M-13 still feared by the living

Mak Moeun, who lives near the site of M-13 prison, points out the pond where prisoners were taken to bathe. (Photo by: Heng Chivoan)
Lim Peth stands at the edge of a large pit he says was used to keep prisoners at the Khmer Rouge's M-13 prison in Kampong Speu. (Photo by: Heng Chivoan)

Wednesday, 22 April 2009
Written by Heng Chivoan
The Phnom Penh Post

KAMPONG SPEU PROVINCE

A scene of horror - now hidden by jungle - is recalled by villagers.

A MUDDY pond and a deep pit in the ground, its dirt walls reclaimed by jungle undergrowth, are the only reminders left of what would have likely been just one of many now-forgotten Khmer Rouge prisons had it not been commandeered by the man who is at the centre of Cambodia's efforts to reconcile with its brutal past.

Kaing Guek Eav is standing trial in the Kingdom's Khmer Rouge tribunal for atrocities that he admits he committed while director of Tuol Sleng prison, or S-21, the regime's chief torture centre.

But before Tuol Sleng, there was M-13, a crude holding pen for human beings marked for slaughter that Kaing Guek Eav, who is better known by his revolutionary name Duch, ran with the same cold efficiency that would define his later tenure at Tuol Sleng.

From 1971 to 1975, Duch conducted interrogations, made reports and sent an unknown number of people to their deaths at M-13, a precursor to the S-21 killing machine that judges at Cambodia's war crimes court say offers insight into the mind of the man who would become the regime's top jailer.

"Every four or five days, between 10 and 20 prisoners, their hands tied behind their backs, would be taken away to be killed," said Mak Moeun, a farmer who has lived near this site, some 70 kilometres from Phnom Penh, since 1971.

"I knew clearly who Duch was, but I never spoke to him. I never went to see what was happening there [at M-13] because I was too afraid," he said Tuesday as he picked his way through the vegetation that has overtaken the former prison.

With a sweep of his arm he defined where there once was a corral that at any given time enclosed 50 or 60 bound, near-naked prisoners.

"They continued to add more as they took others away to be killed," said Mak Moeun, who at the time was working on a nearby farm.

"I saw Duch order his guards to take the prisoners to be killed. I never saw the killing, I only heard the screams and cries."

The passage of years has softened Mak Moeun's anger towards Duch, a man he said he would have killed but whose fate he says is now in the hands of the war crimes court.

"But if the law would allow for him to be executed, I would like to see him executed and put an end to this story," the 67-year-old said.

Old ghosts

Cows graze on scrubland and farmers tend their rice fields nearby, but Lim Peth said that in the immediate aftermath of the Khmer Rouge regime, few villagers dared go near M-13, and even today are reluctant to approach the site.

"They were afraid of the ghosts of those killed," he said.

At the height of operations at M-13, Lim Peth, then a 13-year-old boy tasked with tending cattle on the same cooperative farm where Mak Moeun grew rice, remembered seeing guards taking prisoners to a pond about 100 metres from the corral to be bathed.

This was one of the few gestures of humanity offered by Duch to the inmates, who Lim Peth said were otherwise cruelly abused - a statement that has been backed up by former prison guards testifying at Duch's trial who said their boss appeared to take pleasure in his ability to exert absolute control over those in his grasp.

"If the law would allow for him to be executed, i would like to see him executed."

"The prison was controlled by Duch and his wife - all aspects of management, all the orders were given by Duch," Lim Peth said.

Inhuman conditions

"I saw Duch torture the prisoners, who had been detained from all over the area and collected [at M-13]," he added.

Inmates were often left bound and exposed to the insects and elements in a deep pit dug into the earth.

The men frequently wore nothing but tattered shorts, while the women were clad in rough black dresses, Lim Peth said.

It was in this same pit that shackled inmates were left to drown during the monsoon season, one former prison guard told the tribunal earlier this week.

But like Mak Moeun, Lim Peth said he never saw the prisoners being killed.

"I was too young and too afraid to try to see this," said the 51-year-old charcoal maker, who returned to nearby Thmar Kup village after the Vietnamese ousted the Khmer Rouge in 1979.

