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Cambodians Express Joy, Sorrow, Relief After Death of Dreaded Khmer Rouge
Commandant

Luke Hunt

   CHOEUNG EK, CAMBODIA - Cambodians greeted the death of Khmer Rouge
   commandant Kaing Guek Eav -- also known as Duch -- with a mix of
   happiness, sorrow and relief, as this country continues to move on from
   its tragic past.

   Duch died on September 2, while serving a life sentence at the Kandal
   Provincial Correctional Center for crimes against humanity and the
   deaths of more than 16,000 people in Cambodia's notorious Killing
   Fields between 1975 and 1979.

   His conviction was one of three obtained at a United Nations-backed
   court, which found the former math teacher and born again Christian had
   ruthlessly lorded over prisoners he deemed fit for extermination at
   S-21, a prison converted from a high school at Tuol Sleng in the
   capital city of Phnom Penh.

   By 1971 he had already established a prototype torture center, which
   would serve as a model for 196 such camps across Cambodia once Khmer
   Rouge leader Pol Pot had seized control of the country four years
   later.

   His techniques included electrification and disembowelment.

   Children were taken from their mothers, prisoners were left chained to
   rotting corpses for days in the tropical heat. Meals were rare,
   beatings were common and death inevitable.

   They were then taken to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek on the
   outskirts of Phnom Penh.

   Shortly after Duch died, Chhay Hoc Pheng, an author and retired French
   judge, was paying his respects to relatives who perished under Pol Pot
   at Choeung Ek, where most of Duch's prisoners would meet a violent end.

   "I believe that the souls of people who die here will definitely ask
   Duch: 'Why did you kill us? Why try to destroy us? What did we do
   wrong?' he said.
   "I believe Duch will go where he deserves to go because of the deadly
   sins he committed. I do not mean this out of revenge or anger but it is
   the truth," said the author of Genocide Orphans.

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