'Son Forced To Killed Dad' For Khmer Rouge

'Son Forced To Killed Dad' For Khmer Rouge

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A brother of a Khmer Rouge torture camp survivor was forced to kill their father before being shot himself for hesitating, a Cambodian war crimes court has heard. Skip related content

Nam Mon, 48, was testifying at the trial of prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch.

He is accused of overseeing the execution of about 15,000 people at Tuol Sleng prison during the regime's terrifying 1975-1979 rule.

Nam Mon told the court her two older brothers were guards at the notorious Tuol Sleng, while she initially lived and worked there as a medic before being interrogated herself.

"My first brother Nuon killed my father and later on he was executed," Nam Mon said. "They accused him of hesitating to kill my father."

Recognised as a civil claimant in the case against Duch, Nam Mon was revealing her story in public for the first time, her lawyer Silke Studzinsky said.

But judges have cast doubt on the authenticity of several civil claimants who alllege they were at Tuol Sleng, castigating their lawyers for not being sufficiently prepared.

Nam Mon also described how her father was brought into the prison blindfolded before being stripped, tortured and killed.

She said the rest of her family was later rounded up and executed.

"My mother also died at Tuol Sleng with my younger brother, but they died at different times," she said, adding she was then interrogated there for three months in 1978.

Duch, 66, has begged for forgiveness from the victims near the start of his trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

But he has consistently rejected claims by prosecutors that he held a central leadership role in the Khmer Rouge, and says he never personally executed anyone.

Led by Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the Khmer Rouge emptied Cambodia's cities in a bid to forge a communist utopia.

Up to two million people died of starvation, overwork, torture and execution.