I knew KRouge could not avoid prosecution: Duch

A tourist looks at portraits of victims of the Khmer Rouge regime at the Tuol Sleng genocide museum in Phnom Penh. The former Khmer Rouge prison chief said regime leader Pol Pot was worse than China's "Gang of Four" as he admitted further "cowardly" deeds at Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court.(AFP/File/Tang Chhin Sothy)



Thu Apr 30

PHNOM PENH (AFP) – The former Khmer Rouge prison chief has told Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court he knew the hard-line communist regime would eventually be brought to justice.

Duch -- real name Kaing Guek Eav -- is on trial for overseeing the torture and extermination of 15,000 people who passed through the regime's Tuol Sleng prison, also known as S-21.

"It is clear that the communist party (Khmer Rouge) could not avoid being prosecuted of the crimes they have committed," Duch told the five-judge panel.

"Everyone was involved, including I myself," he said.

As he detailed the regime's ruthless killing policy, the former maths teacher said party members lived in fear of reprisal by senior officers.

"We did not betray the party. We did not want to say anything about the party or we would be beheaded," Duch said.

He said the party also imposed an "absolute" policy that ruled those sent to S-21 would never be released.

"When people were perceived as enemies and arrested and sent to S-21, no one was entitled to release them, (not) even Pol Pot, the most senior person of the Khmer Rouge," Duch said.

Duch is charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture and premeditated murder over the extermination of thousands of people between 1975 and 1979 at Tuol Sleng and the nearby "Killing Fields."

However, he has denied prosecutors' claims that he played a central role in the Khmer Rouge's iron-fisted rule, and maintains he only tortured two people himself and never personally executed anyone.

Duch faces life in jail at the court, which does not have the power to impose the death penalty.

Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot died in 1998 and many believe the UN-sponsored tribunal is the last chance to find justice for victims of the regime, which killed up to two million people.

The tribunal was formed in 2006 after nearly a decade of wrangling between the United Nations and Cambodian government, and is scheduled to try four other senior Khmer Rouge leaders.