Khmer Rouge torturer returns to graves of 15,000 victims
Kaing Guek Eav led judges round the graves
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Wednesday, 27, Feb 2008 12:41
The chief executioner of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia has returned to the area where around 15,000 people were killed on his orders.
Thousands of people are believed to have been taken from the S-21 torture centre in Phnom Penh to Choeung Ek outside the city, where Kaing Guek Eav, now known as Duch, ordered their execution.
Duch, 66, returned to the 'killing fields' for the first time in 30 years as part of his crimes against humanity trial.
He was asked to walk judges from the trail through the former jail, which is now a museum, re-enacting the daily routine that led to the deaths of around 15,000 people.
It is reported that Duch subsequently broke down in tears during the tour, as he did whilst leading tribunal staff around 130 mass graves near Phnom Penh on Tuesday.
"I saw Duch kneel in front of the trees where Khmer Rouge soldiers smashed children to death," the Reuters news agency quotes a local policeman as saying.
"He cried and apologised to the victims."
Duch, who is a born-again Christian, was arrested in 1999 and claims he was only following orders that led to the execution of thousands of opponents.