Prison Survivor Takes Stand in Duch Case

By Chiep Mony, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
30 June 2009

One of the few remaining survivors of the Khmer Rouge’s Tuol Sleng prison testified in tribunal court Monday, tears streaming down his face as he recalled his ordeal at the prison run by Comrade Duch.

Vann Nath, 63, was arrested Dec. 30, 1977, at his home in Battambang province, accused of being an enemy of the communist regime. He was brought to Tuol Sleng a week later and was held at the prison until Vietnamese forces ousted the Khmer Rouge in January 1977.

Conditions at the prison, administered by Kaing Kek Iev, alias Duch, who is on trial at the UN-backed court, were inhumane, Vann Nath said, with prisoners shackled and ordered not to move or speak.

Prisoners were given little food—just three spoons of gruel per meal—and hunger drove Vann Nath to eat the insects that fell from the ceiling, and some of his meals were eaten next to the corpses of expired prisoners, he said.

“If they had given me human flesh to eat, I would have eaten it because I was very hungry,” he said, and he wept during portions of his trial.

Vann Nath escaped execution because he was an artist and agreed to paint portraits of the Khmer Rouge’s top leader, Pol Pot, he said. He worked hard to please Duch to avoid being killed.

Duch watched Vann Nath’s testimony closely during Monday’s hearing. Prosecutors say that Duch oversaw the deaths of 12,380 people while he was head of Tuol Sleng and the nearby “killing fields” of Choeung Ek, on the outskirts of the capital.

Pol Pot paintings saved my life, S-21 survivor says

Mon Jun 29, 2009
By Ek Madra

Click here to watch Reuters video

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - A survivor of the Khmer Rouge's notorious Tuol Sleng prison wept at the trial of his torturer Monday and called for justice for the 1.7 million Cambodians who died under Pol Pot's tyrannical regime.

In a harrowing account of his detention at the S-21 interrogation center, where more than 14,000 people died, artist Vann Nath said his life was only spared because chief torturer Duch liked his paintings of "Brother Number One," Pol Pot.

"I survived because Duch felt good when he walked into my workshop," Nath said in his testimony against the ailing chief of the S-21 prison, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav.

"My suffering cannot be erased -- the memories keep haunting me," said Nath, who lost two children to Pol Pot's 1975-1979 "killing fields" reign of terror.

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

Duch has admitted his part in the deaths but maintains he was only following orders.

His trial is the first of five Pol Pot cadres indicted by the tribunal. The others are "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea, former President Khieu Samphan, and ex-foreign minister Ieng Sary and his wife, all of whom have denied knowledge of the atrocities.

Pol Pot, the architect of the ultra-Maoist revolution, died in 1998 near the Thai-Cambodia border.

HARROWING ACCOUNT

Nath said he was beaten, electrocuted and left on the brink of starvation by Duch and his guards. He gave a graphic account of the barbaric acts of torture, which included the removal of fingernails and simulated drowning.

"Our legs were shackled, we were so hungry we ate any insects we could grab and were beaten by the guards," said Nath, who was one of only seven people to survive the prison.

"I heard prisoners scream, I heard sounds and voices of the mothers who cried when security guards tried to take their babies away. The suffering was so bad."

Nath, who was the first Khmer Rouge survivor to appear before the tribunal, said he wanted to tell the world about the horrors of the regime and sought justice for the people who died of execution, disease, starvation and exhaustion.

"Now I have the ability to testify before this chamber. This is my privilege, this is my honor," he told the court. "I do not want anything more than justice."

(Editing by Martin Petty and Sanjeev Miglani)

Survivor testifies on atrocities

A woman films Van Nath, a Cambodian survivor of the Khmer Rouge prison as he testifies during the trial (Credit: Reuters)

2009-06-29
Radio France Internationale (RFI)

One of the only survivors of the Khmer Rouge’s main prison in Cambodia testified at a war crimes trial on Monday. Van Nath was giving evidence against the man accused of overseeing the deaths of an estimated 15,000 people in Tuol Sleng jail.

Van Nath, who is now a top artist in Cambodia, said he only survived his time in Tuol Sleng jail because he was asked to paint a portrait of the communist movement’s leader Pol Pot.

The 63-year-old was testifying at the trial of Duch – real name Kaing Guek Eav - who helped govern the jail and is accused of playing a central role in the torture and execution of thousands of Cambodians.

Van Nath described how he was arrested and shackled with other prisoners in 1977 by a local official. “I asked him, what did I do wrong. He did not know,” Van Nath said.

He said prisoners shackled next to him died during his first month in prison and that when he was summoned downstairs, he thought that his turn had come. But a prison officer told him that he was needed to paint a picture of Pol Pot.

“I knew that if I did not paint very well, I would be in big trouble. I was so nervous,” he said.

Van Nath said that prisoners were given so little food to eat that he had thought about eating human flesh.

“We only had three spoons of gruel for each meal. And the spoon was like a coffee spoon, it was not a normal rice spoon. I lost my dignity… even with animals they would give enough food,” he told the court.

“I couldn’t think of anything other than being thirsty and hungry… I thought even eating human flesh would be a good thing for me at that moment,” he added.

Earlier in his trial, Duch accepted responsibility for his role in governing the jail and begged for forgiveness from the victims of the Khmer Rouge regime. However, he rejected prosecution claims about the extent of his involvement in the 1975-1979 dictatorship and said he had never executed anyone.

