.

Pol Pot, architect of the Khmer Rouge's "Year Zero" peasant revolution, was captured in 1997 and died in April 1998.

The chamber of three Cambodian and two foreign judges -- known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia -- requires four to agree on a verdict.

(Writing by Jason Szep; Editing by Alan Raybould and Dean Yates)

Court should accept Khmer Rouge jailer's remorse

This handout picture taken and released by the Extraordinary Chamber in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) on November 26, 2009 shows former Khmer Rouge chief of "S-21", known as Tuol Sleng prison, Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, in the courtroom at the Extraodinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia in Phnom Penh. Prosecutors demanded a 40-year jail term on November 25 for Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch. AFP PHOTO

The lawyer for Cambodia's Khmer Rouge jail chief urged the UN-backed war crimes court Thursday to recognise his client's remorse in the interests of national reconciliation

PHNOM PENH, November 26, 2009 (AFP) - The lawyer for Cambodia's Khmer Rouge jail chief urged the UN-backed war crimes court Thursday to recognise his client's remorse in the interests of national reconciliation.

French defence lawyer Francois Roux said prosecution demands for a 40-year prison term for former prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, failed to take account of his repeated apologies.

"We have before us an accused who recognises his guilt. This is an historic moment for this country... We must build the truth," Roux told the court.

"The prosecution has... missed its date with history," he said.

"They said lock him up for 40 years and society will be the better for it. But when will the prosecution admit that these are words that have been heard before? These are cliches and we must go further."

Duch, 67, has repeatedly apologised, this week offering "excruciating remorse", for his role in the hardline communist regime, which killed up to two million people.

But prosecution lawyers giving final arguments Wednesday said that was not enough and demanded he serve 40 years in jail.

Since his trial began in February, Duch has begged forgiveness for overseeing the murders of around 15,000 men, women and children at the S-21 or Tuol Sleng prison, a former high school in the capital Phnom Penh.

Tuol Sleng was at the heart of the Khmer Rouge security apparatus and inmates were taken from there during Duch's tenure for execution at nearby Choeung Ek, an orchard now known as the "Killing Fields".

Duch faces a maximum life sentence as the tribunal does not have the power to impose the death penalty. A verdict is expected early next year.

Duch has argued that he was not a leading figure in the regime and that he acted out of fear for his own safety and that of his family, but prosecutors accuse him of not fully acknowledging his role in Khmer Rouge leadership.

Khmer Rouge leader 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.

Comrade Duch pleads for clemency

Thursday, November 26, 2009
By Zoe Daniel in Phnom Penh
ABC News (Australia)

The first defendant in Cambodia's Khmer Rouge war crimes trials has made a final plea for clemency as lawyers wind up the case against him.

Comrade Duch has admitted his crimes and apologised to the Cambodian people in the interests of national reconciliation.

But prosecutors say he has only partly confessed and they want him jailed for 40 years.

Duch has listened intently, took notes and occasionally shook his head as the case against him was summarised over more than two days.

When it was his chance to speak through an interpreter, he passionately broke his silence.

"I am deeply remorseful of and profoundly affected by destruction on such a mind-boggling scale," he said.

The former head of the S21 prison is the first of the regime's leaders to come before the specially convened court, more than 30 years after the "Killing Fields" horrors committed by the Khmer Rouge.

But for the families of those killed, the blood is still fresh.

Chim En, 62, says he lost family and friends in S21, and he wants the prison leader punished with a long sentence.

The UN-sanctioned court has heard graphic details of violence against so-called enemies of the extreme communist regime.

Duch is accused of ordering and overseeing his subordinates to mutilate and kill. Babies were bashed to death on tree trunks, men had needles inserted under their fingernails, women were raped with sticks and worse.

Almost no-one left the prison alive.

Prosecutor William Smith says the victims never had the chance to plead their case as Duch has done.

"They were falsely accused and arbitrarily punished," Mr Smith said. "On the contrary, the accused ensured they were treated as animals.

"To him, they were enemies of the state who deserved no mercy and no compassion."

Duch is seeking a shortened sentence because he has apologised to the families of his victims.

He argues that he was acting under orders from his superiors and would have been killed if he had disobeyed.

Duch is now a born-again Christian and says he wants to contribute to national reconciliation.

"For the victims of S21 and their families, I still claim that I am solely and individually liable for the loss of at least 12,380 lives," Duch said

"I still and forever wish to most respectfully and humbly apologise to those dead souls. I have worshipped God to honour the dead."

