Judge Jean-Marc Lavergne took the driver’s seat during yesterday’s hearing in Case 002/02 involving Khmer Rouge leaders Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan, peppering former S-21 chief Kaing Guek Eav with questions about massacres, photos of prisoners and the last days of the detention center.
Mr. Guek Eav, also known as Duch, confirmed a number of massacres committed by the Khmer Rouge, including the murder of 600 Thai soldiers in Kampong Som, now known as Preah Sihanouk province, and an unknown number of Cham citizens during their reign.
He later touched on the photos taken of prisoners at S-21 that have become infamous due to their prominence at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, which is the name used for S-21 now. The photos were taken on direct orders from Mr. Chea, despite Mr. Guek Eav’s anger at being forced to take them.
“If they don’t trust me, how can I carry out my work? That is what I asked them,” he said of the portraits, intimating that their original purpose was to ensure that the correct prisoners were being detained and eventually executed.
While most photos were kept at S-21, Mr. Guek Eav said he kept a set of photos of the Westerners killed at the center. He did not say why he decided to keep these specific photos, but mentioned that they were taken before the Westerners were killed and burned.
The testimony then turned to a discussion on the number of prisoners held at the facility. Mr. Guek Eav said the total number of prisoners held at S-21 throughout his time there numbered beyond 10,000.
Judge Lavergne posed a series of questions to him about the rises and falls in prisoner numbers, hoping to get some explanation for the wide disparities seen at times in Khmer Rouge files. Unfortunately Mr. Guek Eav rarely said anything beyond confirming the totals and repeating statements from his previous testimony.
“When there were too many prisoners, we were instructed to clear them out,” he said, reiterating a line he has said throughout his time on the stand in this case.
Judge Lavergne specifically asked about the fall of 1977, when thousands of prisoners were killed, according to Khmer Rouge records. On October 15, 1,799 prisoners were recorded at S-21. But by December 31, the number was down to 736.
“Sometimes a large number of prisoners had to be removed for incoming prisoners,” he said.
The orders to reduce the number of prisoners came directly from his superiors and usually came in advance of a large group being sent to the center for interrogation and execution. Mr. Guek Eav said they never knew about upcoming purges because detention centers across the country did not communicate with each other.
He told the court that Son Sen and Mr. Chea almost never asked about the number of prisoners, but often inquired about specific prisoners and whether they had been killed yet.
Mr. Chea played a significant role in the “confessions” extracted from prisoners, often taking out the names of people implicated depending on seniority or relation to upper echelon Khmer Rouge officials.
Specifically, Mr. Guek Eav discussed an instance when he was instructed to remove Mr. Samphan’s name from a “confession” after being harshly criticized by Mr. Chea. He was also forced to remove the name Poeun from a confession by Mr. Chea because he was the son-in-law of Ieng Sary, one of the Khmer Rouge founders.
Judge Lavergne managed to get the most commentary out of Mr. Guek Eav when he asked about the last day of Khmer Rouge control of S-21 on January 6, 1979.
Forces at the detention center received no advance warning of an impending invasion by Vietnamese-backed forces, and Mr. Guek Eav was advised to work as he normally did. But by 10am, things began to change.
“At about 10am, I heard the sound of tanks moving, and by 11 I knew that the [Vietnamese] tanks were approaching, so I left my house,” he said. “Brother Nuon never instructed me about anything.”
Mr. Guek Eav told the court he tried to gather weapons to fight the invading forces and get the documents that were still at S-21. But he decided against it and fled.
“I made mention that the documents remained and there was no instruction to destroy them,” he said. “I met Son Sen before I was sent to China and I made mention of the documents. He scolded me for not destroying them. In 1983 I was scolded by Brother Nuon for not destroying all of the documents as well.”
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/26179/duch-discusses-last-days-of-s-21/