The jailer goes on trial

Cambodia: Comrade Dch awaits the verdict for Khmer Rouge crimes against humanity but professes to know a better verdict awaiting him

Friday, October 09, 2009
By Paul Chesser
WORLDmag.com

Pol Pot has been dead for 11 years and five of his lieutenants have awaited trial for nearly two years, but so far the only Khmer Rouge official close to a verdict for war crimes is his lead jailer.

Kaing Guek Eav's sentencing should come early next year. The plain-spoken former math teacher, known by most as Comrade Duch (pronounced "Doik"), oversaw the torture and delivery to execution of as many as 17,000 Cambodians during Pol Pot's terrifying reign in the late 1970s. The scene of his crimes (by his own admission) was known as S-21, a former high school in Phnom Penh. Today it stands as the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum to memorialize the years that wiped out a quarter of the nation's population.

Duch has accepted responsibility for the cruelty and murder that happened on his watch but claims he personally tortured only two prisoners and did not kill anyone himself. That's not to say he didn't cop to more despicable actions; on occasion he would correct witnesses (and question whether they were imprisoned at S-21) with statements that reflected worse on himself than if he'd let the testimony stand. On July 7, for example, Khmer Rouge survivor Lay Chan testified that he was held for two months and interrogated twice before his release in 1976. Another, Chin Meth, claimed she endured forced labor and frequent beatings over a 15-day stay at the prison in 1977.

Duch countered almost as if he were offended. "The fact is that if she was transferred to S-21, she would be dead," he told the court. "She could not be let out. If people were transferred to S-21, they would be smashed."

Then on Sept. 15 he made another confession: Duch told the court he had ordered his own brother-in-law locked up in S-21, and that he was later killed.

"I vouched for my younger sister and I vouched to educate her, but I could not do that for my brother-in-law," said Duch, according to Agence France-Presse. "As a principle, when the husband was arrested the wife was arrested as well. But my younger sister was not arrested and she is still alive today," he added.

Surprises have persisted throughout the trial. After an American expert presented a list of names of individuals who were allegedly released from Tuol Sleng, Duch countered, "The people who were arrested and sent (to Tuol Sleng), they were all killed. I did not release anyone. . . . It is not exculpatory evidence at all because I am responsible for my crimes. I cannot accept that document."

Judges ended the hearings on Sept. 17, and final arguments will be delivered in November. Duch has repeatedly apologized to his victims and sought forgiveness, while admitting he deserves the most severe punishment possible. "If there is a Cambodian tradition," Duch said in mid-August, "like it existed in the past when people threw rocks at Christ to death—Cambodian people can do that to me. I would accept it."

That Duch would invoke a faulty reference to the death of Jesus (there's no biblical evidence He was ever stoned) while accepting responsibility did not surprise the few who have followed his case. The once-passionate defender of communist philosophy converted to Christianity in the mid-1990s (see "Would you forgive this man?," May 17, 2008) during the Khmer Rouge exile, while he hid in jungle villages under an alias. He earned praise from colleagues in refugee camps for volunteer work he did on behalf of the Christian relief group World Vision, although he continued to hide his real identity.

Pol Pot became the de facto leader of Cambodia in 1975 and set about to create an agrarian utopia, a purely peasant society achieved through the elimination of all individuals who showed evidence of wealth or an education—even those who wore eyeglasses. The Khmer Rouge divided families and drove them far from their home provinces. Executions, malnutrition, slave labor, and displacement all resulted in the death of approximately 2 million Cambodians—or over 20 percent of the population.

The Cambodian-American pastor who directed Duch to Christ testified on his behalf in the last week of his trial. Christopher LaPel, whose parents, brother, and sister were all murdered by the Khmer Rouge, called him "a man of God."

"After he got baptized I can see him as a completely different person," said LaPel, who immersed Duch in a Cambodian river in 1996. "I can see that he (was) a person that lived in darkness, sadness, with no joy, no love." According to Agence France-Presse, he told the court he has met, prayed, and studied the Bible with Duch several times since his 1999 arrest.

Not everyone is convinced of Duch's changed heart. After all, Cambodia does not have the death penalty and he has served 10 years of incarceration already, so accepting a severe punishment can't get much worse for the 66-year-old. And then there's the predominant religion.

"I don't think he really knows God," said war crimes archivist Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, in an interview with WORLD. "I think that is very hard for Cambodians because it is such a Buddhist country."

While dismissing his Christianity, Youk inadvertently attributed Duch's transformation to a spiritual need which Christ very well may have filled. "I think Duch was searching for internal healing," Youk said. "Everyone in the country was his enemy. God was the only one who would open His arms to him."

—Paul Chesser is special correspondent for The Heartland Institute

Minister who baptized Khmer Rouge defendant says conversion genuine

Sep 15, 2009
DPA

Phnom Penh - The Christian minister who baptized Comrade Duch, not knowing he was the former head of the Khmer Rouge's S-21 execution centre, told a war crimes tribunal Tuesday that Duch's conversion from Buddhism was sincere rather than a pragmatic decision to gain forgiveness in this life.

'I am proud of him for his willingness to accept his crime and punishment,' Christopher LaPel told the court in Phnom Penh.

Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, is on trial for crimes against humanity and breaches of the Geneva Convention before the UN-Cambodian tribunal. At least 15,000 people were tortured and executed at S-21 in the 1970s. Just a handful survived the prison.