But both the prosecution and lawyers for ordinary Cambodians who have appeared before the court say his confession has been selective and not completely honest.

Prosecutors are calling for a sentence of 40 years which, for 67-year-old Duch, means the rest of his life. The court will deliberate its verdict until the New Year.

Khmer Rouge executioner Comrade Duch asks to apologise to families

Kaing Guek Eav, known as Comrade Duch, expresses wish in court to meet families of those tortured and murdered

Wednesday 25 November 2009
Ben Doherty in Phnom Penh
guardian.co.uk

Comrade Duch seeks forgiveness for crimes Link to this video The Khmer Rouge's executioner-in-chief, the prison boss allegedly responsible for the torture and murder of more than 12,000 people, appeared in court today to express his "excruciating remorse", asking that he be allowed to meet his victims' families to apologise in person.

Kaing Guek Eav, known as Comrade Duch, told a courtroom packed with around 600 people – many of them survivors of the Khmer Rouge regime – that he took full responsibility for the torture and murders that occurred at the Tuol Sleng prison in the 1970s.

"I am solely and individually responsible for the loss of at least 12,380 lives," he said. "These people, before their deaths, endured great and prolonged suffering and countless indignities. I … forever wish most respectful and humble apologies to the dead souls.

"As for the families, I [am] asking you to kindly leave your door open for me to make my apologies. May I meet with you to allow me to share your intense and enduring sorrow any time in order to express my most excruciating remorse?"

The apology, broadcast live on national TV, left many Cambodians cold. Bou Meng, one of only a dozen people to have walked out of Tuol Sleng alive, said he doubted Duch's sincerity.

"We've wept together," he said, "I know my tears are coming from sorrow. But I don't know about Duch's tears."

As a child, Norng Charnpal was rescued, filthy, starving and frightened, from Tuol Sleng when it was liberated. His mother died there. He told the Guardian he did not want Duch to apologise.

"I don't want to hear this. It is not real and it is not enough for my family. Look at him, he is an old man, he has had a long life. The way he talked, I do not believe he is genuine."

Dressed in a carefully ironed blue shirt, Duch, a former mathematics teacher, spoke calmly and coldly, his evidence littered with casual references to "the wishes of the party".

As head of Tuol Sleng prison, a converted high school also known as S-21, Duch explained that his role was to "smash" people presumed disloyal to the Khmer Rouge movement. Every prisoner was assumed guilty, Duch explained, effectively "already dead".

They were to be tortured for false confessions, usually that they were traitors working for the CIA or KGB, through electric shocks, beatings and whippings, water-boarding, having fingers cut off or toenails pulled out. The victims were then executed, most driven to nearby Choeung Ek, the Killing Fields, where they were bludgeoned to death with ox-cart axles and buried in mass graves.

"Those people were the innocent, the clean, the very honest," Duch admitted. "I don't believe they had committed any wrongdoing, as they were accused."

Speaking from a handwritten speech that ran to more than 10 pages, Duch said he found himself unwittingly caught up in a revolution he came to despise, and was forced to do his job at Tuol Sleng against his wishes, out of fear he would be killed if he refused.

"I could not withdraw from it … I am very terrified."

Earlier in the day, prosecutors asked that Duch be jailed for 40 years for his crimes, effectively a life sentence for the 67-year-old. He will be sentenced next year.

The lead prosecutor, William Smith, refuted Duch's claim that he was acting only out of fear for his own life, telling the court "the accused was neither a prisoner, nor a hostage, nor a victim. He was an idealist, a revolutionary, a crusader … prepared to torture and kill willingly for the good of the revolution."

Throughout the trial, Duch has listened attentively but impassively as the evidence of the murderous regime he oversaw is laid bare before the court. As the court heard this week of his orders that inmates who soiled themselves be forced to eat their excrement, Duch appeared inscrutable, taking meticulous notes of all that was said.

The ultra-communist Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia for four years between 1975 and 1979. The regime killed – through starvation, overwork, disease and murder – an estimated 1.7 million people, one-quarter of the country's population.

Comrade Duch is the first Khmer Rouge cadre to face trial. Four more senior leaders – including the regime's former second-in-command, Nuon Chea – are in jail awaiting trial, but there are concerns they may not live long enough to face a courtroom in 2011. A report this week by the Open Society Justice Initiative has said allegations of corruption amongst court officials, and the Cambodian government's open resistance to more trials, could derail the trial process.

