CAMBODIA: Chief Khmer Rouge inquisitor Duch appears before "Killing Fields" tribunal

Chief Khmer Rouge inquisitor Duch was summoned to appear before Cambodia's "Killing Fields" tribunal on Tuesday (July 31), the first of Pol Pot's henchmen to be questioned over the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people. "Kang Kek Ieu also known as Duch was brought to the ECCC on Tuesday morning for an initial interview by co-investigating judges. The co-investigating judges will issue a press statement on Wednesday morning," said Reach Sambath, spokesperson of the Exterior of Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. Duch, also known as Kang Kek Ieu, has confessed to committing multiple atrocities during his time as head of Phnom Penh's notorious Tuol Sleng, or S-21, interrogation centre. He is expected to be a key witness in the trial of other senior Khmer Rouge cadres. The 65-year-old, who has been in military prison in the southeast Asian nation's capital since 1999, faced investigating judges at a closed-door meeting attended by his lawyer and translator, a spokesman for the joint Cambodian-United Nations tribunal said. The long-awaited $56.3 million tribunal into atrocities committed during the Khmer Rouge's 1975-79 reign of terror has its own detention centre on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. It remains unclear whether Duch will be transferred to the purpose-built prison while Cambodian and international judges investigate prosecution allegations. At least 14,000 people deemed to be opponents of Pol Pot's "Year Zero" revolution passed through Tuol Sleng's barbed-wire gates. Fewer than 10 are thought to have lived to tell the tale. Most victims were tortured and forced to confess to a variety of crimes -- mainly being CIA spies -- before being bludgeoned to death in a field on the outskirts of the city. Women, children and even babies were among those butchered. "I don't want anymore revenge like we see in the Chinese movies, revenge goes on non stop. I want to forget it from now on," said Tan Yani, a visitor at Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. The prosecutors submitted thousands of pages of Khmer Rouge-era documents, statements from more than 350 witnesses and the locations of more than 40 undisturbed mass graves. "It is up to the government whenever they can open the trial but I want to see it start more quickly so we can know how everything happened, why they committed such atrocities," said Chet Sophal, a taxi driver. Around 1.7 million people are thought to have died during Pol Pot's four-year reign of terror, which was brought to an end in 1979 by a Vietnamese invasion. Earlier this month, prosecutors lodged formal cases against five suspects, who have not been named. Besides Duch, they are widely thought to be "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea, Khmer Rouge foreign minister Ieng Sary, former president Khieu Samphan and Meas Muth, a son-in-law of Pol Pot's military chief Ta Mok, who died last year. Pol Pot died in April 1998 in Along Veng, a final Khmer Rouge redoubt in jungle-clad mountains along the Thai border.

ITN Source | August 1, 2007

Tags:. .multiple. .revolution. .estimated. .joint. .invasion