GUARD AT S-21 AND GRAVEDIGGER AT CHOEUNG EK TESTIFIES

August 10, 2009

By Socheat Nhean, Documentation Center of Cambodia, Graduate Student of
Anthropology at Northern Illinois University

Chhun Phal, age 47, looked simple, innocent, and relaxed as he testified
with a smile in the trial of Kaing Guek Eav (alias Duch). After initially
giving a statement to the Co-Investigating Judges (CIJs) in early 2008,
Chhun Phal, appeared before the ECCC on August 10, 2009, to testify about
his experiences as a guard at S-21 and his brief time spent at Choeung Ek,
the notorious execution camp colloquially known as “the Killing Fields.”

During the Democratic Kampuchea (DK) era, the witness spent most of his time
working as a guard at S-21. However, in 1978 before the Vietnamese arrived
in Phnom Penh, he was sent to Prey Sar and Choeung Ek where he grew
vegetables and worked on the irrigation system. At Choeung Ek the witness
was assigned to bury dead prisoners.

In 1975, Duch requested that youth below the age of sixteen from Kampong
Chhnang be recruited to work as guards at S-21. Duch wanted young men from
poor backgrounds who had no prior contact with political doctrines. However,
Chhun Phal did not know that he was recruited as an S-21 guard due a request
by Duch. The witness also never met Duch, even while assigned to work at
S-21. Today, thirty years after being dismissed from his position as a
guard, the witness had a chance to testify in front of his former boss.

Joining the Revolution

In Kampong Chhnang province, shortly before the Khmer Rouge (KR) took
control in April 1975, a village chief assigned Chhun Phal, a
fifteen-year-old boy, to join the revolution. The KR sent him to Sala Lekh
Pram commune for about a week before they sent him to Phnom Penh. After
spending a month in Phnom Penh, where he testified that he did little of
anything, he was then sent to train in martial arts and military exercise at
Takhmao.

Like other revolutionary soldiers, the KR enlisted Phal to farm at Prey Sar.
Phal does not remember how long he worked at Prey Sar, but does recall that
he worked next as a guard at Tuol Sleng. When asked by the judge if Tuol
Sleng had another name at the time, Phal stated that the terms Tuol Sleng
and S-21 were synonymous.

Situation at S-21

From his memory, Phal recalled that S-21 had four main buildings and Phal
was assigned to guard one of the three-story buildings. At S-21, Phal and
eleven other guards patrolled S-21 and kept prisoners under control. As a
guard, S-21 staff taught Phal to be very cautious of prisoners attempting to
flee or commit suicide. Phal testified, “When guarding outside the
courtyard, I was armed, but if guarding outside, I was not armed. If a
prisoner fled, the guards would be imprisoned.”

Phal further added that prisoners were held in individual or common rooms.
Individual rooms had windows so that the guards could see the prisoners from
the corridor and the guards regularly checked the shackles of the prisoners.
In common rooms, prisoners were detained and shackled together. The guards
constantly checked the lock to make sure the shackle was secure. Guards were
on duty 24 hours a day and seven days a week; S-21 generated enough light at
night so that the guards could see.

Prisoners

According to Phal, the prisoners were provided little food to eat and were
skinny. Male prisoners were more carefully guarded than female prisoners.
While male prisoners were shackled and kept in the common or individual
cells, female prisoners were not handcuffed or shackled, but were put in
securely locked rooms. Male prisoners needed to ask permission from a
security guard before they could stand. Prisoners wore old and tattered
clothes; some wore shorts, some trousers and some went shirtless. Phal
testified that some prisoners came with their children, but those children
disappeared two or three days after their mother arrived. Foreign prisoners
were detained separately from Cambodian prisoners.

Burying the Bodies of Prisoners

When initially asked by President Nil Nonn whether Phal saw any prisoners
taken away and where they were taken to, Phal said that he did not know:
“Prisoners were brought in and taken out; some were brought back, some were
not. I did not know where [the prisoners] were taken to.” However, just
before the Vietnamese soldiers arrived, Phal was at Choeung Ek and he also
admitted that one time S-21 staff sent him to Choeung Ek to bury dead
prisoners.

The answer attracted the President’s attention and he began to ask more
questions about how the guards treated dead prisoners. Phal testified that
one day at around six in the evening, he was told to go to Choeung Ek to
bury dead prisoners. Phal described the pit as being three meters in length
by two meters in width. When he stood in the pit it came up to his neck.
Phal added that all the dead bodies were naked and that after the pit was
full, his group of three or four began to re-cover the pit with dirt and
that “it took my group about two hours to bury one pit.” He testified that
he buried bodies in only one pit.

The President then read the transcript of an interview that the CIJs
conducted with Phal on January 18, 2008. The answers that Phal provided
today were not very consistent with what he told the CIJs. When Phal did not
explain, the President respected the witness’s right not to answer and
decided not to continue with this line of questioning. Duch then commented
on Phal’s testimony and said that he acknowledged that Chhun Phal was one of
the guards at S-21.

After Chhun Phal’s testimony ended, the Chamber called the next witness, Som
Meth, 51 years old, from Kandal province. Meth joined the revolution in 1973
and was involved in several battles. He was given political and military
training for eight months before becoming a guard at Dumpheng prison, a
prison set up before the creation of S-21.

Meth had only one year of education and could hardly read or write. In
1977-1978, the KR sent those who could read and write to work as
interrogators, while those who could not read were assigned to work as
guards. Like other prisoners, shortly before the collapse of the KR, Meth
also farmed the fields at Prey Sar.