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.
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.
1 comment:
I praise to lord Buddha,may justice have been served to Cambodian PPL,may Hun Sen,Seihaknouk,China and Vietcong will prosecute.
koun khmer pheas khloun
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