PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - The former chief of a notorious Khmer Rouge prison was questioned Tuesday by a Cambodian genocide tribunal investigating crimes committed during the regime's rule in the late 1970s, an official said.
Kaing Khek Iev, who headed the former S-21 prison in Phnom Penh, became the first suspect to be questioned by the tribunal, set up jointly by Cambodia and the United Nations, said tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath.
Kaing Khek Iev, 62, has been in prison since 1999 when he was discovered by a Western photographer after two decades in hiding. It was unclear what charges he may face.
Some 1.7 million people were executed or died from hunger, disease and overwork as a result of the Khmer Rouge, overthrown by a Vietnamese invasion in 1979.
Suspected enemies of the ultra-communist regime were brutally tortured at the S-21 prison before being taken out and killed in fields near the city. Of 16,000 people imprisoned, only about a dozen are thought to have survived.
Kaing Khek Iev, a former schoolteacher also known as Duch, supervised the brutal interrogations at S-21, now the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. His attention to detail and sense of duty meant S-21 kept meticulous records of victims, which are likely to serve as key evidence in any trial.
According to a transcript of a 1999 government interview, Kaing Khek Iev said he was not a "cruel" man but "an individual with gentle heart caring for justice ... since childhood."
He claimed he was following orders to save his life.
"I was under other people's command, and I would have died if I disobeyed it. I did it without any pleasure, and any fault should be blamed on the (Khmer Rouge leadership), not me," he said, according to the transcript obtained by The Associated Press.
Government security forces escorted Kaing Khek Iev from a military prison to the tribunal headquarters early Tuesday morning, said Reach Sambath.
To read more about this story, just click on the link below.
Sarith's quote:
The living people should stand trial for their crime against humanity are:
- King Norodom Sihanouk
- Eang Sary
- Khiev Samphan
- Noun Chea
- Kaing Khek Lev - Duch
- Hun Sen - The prime minister of Cambodia
- Chea Sim - The head of CPP
- Hor Nam Hong - The foreign minister of Cambodia
- Hok Lung Dy - Chief of Cambodian police
These are the notorist people who have been killing or master mind of killing Cambodian people for the last 50 years.
Date: 07/31/2007
Url:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200 ....
Author: Yahoo news
| 
