Thursday, 28 February 2008

Back to hell: Khmer chief revisits jail where just 14 out of 16,000 survived

28 February 2008
Source: The Scotsman

By Ker Munthit
in Phnom Penh

A FORMER Khmer Rouge prison chief accused of crimes against humanity recounted his grim "duties" during a visit yesterday to the place he once commanded, giving his account of ordeals that only a handful of inmates survived.

Kaing Guek Eav, also called Duch, was taken to the Khmer Rouge's notorious S-21 prison by Cambodia's genocide tribunal, which is supported by the United Nations. The tribunal is investigating atrocities committed under the 1975-79 communist Khmer Rouge regime.

Duch is one of five former high-ranking Khmer Rouge officials being held pending trial.

Duch, 65, commanded the prison – the Khmer Rouge's largest torture facility – in the capital, Phnom Penh.About 16,000 men, women and children were believed to have been held there.
Only 14 are thought to have survived.

Duch walked judges, prosecutors, his defence lawyers and several former inmates through the prison compound, said tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath.

On events that took place at the site, Sambath would say only that Duch "clarified what happened when he was the chief of the S-21 prison".

The site is now called the Tuol Sleng genocide museum.

An estimated 1.7 million people died under the Khmer Rouge in executions and through policies that led to starvation, overwork and lack of medical care.

Duch's return to S-21 was his first since the Khmer Rouge regime was toppled nearly 30 years ago by an invading Vietnamese army.

He has been detained by the tribunal since last July, awaiting long-delayed trials, expected to start this year.

"He is revisiting his past atrocities although he is not going to see bloodstains or hear the scream of prisoners any more," said Youk Chhang, director of Documentation Centre of Cambodia, a group researching atrocities. "

Tuol Sleng is a living nightmare for us."Duch was participating in a so-called re-enactment that involves taking the accused to the crime scene for questioning.Three of the prison's survivors joined Duch in the visit but declined to comment afterwards.

Beforehand, they said that if given an opportunity to face him during the visit, they would ask him why they had been imprisoned and tortured.

Bou Meng, 67, said he and his wife, Ma Yoeun, were both put in S-21 prison in 1977 and his wife was later executed.

"I just want to ask him what she may have done wrong that they had to kill her."Mr Meng was spared because he was a painter who produced portraits of Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge leader who died in 1998.

On Tuesday, Duch wept as he led officials through the "killing field" at Choeung Ek, a site outside of the capital where most of S-21's prisoners were executed and dumped in shallow mass-graves.

Reach Sambath said Duch was especially moved when he stood before a tree with a sign saying executioners disposed of their child victims by smashing their heads against its trunk.

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