By Ek Madra
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - For Chum Manh, one of only a handful of Cambodians to have survived the Khmer Rouge's most notorious interrogation camp, seeing his former tormentor caged on charges of crimes against humanity is not enough.
The 77 year-old wants to confront Duch, the head of Phnom Penh's Tuol Sleng, or S-21, detention centre, and find out what drove him to torture and then butcher so many thousands of his fellow countrymen under Pol Pot's "Year Zero" revolution.
"As a Buddhist, I don't want to avenge violence with more violence," said Chum Manh, who lost his wife and baby during the ultra-Maoist movement's 1975-79 reign of terror.
"But I do want to hear a public apology for what he did," he told Reuters. "He was the one who ordered the prison guards to torture us. I want to challenge him at his trial and ask him why he treated us so badly in the prison."
Duch, also known as Kang Kek Ieu, was charged formally on Tuesday with crimes against humanity and detained by a joint Cambodian-United Nations tribunal investigating the atrocities of the "Killing Fields" and their 1.7 million victims.
A former schoolteacher and born-again Christian, the 65-year-old Duch was the first of Pol Pot's henchmen to appear before the tribunal set up to prosecute "those most responsible" for one of the darkest chapters of the 20th century.
More than 14,000 people are known to have passed through the barbed-wire gates of Tuol Sleng, the Phnom Penh high school that became the Khmer Rouge's main interrogation centre. 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.
Even though all of Cambodia's 13 million people have relatives or forebears who perished under the Khmer Rouge, some say the trial is raking up a past best left untouched -- especially since many managed to survive only by collaborating.
"My anger towards the Khmer Rouge has waned over time," said 70-year-old May Ron, who lost six relatives under the regime. "Let bygones be bygones."
Last month, prosecutors lodged formal cases against five top Khmer Rouge suspects, but did not name them.
Besides Duch, they are widely thought to be "Brother Number Two" Noun Chea, former 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.
"Brother Number One" Pol Pot died in April 1998 in Anlong Veng, a final Khmer Rouge redoubt in jungle-clad mountains on the Thai border.
The 77 year-old wants to confront Duch, the head of Phnom Penh's Tuol Sleng, or S-21, detention centre, and find out what drove him to torture and then butcher so many thousands of his fellow countrymen under Pol Pot's "Year Zero" revolution.
"As a Buddhist, I don't want to avenge violence with more violence," said Chum Manh, who lost his wife and baby during the ultra-Maoist movement's 1975-79 reign of terror.
"But I do want to hear a public apology for what he did," he told Reuters. "He was the one who ordered the prison guards to torture us. I want to challenge him at his trial and ask him why he treated us so badly in the prison."
Duch, also known as Kang Kek Ieu, was charged formally on Tuesday with crimes against humanity and detained by a joint Cambodian-United Nations tribunal investigating the atrocities of the "Killing Fields" and their 1.7 million victims.
A former schoolteacher and born-again Christian, the 65-year-old Duch was the first of Pol Pot's henchmen to appear before the tribunal set up to prosecute "those most responsible" for one of the darkest chapters of the 20th century.
More than 14,000 people are known to have passed through the barbed-wire gates of Tuol Sleng, the Phnom Penh high school that became the Khmer Rouge's main interrogation centre. 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.
Even though all of Cambodia's 13 million people have relatives or forebears who perished under the Khmer Rouge, some say the trial is raking up a past best left untouched -- especially since many managed to survive only by collaborating.
"My anger towards the Khmer Rouge has waned over time," said 70-year-old May Ron, who lost six relatives under the regime. "Let bygones be bygones."
Last month, prosecutors lodged formal cases against five top Khmer Rouge suspects, but did not name them.
Besides Duch, they are widely thought to be "Brother Number Two" Noun Chea, former 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.
"Brother Number One" Pol Pot died in April 1998 in Anlong Veng, a final Khmer Rouge redoubt in jungle-clad mountains on the Thai border.
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