But more than three decades on, Lim Peth said he cannot control his anger towards Duch, who he insists ordered the killing of his family members unfortunate enough to be seized by the regime and sent to M-13.

"Speaking about Duch, I feel only pain," he said.

"At that time I know that my relatives were killed by guards acting on the orders of Duch."

Lim Peth said he wants nothing now "except for the tribunal to judge Duch".

"In my heart, I want to kill him - I am that angry - but I know I cannot do that," he said.

Khmer Rouge defendant says guards taught to hate

Tuesday, April 21, 2009
By SOPHENG CHEANG

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — The former Khmer Rouge prison commander accused of overseeing the torture and execution of thousands of men, women and children said Tuesday that his underlings were taught class hatred that allowed them to kill their enemies.

Kaing Guek Eav, 66, spoke at Cambodia's U.N.-assisted genocide tribunal, which is trying him for crimes against humanity, war crimes, murder and torture related to the Khmer Rouge's 1970s "killing fields" regime.

Better known by his alias, Duch, he is the first senior Khmer Rouge figure to face trial and the only one to acknowledge responsibility for his actions. Four more are in custody and are scheduled to be tried sometime over the next year or two.

An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died under the 1975-79 communist Khmer Rouge from forced labor, starvation, medical neglect and executions.

During that time, Duch commanded Phnom Penh's S-21 prison, also known as Tuol Sleng, where as many as 16,000 people are believed to have been tortured before being sent off for execution.

But the court has first been hearing testimony concerning a jungle prison known as M13 that Duch ran during the 1970-75 civil war that brought the Khmer Rouge to power.

Witnesses have alleged that Duch personally took part in torture and executions — an accusation he denies. But on Tuesday, he explained how he compelled his guards to carry out such acts.

"We educated people to have a firm class stand and then we taught them to be strict about how they could interrogate the prisoners and also taught them how to smash people and to keep them from escaping," he said.

"Smash" was the common euphemism used by the Khmer Rouge for kill or execute.

Duch, who had been a schoolteacher before joining the Khmer Rouge guerrilla movement, explained that the communist theory of education was different from traditional Cambodian teachings. Buddhism opposed killing, he said, but communism justified such actions to aid the working class.

If people did not follow the Khmer Rouge's orders, he added, they feared they "would be beheaded."

The significance of the testimony appeared to be that even before they came to power, the Khmer Rouge encouraged a culture of deadly violence toward their enemies that disregarded conventional notions of justice and allowed decisions to kill people to be left in local hands.

Soon after they came to power, the group began executing its enemies from the former regime. Later, the cadre started using executions as almost ordinary punishment for anyone who disobeyed them. As the regime became paranoid, it began purges of its own followers throughout the country, leading to many massacres.

Earlier Tuesday, a guard who worked under Duch at M13 described him as someone whose life was devoted to his work, which he never took lightly.

Chan Khorn, 53, said Duch had a strict character and no one dared disobey him because they were scared of him.

"I myself was so afraid of him I could not even look him in the face," he said.

KRouge prison chief held 'self-criticism' meetings

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

PHNOM PENH (AFP) — A former jungle prison camp guard told Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court Tuesday how he was forced to attend "self-criticism" sessions to improve his work for Khmer Rouge jailer Duch.

Chan Khorn, 53, said he was so terrified of Duch that he "could not look him in the face" when he worked under him at the communist movement's M-13 prison in the early 1970s.

Duch -- whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav -- regularly told comrades that they would be punished if they failed to perform their duties, and held several "self-criticism" meetings over the course of a year, the witness said.

"These self-criticism meetings were designed to criticise one another. I myself, for example, revealed my mistakes and then received criticisms from other guards," Chan Khorn told the court.

"No one would dare criticise (Duch). None. Because he was the most important chairperson of the place, who would risk criticising him?"

Last month Duch apologised at the start of his trial, accepting blame for overseeing the extermination of 15,000 people who passed through the regime's main prison, Tuol Sleng.

