THE KHMER Rouge’s chief torturer, who ran the regime’s most feared prison, has admitted murdering thousands of Cambodians and told of his “heartfelt sorrow” for the crimes he committed more than 30 years ago.
Kaing Guek Eav – known as Comrade Duch – read a prepared statement on the second day of the UN-backed war crimes tribunal in Phnom Penh, apologising for the brutal excesses of Pol Pot’s regime that killed 1.7 million Cambodians in its four-year rule.
“I recognise that I am responsible for the crimes committed,” the 66-year-old said, putting down his papers and looking straight at the tribunal’s gallery packed with survivors. “I would like to express my regretfulness and heartfelt sorrow.”
Duch commanded the notorious Tuol Sleng prison – known by the codename S-21 – where at least 14,000 men, women and children were tortured under his supervision before all but a handful were summarily executed.
The former maths teacher and now born-again Christian, who has been in jail for the past decade since he was unmasked by the British journalist Nic Dunlop, is accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture and murder and faces a maximum of life imprisonment.
“I am responsible for the crimes committed at S-21, especially the torture and execution of the people there,” he said. “May I be permitted to apologise and to the survivors and families of the victims who had loved ones who died brutally at S-21. I would like you to forgive me.”
While Duch’s statement is an admission of guilt – the first from a senior Khmer Rouge figure – the defendants do not enter pleas before the genocide tribunal’s investigating judges, whose key aim is to establish the facts of what happened between 1975 and 1979.
But with Duch expected to give evidence against four other Khmer Rouge leaders awaiting trial, including “brother number two” Nuon Chea and the nominal head of state Khieu Samphan, his confession could be a vital in the more challenging prosecutions.
Duch said he feared for the lives of his family if he failed to obey orders. “I am solely responsible for this crime,” he said. “But I am just a scapegoat – a person who played a role in the killings. In those times I regarded the life of my family as more important than those detained at S-21. Although I knew my orders were criminal, I never dared challenge the top authorities.” Duch was given the opportunity to respond after the prosecutors had outlined the case against him, recalling the grim litany of torture meted out to extract false confessions from mostly innocent victims of the regime.
The Cambodian co-prosecutor Chea Leang recalled the Khmer Rouge's chilling maxim for those it regarded as its enemies: "To keep you is no gain, to destroy you is no loss." The tribunal, expected to take at least six months to reach a verdict, will question Duch in greater detail next week about the roles he held under the regime and, uniquely, give the victims and the bereaved a chance to have their voices heard in testimony. – ( Guardian service)