Eating Insects To Survive In Pol Pot Camp

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One of the few survivors of the Khmer Rouge's main torture centre has told of the horrific conditions at the facility where 16,000 others were executed. Skip related content

Vann Nath, 63, escaped death because he was an artist and took the job of painting and sculpting portraits of Cambodia's communist movement's late leader Pol Pot.

But his special status did not spare him misery. "The conditions were so inhumane and the food was so little," Vann Nath told a tribunal, tears streaming down his face.

"I even thought eating human flesh would be a good meal."

Vann Nath said he was fed twice a day, each meal consisting of three teaspoons of rice porridge. "I lost my dignity," he said. "They even gave animals more food."

The testimony came at the trial of Kaing Guek Eav - better known as Duch - who headed the S-21 prison in Phnom Penh from 1975 to 1979.

Up to 16,000 men, women and children were tortured under his command and later taken away to be killed. Only 14 people, including Vann Nath, are thought to have survived.

Duch, 66, is charged with crimes against humanity and is the first of five defendants scheduled for long-delayed trials by the UN-assisted tribunal.

He has previously testified that being sent to S-21 was tantamount to a death sentence and that he was only following orders to save his own life.

Vann Nath was imprisoned after being accused of trying to overthrow the Khmer Rouge and being an enemy of the regime - a common allegation against prisoners.

He arrived at S-21 on January 7, 1978, and was kept there until the regime collapsed about one year later.

Prisoners were kept shackled and ordered not to speak or move, Vann Nath told the court.

"We were so hungry, we would eat insects that dropped from the ceiling," he said. "We would quickly grab and eat them so we could avoid being seen by the guards."

"We ate our meals next to dead bodies, and we didn't care because we were like animals," he added.

The regime's radical policies caused the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people nationwide by execution, overwork, disease and malnutrition.