Cambodia: Duch Apologizes as Prosecutors Demand 40 Years in Prison

Photo released by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, show Kang Guek Eav, (C), the former chief of the Khmer Rouge's notorious S-21 prison, in the court room of the U.N.-backed tribunal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 25 Nov 2009

Kaing Guek Eav is accused of overseeing the torture and execution of more than 15,000 men, women and children in Cambodia.

Luke Hunt
Phnom Penh 25 November 2009
Voice of America

In Cambodia, final arguments are being heard in the trial of a senior Khmer Rouge leader blamed for the deaths of at least 12,000 people.

Kang Guek Eav, also known as Duch, apologized in court Wednesday. He said he will always be liable for the crimes committed under his stewardship and will always be responsible for the souls who perished at the prison he ran.

He spoke after prosecutors demanded a 40-year prison sentence for Duch's systematic killing of thousands of prisoners at the Khmer Rouge prison known as Toul Sleng, or S-21. As many as 12,000 prisoners died there - only a few ever walked out of S-21 alive.

The prosecutors did not demand a life sentence, because of the years Duch as already spent in prison and because he has shown some remorse, pleaded no contest to the charges and provided evidence against other Khmer Rouge leaders.

Prosecutors Wednesday told the court that Duch's crimes are comparable to massacres carried out under Stalin's Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, where those who did not fit in faced violence.

Co-prosecutor William Smith says under the Khmer Rouge, which ruled Cambodia from April 1975 to January 1979, prisoners were routinely beaten, faced electric shocks, had their toenails torn out, were whipped and faced water-boarding.

Surgery was performed on prisoners without anesthesia and blood was extracted from them until they lay dying.

"The closing of Kang Guek Eav, known as Duch, will also close the darkest chapter in Cambodian history," said Reach Sambath, the chief spokesman for the court. "A lot of people come to Toul Sleng and they have a lot of question marks. Now they can see the court is putting him on trial and will take him to jail."

As many as two million people perished under the ultra-Maoist government - through execution, starvation or illness. Cambodia's long running civil war and international politics meant it was not until this year that any of the Khmer Rouge leaders faced trial.

Final submission from the victims and the defense are being delivered this week before the international tribunal goes into recess. Sentencing is not expected until early next year.

Although most Khmer Rouge leaders are dead, at least four are expected to be brought to trial sometime next year.

Khmer Rouge jailer expresses "excruciating remorse"

By Ek Madra

PHNOM PENH, Nov 25 (Reuters) - The Khmer Rouge's chief torturer and jailer expressed "excruciating remorse" on Wednesday for more than 14,000 people killed under his watch at a notorious prison during Cambodia's ultra-Maoist revolution of the 1970s.

In the final week of testimony for the first senior Khmer Rouge cadre to face the U.N.-backed "Killing Fields" tribunal, Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, said he was solely liable for the killings but that he served a "criminal organisation".

"I found I had ended up serving a criminal organisation which destroyed its own people in outrageous fashion. I could not withdraw from it," said the 67-year-old former maths teacher.

"I was like a screw in the machinery of a car that could not be removed," he added.

Duch is accused of "crimes against humanity, enslavement, torture, sexual abuses and other inhumane acts" as commander of S-21 prison during one of the darkest chapters of the 20th century when the Khmer Rouge ruled from 1975-79 under Pol Pot.

He said he was convinced he was fighting to free Cambodia from U.S. imperialism during the Vietnam War. He has denied personally killing or torturing prisoners and has repeatedly said he was following orders out of fear for his own life.

Karim Khan, a civil party lawyer, urged the tribunal's five-judge panel this week to reject Duch's assertion that he had little choice but to carry out orders, saying Duch was "ideologically of the same mind" as the Khmer Rouge leaders.

The tribunal seeks justice for 1.7 million people, nearly a quarter of Cambodia's population, who perished from execution, overwork or torture during the Khmer Rouge's agrarian revolution.

"I am deeply remorseful of and profoundly affected by this destruction," he said. "I am solely and individually liable for the loss of at least 12,380 lives."

Researchers say that number is inaccurate and more than 14,000 were killed after passing through S-21, also known as Tuol Sleng. Only seven people survived.

"I forever wish to most respectfully and humbly apologise for the deaths," he said.

"PSYCHOLOGICALLY ACCOUNTABLE"

Duch faces up to life in prison if convicted. A prosecutor said on Thursday Duch should get 40 years in prison for his role.

