Criminals & Outlaws Codexery

Kang Kek Iew

Khmer Rouge prison chief convicted for mass atrocities.

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As chairman of the Tuol Sleng (S-21) prison camp, he was responsible for the interrogation, torture, and execution of thousands of individuals, with at least 12,272 deaths attributed to his oversight.[1] The individual known as Comrade Duch, whose birth name was Kang Kek Iew, was a member of the Khmer Rouge and was convicted of war crimes; the Khmer Rouge governed Democratic Kampuchea between 1975 and 1979.[2] The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia tried Kang Kek Iew as its first Khmer Rouge defendant, finding him guilty of torture, murder, and crimes against humanity.[3]

Key facts and history

He was a star pupil who passed his Brevet d'études secondaires de première in 1961 and completed his Baccalaureate in mathematics at Lycée Sisowath, scoring second in the entire country.[4][5] He joined the Communist Party of Kampuchea in 1967 and was later arrested and held without trial for two years by Norodom Sihanouk's police for communist activities.[6][7] After the regime's fall, he taught English and mathematics at a refugee camp in Borai, Thailand, and later worked as a Khmer language expert at the Beijing Foreign Language Institute.[6] In 1999, photojournalist Nic Dunlop tracked Duch down, and after an interview with Nate Thayer, Duch surrendered to authorities in Phnom Penh.[8]

Kang Kek Iew came into the world on 17 November 1942, his family being of ethnic Chinese origin, in Kampong Thom Province's Choyaot village.[2][4] In 1964, he commenced studies for a mathematics teaching certificate at the Institut de Pédagogie, an institution that, under Son Sen's leadership, was a hotbed of political activism.[9] At Tuol Sleng, Duch gave the command to kill prisoners once their interrogations were finished; on detainee lists, he penned directives such as "Smash them to pieces."[10] On 6 January 1979, Duch received an order to execute the prisoners who remained; the following day, after Phnom Penh was taken by the Vietnamese army, he fled the city.[11]

What the cited sources add

The Christian Science Monitor reported that Duch's trial ended with a surprising plea for acquittal, where he claimed he was not a high-ranking member of the regime.[12] The same source noted that Duch's last-minute plea was a sharp departure from his previous nine months of testimony, during which he consistently took responsibility for crimes at S-21.[12] BBC News reported that presiding judge Nil Nonn stated the first hearing represented "the realisation of significant efforts to establish a fair and independent tribunal"[13] The Cambodia Tribunal Monitor account describes that Duch recalled Nuon Chea had ordered him to interrogate Vietnamese S-21 prisoners and broadcast their confessions on the radio.[14]

The Monitor also notes that Duch denied a film was ever shown to S-21 staff and said that two witnesses had no credibility.[14]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Kang Kek Iew" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Case 001 Trial Judgment, 340; Case 001 Appeal Judgment, para. 380.; Taulbee, "Genocide, Mass Atrocity, and War Crimes in Modern History: Blood and Conscience", ABC-CLIO, 2017, p. 261 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Kang Kek Iew" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Totten, "Dictionary of Genocide: A-L", Greenwood Publishing Group, 2008, p. 82 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Kang Kek Iew" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Landmark Khmer Rouge trial starts", BBC News, 17 February 2009 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Kang Kek Iew" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "CBIO Record of Comrade Duch", Yale Cambodian Genocide Program; Delage, "The Scene of the Mass Crime: History, Film, and International Tribunals", Routledge, 7 May 2013, p. 163 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Kang Kek Iew" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Nic Dunlop, "The Lost Executioner – A Journey into the Heart of the Killing Fields", Walker & Company, New York, 2005 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Kang Kek Iew" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Dunlop 2005, p. 59-60 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Kang Kek Iew" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Dunlop 2005, p. 59-60; Bizot, François; translated from French by Euan Cameron, "The Gate", Alfred A. Knoph, 2003 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Kang Kek Iew" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Photo: Leaders/Kaing-Guek-Eav", Dccam.org (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Kang Kek Iew" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Bizot, François; translated from French by Euan Cameron, "The Gate", Alfred A. Knoph, 2003 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Kang Kek Iew" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Wallace, "The Eccentricity of Evil: A Khmer Rouge Leader Goes on Trial", The Atlantic, 12 April 2011 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Wikipedia, "Kang Kek Iew" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Paterniti, "Never Forget", 1 July 2009; Dunlop 2005, p. 59-60; Dunlop 2005, p. 59-60 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  12. "Khmer Rouge war-crimes trial of prison chief Duch closes in surprise twist", Christian Science Monitor. facts only, no text reused. csmonitor.com
  13. "Landmark Khmer Rouge trial starts", BBC News, 17 February 2009. facts only, no text reused. news.bbc.co.uk
  14. "Propaganda, Torture and French Colonial Heritage: Looking into the Methods of the Khmer Rouge - Cambodia Tribunal Monitor", www.cambodiatribunal.org. facts only, no text reused. cambodiatribunal.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Kang Kek Iew (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Test yourself

Three questions drawn from this entry’s sources. Pick an answer to check it.

1. In what year was Kang Kek Iew born?

Correct.

Not quite. The answer is 1942.

From the source: “Kang Kek Iew was born in 1942 in Choyaot village, Kampong Chen subdistrict, Kampong Thom Province, to an ethnic Chinese family who migrated to Cambodia in his father's generation.”

2. In which place was Kang Kek Iew born?

Correct.

Not quite. The answer is Choyaot, Kampong Thom Province, Cambodia.

3. In what year did Kang Kek Iew die?

Correct.

Not quite. The answer is 2020.

From the source: “Kang Kek Iew, also spelled Kaing Guek Eav ( ; 17 November 1942 – 2 September 2020), alias Comrade Duch ( ) or Hang Pin, was a Cambodian convicted war criminal and member of the Khmer Rouge movement, which ruled Democratic Kampuchea from 197”

Answers checked against the source article

Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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