Issued on: 02/09/2020
Former Khmer Rouge S-21 prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, stands in a courtroom during a pre-trial in Phnom Penh, Dec. 5, 2008. © REUTERS/Tang Chhinsothy/Pool (CAMBODIA)/File Photo
Text by:NEWS WIRES|
The Khmer Rouge commander known as 'Comrade Duch', Pol Pot's premier executioner and security chief who oversaw the mass murder of at least 14,000 Cambodians at the notorious Tuol Sleng prison, died on Wednesday. He was 77.
Kaing Guek Eav or 'Comrade Duch' was the first member of the Khmer Rouge leadership to face trial for his role within a regime blamed for at least 1.7 million deaths in the "killing fields" of Cambodia from 1975 to 1979.
Duch died at 00:52 a.m. (1752 GMT on Tuesday) at the Khmer Soviet Friendship Hospital in Phnom Penh, Khmer Rouge tribunal spokesman Neth Pheaktra said. He gave no details of the cause, but Duch had been ill in recent years.
In 2010, a U.N. tribunal found him guilty of mass murder, torture and crimes against humanity at Tuol Sleng prison, the former Phnom Penh high school which still stands as a memorial to the atrocities committed inside.
He was given a life sentence two years later after his appeal that he was just a junior official following orders was rejected. Duch - by the time of his trial a born-again Christian - expressed regret for his crimes.
Under Duch's leadership, detainees at Tuol Sleng prison, codenamed "S-21", were ordered to suppress cries of agony as Khmer Rouge guards, many of whom were teenagers, sought to extract confessions for non-existent crimes through torture.
The guards were instructed to "smash to bits" traitors and counter-revolutionaries. For the Khmer Rouge, that could mean anyone from school teachers to children, to pregnant women and "intellectuals" identified as such for wearing glasses.
Beneath Tuol Sleng's chaotic facade, Duch - himself a former maths teacher - had an obsessive eye for detail and kept his school-turned-jail meticulously organised.
"Nothing in the former schoolhouse took place without Duch's approval. His control was total," wrote photographer and author Nic Dunlop, who found Duch in 1999 hiding near the Thai border, two decades after the Khmer Rouge fell.
"Not until you walk through the empty corridors of Tuol Sleng does Stalin's idiom that one death is a tragedy - a million a statistic, take on a terrifying potency," Dunlop wrote in his account of Duch and his atrocities, "The Lost Executioner".
At S-21, new prisoners had their mugshots taken. Hundreds are now on display within its crumbling walls.
Norng Chan Phal, one of the few people to have survived S-21, was a boy when he and his parents were sent to Duch's prison and interrogated on suspicion of having links to the Khmer Rouge's mortal enemy, Vietnam.
His parents were tortured and killed but Chan Phal survived to give testimony at Duch's trial in 2010.
"He was cooperative, he spoke to the court frankly. He apologised to all S-21 victims and asked them to open their hearts. He apologised to me too," Chan Phal told Reuters.
"He apologised. But justice is not complete".
(REUTERS)
Duch died at 00:52 a.m. (1752 GMT on Tuesday) at the Khmer Soviet Friendship Hospital in Phnom Penh, Khmer Rouge tribunal spokesman Neth Pheaktra said. He gave no details of the cause, but Duch had been ill in recent years.
In 2010, a U.N. tribunal found him guilty of mass murder, torture and crimes against humanity at Tuol Sleng prison, the former Phnom Penh high school which still stands as a memorial to the atrocities committed inside.
He was given a life sentence two years later after his appeal that he was just a junior official following orders was rejected. Duch - by the time of his trial a born-again Christian - expressed regret for his crimes.
Under Duch's leadership, detainees at Tuol Sleng prison, codenamed "S-21", were ordered to suppress cries of agony as Khmer Rouge guards, many of whom were teenagers, sought to extract confessions for non-existent crimes through torture.
The guards were instructed to "smash to bits" traitors and counter-revolutionaries. For the Khmer Rouge, that could mean anyone from school teachers to children, to pregnant women and "intellectuals" identified as such for wearing glasses.
Beneath Tuol Sleng's chaotic facade, Duch - himself a former maths teacher - had an obsessive eye for detail and kept his school-turned-jail meticulously organised.
"Nothing in the former schoolhouse took place without Duch's approval. His control was total," wrote photographer and author Nic Dunlop, who found Duch in 1999 hiding near the Thai border, two decades after the Khmer Rouge fell.
