Khmer Rouge jailer says ordered to "smash" prisoners

Pictured is a live feed of former Khmer Rouge chief torturer Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, during his trial on the outskirts of Phnom Penh April 1, 2009. (REUTERS/Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia)

Thu Apr 23, 2009
By Ek Madra

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Pol Pot's chief jailer told a U.N.-backed tribunal on Thursday thousands of Cambodians were tortured and killed at his notorious S-21 prison under orders from the top Khmer Rouge leadership.

Duch, the first of five Pol Pot cadres to face trial for the 1975-79 reign of terror in which 1.7 million Cambodians died, said the fate of S-21's prisoners was sealed at a meeting of the top leadership chaired by "Brother Number One" Pol Pot.

"The principle was that whoever was arrested and interrogated had to be smashed. That meant be killed," Duch said, quoting from what he said were minutes from the October 9, 1975 meeting.

The 66-year-old former maths teacher, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, was chief of the prison also known as Tuol Sleng where more than 14,000 enemies of the revolution were tortured and killed.

With no death penalty in Cambodia, Duch faces life in prison if convicted by the joint U.N.-Cambodian tribunal on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture and homicide.

Duch, who became a born-again Christian years after the Khmer Rouge were ousted by a Vietnamese invasion, has accepted blame for the deaths at S-21 but said he was only following orders.

Duch described on Thursday how S-21 was structured. He reported to then Defense Minister Son Sen, who was killed in 1997 under orders from Pol Pot, who died the following year.

"Pol Pot initiated the policy and Son Sen was there to implement it," Duch said.

Most of the S-21 victims were tortured and forced to confess to spying and other crimes before they were bludgeoned to death in the "Killing Fields" outside the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh.

Duch said he forwarded interrogation reports up the chain of command to Son Sen, and later "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea after he replaced Son Sen as Duch's supervisor.

Nuon Chea and the other cadres to face trial -- former president Khieu Samphan, ex-foreign minister Ieng Sary and his wife -- have denied knowledge of any atrocities.

Duch's trial, which began in earnest last month, is expected to run until July.

(Editing by Darren Schuettler and Dean Yates)

Tuol Sleng Conceived by Pol Pot: Duch

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

Jailed Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch told tribunal judges Wednesday that Pol Pot had created the concept for the Phnom Penh prison that would become the regime’s most infamous killing machine.

Duch, who is on trial for his role as chief of the prison, Tuol Sleng, known the Khmer Rouge as S-21, said Pol Pot had put him in charge of administration, but that the regime’s chief ideologue, Nuon Chea, was the supervisor.

Nuon Chea, top lieutenant to Pol Pot, is also in tribunal detention and awaiting trial, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Duch’s testimony shed official light on the hierarchy of the Khmer Rouge and the prison, outlining how Pol Pot had conceived of the facility, which became the regime’s main torture center, and had put in charge Nuon Chea and another Khmer Rouge leader, Son Sen, who led the secret police.

Son Sen could make decisions, Nuon Chea was supervisor, and Duch was in charge of administering the facility, he said.

Duch, whose real name is Kaing Kek Iev, faces charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture and murder, for administering Tuol Sleng, as well as Prey Sar prison and the execution site of Choeung Ek, on the outskirts of the capital.

Prosecutors say more than 12,000 Cambodians were tortured and sent to the deaths at Tuol Sleng, while researchers estimate as many as 16,000 prisoners went through.

Duch has admitted to his role in the killings. However, he has said he did not do any himself, and he has sought during his trial, which began March 30, to demonstrate he was a loyal revolutionary following orders.

Wednesday marked the beginning of the trial’s look at Tuol Sleng itself; judges had previously examined Duch’s role as administrator of a jungle prison in Kampong Speu province ahead of the Khmer Rouge’s rise to power.

Khmer Rouge defendant: Pol Pot feigned ignorance

Wednesday, April 22, 2009
By SOPHENG CHEANG

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — The late Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot was lying when he said he was unaware that his 1970s communist regime operated a torture center, the man accused of running it testified Wednesday.

Kaing Guek Eav told Cambodia's U.N.-assisted genocide tribunal, which is trying him for crimes against humanity, war crimes, murder and torture, that he knew of no document authorizing the notorious prison, but that "whatever Pol Pot decided everybody had to implement."

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

Kaing Guek Eav, 66, better known by his alias 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 to their deaths.

Pol Pot said in a 1997 interview he knew nothing of the prison.

According to the interview by U.S. journalist Nate Thayer for the magazine Far Eastern Economic Review, Pol Pot claimed that S-21 was set up for propaganda purposes by the Vietnamese, who invaded the country and toppled his regime in 1979. Pol Pot died in 1998.

Duch said that he decided to talk about S-21 to journalists who found him in hiding in 1999 because he could not bear Pol Pot's false account.

"Pol Pot claimed that S-21 was a fabrication of the Vietnamese. I rejected Pol Pot's statement on this topic," he said.

According to Duch, even though there was no written order establishing the prison, "Pol Pot was the one who initiated the idea, Son Sen implemented it and Nuon Chea is the one who did the follow up. This is from my observation and from the surviving documents."

Son Sen was the Khmer Rouge military commander, killed under murky circumstance by his comrades as the group fell apart in 1997. Nuon Chea, the group's ideologist, is one of the four other senior Khmer Rouge being held for trial by the tribunal.

In other testimony Wednesday, Duch said that "Christ" led British journalist Nic Dunlop to discover him after he had disappeared and went underground in 1979.

Duch became a teacher and a born-again Christian after leaving the Khmer Rouge and gave lengthy accounts of his work to Dunlop and a U.N. human rights investigator before turning himself in to Cambodian authorities.

Duch is the first senior Khmer Rouge figure to face trial, and the only one to acknowledge responsibility for his actions. The other four in custody are likely to be tried in the next year or two.