Cambodia Primed for the Main Event

Decades after the horrors of the Killing Fields, many Cambodians hope Case 002 can finally offer justice to the memory of those killed by the Khmer Rouge. (Image credit: ECCC)

June 24, 2011
By Luke Hunt
The Diplomat

For more than a decade, the critics have exerted undue influence over attempts to try the surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge and deliver some kind of justice for the atrocities committed under their rule. Cambodia, they say, is too corrupt, too inept, or just too disinterested to establish culpability for one of the great outrages of the 20th century.

The critics remain out in force, but despite their often hysterical cries about the flaws of a troubled country the main event is about to get underway at the Extraordinary Chambers for the Courts in Cambodia (ECCC).

Former Brother Number Two Nuon Chea, one-time head of state Khieu Samphan, former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary and his wife Ieng Thirith have indicated they will plead not guilty and fight tooth and nail charges of genocide and crimes against humanity once Case 002 begins on Monday.

M-13 a prototype for S-21: Duch

Forest Camp a Model for Torture Prison: Duch

By Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
07 April 2009

Jailed Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch denied on Tuesday any killings by his own hand, but admitted to ordering the deaths of prisoners at a small jungle camp in the west of the country and at Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh, as he continued his ground-breaking trial at the special tribunal court.

Duch’s administration of the Kampong Speu provincial detention camp, called M-13, served as a model for his role as chief at Tuol Sleng prison, known to the Khmer Rouge as S-21, where 16,000 Cambodians were tortured ahead of their execution, he told judges of the tribunal’s Trial Chamber.

“I did not kill [prisoners] by myself, I did not commit this,” he said. “But all orders [to kill prisoners] in M-13 came from me.”

He also said he had only ordered killings at S-21.

Duch, 66, whose real name is Kaing Kek Iev, is facing charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture and murder, as director of Tuol Sleng and Prey Sar prisons, as well as the execution site of Choeung Ek.

Few lived through Tuol Sleng, which became a repository for those considered enemies of the revolution, and in earlier trial sessions Duch apologized to the families of his victims and to survivors.

On Tuesday, he directly apologized to survivor Chhum Mey, who has been an ardent follower of the trial. Duch said Tuesday he had released only 10 prisoners from S-21.

The trial proceedings of Monday and Tuesday offered a look into the earlier prison camp, M-13, where the main torture method was to beat prisoners into forced confessions. Among torture methods at M-13, he said, prisoners would be dunked into water or left outside to be chilled by the cold.

Duch became chief of M-13, in Tpong district, Kampong Speu province, in July 1971, as the Khmer Rouge were growing in power in Cambodia’s countryside. He left M-13 prior to the Khmer Rouge takeover of Phnom Penh in April 1975. He became the chief of S-21 in 1976.

KRouge torturer: victims' confessions mostly false (Update)

April 07, 2009

PHNOM PENH (AFP) — The Khmer Rouge regime's prisons chief recounted his grisly past, telling Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court that confessions extracted under his torture orders were rarely true.

Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, last week apologised at trial for crimes against humanity, accepting blame for the extermination of 15,000 people who passed through the regime's notorious main prison, Tuol Sleng.

"I never believed the confessions I received told the truth. At most, they were about 40 percent true," Duch said Tuesday.

The grey-haired 66-year-old sat in the dock answering judges' questions about M-13 prison, a secret jungle centre he ran from 1971 to 1975 during the Khmer Rouge insurgency against the then US-backed government.

Duch told the court that he personally tortured two people there, but regularly ordered his subordinates to beat prisoners who were destined to be "smashed" to death with a stick at the back of the neck.

"The burden is still on me -- it's my responsibility. I would like to apologise to the souls of those who died," Duch said.

The Khmer Rouge were later in power from 1975 to 1979, the period when Duch is accused of supervising Tuol Sleng prison and sending thousands of people to their deaths in the so-called "Killing Fields".

The trial chamber is hearing evidence about M-13 to understand Tuol Sleng's organising structure, the personality of Duch and the relevance of his role to the Khmer Rouge leadership.

The former prison chief said Monday that he hated his role "detaining, interrogating and smashing" suspected spies at M-13 but he was afraid leaders would turn on him if he did not carry out orders.

However Duch told the court Tuesday he did not follow orders to torture French anthropologist Francois Bizot, who wrote about being detained at M-13 in his bestselling book, "The Gate".

"I could only inform to my boss Vorn Vet that these people (Bizot and two Cambodian assistants) were not CIA agents. They were really researchers," Duch said.

"My boss laughed at me... He said I was afraid of CIA agents and asked me to interrogate them. I told them it was beyond my capacity to interrogate them so I should only ask them to write down some sort of agreement," he added.

Many months later Khmer Rouge leaders decided to release Bizot, Duch said, making him one of just 10 prisoners who survived M-13.

"Only the Frenchman was released. The two Cambodian people (arrested with Bizot) were kept under detention," Duch added.

Scholar Henri Locard said he doubted Duch was providing a full confession but that the former prison chief's exacting testimony was unique in a country where few accept responsibility for crimes.

"In Cambodian politics, I've never heard this," Locard told AFP at the court.

Duch said M-13 was surrounded by a bamboo fence and shackled prisoners were often held in two-metre deep pits, both to prevent escape and to protect them from US warplanes carpetbombing the area.

The former maths teacher has denied assertions by prosecutors that he played a central role in the Khmer Rouge regime's iron-fisted rule.

