The inquisitor quizzed

Chief Khmer Rouge inquisitor Kaing Kek Ieu, better known as Duch, is seen in Phnom Penh in this handout picture released on July 30, 2007. Duch appeared before Cambodia's "Killing Fields" tribunal on July 31, 2007, the first of Pol Pot's henchmen to be questioned over the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people. Duch has confessed to committing multiple atrocities during this time as head of Phnom Penh's notorious Tuol Sleng, or S-21, interrogation centre. REUTERS/Sun Heng Police/Handout

First Khmer Rouge suspect quizzed

Tuesday, 31 July 2007
BBC News

Judges at a UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal in Cambodia have called in their first suspect for questioning.

Kang Kek Ieu, also known as Duch, was in charge of a notorious prison in the country's capital, Phnom Penh.

He ran a facility known as S21, where thousands of people were tortured and then executed.

He is one of five suspects prosecutors have asked judges to investigate over deaths under the Khmer Rouge government in the late 1970s, a spokesman said.

As many as two million people are thought to have died during the four years of Khmer Rouge rule.

Killing fields

Duch was not among the top level of Khmer Rouge leaders but he has become one of its most notorious members, says the BBC's Guy Delauney in Phnom Penh.

There are only seven known survivors of the S21 prison. A museum at the site illustrates in graphic detail what happened to the rest of the inmates.

Many of them were executed at the so-called Killing Fields outside the city.

Judges will question Duch, who has been held in a military prison since 1999, about his role in the events at S21.

"They (the judges) need to do an initial interview with him, but he has not been formally charged yet," said tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath.

The UN-backed tribunal has taken years to get off the ground.

But by questioning Duch, the judges are sending out a clear message that the special courts are now operational and moving more quickly than many people expected, our correspondent says.

Bringing in the other four suspects could, however, be more difficult.

None of them have been named officially but all of the surviving former leaders of the Khmer Rouge have been living freely in Cambodia, our correspondent adds.

"Killing Fields" judges grill first suspect [... if only the judges can grill him the way he grilled his prisoners in S-21]

Tue Jul 31, 2007

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Chief Khmer Rouge inquisitor Duch appeared before Cambodia's "Killing Fields" tribunal on Tuesday, the first of Pol Pot's henchmen to be questioned over the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people.

Duch, also know as Kang Kek Ieu, has confessed to committing multiple atrocities during this time as head of Phnom Penh's notorious Tuol Sleng, or S-21, interrogation centre.

He is expected to be a key witness in the trial of other senior Khmer Rouge cadres.

The 65-year-old, who has been in military prison in the southeast Asian nation's capital since 1999, faced investigating judges at a closed-door meeting attended by his lawyer and translator, a spokesman for the joint Cambodian-United Nations tribunal said.


The long-awaited $56.3 million tribunal into atrocities committed during the Khmer Rouge's 1975-79 reign of terror has its own detention centre on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.

It remains unclear whether Duch will be transferred to the purpose-built prison while Cambodian and international judges investigate prosecution allegations.

At least 14,000 people deemed to be opponents of Pol Pot's "Year Zero" revolution passed through Tuol Sleng's barbed-wire gates. Fewer than 10 are thought to have lived to tell the tale.

Most victims were tortured and forced to confess to a variety of crimes -- mainly being CIA spies -- before being bludgeoned to death in a field on the outskirts of the city. Women, children and even babies were among those butchered.

Earlier this month, prosecutors lodged formal cases against five suspects, who have not been named.

Besides Duch, they are widely thought to be "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea, Khmer Rouge foreign minister Ieng Sary, former president Khieu Samphan and Meas Muth, a son-in-law of Pol Pot's military chief Ta Mok, who died last year.

Pol Pot died in April 1998 in Along Veng, a final Khmer Rouge redoubt in jungle-clad mountains along the Thai border.

Former Khmer Rouge prison chief appears at Cambodian genocide tribunal

Kang Kek Ieu, known as "Duch', former director of the Tuol Sleng torture center in Phnom Penh. Duch was Tuesday handed over to the UN-backed tribunal in Cambodia, becoming the first suspect to be detained by the court, officials said.(AFP/DCC/File)

Monday, July 30, 2007
The Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: A notorious Khmer Rouge prison chief was taken to the Cambodian genocide tribunal headquarters Tuesday to be questioned by judges investigating crimes committed during the regime's rule in late 1970s, an official said.

Kaing Khek Iev, who headed the former Khmer Rouge prison S-21 in Phnom Penh, became the first suspect to be questioned by judges of the U.N.-backed tribunal, said tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath.

The prison was a virtual slaughterhouse where suspected enemies of the ultra-communists were brutally tortured before being taken out to killing fields near the city.

Reach Sambath said Kaing Khek Iev, also known as Duch, was driven in a car escorted by Cambodian government security forces and arrived at the tribunal headquarters shortly after 6:10 a.m. (23:10 GMT).

He was taken from a military prison, where he has been detained since 1999.

Kaing Khek Iev, 62, is among five ex-Khmer Rouge leaders the tribunal's prosecutors have submitted to the co-investigating judges for further investigation, Reach Sambath said.

"They (the judges) need to do an initial interview with him, but he has not been formally charged yet," Reach Sambath said.

Kaing Khek Iev was being held in an air-conditioned room but not in the tribunal's detention facility, the spokesman said, adding that "it's up to the judges to decide" on further action against the suspect.

Some 16,000 people were imprisoned at S-21, now the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Only about a dozen of them are thought to have survived when the Khmer Rouge regime was overthrown by a Vietnamese invasion in 1979.

Chum Mey, a prison survivor, said Tuesday he was delighted to hear Kaing Khek Iev had been brought to the tribunal.

"I want to confront him to ask who gave him the orders to kill the Cambodian people," Chum Mey, 77, said.

"I want to hear how he will answer before the court, or if he will just blame everything on the ghosts of Pol Pot and Ta Mok," he said, referring to the movement's notorious leader, the late Pol Pot, and his former military chief.

Pol Pot died in 1998 and Ta Mok died in 2006.

Senior-level colleagues, Nuon Chea, the movement's chief ideologue; Ieng Sary, the former foreign minister; and Khieu Samphan, the former head of state, live freely in Cambodia but are in declining health.

Since his arrest by the government on May 10, 1999, Kaing Khek Iev was detained on war crime charges.

It is unclear what charges he will face before the tribunal, set up jointly by Cambodia and the United Nations to try to seek justice for crimes committed during the Khmer Rouge's 1975-79 rule.

Some 1.7 million people died from hunger, disease, overwork and execution as a result of the radical policies of the communists.

On July 18, prosecutors submitted to the investigating judges the cases of five former Khmer Rouge leaders they recommend stand trial. The prosecutors did not reveal the identity of the five suspects, citing confidentiality rule.