A Khmer Rouge-era jailer who was the first to be convicted in an ongoing Cambodian war crimes tribunal is ill in hospital, a prison official told reporters yesterday.
Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, is serving a life sentence for his role in managing a Phnom Penh detention center in which thousands were incarcerated, tortured and sent to their deaths in the nearby “Killing Fields.”
The “factory of death,” called S-21, was at the heart of the security apparatus of the Khmer Rouge, an ultra-Maoist regime that ruled from 1975 to 1979 and killed almost one-quarter of the population through enslavement, overwork and execution.
Photo: ECCC / AFP
Duch was sent to a prison in Cambodia’s Kandal Province after an appeal extended a decades-long sentence to life in 2012.
Duch has been undergoing treatment for respiratory problems since Saturday last week and was moved from a provincial treatment facility to the capital, Phnom Penh, Kandal Prison director Chat Sineang said.
“He is still at the Russian Friendship Hospital,” Sineang said, describing Duch’s condition as “quite serious, because he is 76 now.”
The former mathematics teacher turned torturer was arrested in 1999 after being discovered working for a Christian aid agency under a false name.
His eventual trial was followed closely and the conviction was seen as a historic milestone for victims seeking long-delayed justice.
Numerous books and films have probed Duch’s life and his time at S-21, which has been converted into a museum.
During the proceedings, Duch asked for forgiveness, but also said he was not a senior member of the Khmer Rouge and should be acquitted.
The UN-backed trial in Phnom Penh has been tainted by its limited scope since it started more than a decade ago, recording only three convictions, including Duch’s.
Age has also played a factor in thwarting prosecutions in real time.
Ieng Thirith, former social affairs minister of the Khmer Rouge and one of the suspects on trial in the case after Duch’s, was released on mental health grounds before dying in 2015.
Her husband and codefendant Ieng Sary had died two years earlier.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the