By KER MUNTHIT
Associated Press Writer AP
Tuesday, February 26
CHOEUNG EK, Cambodia - The former head of a notorious Khmer Rouge torture center was taken Tuesday by Cambodia's genocide tribunal to one of the country's notorious "killing fields," mass graves to which he is accused of sending thousands of prisoners for execution.
Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, has been charged with crimes against humanity for his role as commandant of the Khmer Rouge's notorious S-21 prison, and was taken into custody by the U.N.-assisted tribunal last year pending a yet-to-be scheduled trial.
An estimated 1.7 million people died during the 1975-79 communist Khmer Rouge regime from starvation, overwork, lack of medical care and execution. Duch, 65, is one of five former high-ranking Khmer Rouge officials being held for trial.
Duch was driven in a heavily guarded convoy to Choeung Ek, the site of shallow mass graves about 10 kilometers (6 miles) south of the capital, Phnom Penh, for a re-enactment of his crimes.
Some 16,000 men, women and children who had been held at S-21 were killed and buried at Choeung Ek, now a memorial site that is a popular tourist attraction.
Tribunal officials also were on hand for the re-enactment, which was closed to the public and the media. It was believed that relatives of some of the Khmer Rouge's victims were also present, because they are officially part of the tribunal, but no officials were immediately available to confirm their presence.
Marcel Lemonde. a co-investigating judge of the tribunal, had said Friday that Duch would be assisted at the scene by his lawyers, with the prosecutors and a number of witnesses also present.
Choeung Ek houses a dramatic and disturbing memorial to the dead, a soaring glass-fronted stupa, or Buddhist reliquary, crammed with 8,985 skulls, some bearing clear evidence of death by hammers, hoes, bamboo sticks and bullets.
Skeletal remains and ragged clothes lie in surrounding shallow graves. Signs describe how the executioners disposed of their victims, including one on a tree explaining how they bashed the heads of children against its trunk.
The long-delayed genocide trials may start later this year. Many fear the group's surviving leaders could die before being brought to justice. The movement's chief, Pol Pot, died in 1998.
One of Duch's fellow defendants, former Khmer Rouge Foreign Minister Ieng Sary, was hospitalized last week because of persistent urinary tract problems, a tribunal spokesman said Monday.
"His illness is not life threatening, but doctors need to follow up on it a bit longer," spokesman Reach Sambath said.
Duch is to visit S-21, now the Tuol Sleng genocide museum, on Wednesday. Of the 16,000 people thought to have been jailed there during Khmer Rouge rule, only 14 prisoners are believed to have survived.
Associated Press Writer AP
Tuesday, February 26
CHOEUNG EK, Cambodia - The former head of a notorious Khmer Rouge torture center was taken Tuesday by Cambodia's genocide tribunal to one of the country's notorious "killing fields," mass graves to which he is accused of sending thousands of prisoners for execution.
Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, has been charged with crimes against humanity for his role as commandant of the Khmer Rouge's notorious S-21 prison, and was taken into custody by the U.N.-assisted tribunal last year pending a yet-to-be scheduled trial.
An estimated 1.7 million people died during the 1975-79 communist Khmer Rouge regime from starvation, overwork, lack of medical care and execution. Duch, 65, is one of five former high-ranking Khmer Rouge officials being held for trial.
Duch was driven in a heavily guarded convoy to Choeung Ek, the site of shallow mass graves about 10 kilometers (6 miles) south of the capital, Phnom Penh, for a re-enactment of his crimes.
Some 16,000 men, women and children who had been held at S-21 were killed and buried at Choeung Ek, now a memorial site that is a popular tourist attraction.
Tribunal officials also were on hand for the re-enactment, which was closed to the public and the media. It was believed that relatives of some of the Khmer Rouge's victims were also present, because they are officially part of the tribunal, but no officials were immediately available to confirm their presence.
Marcel Lemonde. a co-investigating judge of the tribunal, had said Friday that Duch would be assisted at the scene by his lawyers, with the prosecutors and a number of witnesses also present.
Choeung Ek houses a dramatic and disturbing memorial to the dead, a soaring glass-fronted stupa, or Buddhist reliquary, crammed with 8,985 skulls, some bearing clear evidence of death by hammers, hoes, bamboo sticks and bullets.
Skeletal remains and ragged clothes lie in surrounding shallow graves. Signs describe how the executioners disposed of their victims, including one on a tree explaining how they bashed the heads of children against its trunk.
The long-delayed genocide trials may start later this year. Many fear the group's surviving leaders could die before being brought to justice. The movement's chief, Pol Pot, died in 1998.
One of Duch's fellow defendants, former Khmer Rouge Foreign Minister Ieng Sary, was hospitalized last week because of persistent urinary tract problems, a tribunal spokesman said Monday.
"His illness is not life threatening, but doctors need to follow up on it a bit longer," spokesman Reach Sambath said.
Duch is to visit S-21, now the Tuol Sleng genocide museum, on Wednesday. Of the 16,000 people thought to have been jailed there during Khmer Rouge rule, only 14 prisoners are believed to have survived.
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