Vietnam & After

No Bail for Duch

Associated Press, "Cambodian genocide tribunal denies bail for detained Khmer Rouge suspect," IHT 12/2/07

Kaing Guek Eav, aka "Duch," is one of five Khmer Rouge leaders who are being tried for war crimes before an international tribunal in Cambodia.   These men will face charges of genocide.   Duch was in charge of the infamous S-21 prison where:

"As many as 16,000 men, women and children were tortured at S-21 before being transported out of Phnom Penh and executed at a site known as "the killing fields." Only 14 people are thought to have survived."

According to the Associated Press, the Khmer Rouge were responsible for the deaths of about 1.7 million Cambodians between 1975-1979.

Watch Al Jazeera's interview with Bou Meng, a former prisoner of S-21.

For more information on the Khmer Rouge check out these resources posted by the BBC.

Khmer Rouge Brother #2 to Stand Trial for War Crimes

Seth Mydans, "Former Khmer Rouge Leader Arrested" New York Times, 9/19/07

 

Seth Mydans reports that Khmer Rouge leader Nuon Chea has been arrested and will stand trial for his role in the "deaths of 1.7 million people from 1975 to 1979." The infamous Pol Pot was the most powerful figure in the Khmer Rouge government, Nuon Chea was known as "Brother Number Two." 

Mydans sums up the Khmer Rouge regime in one succinct sentence:

"Pursuing a radical communist ideology, the Khmer Rouge turned their nation into a vast labor camp in which nearly a quarter of the population died of torture, starvation, disease or exhaustion, or were killed outright."

Mydans also quotes a 1999 interview with another Khmer Rouge leader, Kaing Guek Eav, "the commandant of the Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh, where at least 14,000 people died." Kaing Guek Eav was known as "Duch."  He is expected to testify against Nuon Chea before an international tribunal.   According to the interview with Duch, Brother #2 ordered many of the killings:

"Describing the killing of eight Westerners who were seized by the Khmer Rouge, Duch said, “Nuon Chea ordered me to burn their bodies with tires and leave no bones.”

On another occasion, he said, “My prison was full.

“Nuon Chea ordered 300 soldiers arrested,” he continued. “He called to meet me and said: ‘Don’t bother to interrogate them. Just kill them.’ And I did.”

As an invading Vietnamese Army approached Phnom Penh in January 1979, Duch said, “I was called by Nuon Chea to his office and he ordered me to kill all the remaining prisoners.

“I asked Nuon Chea to allow me to keep one Vietnamese prisoner alive to use for propaganda on the radio,” he said, “and he replied: ‘Kill them all. We can always get more.’ ”"