|
An ex-Khmer Rouge prison chief has been charged with crimes against
humanity by a UN-backed tribunal in Cambodia.
Kang Kek Ieu, also known as Duch, was in charge of the notorious
S21 jail in the country's capital, Phnom Penh.
Duch is the first of five suspects whom prosecutors have asked
the tribunal to investigate over their role in the brutal Khmer
Rouge regime.
More than a million people are thought to have died during the
four years of Khmer Rouge rule between 1975-79.
Judges spent several hours interviewing Duch on Tuesday before
formally filing charges against him.
"The co-investigating judges of the Extraordinary Chambers in
the Courts of Cambodia have charged Kang Kek Ieu, alias Duch, for
crimes against humanity and have placed him in provisional
detention," tribunal judges said in a statement.
Key figures in the Khmer Rouge Duch was not among the top level
of Khmer Rouge leaders but he has become one of its most notorious
members, according to the BBC's Guy De Launey in Phnom Penh.
He ran S21, a notorious jail where a total of more than 17,000
men, women and children were thought to have been imprisoned, many
of them brutally tortured.
A museum at the site illustrates in graphic detail what happened
to the inmates, many of whom were executed at the so-called Killing
Fields outside Phnom Penh.
Duch was also the Khmer Rouge cadre who took charge of French
anthropologist Francois Bizot, who recorded his 90 days captivity
in a best-selling book, The Gate.
Long process
The UN-backed tribunal has taken years to get off the
ground.
But by charging Duch, the judges are sending out a clear message
that the special courts are now operational and moving more quickly
than many people expected, our correspondent says.
Survivors have welcomed the charges, but they have also
expressed doubts about whether other, more senior Khmer Rouge
leaders will ever be brought to justice.
Duch had been in military custody for eight years and it was a
simple matter to transfer him to the special courts. But other
Khmer Rouge figures have been living freely in Cambodia - and may
prove more difficult to track down.
Among those thought to be on the tribunal's list of suspects
are "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea, former president Khieu Samphan
and Khmer Rouge foreign minister Ieng Sary.
But the two most senior Khmer Rouge leaders will never be
brought to trial.
"Brother Number One" Pol Pot, the founder and leader of the
regime, died in a camp along the border with Thailand in 1998, and
Ta Mok, the regime's military commander and one of Pol Pot's most
ruthless henchmen, died last year.
Source:
BBC
 |
Show/Hide comments
Show/Hide comment form
