'Killing Fields' interrogator in court

Chief Khmer Rouge interrogator Duch has made his first public appearance at the UN-backed 'Killing Fields' tribunal.The grey-haired former commandant of the infamous Tuol Sleng, or S-21, interrogation centre sat impassively in the dock as prosecutors read out allegations of torture and abuse.The 66-year-old born-again Christian has confessed in interviews with Western reporters that he committed multiple atrocities as head of S-21.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 ten are thought to have lived to tell the tale.Most victims were tortured and forced to confess to a variety of crimes - mainly of 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."Many people were brutally tortured and killed. They were killed with electric shocks, their finger nails were pulled off and they were beaten," co-prosecutor Chea Leang told the court."Those acts at S-21 were done under the orders of the suspect," she said, arguing that Duch might try to flee the country if he were released on bail.Duch, also known as Kaing Guek Eav, is appealing against his detention last July when he was charged with crimes against humanity.The court was set up to prosecute "those most responsible" for the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge reign of terror during which 1.7 million people were either tortured and killed or starved to death.Duch's appearance at the specially built court on the outskirts of Phnom Penh is a significant step for the tribunal, officials said, after a decade of delays caused by wrangling over jurisdiction and cash.Duch, escorted by armed guards into the courtroom to face five Cambodian and international judges, said his detention violated Cambodian law."My name is Kaing Guek Eav. I am 66 years old," the former schoolteacher, dressed in a white shirt and holding his palms together in a sign of respect, told the court."I launched the appeal because I have been detained without trial for eight years, six months and ten days".He is expected to be a key witness in the trial of other senior Khmer Rouge cadres, including former foreign minister Ieng Sary and his wife - both life-long friends of Brother Number One Pol Pot - and Brother Number Two Nuon Chea.The four others have denied knowledge of any atrocities as Pol Pot pursued his dream of creating an agrarian peasant utopia.The regime was toppled in 1979 by a Vietnamese invasion. Pol Pot died in 1998 in the final Khmer Rouge redoubt of Anlong Veng.© Independent Television News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.

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ITN | November 20, 2007

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