straitstimes.com
Feb 22, 2008
PHNOM PENH (AFP) - FORMER Khmer Rouge jailer Duch, who expected to face a UN-backed trial over Cambodia's 1970s genocide, will re-enact his alleged crimes as part of the investigation against him, a judge said on Friday.
Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, oversaw the regime's main torture centre of Tuol Sleng where some 16,000 men, women and children were brutalised before being executed during the Khmer Rouge's repeated purges of its ranks.
'The purpose is to re-organise the situation as it was at the time,' said Marcel Lemonde, one of the tribunal's co-investigating judges.
Walk through pastDuch, who has never denied his crimes but claims to have found God, will walk tribunal judges through the prison, describing his actions there before proceeding to the Choeung Ek killing fields outside Phnom Penh, where most of the Tuol Sleng inmates were killed.
Several people believed to be Tuol Sleng survivors will also be present and participate in a 'confrontation' interview afterwards, during which statements by Duch and the witnesses will be recorded.
'This is a normal investigative action, the aim of which is to clarify the declarations by each of the participants, using photos, audio-visual recordings and 3D reconstructions,' Mr Lemonde told reporters.
Duch, a 65-year-old former maths teacher, is charged with crimes against humanity and is one of five Khmer Rouge leaders detained by the UN-backed tribunal over atrocities committed by the communist Khmer Rouge during its 1975-79 rule.
Up to two million people died of starvation and overwork, or were executed by the Khmer Rouge, which dismantled modern Cambodian society in its effort to forge a radical agrarian utopia.
Cities were emptied and their populations exiled to vast collective farms, while schools were closed, religion banned and the educated classes targeted for extermination.
The tribunal was convened in July 2006 after nearly a decade of often stalled talks between Cambodia and the United Nations over how to proceed with prosecuting regime leaders.
Feb 22, 2008
PHNOM PENH (AFP) - FORMER Khmer Rouge jailer Duch, who expected to face a UN-backed trial over Cambodia's 1970s genocide, will re-enact his alleged crimes as part of the investigation against him, a judge said on Friday.
Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, oversaw the regime's main torture centre of Tuol Sleng where some 16,000 men, women and children were brutalised before being executed during the Khmer Rouge's repeated purges of its ranks.
'The purpose is to re-organise the situation as it was at the time,' said Marcel Lemonde, one of the tribunal's co-investigating judges.
Walk through pastDuch, who has never denied his crimes but claims to have found God, will walk tribunal judges through the prison, describing his actions there before proceeding to the Choeung Ek killing fields outside Phnom Penh, where most of the Tuol Sleng inmates were killed.
Several people believed to be Tuol Sleng survivors will also be present and participate in a 'confrontation' interview afterwards, during which statements by Duch and the witnesses will be recorded.
'This is a normal investigative action, the aim of which is to clarify the declarations by each of the participants, using photos, audio-visual recordings and 3D reconstructions,' Mr Lemonde told reporters.
Duch, a 65-year-old former maths teacher, is charged with crimes against humanity and is one of five Khmer Rouge leaders detained by the UN-backed tribunal over atrocities committed by the communist Khmer Rouge during its 1975-79 rule.
Up to two million people died of starvation and overwork, or were executed by the Khmer Rouge, which dismantled modern Cambodian society in its effort to forge a radical agrarian utopia.
Cities were emptied and their populations exiled to vast collective farms, while schools were closed, religion banned and the educated classes targeted for extermination.
The tribunal was convened in July 2006 after nearly a decade of often stalled talks between Cambodia and the United Nations over how to proceed with prosecuting regime leaders.
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