Now a born-again Christian, Duch has in the past expressed remorse for the S-21 victims, most of them tortured and forced to confess to spying and other crimes before they were bludgeoned to death at the "Killing Fields" execution sites.

But he appeared to take this further on Wednesday, speaking of his remorse and telling a court packed with about 600 people, including some survivors of the regime, that he would seek help to be recognised again as "part of humankind".

"I am psychologically accountable to the entire Cambodian population for the souls of these who perished," he said.

"May I plead with you to allow me to share with you my immense and enduring sorrow ... in order to express my most excruciating remorse."

Prosecution lawyers say Duch had broad autonomy and did nothing to stop prison guards from inflicting rampant torture.

Witnesses in 72 days of hearings spoke of beatings with metal pipes, electrocution, near-starvation, violent rape and forcing some prisoners to eat their own excrement.

A verdict is expected by March.

Four other senior Khmer Rouge cadres are in custody awaiting trial. They are ex-president Khieu Samphan, former foreign minister Ieng Sary, his wife Khieu Thirith and "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea.

Pol Pot, architect of the Khmer Rouge's "Year Zero" peasant revolution, was captured in 1997 and died in April 1998. One-legged military chief Ta Mok died in 2006.

The chamber of three Cambodian and two foreign judges -- known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia -- requires four to agree on a verdict.

(Writing by Jason Szep; Editing by Alan Raybould)

Duch's defence says he is scapegoat in Khmer Rouge trial

Nov 25, 2009
DPA

Phnom Penh - The defence in Cambodia's war crimes tribunal on Wednesday said their client, Comrade Duch, has been made a scapegoat for the crimes of the Khmer Rouge.

Kar Savuth, Duch's Cambodian defence lawyer, said his client was neither 'a senior leader' of the Khmer Rouge nor someone who could be considered to be 'most responsible' for the crimes of the regime. The two categories of the tribunal's mandate define those who are to be prosecuted.

'It is only that Duch himself, who killed very few people, is being made a scapegoat,' Kar Savuth said. 'Is this justice?'

The defence's statements form part of its 7-hour closing argument in the tribunal. The joint UN-Cambodian court is trying the former commander of the Khmer Rouge's most notorious prison known as S-21, for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Earlier the prosecution called on the tribunal to hand down a 40-year sentence to Duch, who ran S-21, where more than 15,000 people are thought to have been tortured and murdered between 1975-79.

The international co-prosecutor William Smith said Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, was the Khmer Rouge regime's 'loyal and dedicated agent.'

The prosecution acknowledged Duch had shown some cooperation and taken limited responsibility for the crimes committed at S-21, and also agreed that he is entitled to a reduction in sentence for the years he spent in pre-trial detention.

However, Smith said the loss and suffering of the victims and their families must be foremost in the judges' minds when considering their sentence.

The prosecution said a proposed 45-year sentence ought to be reduced by five years. Duch is 67, so the prosecution's jail demand would effectively translate to life in prison.

'The whole of humanity demands a just and proportionate response to the crimes [committed at S-21],' Smith said, adding that the court must remember that the lives and dreams of thousands murdered at S-21 had been stolen by Duch.

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.

Duch, who appeared in court in a lilac Ralph Lauren shirt and beige trousers, also addressed the court Wednesday.

In his address that at times rambled and was packed with dates, facts and names, Duch repeated that he was a mere cog in a killing machine, and was fearful for his own life.

'I am deeply remorseful and profoundly affected by such destruction on such a mind-boggling scale,' Duch told the court, again apologising for his role in the Khmer Rouge's mass killings of its own people.

'I most respectfully and humbly wish to apologise to the souls of the dead,' he said.

On Tuesday, the national co-prosecutor Chea Leang told the court that far from being the mere functionary he had tried to portray himself as, Duch was in fact the key intelligence operative for the Khmer Rouge as they sought out real and imaginary enemies of the revolution.

'He was the [Khmer Rouge's] trusted man to identify supposed plots against the revolution and to root out enemies,' Chea Leang said.

Witnesses at the trial 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.

On Monday, lawyers for the civil parties, a collection of 90 people who are predominantly relatives of prisoners who were murdered at S-21, presented their closing arguments.

Duch has testified during the 72-day trial that he was simply following orders and had almost no power to help detainees sent to S-21.

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.

