Kang Kek Iew

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

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. A star pupil in his school, he passed his Brevet d'études secondaires de première in 1961 at the age of nineteen. He finished the first half of his Baccalaureate in 1962 at the Lycée Suravarman II in the town of Siem Reap. The same year he was offered a place in the prestigious Lycée Sisowath in Phnom Penh where he completed his Baccalaureate in mathematics, scoring second in the entire country. He began studying for his teaching certificate in Mathematics in 1964 at the Institut de Pédagogie. On 28 August 1966, Kek Iew received his teaching certificate and was posted to a lycée in Skoun, a small town in Kampong Cham Province. He joined the Communist Party of Kampuchea in 1967. Following the arrest of three of his students, he fled to the Khmer Rouge base in Chamkar Leu District where he was accepted as a full member of the Communist Party of Kampuchea. A few months later, he was arrested and witnessed others being tortured at the Prey Sar prison by Norodom Sihanouk's police for engaging in communist activities. He was held without trial for the next two years. In 1970, when he was released following the amnesty granted to political prisoners by Lon Nol, he joined the Khmer Rouge rebels in the Cardamom Mountains bordering Thailand. In the zone under the control of the Khmer Rouge, Kek Iew took on his nom de guerre Comrade Duch and became a prison commandant. He was appointed the head of Special Security by his immediate superior Vorn Vet. In the forests of Amleang, Thpong District, Duch set up his first prison, code-named 'M-13'. Two years later, he also established a second prison 'M-99' in the nearby Aoral District. Assisted by his two deputies, Mam Nai (Comrade Chan) and Tang Sin Hean (Comrade Pon), Duch began perfecting his interrogation techniques and the purging of perceived enemies from the Khmer Rouge ranks. Prisoners at these camps, mostly from the ranks of the Khmer Rouge, were routinely starved and tortured to extract real and made-up confessions. After the Khmer Rouge victory in April 1975, Duch and his men set up prisons throughout the capital, including the infamous Tuol Sleng prison. Duch's request for a transfer in May 1975 to the Industrial Sector of government was denied. The Tuol Sleng prison camp was initially headed by In Lon (aka Comrade Nath) with Duch acting as deputy. Subsequently, In Lon was transferred and Duch was promoted to Director. By May 1976, all the prisons in Phnom Penh were consolidated and relocated to Tuol Sleng. In Tuol Sleng, Duch ordered the execution of prisoners after their interrogation was completed. For example, on a list containing the names of 17 prisoners (eight teenagers and nine children), he wrote the order 'Smash them to pieces.' On a longer list of detainees, his annotation reads 'smash: 115; keep: 44 persons.' The text below this annotation reads 'Comrade Duch proposed to Angkar; Angkar agreed.' On a list of 20 female detainees, Duch wrote annotations for each of them, ordering: 'take away for execution,' 'keep for interrogation' or 'medical experiment'. At least 100 detainees died after having all of their blood drawn for transfusions for wounded soldiers. Surgical operations were also performed on detainees in order to train medical staff. Duch impressed his superiors with his work and was appointed the head of Democratic Kampuchea's dreaded 'special branch'; the Santebal. As the party purges increased toward the end of the Democratic Kampuchea period, more people were brought to Duch, including former colleagues, among them his predecessor at Tuol Sleng, In Lon. On 6 January 1979, he was ordered by his superior to kill the remaining prisoners. The next day, Duch was among the last Khmer Rouge cadres to flee Phnom Penh after it fell to the Vietnamese army. Though he was unable to destroy much of the prison's extensive documents, he saw to the execution of several surviving prisoners before he fled the city. Duch reached the border of Thailand in May 1979. He later taught English and mathematics at a refugee camp in Borai just inside Thailand. In June 1986, Duch was sent to China to teach as a Khmer language expert at the Beijing Foreign Language Institute. He returned to the Thai-Cambodian border a year later and changed his name to Hang Pin. He worked as a senior bureaucrat just inside the Cambodian border at Pol Pot's secretariat at Camp 505. Shortly after the Paris agreement in October 1991, he moved with his family to the small isolated village of Phkoam close to the Thai border. Here he purchased some land, and began teaching in the local school. In 1995, Duch's wife was killed under mysterious circumstances in an attack on his home. Duch was the only witness and suspected Pol Pot of instigating it. Shortly after his wife's murder, Duch began attending the prayer meetings of the Golden West Cambodian Christian Church held in Battambang by Christopher LaPel, an evangelical Khmer-American. Duch was baptized by LaPel and eventually became a lay pastor. The photojournalist Nic Dunlop tracked Duch down in Samlaut. In 1999, Nate Thayer, who had previously interviewed Pol Pot and Ta Mok, and Dunlop interviewed Duch for the Far Eastern Economic Review. Duch surrendered to the authorities in Phnom Penh following the publication of this interview. On 31 July 2007, Duch was formally charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity and detained by Cambodia's United Nations-backed Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. Unlike many other Khmer Rouge cadres, Duch did not dismiss or justify his crimes. He admitted that he had been wrong and that he had done horrible things; he said that he repented and that he had converted to Christianity. During his trial, he provided detailed accounts of what happened inside S-21 and inside the Khmer Rouge regime, although his testimony at times contained discrepancies and at the conclusion of his trial he asked to be freed.

Reader's Guide

Kang Kek Iew's significance lies in his role as the chief administrator of the Khmer Rouge's most notorious prison, Tuol Sleng (S-21), where he was convicted for the execution of at least 12,272 individuals, including women and children, but up to 14,000 in total could have died under his oversight. His trial by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia marked the first prosecution of a Khmer Rouge leader, setting a precedent for accountability. His detailed testimony, though containing discrepancies, provided rare insight into the regime's internal purges and torture methods. His admission of guilt and expression of repentance contrasted with other Khmer Rouge leaders, yet his legacy remains that of a war criminal responsible for systematic atrocities. The case underscores the challenges of transitional justice in Cambodia, where many senior figures escaped prosecution.

Did You Know?

• Kang Kek Iew completed his Baccalaureate in mathematics, scoring second in the entire country.
• On a list of 17 prisoners (eight teenagers and nine children), he wrote the order 'Smash them to pieces.'
• At least 100 detainees died after having all of their blood drawn for transfusions for wounded soldiers.
• He was baptized by Christopher LaPel, an evangelical Khmer-American, and eventually became a lay pastor.
• His sentence was extended to life imprisonment on 2 February 2012 by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.