"Not until you walk through the empty corridors of Tuol Sleng does Stalin's idiom that one death is a tragedy - a million a statistic, take on a terrifying potency," Dunlop wrote in his account of Duch and his atrocities, "The Lost Executioner".
At S-21, new prisoners had their mugshots taken. Hundreds are now on display within its crumbling walls.
Norng Chan Phal, one of the few people to have survived S-21, was a boy when he and his parents were sent to Duch's prison and interrogated on suspicion of having links to the Khmer Rouge's mortal enemy, Vietnam.
His parents were tortured and killed but Chan Phal survived to give testimony at Duch's trial in 2010.
"He was cooperative, he spoke to the court frankly. He apologised to all S-21 victims and asked them to open their hearts. He apologised to me too," Chan Phal told Reuters.
"He apologised. But justice is not complete".
(REUTERS)
Who were the Khmer Rouge?
Issued on: 02/09/2020
Khmer Rouge torturer Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch during his trial in Phnom Penh in 2008 Mak Remissa POOL/AFP/File
Phnom Penh (AFP)
The Khmer Rouge's interrogator-in-chief Kaing Guek Eav, better known by his alias Duch, died Wednesday in Cambodia's capital at the age of 77.
The former teacher ran a notorious prison for the regime, overseeing the deaths of some 15,000 people -- a fraction of the estimated two million who died.
Here's what we know about the Khmer Rouge.
- Who were they? -
The ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 under the leadership of "Brother Number One" Pol Pot -- a charismatic intellectual who studied in France.
Today Pol Pot's name is synonymous with terror and genocide, and his bid to create an agrarian utopia is blamed for the deaths of some two million Cambodians.
The movement started in the northeastern jungles of the kingdom, where Pol Pot recruited supporters and waged guerilla warfare against the repressive governments of Cambodia of the time.
Phnom Penh (AFP)
The Khmer Rouge's interrogator-in-chief Kaing Guek Eav, better known by his alias Duch, died Wednesday in Cambodia's capital at the age of 77.
The former teacher ran a notorious prison for the regime, overseeing the deaths of some 15,000 people -- a fraction of the estimated two million who died.
Here's what we know about the Khmer Rouge.
- Who were they? -
The ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 under the leadership of "Brother Number One" Pol Pot -- a charismatic intellectual who studied in France.
Today Pol Pot's name is synonymous with terror and genocide, and his bid to create an agrarian utopia is blamed for the deaths of some two million Cambodians.
The movement started in the northeastern jungles of the kingdom, where Pol Pot recruited supporters and waged guerilla warfare against the repressive governments of Cambodia of the time.
CAMBODIA WAS RULED BY PRINCE SIHANOUK SUPPORTED BY CHINA
On April 17, 1975, Khmer Rouge troops marched into Phnom Penh, toppling the dictatorship of General Lon Nol -- who had staged a coup against then-Prince Norodom Sihanouk.
Millions of Phnom Penh residents were evacuated to the countryside, separating families into communes across the country.
- What did they do? -
The Khmer Rouge demanded unquestioning loyalty to "Angkar" -- which translates to "the organisation" in Khmer, and any ties to family or friends deemed "impure" was dangerous.
Even Cambodians' deep religious devotion to Buddhism was regarded with suspicion by cadres, who defrocked monks and defaced temples across the kingdom.
In the name of Angkar, Cambodians were forced to toil in rice fields under extreme conditions, work in factories and oversee the mass executions of those considered "impure".
Intellectuals, former civil servants and members of the police and armed forces often fell into this category, while ethnic minorities -- including Vietnamese and Cham Muslims -- were also systematically targeted.
Towards the end of the regime, the Khmer Rouge devoured its own with repeated purges -- driven by paranoia from the leadership that the revolution's enemies were hidden within.
- Who supported them? -
The regime's biggest backer was China, who pledged a billion dollars in aid to Pol Pot, according to Sebastian Strangio, author of "In the Dragon's Shadow" and "Hun Sen's Cambodia".
The US also indirectly helped to bolster the ranks of the Khmer Rouge, as carpet-bombings in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos bred resentment among locals against the Western superpower.
After the Khmer Rouge was ousted by Vietnamese-backed troops in 1979 it received some backing from the US, which saw them as a check on communist Hanoi.