But he has maintained that he never personally executed anyone and has only admitted to abusing two people.

The court has been hearing evidence about M-13, a secret jungle camp which Duch ran during the 1971 to 1975 Khmer Rouge insurgency against the then US-backed government, to better understand Tuol Sleng's organising structure.

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

The former mathematics teacher has denied prosecutors' claims that he played a central role in the Khmer Rouge's iron-fisted rule.

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 in 1998, and many believe the UN-sponsored tribunal is the last chance to find justice for victims of the regime, which killed up to two million people.

Duch’s trial: A new witness “does not remember any more”

20 April 2009
By Ung Chamroeun
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Tola Ek
Click here to read the article in French

The debate ended on a deceiving note on Monday 20 April, the day before the end of the hearings for witnesses of the M-13 detention camp.

The fourth witness in the “No. 1 affair,” the M-13 detention camp, showed the difficulties in establishing the facts. Chan Khorn, a witness in this case, brought forth the shortcomings of his memory.

When asked by Cambodian Judge Nil Nonn, the chamber president , the 53-year-old witness, who now lives in the Tep Phirom commune (Thpong district, Kampong Speu province), spoke with hesitation and with obvious reserve.

“I do not remember very well about what happened at M-13 in 1973. I was still very young back then,” he indicated while answering to almost all questions by: “I forgot.”

Chan Khorn said that he was deported from his village to complete “his army draft duty” and he was sent to work at M-13. He recognized that “several prisoners” were tortured but that he never personally participated in such session.

On the other hand, the witness identified Chan Voeun, who came earlier in the day to answer to the questions of Judge Jean-Marc Lavergne. At that time, Duch denied that Chan Voeun was part of the M-13 personnel.

“I know Chan Voeun, he was a guard just like me. It was him who freed prisoners before he was detained himself. I advised him to escape so that he would not be killed,” Chan Khorn claimed before indicating his “shame” for working at M-13.

“It was in this camp that my grandfather died, but I don’t know who killed him,” he added.

At Jungle Prison, Duch Tortured, Murdered: Guard

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

A man claiming to be a former Khmer Rouge guard at M-13 prison told judges that Duch also tortured prisoners, as trial proceedings continued Monday.

The purported guard, Chan Voeun, said Duch, who is facing numerous atrocity crimes charges, had shot his uncle and lit fire to the breast of a female inmate at M-13, the Kampong Speu provincial prison he ran before he was chief of Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh.

Judges are considering the behavior of Duch at M-13 as reference to acts later carried out at Tuol Sleng, as prosecutors continued to build a case against him. Now 66, Duch, whose real name is Kaing Kek Iev, is the first to be tried by the UN-backed court.

“I saw him hang prisoners, beat them, and I saw my uncle fall down and die after [Duch] shot him,” Chan Voeun said Monday. “I saw Duch holding in his hand a gun. He put a torch to burn the breast of a woman prisoner. She died at the prison.”

In his defense Monday, Duch said Chan Voeun had not been a guard at the prison and that his testimony was a fabrication. However, Duch did recognize some testimony of Chan Voeun, that villagers from the commune of Am Laing, near the prison, were arrested and put in M-13 and later killed.

Chan Voeun, 56, told judges he worked for Duch at M-13 from 1974 to 1975, and that there were around 70 people from the village.

Duch said he remembered the prisoners, but he said the number was “not 70.” However many there were, they were killed, which he regretted, Duch said.

Other witnesses at Duch’s trial have said that five to 10 prisoners died each day at M-13. However, Duch has said that only between 200 and 300 prisoners were killed at the prison.

Chan Voeun said that on one occasion he passed the cells of prisoners and counted 10 people, but when he returned later, there only four or five remained.

Duch’s trial is scheduled to continue Tuesday and Wednesday, when judges are expected to look closer at Duch’s role at Tuol Sleng, known to the Khmer Rouge as S-21, where prosecutors say at least 12,380 people were tortured and sent to their deaths.

