PHNOM PENH — Mental health experts told Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes
court Monday that the Khmer Rouge's main prison chief has no mental
disorders despite having overseen the killing of thousands of people.
French psychologist Francoise Sironi-Guilbaud and Cambodian psychiatrist Kar
Sunbaunat were testifying at the trial of Duch, who is accused of overseeing
the torture and execution of some 15,000 people at Tuol Sleng prison.
"Is Duch suffering from a mental disorder? No, we have detected no mental
disorder in the accused," Sironi-Guilbaud told the tribunal.
The expert went on to say that Duch, who worked as a maths teacher before
the late 1970s Khmer Rouge regime, lived with disappointment but lacked
sympathy for others.
"Duch (was) a man with one single idea, with one single thought at that
time," she said.
Kar Sunbaunat added that the assessment, which stretched back to Duch's
childhood and family life, revealed no signs that Duch had suffered from
psychological problems.
Monday's hearing was boycotted by 28 of the 93 civil parties in the case,
who are angry with judges after a ruling last week banning them from
questioning Duch about his personality.
Chum Mey, 79, a survivor of Tuol Sleng prison, said the group would no
longer attend the trial unless they were granted the right to ask the
defendant questions.
Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, has repeatedly accepted
responsibility for his role governing the jail under the regime and begged
for forgiveness from the families of the victims.
Led by Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the Khmer Rouge emptied Cambodia's cities
in a bid to forge a communist utopia, resulting in the deaths of up to two
million people from starvation, overwork and torture.
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About Me
- Duong Dara
- Dara Duong was born in 1971 in Battambang province, Cambodia. His life changed forever at age four, when the Khmer Rouge took over the country in 1975. During the regime that controlled Cambodia from 1975-1979, Dara’s father, grandparents, uncle and aunt were executed, along with almost 3 million other Cambodians. Dara’s mother managed to keep him and his brothers and sisters together and survive the years of the Khmer Rouge regime. However, when the Vietnamese liberated Cambodia, she did not want to live under Communist rule. She fled with her family to a refugee camp on the Cambodian-Thai border, where they lived for more than ten years. Since arriving in the United States, Dara’s goal has been to educate people about the rich Cambodian culture that the Khmer Rouge tried to destroy and about the genocide, so that the world will not stand by and allow such atrocities to occur again. Toward that end, he has created the Cambodian Cultural Museum and Killing Fields Memorial, which began in his garage and is now in White Center, Washington. Dara’s story is one of survival against enormous odds, one of perseverance, one of courage and hope.
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