Former Premier’s Daughter Speaks Against Duch

Duch (L) and Mrs. Tioulong Antonia (R) (Photo: Ly Meng Huor, RFI)

By Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
18 August 2009

Antonya Tioulong, whose father was the prime minister in 1962, told the UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal on Tuesday that Duch’s crimes as a prison administrator were unpardonable.

One of seven daughters of former premier Tioulong Nhiek, Tioulong filed as a civil party complainant in the case, having lost a sister and brother-in-law in the killing machine of Tuol Sleng prison.

Prosecutors say 12,380 people were sent to their deaths at the prison.

“We must teach the new generation of Cambodians that this crime is not pardonable,” she told the court. “The criminal must recognize [his crime], and there must be justice for that.”

Tioulong works for L’Express newspaper in France and is the sister of Tioulong Somura, the wife of Sam Rainsy and an opposition lawmaker.

“I beg the [Trial] Chamber to issue a verdict fitting the crimes committed by the accused,” Antonya Tioulong told the court.

Duch, whose real name is Kaing Kek Iev, accepted the testimony, but he said Tioulong’s sister, Rainsy, died from illness.

Tioulong’s testimony follows statements from another civil party complainant on Monday, New Zealander Robert Hamill, whose brother was one of the few foreigners killed at Tuol Sleng.

Hamill told the court he wanted Duch to experience the same punishments his prisoners were subject to, including electrocution of the genitals, forced eating of feces, suffocation in water and a guillotine.

“I want you to have this pain; I want you to suffer,” he said in court.

There are no allowances for corporeal punishment under the tribunal—the maximum punishment is a life sentence—though Duch told the court last week he would accept stoning from the Cambodian people for his crimes.