Former torturer pensive and polite for hearing
The former head of the Khmer Rouge's notorious security prison S-21, Kaing Guek Eav, was driven to court yesterday in a bulletproof Land Cruiser, even though his holding cell was just a 50-metre walk away.
He pulled up to the UN-backed tribunal with his security detail, wearing a cream polo shirt and a pensive smile. After the court permitted a photograph session of Duch - a frenzy that would make the paparazzi proud - he was invited to address the court.
Duch spoke politely to the panel of five judges, who were dressed in scarlet robes and flanked by the flags of the United Nations and Cambodia. Three of the judges are from Cambodia; one is from Australia and another from the Netherlands.
Duch made his plea to be released from detention, and in a gesture of respect to the judges held his arms outstretched and his palms together.
The hearing was held in the tribunal's cramped pre-trial chamber, with a live video feed broadcast to the main courtroom where a crowd of at least 600 foreigners and Cambodians watched.
Most of those attending yesterday were from media and non-governmental organisations. The public attendance was small because of a live broadcast shown on Cambodian television.
The wretchedly old and battered equipment used by the television stations was a reminder of the nation's developing status, and how much damage was wreaked by the Khmer Rouge, which abolished the country's currency and exterminated most of the country's educated class.
The low public turnout for the hearing was also because of the court's location, 16km from the centre of the capital Phnom Penh. A moto-taxi ride to the court costs US$4 - double the average daily income for half of the people. Still, the tribunal did offer free public transport to and from the court yesterday that went largely unused.
The hearing, conducted in Khmer, French and English, was easily followed by Duch, a former teacher, who speaks all three languages. He remained expressionless through most of the hearing.
Cambodians find it hard to forgive Duch for his alleged crimes. Most victims at the prison S-21 were tortured and forced to confess to crimes - mainly being CIA spies.
The court heard how men, women and children were tortured under Duch's watch. Some were kept in pits filled with water and allowed to drown. Others were suspended by ropes and beaten. Many had their fingernails punctured or removed to extract confessions, and some were just bled to death. The blood was used at nearby hospitals.
'Many people were brutally tortured and killed. They were killed with electric shocks, their fingernails were pulled off and they were beaten,' co-prosecutor Chea Leang told the court.
After the Khmer Rouge fell Duch went into hiding. He was presumed dead by his family, who did not hear of him again until 1999. During the 1990s, Duch had been working as a Christian aid worker. He did this under a pseudonym until he was discovered and exposed by photo-journalist Nic Dunlop.
Yesterday's hearing also heard of Duch's conversion to Christianity.
The few Cambodians present, however, cared little about Duch's conversion. Most just wanted answers to why the Khmer Rouge killed so many of their own people. The answer to that question will have to wait until next year's trials and even then there is no guarantee they will ever learn the truth.
