Phnom Penh - A former child prisoner at a notorious Khmer
Rouge torture facility wept Thursday as he described to Cambodia's
UN-backed war crimes tribunal the last time he saw his mother before
she was murdered by the Maoist regime.
Norng Chan Phal, 39, who is one of just a handful of survivors
from the S-21 prison in Phnom Penh, told the court he was separated
from his mother shortly after they arrived with his brother at the
school-turned-torture facility in 1978.
'Then one day when we were in the yard, I could see her on the
second floor holding on to the bars and looking,' he said. 'She did
not say a single word to us.'
His testimony came in the trial of former S-21 torture facility
chief Kaing Guek Eav, known by his revolutionary alias Duch, who
faces charges of crimes against humanity, premeditated murder and
breeches of the Geneva Conventions.
At least 15,000 men, women and children were imprisoned and
tortured at S-21 before being sent to be murdered at the Choeng Ek
'killing field' on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.
Duch is one of five former Khmer Rouge leaders facing trial for
their roles in the deaths of up to 2 million people through
execution, starvation or overwork during the group's 1975-1979 rule.
He has admitted guilt and apologized for his crimes, but his
defence lawyers have sought to prove he was merely acting on the
orders of his superiors.
Norng Chan Phal said he was imprisoned with his mother and
brother after Khmer Rouge soldiers arrested his father and took him
from their village.
He said he did not know what happened to his father after they
were taken to the prison but he never saw him again.
But documents shown in court Thursday revealed his father was also
detained at S-21.
'We slept on the floor in the workshop and were forced to eat
gruel,' he said of his few months of imprisonment at S-21. 'I knew
that if I had stayed there long, I would have become sick and died.'
The father of two wept as he recalled seeing guards pushing and
beating his mother, saying he was 'terrified of them.'
Presiding Judge Nil Nonn interrupted the testimony and told the
witness to compose himself.
'This is your opportunity to tell your story, so please use the
time you have to do this,' he said.
Norng Chan Phal described the chaotic scene at the prison on the
day the Vietnamese invaded in January 1979 and guards fled, leaving
tortured bodies strapped to beds and no food for the surviving
prisoners.
'I tried to find my mother, and I looked for her on the second
floor where I saw her, but I could not find her anywhere,' he said.
But in a statement to the court, Duch argued there was
insufficient evidence to prove the witness and his mother were ever
detained at S-21.
He said there were no photographs or other documents proving Norng
Chan Phal's mother had ever been arrested or interrogated at the
facility.
'If we can find the S-21 biography of his mother then I would
accept his full testimony and I would acknowledge any document
proving his mother was there,' he said. 'But probably his mother
suffered at a different security centre.'
He said former chief ideologue Nuon Chea, who is also facing
trial, had ordered that 'no one be spared' at the centre during the
Khmer Rouge's final days and that only four adult prisoners had
survived.
Three other S-21 survivors have appeared before the tribunal this
week, and judges have allowed them to directly question their former
jailer.
Bou Meng, a 68-year-old artist who survived S-21 after being
ordered to paint portraits of Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, on
Wednesday begged Duch to tell him were his wife had been murdered so
he could 'collect her ashes and pray for her soul.'
Duch replied that he did not know where she was murdered, but it
was probably at the Choeng Ek killing field.
The trial began in February, and if convicted, Duch faces a
maximum sentence of life in prison.
USA
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