Kaing Guek Eav

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kaing Guek Eav (2009)

Kaing Guek Eav (also transcribed as Kang Kek Iew or Kaing Kek Iev ; Khmer : កាំ ង ហ្គេ ក អ៊ា វ ; * November 17, 1942 in Choyaot , Kampong Thom province ), battle name “Comrade Duch” or “Deuch” ( mĭttâ dŭch មិត្ត ឌុ ច , pronunciation: [ with ɗuc ]), also known as Hang Pin , was a member of the Khmer Rouge and from 1976 to 1979 head of the S-21 (Tuol Sleng) prison in Phnom Penh . There he was responsible for the deaths of at least 14,000 people, only 23 people survived the prison.

The first years

After completing his Baccalauréat (Abitur) in 1962, he first studied mathematics and then pedagogy. From 1966 he worked as a math teacher. In 1967 he joined the communist party . He was arrested in 1968 and released under the general amnesty for political prisoners in 1970. Then he went underground. Already there he ran a torture prison that few survived. During this time he married Chhim Sophal.

Reign of the Khmer Rouge

From 1976 to 1979 he was the head of S-21 Prison in Phnom Penh, where prisoners were tortured and then executed. This function was entrusted to him by the Deputy Prime Minister Vorn Vet , who was himself imprisoned in November 1978 in S-21, tortured and murdered.

About the time in prison S-21, Duch later said:

“I and everyone else who worked in this place knew that anyone who went there had to be psychologically destroyed and eliminated through constant work and not be given a way out. No answer could prevent death. Nobody who came to us had a chance to save himself. ”Nevertheless, he does not see a personal responsibility:“ I had no alternative, ”he says,“ I obeyed. ”He is“ like everyone else in the machine ” been.

The painter Vann Nath , one of the few surviving inmates of the prison, described that even as head of the torture center he was always in a good mood and carefree.

Escape and life under a false name

After Vietnamese troops marched into Cambodia in 1979, Kaing Guek Eav fled Phnom Penh. He was demoted by the Khmer Rouge for failing to destroy the torture prison documents before escaping. He then lived in Thailand and China .

In 1991 Eav returned to Cambodia under the false name of Hang Pin and lived with his family in the small town of Phkoam near the Thai border. After his wife was killed in an attack there in 1995, he gave up this residence and went to Svay Chek College with his children.

He converted to Christianity in 1995 and worked as a pastor for the Methodist Church . From 1997 he worked under his false name for the non-governmental organizations American Refugee Committee and World Vision International .

process

In 1999, Kaing Guek Eav was identified and arrested. He is considered the only functionary of the Khmer Rouge to show remorse for what he has committed, but many do not believe this expression. Interviews conducted by Kaing Guek Eav with the US journalist Nate Thayer were published in the Far Eastern Economic Review ( Hong Kong ) on May 6, 1999 .

After the international Khmer Rouge Tribunal began its work, he testified as the first accused on July 31, 2007 and confessed to numerous crimes. In August 2008, the court formally charged him. According to the examining magistrates, the Khmer functionary not only ran the S-21 prison, but also tortured inmates himself or subjected them to inhumane treatment. The proceedings were supposed to begin at the end of September 2008, but the first day of the trial was February 17, 2009. The closing arguments began at the end of November 2009 . While Kaing Guek Eav apologized again for his actions, appealed to an emergency and demanded his release, the public prosecutor's office demanded a 40-year imprisonment for the defendant. On July 26, 2010, he was sentenced to 35 years in prison, which was immediately reduced from five years to 30 years for illegal imprisonment. He has already served eleven of the 30 years. In mid-August 2010, the public prosecutor appealed the judgment. He called for a higher sentence because the verdict did not sufficiently take into account the gravity of Duch's actions and his active role in the crimes of the Pol Pot regime. In addition, the tribunal had given the attenuating circumstances too much space. In February 2012 the sentence was increased to life imprisonment in an appeal process . However, procedural law in Cambodia allows a convicted person to apply for early release for the first time after 20 years in the case of a life sentence. Since Kaing Guek had already served twelve years of his sentence at the time of his conviction, it is possible that he can apply for early release after eight years.

Books

Web links

Commons : Kaing Guek Eav  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Khmer Rouge chief of torture sentenced to 35 years in prison. In: Spiegel Online . July 26, 2010.
  2. ↑ The survivors. In: Voices.de. January 31, 2015, accessed November 16, 2018 .
  3. ^ Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. Trial Chamber. Case File No. 001 / 18-07-2007 / ECCC / TC. Kaing Guek Eav aka Duch. Judgment. In: United Nations Rule of Law. July 26, 2010, p. 42 f. (PDF; 39.36 kB).
  4. ^ Duch, l'enseignant révolutionnaire converti au catholicisme. ( Memento of the original from August 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Cambodge Post. April 7, 2009.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.cambodge-post.com
  5. ^ Paul Robert Bartrop : A Biographical Encyclopedia of Contemporary Genocide: Portraits of Evil and Good , ABC-CLIO, 2012, ISBN 9780313386787 , p. 326.
  6. ↑ a b Hans Michael Kloth: Interview with a mass murderer. In: Spiegel Online. February 11, 2008.
  7. ^ Tribunal against Pol Pot's henchmen. In: Greenpeace magazine . No. 5/2007.
  8. ↑ Sascha Zastiral: The dubious reliability of the ex-torture chief. In: Zeit Online . July 26, 2010.
  9. ^ Trial of the leaders of the Khmer Rouge. ( Memento from April 2, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) In: Spiegel Online. February 17, 2009 (Internet archive of April 2, 2010).
  10. ↑ Erich Follath: Torture chief judgment in Cambodia: The tearful butcher Der Spiegel , July 26, 2010
  11. ↑ Torture chief Duch sentenced to 35 years in prison. In: stern.de . July 26, 2010.
  12. ↑ Sentenced for the first time in leadership of the Khmer Rouge. In: NZZ online. July 26, 2010.
  13. ↑ 30 years imprisonment for torture chief of the Khmer Rouge. In: Süddeutsche.de . July 26, 2010.
  14. ↑ Higher prison sentence demanded for Duch. In: NZZ online. August 16, 2010.
  15. ↑ Life sentence for the chief of torture of the Khmer Rouge . In: Zeit Online. 3rd February 2012.
  16. ↑ Alexander Goeb: Das Kambodscha-Drama, Laika Verlag, Berlin 2016 p. 329.
personal data
SURNAME Kaing Guek Eav
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Duch
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Cambodian war criminal, member of the Khmer Rouge
DATE OF BIRTH November 17, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Choyaot , Kampong Thom Province