Pol Pot 'did not believe' torture confessions

AFP/Pool/File – The former Khmer Rouge prison chief known as Duch, seen here, told Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes

Tue Jun 16

PHNOM PENH (AFP) – Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot knew spying confessions from tortured prisoners were false, the regime's jail chief told Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes trial Tuesday.

Kaing Guek Eav, better known by his nom de guerre Duch, was answering judges' questions about interrogations at Tuol Sleng prison, where he supervised the torture and extermination of up to 15,000 people.

"Pol Pot, at one point, did not even believe the confessions were of true information," Duch told the court.

Duch said he himself did not believe most prisoners' confessions and told the court how he was summoned by his superior, defence minister Son Senn, and asked why his staff had not found any information about the CIA's agenda.

"It was required for us to seek out CIA agents... As a result, there were many CIA agents in the confessions," Duch said.

"All the prisoners, from what I could conclude... who claimed they were CIA agents, no they were not," he said, adding that he ran into further problems with his superiors when one man confessed to being a Soviet agent.

Thereafter, he said, his staff also obtained confessions from many prisoners saying they were working for the KGB, the Soviet Union's spy agency.

At one point during court proceedings, while talking about which prisoners were tortured, Duch became visibly distraught and judges gave him some time to compose himself.

Earlier in his trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity, Duch accepted responsibility for his role in the 1975 to 1979 communist regime and begged forgiveness from its victims.

He has, however, consistently 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.

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