If found guilty, Duch could face a life sentence for war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture and premeditated murder.

Khmer Rouge survivor testifies

Monday, 29 June 2009
BBC News

One of the few survivors of the Khmer Rouge regime's notorious Tuol Sleng detention centre has testified at a UN-backed tribunal in Cambodia.

Van Nath described how hunger had driven him to eat insects, and said he had also eaten the food beside corpses of starved fellow prisoners.

He was appearing at the trial of the man who ran the prison, Comrade Duch.

About 15,000 people were detained at Tuol Sleng in the late 1970s, but only seven are thought to have survived.

Unique perspective

Van Nath has been waiting for his day in court for 30 years.

The tribunal has already heard plenty from Comrade Duch himself - as well as a number of expert witnesses.

But according to the BBC's Guy DeLauney in Phnom Penh, Van Nath can provide a unique perspective, as one of only three men still alive who know what it is like to have been a prisoner at Tuol Sleng.

"The conditions were so inhumane and the food was so little," Van Nath told the tribunal, as he broke down in tears. "I even thought eating human flesh would be a good meal."

He said he was fed twice a day, but each meal only consisted of three teaspoons of rice porridge.

"We were so hungry, we would eat insects that dropped from the ceiling," he said. "We ate our meals next to dead bodies, and we didn't care because we were like animals."

He described how prisoners were kept shackled - 20 or 30 of them together - and ordered not to speak or move.

Van Nath owed his survival to his skills as a painter. He was forced to produce portraits of Khmer Rouge leaders - on pain of death.

"I thought that if I could do good pictures and they were satisfied with what I painted, they would be happy and I would survive," said Van Nath before taking the stand.

Van Nath's portraits passed muster - and he has since become one of Cambodia's most famous artists, and his work often depicts scenes from Tuol Sleng.

Admission of guilt

Comrade Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, is accused of overseeing the torture and extermination of prisoners at the jail.

Earlier in his trial, the 66-year-old admitted responsibility for his role as governor of the jail, and begged forgiveness from his victims.

But he also insisted that he did not hold a senior role in the regime, and that he had had little choice but to work there.

Four other former Khmer Rouge leaders are currently in detention at the court, and are expected to face trial in 2010.

Khmer Rouge tribunal hears first testimony from survivor of regime's deadliest torture center

A foreign photographer, left, takes a photo of Vann Nath, 63, a survivor from the S-21 prison during the Khmer Rouge regime on a screen at a court press center during the U.N.-backed tribunal Monday, June 29, 2009, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The first suvivor from the Khmer Rouge's notorious prison told the U.N.-backed genocide tribunal Monday that life of the prisoners at the S-21 was worsen then in the hell. He was called by the tribunal to testify against Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, is being tried by the genocide tribunal for crimes against humanity, war crimes, murder and torture. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

June 28, 2009
SOPHENG CHEANG, Associated Press Writer

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — One of the only survivors of the Khmer Rouge's main torture center gave a long-awaited testimony Monday, weeping as he recounted the conditions at a facility where 16,000 others were tortured before execution.

Vann Nath, 63, escaped execution because he was an artist and took the job of painting and sculpting portraits of the Khmer Rouge's late leader, Pol Pot. His special status did not spare him misery.

"The conditions were so inhumane and the food was so little," Vann Nath told the tribunal, tears streaming down his face. "I even thought eating human flesh would be a good meal."

Van Nath said he was fed twice a day, each meal consisting of three teaspoons of rice porridge.

"I lost my dignity," he said. "They even gave animals more food."

The testimony came at the trial of Kaing Guek Eav — better known as Duch, who headed the S-21 prison in Phnom Penh from 1975-1979. Up to 16,000 men, women and children were tortured under his command and later taken away to be killed. Only 14 people, including Vann Nath, are thought to have survived.

Duch, 66, sat silently in his chair and watched Van Nath closely as he spoke. Duch is charged with crimes against humanity and is the first of five defendants scheduled for long-delayed trials by the U.N.-assisted tribunal.

Duch has previously testified that being sent to S-21 was tantamount to a death sentence and that he was only following orders to save his own life.

Vann Nath said he was arrested Dec. 30, 1977 from his home in northwestern Battambang province where he worked as a rice farmer. He was accused of trying to overthrow the Khmer Rouge and of being an enemy of the regime — a common accusation against prisoners. He arrived at S-21 on Jan 7, 1978 and was kept there until the regime collapsed about one year later.

Prisoners were kept shackled and ordered not to speak or move, Vann Nath told the court.

"We were so hungry, we would eat insects that dropped from the ceiling," he said. "We would quickly grab and eat them so we could avoid being seen by the guards."

"We ate our meals next to dead bodies, and we didn't care because we were like animals," he added.

The regime's radical policies caused the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people nationwide by execution, overwork, disease and malnutrition.

Most prisoners were tortured into giving fanciful confessions that suited the Khmer Rouge's political outlook, though they generally had been loyal members of the group.

Duch is the first senior Khmer Rouge figure to face trial and the only one to acknowledge responsibility for his actions. Senior leaders Khieu Samphan, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary and Ieng Sary's wife, Ieng Thirith, are all detained and likely to face trial in the next year or two.