Cocktails with Khmer Rouge killers

Jul 30, 2010
By Angus MacSwan
Reuters

The sentencing of Khmer Rouge torturer Kaing Guek Eav this week and the forthcoming trial of former leader Khieu Samphan by a United Nations-backed court has brought renewed attention to their murderous rule of Cambodia in the 1970s — and a certain amount of satisfaction in the “international community” for its role in seeing justice done.

But there was a time when you could meet Khmer Rouge officials at cocktail parties in Phnom Penh, with the drinks provided by the United Nations.

It was one consequence of a Faustian pact between the Khmer Rouge and the United States, Britain and other countries following the Pol Pot regime’s overthrow by Vietnamese troops in 1979.

The relationship illustrates the sometimes bizarre nature of Cold War politics and is one that today’s governments probably hope is forgotten.

I found myself next to Khieu Samphan, Pol Pot’s right hand man, at a party at the U.N. mission’s headquarters in Phnom Penh at the end of 1991. Standing behind him was Son Sen, who had run the Khmer Rouge’s torture apparatus during their “Killing Fields” rule from 1975-79, in which at least 1.5 million Cambodians had died.

They had just returned to Phnom Penh after years in jungle camps and friendly foreign capitals and were in the decrepit city as the representatitves of the Party of Democratic Kampuchea — as they prefered to be known — in a new national council set up under a peace accord aimed at ending decades of war.

How had the Khmer Rouge survived and prospered in the decade since their reign of terror was ended by the Vietnamese invasion?

Their main supporter was China — an enemy of both Vietnam and its backer the Soviet Union despite their shared communist beliefs. The United States was still smarting from its defeat in the Vietnam War and saw China as an indispensable regional ally with a bright future.

Thus a coalition government was formed, dominated by the Khmer Rouge and including two non-communist factions, even though they controlled hardly any territory other than border enclaves. Its nominal head was Prince Norodom Sihanouk, who actually spent most of his time in North Korea of all places, but despite this fig leaf the military muscle in the bush war was provided by the Khmer Rouge.

Throughout the 1980s, this body held Cambodia’s seat in the United Nations, supported by the United States, Britain and other European nations, China and pro-Western Asian countries. The Vietnamese-backed government — which included Khmer Rouge defectors — was recognised only by the Soviet bloc.

Denied international aid and trade, Phom Penh was one of the most forlorn places on earth as war raged in the Cambodian countryside.

Thailand played a crucial role in supporting the coalition and Thai officials got rich through timber and gems deals with the Khmer Rouge based in the border enclaves.

U.S. officials in Bangkok and Washington would play a game of smoke-and-mirrors when asked about Washington’s support for an alliance spearheaded by some of the 20th Century’s worst mass murderers.

Arms and other other aid only went to the non-communist groups, they said. The Khmer Rouge had changed and was now genuinely popular in some areas, they ventured. While the film “The Killing Fields” made many people aware of the horrors of Khmer Rouge rule, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher told a British children’s TV show in 1988 “There’s a much, much reasonable grouping within that title, Khmer Rouge…who will have to play some part in the future government.”

The British elite military unit the SAS were later revealed to have trained their fighters.

The guerrilla factions also ran the vast refugee camps on the Thai border, so the Khmer Rouge were able to keep tens of thousands of people in their grip with generous helpings of United Nations aid. With the withdrawal of Vietnamese troops from Cambodia in 1989 and the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, a peace agreement was painstakingly hammered out.

All four parties joined the national council pending elections and a huge U.N. peacekeeping mission swept into the country.And so the Khmer Rouge came back to Phnom Penh.

Khieu Samphan was run out of town by an angry crowd at his first attempt to return in October 1991. A few months later, though he was back and looking relaxed.At the U.N. party, he was dressed in a neatly-pressed grey safari suit and looked well-manicured — quite different to the black pyjamasand checkered scarves of the iconic Khmer Rouge image. After a few pleasantaries, I asked him about their bloody rule. Nonplussed, he replied almost by rote that yes, some mistakes were made but that most of the accusations were just propaganda. Cambodia’s real problem was Vietnam’s plan to annex the country, he said with a smile.

With Son Sen lurking sinisterly in the background, I thought the conversation had probably run its course.

This accommodation with killers threw up many other surreal situations. A few months after the cocktail party encounter, I was in the town of Kompong Thom when Indonesian peacekeepers arrived to police the area. For some reason, they sang the old British army song “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary” as they marched down the street.

