First Khmer Rouge prison survivor testifies

by Patrick Falby Patrick Falby

PHNOM PENH (AFP) – One of the few survivors of the Khmer Rouge regime's brutal main prison has wept in court as he told Cambodia's war crimes tribunal how he was only spared because he painted propaganda pictures of Pol Pot.

Van Nath described how hunger had driven prisoners to eat insects that fell from the ceiling at the communist movement's notorious Tuol Sleng torture centre and that he was so famished he considered eating human flesh.

The 63-year-old was the first survivor to testify at the UN-backed trial of prison chief Duch, who is charged with overseeing the torture and extermination of around 15,000 people who passed through the jail.

"The conditions were so inhumane and the food was so little," Van Nath said, recounting his arrival at the detention centre. "I thought even eating human flesh would be a good thing for me at that moment.

Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, slumped in his chair and looked on while the former inmate recounted his arrival at Tuol Sleng, where he was photographed, stripped and then shackled with other prisoners.

Prisoners only had three teaspoons of gruel for each meal and some ate insects, Van Nath said, although he was unable to because they fell to the floor too far from where he was shackled.
"I lost my dignity... Even with animals they would give enough food," Van Nath said. "If they (guards) found out we were eating insects we would be beaten, so we could only do it if we avoided being seen by the guards."

Some inmates shackled next to him died during his first month at the prison and at one point he was summoned downstairs, so weak he needed assistance to stand and walk, and thought his own death was imminent.

But a prison official then told him he was needed in the workshop to paint a large portrait of a figure he did not recognise -- Pol Pot, the leader of the 1975-1979 regime.

"I knew that if I did not paint very well, I would be in big trouble. I was so nervous," Van Nath said, calling it a "life and death situation."

Guards took one prisoner from the workshop and strung him up in the yard at Tuol Sleng, a former high school, when it was revealed he was a poor sculptor, Van Nath said.

Van Nath went on to become one of Cambodia's most famous artists and the court was then shown his paintings of torture methods including prisoners being whipped, plunged in water and having fingernails pulled out with pliers.

"Even though I've tried my best to forget, it still haunts me," Van Nath said. "I never imagined that I would be able to sit in this courtroom today to describe my plight, my experience."
Sketches showed how he was taken from his family and tortured with electricity, while a painting showed Tuol Sleng guards whipping prisoners and seizing their babies.

"Normally a few guards would take children from their parents. I would hear the screams of the parents who would probably try to take their children back," he said.

Earlier in his trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity, Duch begged forgiveness from the victims of the regime after accepting responsibility for his role in governing the jail.

But the 66-year-old former maths teacher has consistently rejected claims by prosecutors that he had a central role in the Khmer Rouge's iron-fisted rule and says he never personally executed anyone.

The court does not have the authority to impose the death penalty, but Duch faces a life sentence for war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture and premeditated murder.

Pol Pot died in 1998 and many believe the tribunal is the last chance to find justice for victims of the communist regime, which killed up to two million people.

Four other former Khmer Rouge leaders are currently in detention at the court, and are expected to face trial next year.