Duch faces charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture and premeditated murder for his role in the regime. He faces life in jail at the court, which does not have the power to impose the death penalty.

Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot died under house arrest in 1998, and many believe the UN-sponsored tribunal is the last chance to find justice for the regime which killed up to two million people.

The tribunal was formed in 2006 after nearly a decade of wrangling between the United Nations and Cambodian government, and is scheduled to try four other senior Khmer Rouge leaders after Duch's trial.

UN assistant secretary general for legal affairs Peter Taksoe-Jensen held talks with senior Cambodian officials Tuesday to implement anti-corruption measures after claims Cambodian staff were forced to pay kickbacks for jobs.

Khmer Rouge confessions 'rarely true' admits Duch

April 7, 2009
Anne Barrowclough
Times Online (UK)

Confessions extracted under torture in the Khmer Rouge's brutal prisons were rarely true, the regime's prisons chief admitted today.

Kaing Guek Eav, or 'Duch' the director of the Khmer Rouge's most infamous prison S-21, told a Cambodia war crimes tribunal he took part in torture sessions and ordered his subordinates to beat prisoners who were to be 'smashed' to death with an iron bar.

Duch was renowned for reading every confession brought to him from the interrogation sessions, often correcting them in red pen. However, he said today, he rarely believed them.

"I never believed the confessions I received told the truth. At most, they were about 40 percent true," he told the Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh.

The 66-year-old former school-master is in the second week of a hearing at the UN-backed tribunal, charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture and homicide.

He has already accepted responsiblity for the atrocities committed at S-21 under his command, and apologised to his victims but he maintains that he was a scapegoat of Pol Pot's genocidal regime which presided over the death of 1.7 million Cambodians during its 1975 - 1979 rule.

The former school-master is answering questions about M-13, a secret security centre in the jungle he ran from 1971-1975 during the Khmer Rouge insurgency against the US-backed military government.

He was posted to S-21 after impressing his superiors with his fanatical devotion to the communist cause, and his brutally meticulous directorship of M-13.

He told the court M-13 was surrounded by a bamboo fence and shackled prisoners were often held in two-metre deep pits, both to prevent escape and to protect them from US warplanes carpet-bombing the area

He claimed he personally tortured only two people but admitted: "The burden is still on me - it's my responsibility. I would like to apologise to the souls of those who died," he said.

The ECCC is questioning him over M-13 to get a better understanding of the structure of S-21.

Khmer Rouge torture chief says he never wanted to run prison

Mon, 06 Apr 2009
DPA

Phnom Penh - The Khmer Rouge's former chief torturer told Cambodia's UN-backed genocide tribunal Monday he never wanted to become the warden of a notorious prison where more than 15,000 people were sent to be murdered, saying he had hoped to be a teacher after the ultra-Maoist group came to power in 1975. Kang Guek Eav, known by his revolutionary name Duch, was a mathematics teacher before joining Pol Pot's Communist Party of Cambodia (CPK) in the early 1960s and said he had "sacrificed everything," including his job and salary, for the revolution.

"The only thing I loved in life was teaching," he said. "I wished that when the revolution was over I would be able to teach again."

In the tribunal's first trial, Duch, 66, faces charges of crimes against humanity, torture, premeditated murder and breeches of the Geneva Conventions, allegedly committed while he headed the notorious Tuol Sleng torture prison in Phnom Penh.

The born-again Christian last week begged the families of victims and the handful of prison survivors to forgive him for crimes he committed at the school-turned-torture facility.

It was the first time any Khmer Rouge leader or apparatchik had made such an apology.

As the trial entered its second week Monday, judges questioned Duch about his time in the pre-revolutionary CPK and his involvement in the establishment of M-13 - a centre the Khmer Rouge ran during its rebellion against the US-backed military regime from 1971 to 1975.

Duch displayed a sharp memory for dates and names, recalling the exact dates on which he joined the CPK, met various Khmer Rouge members and when he was arrested and detained during the rule of former king and independence leader Norodom Sihanouk.

He said he was sentenced to 20 years prison for sedition in 1968 but was released after General Lon Nol led a coup against the Sihanouk in 1970.

"Lon Nol released political prisoners to show the world that Sihanouk was vicious," he said. "If Richard Nixon did let Lon Nol start the coup and Sihanouk had not become aligned with the Khmer Rouge, then the Khmer Rouge would never have succeeded."

Duch is one of five former leaders facing trial for their roles in the deaths of up to 2 million people through execution, starvation or overwork when the group sought to transform modern Cambodian society into an agrarian utopia, erase history and start again at "year zero" during its 1975-1979 reign.

His trial resumed as United Nations legal officials met with the Cambodian government to discuss an investigation into alleged corruption at the hybrid court, which has been riddled with controversy since it was established in 2006.

Peter Taksoe-Jensen, UN Assistant Secretary for Legal Affairs, and Deputy Prime Minister Sok An have pledged after previous discussions to conduct simultaneous investigations into allegations that Cambodian staff at the court were forced to pay kickbacks to their superiors.

The court has also faced allegations of government interference and disagreement between domestic and international prosecutors over plans to extend the investigation and arrest more former leaders.

Prime Minister Hun Sen said last week that arresting more detainees would put the country at risk of civil war. He said he would rather see the court fail than let the country return to conflict.

The court's 500-seat public gallery was about half full Monday, but the national TV network suspended its live broadcast of the court, which had run throughout the previous week's sessions.