LaPel, a Cambodian-American, said he met Duch in Cambodia in 1995 and baptized him into his Protestant church two weeks later.

At the time, Duch was using the name Hang Pin and hiding from his Khmer Rouge past. LaPel said he had no idea of Duch's history but recalled him saying that what he had done in his life 'couldn't be forgiven.'

LaPel said baptism had changed Duch from a man with 'no joy, no peace, no purpose in life.'

'After he got baptized, he was a completely different person,' LaPel testified. 'His heart wanted to share the word of God to his friends and family.'

It was not until 1999 that LaPel learned his convert had been the Khmer Rouge's chief torturer.

LaPel told the court that several of his own friends had been killed at S-21 and his parents and two siblings also died during the Khmer Rouge regime.

But he said he had forgiven Duch for his actions as head of S-21.

'I hate the sin, but I love the sinner,' LaPel said.

The prosecution asked LaPel whether he felt Duch was sincere about his conversion, pointing out that psychologists who assessed him felt the defendant, who was once a mathematics teacher, had converted because of pragmatism and logical deduction.

The prosecutor explained that while Christianity brings the possibility of instant forgiveness, Buddhism - the predominant religion in Cambodia - would require numerous cycles of rebirth to undo Duch's crimes.

LaPel, who has been allowed to visit Duch in detention and pray with him, agreed that true converts are entitled to forgiveness but said he is convinced Duch's conversion is genuine.

'On one occasion [in 2008], Mr Kaing Guek Eav told me he was sorry for the crimes that he did in the past and that he did not rejoice for what he had done,' LaPel said. 'And that he felt sorry for me and for the Cambodian people.'

Duch's trial was expected to end this month with sentencing due to be handed down in 2010. Cambodia does not have the death penalty, so Duch, 67, faces a maximum term of life in prison.

He has admitted guilt and apologized for his crimes, but his attorneys have sought to prove his role in the torture and executions was minimal because, they said, he was only acting on orders.

Four other former Khmer Rouge are in detention awaiting trial, and judges are investigating a further two.

Around 2 million people are thought to have died from execution, overwork and starvation under the Khmer Rouge regime, known as Democratic Kampuchea, which ruled Cambodia during 1975-79.

Pastor Remembers Duch’s Christian Conversion

Christopher LaPel and Duch's mother in Siem Reap.

By Nuch Sarita, VOA Khmer
Original report from Long Beach
31 July 2009

Thirteen years ago, Christopher LaPel, a Cambodian pastor for the Golden West Christian Church in Los Angeles and a founding leader of the Cambodian Christian Church in northwest Cambodia, baptized a man he believed to be a teacher in Battambang province.

In fact, the newly converted was Kaing Kek Iev, better known as Comrade Duch, chief of the Khmer Rouge’s torture center, Tuol Sleng. Duch is now facing trial at the UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal, where he has admitted to responsibility for mass torture and killings.

In a recent interview with VOA Khmer, LaPel described his relationship with Duch, who at the time called himself Hang Pin.

“I first met Duch in 1995,” LaPel said, speaking after a reunion of churchgoers in Long Beach. “He came to me and said, ‘Pastor Christopher, I have done a lot of bad things. I don’t think my brothers and sisters can forgive me.’”

Duch came with a colleague to take part in a two-week Christian leadership traingin course, in the village of Chamkar Samrong, Battambang, LaPel said. The man was quiet at first.

“He said he was not a believer but had come at the urging of a friend,” LaPel said.

Hang Pin, or Duch, would listen to LaPel’s services, and eventually he asked to be baptized.

“On Jan. 5, 1996, I baptized Hang Pin, along with many other believers, in the Sangke river in Battambang town,” LaPel said.

The pastor returned to the leadership training the following year, but he did not ses Hang Pin. Then, in 1999, he did, in the news.

“In May of 1999, I saw this picture in every Cambodian newspaper,” LaPel said. “The man responsible for the deaths of up to 20,000 of my people now claimed to be a Christian, and I had unknowingly led him in.”

“An [Associated Press] reporters in Cambodia called me to inform me of Duch’s true identity,” he said. “As the reporter described him, I remembered than man I knew as Hang Pin—a short, thin, soft-spoken man in his fifties, and decidedly well-educated, as he spoke both English and French.”

“When he took part in our leadership training, he told me he was a teacher. I had no reason to doubt him. Reporters contacted me with media inquiries on his conversion and many asked me how was it possible for me to forgive such a man as Duch.”

Duch had been arrested and would be held by a military court until the UN-backed tribunal was established. He was transferred to the special court in July 2007.

“I was shocked when I found out who he really was, because what he did was so evil,” said LaPel, whose parents, brother and sister died under the Khmer Rouge.

Duch is now on trial for the deaths of 12,380 people. He has admitted responsibility and apologized to the families of his victims, though he has never admitted doing any killing himself.

“He came here and he asked permission to pray for those victims who died,” LaPel said. “He has a strong religious faith and is ready to testify. He would like to tell the truth, the whole truth, for what he did to his people.”

Since his arrest, LaPel has gone to see him twice, and he calls Duch a model convert. LaPel believes Duch has confessed his sins and is willing to stand witness against other former leaders of the regime now in custody at the tribunal.

In fact, LaPel said, a growing number of former Khmer Rouge have begun converting to Christianity. In Pailin, a former Khmer Rouge stronghold, has several Christian churches, and about 200 converts, he said.