A Khmer Rouge general, Men Ron, stood by the roadside, smiling as if this was the jolliest knees-up this side of the Emerald Isle. That night, he dined at a lakeside restaurant with a British envoy and an Australian general.

The next day, refugees were fleeing down the highway outside the city from Khmer Rouge attacks to the north.

An election to bring peace and democracy to Cambodia was held in 1993. The Khmer Rouge boycotted it and went back to war, but without the backing they previously enjoyed, they dwindled.

Son Sen was killed in 1997 in an internal power struggle and Pol Pot died the next year in mysterious circumstances. Khieu Samphan was arrested in 2007 and the next year was charged in court with crimes against humanity and war crimes.

I’ve not been back to Phnom Penh since 1993 but I’m told its a very different place, with bistros, night clubs and fast cars for the new rich elite. Its a favourite destination for Western youths on gap years.

The angy reaction from ordinary Cambodians to what they saw a light sentence for Kaing Guek Eav showed many of them still want atonement for the past. In some quarters though, the past will probably remain a closed chapter.

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)

Duch’s trial: Opening of the debate on S-21

22 April 2009
By Leang Delux
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Tola Ek
Click here to read the article in French

The hearing on the S-21 jail started in the afternoon of Wednesday 22 April with practical questions on the institution of this detention center where at least 12, 381 people found their death between 1975 and 1979.

Reminding that the hearing will target both S-21 and the Takhmao psychiatric hospital, Judge Nil Nonn asked the parties not to mix up the two centers.

Duch, who claimed that he received the order from Son Sen to create S-21 on 15 August 1975, said that the decision was probably made by Pol Pot himself.

When Cambodian Judge Ya Sokhan asked Duch to tell who Son Sen was, the accused indicated that he was the No. 7 man of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, following Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Sao Pheum, Ong Chhoun, Ieng Sary and Von Veth.

When questioned about the meaning of S-21, Duch indicated that the S stands for “Santebal” (or “police” in Khmer) and that 21 corresponds to the last two digits of Nath’s radio number.

Duch was asked to speak more slowly in order to ease the translation, nevertheless, he expressed himself with precision and he was very talkative. While the ambience deteriorated because the speed of his speech, the judges suspended the audience which will restart again on Thursday 23 April.

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.

Former KR Soldier: Pot Pol, Son Sen, and Ta Mok Are Real Criminals

Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Rasmei Kampuchea newspaper
Translated from Khmer and posted at KRtrial.info

Kamrieng-Battambang: Kamrieng is a district governed by former Khmer Rouge (KR) soldiers who integrated with the government in 1996. The leaders in the area who have positions in the government seem to be hesitated in giving any comment on the trials of top leaders of the Democratic Kampuchea Regime. In contrast, former KR soldiers some of whom are now the disabled or become ordinary people are still trying to protect their former leaders.

Though they dare not to disagree openly, those former KR soldiers claimed about their former leaders’ innocence and accused the deceased people such as Pol Pot, Son Sen, and Ta Mok, who they think should be tried, of atrocities.

“Concerning the trials of the top leaders of the Democratic Kampuchea regime, it’s the responsibilities of the government and the United Nations. We “small people” do not have any comment,” recently said Nob Sovann, Kamrieng’s deputy governor, a former KR soldier in division 705. “We are so tired of war, but now we’re having peace. Everything must be done in conform to law,” said the deputy, adding that he didn’t disagree with the trials since the court would be a good sample for younger people to realize that the people who committed atrocities would be punished.

However, a former KR soldier whose lower right leg was lost said on the condition of anonymity that he didn’t know what the living KR leaders had committed from 1975 to 1979 since he had been fighting along the Vietnamese bother to protect the country. But, after the regime collapsed, he has been living along Thai border in the forest in Kamrieng. He has noticed that the KR leaders who are living nowadays are “good people”, and that they may have been under the order of Pol Pot, Son Sen and Ta Mok only.

“When [I] was fighting, Uncle Ieng Sary was mostly abroad and Uncle Khieu Samphan was a scholar. Other [KR] leaders were all respectfully meek,” said the former KR soldier, adding that the trials of those people were not right since they seem not to have killed the people.

The disabled former KR soldier claimed that Pol Pot, Son Sen, and Ta Mok were the people who should have been punished since while they were alive they were very cruel and never absolved anyone.

Nob Sovann, however, claimed about his stance that everything should be done in accordance with law. He pointed out that his former soldiers didn’t react anything to the trials. “I know their minds clearly,” he said.