TALES OF TORTURE CONTINUE

August 11, 2009

By Terith Chy, Documentation Center of Cambodia

This morning Som Meth, a former guard of “important prisoners” at Tuol Sleng
prison (S-21), continued his testimony about details of the operations of
the prison which was run by the Accused Person, Kaing Guek Eav (alias Duch).
He resumed his testimony in front of the judges as well as approximately 400
teachers from the vicinity of Ta Khmao who had come to observe.

In response to a question posed by the national co-prosecutor, Meth
testified that he had witnessed the use of torture while serving at S-21.
For example, he witnessed cold ice being poured over the body of a prisoner
after the prisoner had been stripped down to his underwear. Meth was then
asked to comment about a painting by Vann Nath, a prisoner and painter at
S-21, which depicted a prisoner having his fingernails pulled out. Meth
testified that he did not witness such acts personally, but that he did see
the wounds which made it clear that the fingernails had been pulled out. The
civil party lawyers continued down this line of questioning, asking Meth to
confirm a previous statement that he was witness to other forms of torture
such as genital electrocution. However, Meth refused to elaborate, stating
only that he already told the court what he knew and what he saw.

Meth remarked that Duch occasionally would visit the interrogation room for
some of the “important prisoners,” a statement which prompted Duch to
confirm that he occasionally visited prisoners while they were being
interrogated. In response to a question about the character of a particular
interrogator at S-21, Meth responded succinctly that, “All interrogators
were vicious.”

Living with Fear

Meth continued his testimony by illustrating his fear of Duch. He remarked
that even though Duch did not appear to be a violent person, Meth was
“always scared of him.” Furthermore, he asserted that he never enjoyed
working at S-21, but concealed his true feelings for fear of being arrested.
As it turns out, he was only one of four or five persons of his 50-member
unit to survive.

Meth became a target of suspicion when his brother, Meng, and his wife,
Poeun, were arrested and brought to S-21. Ultimately, both were killed.
According to Meth, Him Huy helped keep him alive. Huy was the one who told
Meth about the arrest of his brother. Meth asserted that it was extremely
hard to concentrate on working after receiving the news of his brother but
he abided by Huy’s advice that the only way to stay alive was to continue
working as if nothing had happened.

The defense then proceeded to ask Meth why he did not try to escape given
all of the circumstances. Like many other guards and interrogators who have
testified, Meth stated that it was impossible for him to escape. Not only
was it difficult to leave the premises undetected, but he knew that if he
did escape he would be putting his family in immediate and grave danger. The
defense seemed to be continuing its strategy to paint Duch as a man who
faced a similar dilemma – following orders from superiors or facing grave
and fatal consequences.

Duch's Response

Duch did not contest the fact that Meth was a guard at S-21. Instead, in his
response he continued to show remorse for some of his actions. He asserted
that he deeply regretted the fact that he indoctrinated so many people with
the ideas and policies of the revolution. He also showed remorse for the
fact that he was responsible for submitting reports to his superiors that
identified many innocent people who ended up being arrested and killed.

Reading of Witness Statements

Consistent with the Trial Chamber’s recent practice, several witness
statements were read into the record in lieu of oral testimony.

Witness Mokk Sithim

Mokk Sithim was a medic at S-21. He treated many prisoners for wounds they
received as a result of beatings and other physical abuses such as having
their fingernails pulled out. Furthermore, some prisoners told him that they
had been electrocuted. According to his statement, interrogators had him
administer medical treatment to prisoners so that they could effectively
continue the interrogation process.

He also treated 30 to 40 prisoners who were pale and weak due to the common
practice of drawing blood. He stated that he saw many of the discarded blood
containers. Prak Khan, a former interrogator at S-21, had testified
previously that blood taken from prisoners was sent to Hospital P-17 and
Monivong.

Duch dismissed the testimony of Mokk Sithim, stating that he did not believe
that Sithim was actually a medic at S-21. On the issue of drawing blood,
Duch asserted that it was his superior, Son Sen, who mandated this practice
and it had been implemented even before Duch became the head of S-21.
Furthermore, he claimed that only about 100 prisoners were subjected to this
practice as opposed to the estimate of 1000 prisoners claimed by Prak Khan.

