'There was no alternative to extermination'

pretorianews.co.za
February 12, 2008

London - A former senior Khmer Rouge official said he had "no alternative" when he oversaw the killing of thousands of Cambodians.

The regime's prison chief, Duch, who was arrested in July last year and has been charged with crimes against humanity, told The Independent newspaper yesterday how those who came to a camp of which he was in charge had no way to avoid death.

"There was a widespread and tacit understanding. I and everyone else who worked in that place knew that anyone who entered had to be psychologically demolished, eliminated by steady work, given no way out," he told the paper.

"Nobody who came to us had any chance of saving himself," added the former Khmer Rouge official, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav.