[Straits Times] THE former Khmer Rouge prison chief told Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes trial on Tuesday that he was the 'top criminal' with sole responsibility for atrocities at his notorious detention centre.Duch was responding to witness testimony at his trial for overseeing the torture and execution of about 15,000 people in the late 1970s at the feared Tuol Sleng prison, also known as S-21, under the hardline communist regime. 'I am the top criminal responsible for all the acts committed at S-21, responsible all the lives lost at S-21,' Duch said. 'I am responsible emotionally and legally, so do not want any middle cadres or any subordinates to suffer in my place,' he added.
Even though they did the physical killing?
He went on to praise testimony heard earlier in the day from former prison staff member Sous Thy, who told the court that inmates suffered from torture and starvation. 'I really appreciate the spirit of comrade Thy who believed in the fair judgement of the chamber by speaking the truth,' Duch said. 'His belief is that (the Khmer Rouge war crimes court) is only the mechanism to seek out justice for the Cambodian people as a whole, as well as to find justice for the victims who died at S-21.'
Sous Thy, 58, testified that he feared Duch while he carried out his job registering prisoners' movements in and out of Tuol Sleng. 'I pity those people who were arrested and killed and am really regretful of the fact that I also worked in that office,' Sous Thy told the court. 'Regarding my work, I did not like it even a bit. But...I had to do it since I was ordered to do it,' he said, adding that he constantly feared for his life after seeing that other Tuol Sleng staff were arrested and killed.
The witness told the court that each prisoner was detained up to two months before being killed. He said overcrowding was never a problem because of the constant killings at the prison, which had previously been a high school. Sous Thy went on to tell the court that all who worked at Tuol Sleng disliked the ruthless Khmer Rouge regime but they were terrified of Duch, who made all decisions at the prison. 'Everything had to be done through Duch and with his authorisation,' Sous Thy said, adding that all detainees had been executed under the prison chief's orders by the time Vietnamese troops ousted the Khmer Rouge in April, 1979.