- What was the role of now-premier Hun Sen? -
Asia's longest-serving leader Hun Sen rose through the ranks of the Khmer Rouge to become battalion commander before fleeing the country for Vietnam in 1977 to escape one of the many internal purges.
Local history books play down the role he played during the Khmer Rouge's rule, but credit him with leading Vietnamese troops into the country to oust Pol Pot from power in January 1979.
Attempts to investigate the role of other individuals has been restricted by the current government, which contains several former Khmer Rouge members.
Hun Sen has said he wanted a UN-backed tribunal to only investigate the regime's top echelon.
- What justice has there been -
Launched in 2006, the tribunal -- which costs hundreds of millions of dollars -- has so far convicted just three people.
Duch was the first member of the Khmer Rouge to face judgement and his testimony revealed aspects of the secretive regime that was never known to the public.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2012.
The other two convicted were Nuon Chea, "Brother Number Two" and chief ideologue of the regime -- who died last year -- and Khieu Samphan, the former head of state who served as the Khmer Rouge's public face to the world.
Critics have castigated interference by the government and the pace of proceedings.
Judicial processes are "complex, politicised, and in many ways doomed to fail", said Robert Carmichael, author of "When The Clouds Fell From the Sky", which chronicles Duch's trial.
But his trial and conviction "were viewed as beneficial" because of the details revealed about regime, he told AFP.
© 2020 AFP
On April 17, 1975, Khmer Rouge troops marched into Phnom Penh, toppling the dictatorship of General Lon Nol -- who had staged a coup against then-Prince Norodom Sihanouk.
Millions of Phnom Penh residents were evacuated to the countryside, separating families into communes across the country.
- What did they do? -
The Khmer Rouge demanded unquestioning loyalty to "Angkar" -- which translates to "the organisation" in Khmer, and any ties to family or friends deemed "impure" was dangerous.
Even Cambodians' deep religious devotion to Buddhism was regarded with suspicion by cadres, who defrocked monks and defaced temples across the kingdom.
In the name of Angkar, Cambodians were forced to toil in rice fields under extreme conditions, work in factories and oversee the mass executions of those considered "impure".
Intellectuals, former civil servants and members of the police and armed forces often fell into this category, while ethnic minorities -- including Vietnamese and Cham Muslims -- were also systematically targeted.
Towards the end of the regime, the Khmer Rouge devoured its own with repeated purges -- driven by paranoia from the leadership that the revolution's enemies were hidden within.
- Who supported them? -
The regime's biggest backer was China, who pledged a billion dollars in aid to Pol Pot, according to Sebastian Strangio, author of "In the Dragon's Shadow" and "Hun Sen's Cambodia".
The US also indirectly helped to bolster the ranks of the Khmer Rouge, as carpet-bombings in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos bred resentment among locals against the Western superpower.
After the Khmer Rouge was ousted by Vietnamese-backed troops in 1979 it received some backing from the US, which saw them as a check on communist Hanoi.
- What was the role of now-premier Hun Sen? -
Asia's longest-serving leader Hun Sen rose through the ranks of the Khmer Rouge to become battalion commander before fleeing the country for Vietnam in 1977 to escape one of the many internal purges.
Local history books play down the role he played during the Khmer Rouge's rule, but credit him with leading Vietnamese troops into the country to oust Pol Pot from power in January 1979.
Attempts to investigate the role of other individuals has been restricted by the current government, which contains several former Khmer Rouge members.
Hun Sen has said he wanted a UN-backed tribunal to only investigate the regime's top echelon.
- What justice has there been -
Launched in 2006, the tribunal -- which costs hundreds of millions of dollars -- has so far convicted just three people.
Duch was the first member of the Khmer Rouge to face judgement and his testimony revealed aspects of the secretive regime that was never known to the public.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2012.
The other two convicted were Nuon Chea, "Brother Number Two" and chief ideologue of the regime -- who died last year -- and Khieu Samphan, the former head of state who served as the Khmer Rouge's public face to the world.
Critics have castigated interference by the government and the pace of proceedings.
Judicial processes are "complex, politicised, and in many ways doomed to fail", said Robert Carmichael, author of "When The Clouds Fell From the Sky", which chronicles Duch's trial.
But his trial and conviction "were viewed as beneficial" because of the details revealed about regime, he told AFP.
© 2020 AFP
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