Khmer Rouge jailer tells of remorse

Duch's defence team say he would have been killed himself if he had not followed orders

Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Al Jazeera

In a final appeal to his war crimes tribunal, the Khmer Rouge's top jailer has apologised for his role in the torture and murder of thousands of Cambodians.

Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, was head of the S-21 prison where almost 16,000 people were tortured to death during the Khmer Rouge's brutal rule over Cambodia in the 1970s.

Addressing the court in closing arguments on Wednesday, Duch said that he wanted to share the sorrow of the Cambodian people.

"To the survivors I stand by my acknowledgement to all crimes," Duch told the court on the outskirts of the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh.

"As for the families of victims, my wish is that you kindly leave your door open for me to make my apologies."

Prosecutors have demanded that Duch, 67, be sentenced to 40 years in jail.

But his defence team have said he was only following orders, and that had he not done so he and family would have been in danger.

"In order to express my most excruciating remorse I have fully and sincerely cooperated with the court whenever it is needed of me," Duch told the court.

Prosecutors have said that Duch's apologies and expressions of sorrow for his actions do not amount to a full guilty plea.

"We submit... that the sentence to be submitted by this trial chamber should be 40 years in prison," prosecutor Bill Smith told judges.

Justice

"In imposing this penalty, you are not taking away the accused's humanity but you are giving it back to the victims of S-21," he said.

"Let's recall that unlike the prisoners at S-21 he is being met with open and even-handed justice."

Duch, a former maths teacher, has been charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture and premeditated murder.

The case is the first formal trial to delve into the horrors of Cambodia's former Khmer Rouge regime, blamed for the deaths of up to two million people.

Closing arguments in the trial are expected to wrap up later this week, but a verdict is not likely until early 2010.

The maximum sentence available to judges is life in prison.

Duch has been detained since 1999, when an investigative journalist found him working as a Christian aid worker in the jungle.

He was formally arrested by the tribunal in July 2007.

Four other senior Khmer Rouge leaders are in custody awaiting trial.

Genuine remorse or crocodile tears?

The Khmer Rouge prison chief accused of crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture and premeditated murder will make his final statements to the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) this week.

23 November 2009
By Karl Dowling
Radio Netherland

In attendance at the trial are surviving victims of the Khmer Rouge regime, which killed up to 2 million people between 1975 and 1979.

The trial of former prison chief Kaing Guek Eav -- better known as Duch -- began in February and a verdict is expected early next year.

The order of proceedings in the final week of the trial sees civil parties present their arguments on Monday, followed by the prosecution’s closing statement on Tuesday. The defence will then speak on Wednesday and Thursday, after which civil parties and the prosecution will present rebuttal statements. The defence will then have one hour to make their closing argument, including any final statements by the defendant.

The accused has admitted that he oversaw the murders of approximately 15,000 men, women and children while in charge of the notorious Tuol Sleng prison and has asked for forgiveness from his victims and their families.

However, Duch has consistently denied any direct involvement in the torture and murder of prisoners. The crimes took place at the prison and in the nearby Killing Fields, where prisoners were often taken to be executed.

“Crocodile tears”

Duch, 67, has appeared remorseful throughout the trial and has apologized repeatedly for his actions under the Khmer Rouge regime. He has claimed that his job at the prison was performed under duress since he feared for his life from more senior Khmer Rouge officials if he did not carry out his duties.

Speaking about the final week of proceedings, Duch’s lawyer Francois Roux said on Sunday, "At this moment it's very important to give credit to Duch for his guilty plea. Duch has recognized his responsibility".

However, lawyers for victims of the Khmer Rouge accused the regime's jailer of duping Cambodia's war crimes court. Attorney Kong Pisey told judges on Monday that Duch had sought "to cleverly evade responsibility when it suits him" and wept "crocodile tears" in the dock.

Controversy

Controversy has surrounded the UN-backed tribunal since its inception in 2005. Accusations of government interference have been rife throughout and it’s also alleged that top jobs have been paid for.

Duch’s trial is the first of its kind to take place at the ECCC. The joint trial of four other more senior Khmer Rouge leaders is expected to open in 2011, while deliberations are still on going regarding cases against five other former Khmer Rouge cadres.

K.Rouge jail chief asks for 'strictest' punishment

Wednesday, August 12, 2009
AFP

PHNOM PENH — The Khmer Rouge's main jail chief told a war crimes court Wednesday he would like the "strictest level of punishment" -- even death by stoning -- for his crimes against the Cambodian people.

Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, is on trial for overseeing the torture and execution of about 15,000 people at Tuol Sleng detention centre in the late 1970s.

The 66-year-old told the UN-backed tribunal that the country "can condemn me to whatever the highest level of punishment is" after his likely conviction.

"If there is a Cambodian tradition -- like it existed in the past when people threw rocks at Christ to death -- Cambodian people can do that to me. I would accept it," said Duch, who converted Christianity in the 1990s.

Duch has previously accepted responsibility for his role governing the jail and begged forgiveness for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

But he has consistently rejected claims by prosecutors that he held a central leadership role in the Khmer Rouge, and says he never personally killed anyone during the brutal 1975-79 regime.

"I will accept without challenges... all judgments which will be made by this chamber, the judgment of my role as the chairman of S-21 and all the crimes committed there," he said.

"I am humble before the Cambodian people, I accept all of these crimes and would like the Cambodian people to condemn me to the strictest level of punishment."

"My life is just one life and cannot compare to those lives which were lost during the period," he added.

Led by Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the Khmer Rouge emptied Cambodia's cities in a bid to forge an agrarian utopia, resulting in the deaths of up to two million people from starvation, overwork and torture.

Speaking of those who lost family members, Duch said, "I accept their regret, their sorrow and their suffering."

Lawyers ramp up defence for former S-21 chairman

Duch in court on Tuesday morning, after saying he prays for forgiveness all the time. (Photo by: GEORGIA WILKINS)

Wednesday, 24 June 2009
Written by Georgia Wilkins
The Phnom Penh Post

Tuol Sleng prison chief admits to praying for forgiveness, as lawyers exhibit video footage they said shows his remorse.

DEFENCE lawyers at Cambodia's war crimes court played footage Tuesday of their client, former S-21 chief Kaing Guek Eav, breaking down in tears during a 2008 speech to Khmer Rouge victims, prompting the former prison chief to declare that he prays for forgiveness from the prison's victims "all the time".

After prosecutors argued Monday that the born-again Christian, known as Duch, was downplaying his seniority in the regime, defence lawyers Tuesday hoped to portray their client as full of remorse.

"My father gave me life to do good deeds for the nation and the people, but I did the opposite," Duch said from the dock.

"I [pray] all the time, I ask forgiveness from my parents, from my teachers and finally I ask forgiveness from the victims," he said.

The defence's footage was three minutes of a recording of Duch at the Choeung Ek killing fields and S-21 that was conducted in the investigative stage of his trial.

Earlier, lawyers had urged their client to tell "the world and the public" who was really responsible for the crimes he was on trial for.

Duch responded that the orders had come from Nuon Chea and Pol Pot, but that they were passed through the party line via "a criminal mechanism".

Double identity

Duch, who admitted on Tuesday that S-21 was "not a prison, [but] a place to store people before killing", has juggled the dual personae of a victim of the regime's policy and a knowing, but regretful, party to torture and killing at its behest.

"I was a coward and beyond because I betrayed my friends and my teachers in order to survive," the 66-year-old told Swiss civil party lawyer Alain Werner.

Werner asked Duch whether he knowingly starved prisoners.

"It's a crime against humanity that everyone fell into, including myself, that I had enough rice in my hands, but I dared not take it to the prisoners who were detained in Phnom Penh," Duch said.

The court was closed for a trial management meeting in the afternoon that had been originally scheduled for Thursday.

However, defence lawyer Francois Roux announced he had a personal problem and would have to return to France that evening.

Cambodian trial hears from remorseful Duch

Tuesday 23rd June, 2009
Kazakhstan News.Net

Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes trial has been told by former prison chief Duch that he prayed for forgiveness over his shocking past.

Kaing Guek Eav, who is better known as Duch, is on trial for overseeing the torture and killing of 15,000 people.

All of the dead had been committed to notorious Tuol Sleng prison, also known as S-21, which Duch controlled in the days of the communist leader, Pol Pot.

Duch began to sob uncontrollably, when confronted with photos of his alleged victims.

He said his prison-organised trip to Choeung Ek, the so-called killing field where prisoners were executed, had filled him with sorrow.

Duch said he held annual prayer meetings to ask forgiveness from his parents, teachers and victims of his crimes.

When his trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity began in March, Duch accepted responsibility for his role at Tuol Sleng.

He has nevertheless consistently rejected claims by prosecutors that he was involved in mass torture, maintaining he only ever tortured two people himself and never personally executed anyone.