Ex-Khmer Rouge says he is selling Pol Pot's shoes

2009-04-21
By SOPHENG CHEANG
Associated Press

A former member of the Khmer Rouge member said Monday that he is auctioning off a pair of shoes he claims belonged to the group's late leader Pol Pot to fund a museum about the brutal regime.

Nhem En, the chief photographer at the group's notorious torture center who photographed prisoners before and after they were tortured, is also selling his cameras. His images are the centerpiece of a permanent exhibition at the prison, which is now known as the Tuol Sleng genocide museum.

He has denied any involvement in the atrocities committed by the regime, whose policies were believed responsible for the deaths of 1.7 million Cambodians when they were in power in 1975-79. He has said his job was only to take photographs.

As many as 16,000 men, women and children are believed to have been tortured at S-21 in Phnom Penh before being executed.

The prison's commander, Kaing Guek Eav, is currently being tried by a U.N.-assisted genocide tribunal. At the trial Monday, a witness at the U.N.-assisted genocide trial of Duch told the tribunal he had seen the defendant torture a woman.

Nhem En said a public auction would be held next week for the shoes and two cameras he used to photograph prisoners. Bids for the lot would start at $500,000, he said.

"I love and like these items very much, but if I don't sell them I would not have enough money to fund the museum," he said.

The photographer plans to build the museum at Anlong Veng, a former Khmer Rouge stronghold in northern Cambodia where he now serves as a deputy district chief. The museum will display photos of the communist group's leaders.

Nhem En said he received what he says were Pol Pot's shoes from a close aide of the leader about a month after his death in April 1998. He said Pol Pot wore the shoes - rubber sandals made from automobile tires, which were standard issue footwear for Khmer Rouge guerrillas - for several years before his death while a prisoner of one of the group's factions.

He said the two cameras for sale were given to him in 1976 for his work at S-21.

At Duch's trial Monday, Chan Voeurn, 56, told the court on Monday that Duch had burned the breasts of the woman. Chan said he worked as a guard in 1974 at the M13 jungle prison, which had also been under Duch's command.

Crying as he testified, he also said that Duch had personally shot dead his uncle, another prisoner.

The defendant said the testimony was false, fabricated or based on hearsay accounts. The commander has denied most accusations of personally torturing and killing prisoners.

Duch is the first senior Khmer Rouge figure to face trial, and the only one to acknowledge responsibility for his actions. The 66-year-old is charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes, murder and torture.

Four other former Khmer Rouge leaders are in custody and are scheduled to be tried sometime over the next year or two.

KRouge prison chief killed and tortured: witness

20 April 2009
AFP

PHNOM PENH - A witness at Cambodia’s UN-backed war crimes court wept Monday as he testified that the former prison chief for the Khmer Rouge regime executed his uncle at a secret jungle camp.

Chan Veoun, 56, said he saw the jailer, known as Duch, kill his uncle while he himself was collecting food at the prison camp, M-13, in the early 1970s.

“He was my uncle. He was shot by Duch. He killed him in front of my eyes,” Chan Veoun said, weeping. He did not give a reason for the slaying.

Duch—whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav—charged in response that the testimony was fabricated.

Last month Duch apologised at the start of his trial, accepting blame for overseeing the extermination of 15,000 people who passed through the regime’s main prison, Tuol Sleng.

He has maintained however that he never personally executed anyone and has only admitted to abusing two people.

Chan Veoun told the court Duch regularly beat prisoners and once stripped a woman to her waist to burn her breasts with a torch soaked in gasoline.

Once, he added, prisoners kept shackled in pits were once left to drown in rainy season floods.

Duch denied his accounts, saying he recognised Chan Veoun but the witness had never worked under him.

“This is a complete fabrication—probably of what he heard and (he) added something on top,” Duch told the court.

“About the crimes committed at (M-13) I cannot forget it. It is a serious matter that affects me psychologically.”

The court has been hearing evidence about M-13, which Duch ran during the 1971 to 1975 Khmer Rouge insurgency against then then US-backed government, to better understand Tuol Sleng’s organising structure.

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

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

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 in 1998, and many believe the UN-sponsored tribunal is the last chance to find justice for victims of the regime, which killed up to two million people.