Phnom Penh, ECCC: The former Khmer Rouge prison’s chief, Kaing Guek Eav, said on Monday 22 Jun that the tortures which happened in S-21 was extremely criminal, he admits.
Answer to the civil party’s lawyer Hong Kim Soun, Kaing Guek Eav who known as Duch, said he admits that there were some cruel tortures happened in S-21, such as extracted the nail, toke the embers of the cigarette to put on the victims hands or body, to kill the small babies, and so on.
Though at that time Duch also had a small baby, but he did not fell pity on the others by saying, “I love my child, so I had to live. To live, I had to follow what the higher position people’s order; otherwise, I, my wife, my child, and my relatives will be dead, too.”
Duch said he did not see the action of those tortures, he just heard about it.“When I heard that those kind of tortures happened, I told them to stop. However, I did not know whether they stop or not, but I believed that those had happened in S-21,” Duch said in the trail.
“To salute the picture of the dog was also one of the tortures,” said Duch. Nevertheless, when he knew about this, he did not stop it, but to let it continued.
Lawyer Hong Kim Soun made a statement after his questioning that, S-21 was not only did the physical tortures to the prisoners or victims, but also the mental tortures.
Although Duch admitted all the tortures which used to happen in S-21, but he denied that those were not what he did by himself, he just followed the documents from the higher position people.
Duch have made a statement that S-21 was not the simple prison like other countries, but it was the place to keeps people before they were going to die. “We interrogate those people, but all the people who have sent to S-21 have to die whether their answers were right or wrong, because we have to followed the documents, and the higher position people was the one who made the decisions,” said Duch.