Witness Tay Teng alias Dy Teng

Tay Teng was a guard at both S-21 and Cheung Ek. He was charged with digging
graves at Cheung Ek. He stated that Him Huy and another guard drove
prisoners to the execution site in trucks that carried roughly 20 prisoners.
His account relating to Cheung Ek was consistent with Him Huy’s earlier
testimony.

Teng detailed the procedure that was used for executing prisoners. Upon
their departure from S-21, prisoners were tied up and blindfolded. Once they
reached Cheung Ek, they were kept in a house about 100 meters from the
graves where two or three prisoners were called out at the same time. They
were made to kneel about 1 meter away from the pits and then clubbed with
iron bar. Executioners also used a knife to slice open their stomachs or
slit their throats to ensure that the prisoners were dead. Once all
prisoners were executed, a team of guards filled the graves. There were
about 10 corpses in each pit and about 20 or 30 pits. Teng stated that he
never saw any children at the execution site. Duch acknowledged that Teng
did indeed work at S-21 and his testimony was truthful.

Witness Som Sam-Ol

Som Sam-Ol claims to have worked as a messenger for the Ministry of Foreign
Affair. He stated that on several occasions he was assigned to dispatch
letters to Duch at his house. Even though he did not meet Duch in person, he
left the letters with Duch’s messenger Chhen. Sam-Ol also indicated that
Duch assigned Chhen to take a pile of hand-written documents to the
Ministry, which he assumes were documents of confessions of S-21 prisoners.
Duch challenged Sam-Ol’s entire statement, claiming that he was not a
messenger from the Ministry of Foreign Affair but merely a simple guard at
S-21.

Som Sam-Ol also stated that several high-level Khmer Rouge leaders were
present at Duch’s wedding. Again, Duch contested this account, asserting
that he had no connection with the Khmer Rouge senior leaders except for Son
Sen and Nuon Chea. According to him, the wedding was not held at his house
in front of Srah Srang, but at a military office in the Western Zone. He
denied the claim that Ieng Sary, Khieu Samphan, Nuon Chea, Son Sen, and a
film crew from China were in attendance. He went on to list the names of the
wedding participants who consisted mainly of S-21 senior staff and a few
high ranking officers from the Western Zone.

Witness Ouk Bunseng

Ouk Bunseng stated that he was a Khmer Rouge soldier. He was based initially
in Phnom Penh before being sent to Cheung Ek and the Prey Sar re-education
camp (S-24). He stated that he was once sent to S-21 for political
“training” by Duch. He also asserted that he later met Duch for a second
time on Kravanh Mountain after the invasion of the Vietnamese army in 1979.
He claims that Duch ordered his subordinates to arrest six people (three men
and three women) for allegedly imitating a bird’s cry that sounded like Pol
Pot.

Duch contested Bunseng’s testimony. First he stated that the “training”
Bunseng spoke about was conducted by Son Sen and was limited to S-21 cadres.
He proceeded to accuse Bunseng of lying about the arrest and execution of
the six people after the invasion of the Vietnamese forces. He noted that he
no longer had authority or power to issue any orders after he fled S-21.

Witness Meas Peng Kry and Tay Teng

Peng Kry worked at S-21 and was in charge of driving prisoners to the
execution site of Cheung Ek. Tay Teng was in charge of receiving prisoners
upon their arrival. He was also involved in digging and filling up the pits.
He admitted to executing one or two prisoners himself, but maintained that
execution was not his regular job. Both of these testimonies regarding the
procedure of execution at Cheung Ek was corroborative of other testimony and
Duch did not contest these statements as he did some of the immediately
preceding witness statements.

Witness Horn Iem alias Moeng

Horn Iem alias Moeng, now 56, was a guard at S-21. He worked at several
other locations before being moved to S-21 in 1976. He explained that he
worked out of fear at S-21. One day, his boss noticed that he was not paying
attention due to fatigue and warned him that a lack of attention would be
met with serious punishment. Not soon after, he was arrested, blindfolded,
shackled and locked into a room. He was later released but was never
permitted to go back into the prison compound. Instead he was assigned to
guard the perimeter of the prison.

Iem asserted that he attended Duch’s political training, which was an
effective method of indoctrination. Specifically, trainees were taught to
“identify all enemies” regardless of their relationship. According to the
training, even parents should be suspected of being enemies. In fact, only
purified people were to be considered parents.

Duch contested Ieng’s entire statement, claiming that he was not a guard at
S-21.