Perpetrators squawk

The testimony from Khmer Rouge cadre like Him Huy, who last week admitted to transporting thousands of prisoners from Tuol Sleng to their deaths at Choeung Ek, will continue this week. Him (pictured) will be back in the witness box today, as he relates more details in the case against the S-21 chief Comrade Duch, who is clearly still able to exert a degree of influence over some of the witnesses. Him has already confessed to killing one individual in his testimony last week, though other testimony to DC-Cam investigators in the past, suggests Him was responsible for a lot more deaths. However, minimising their role in the Khmer Rouge slaughter has been a factor for all of the former KR who've appeared at the ECCC to-date. Even Duch, who has admitted responsibility for his actions, has been choosing his words carefully and claiming he ordered his subordinates to carry out instructions from above, but didn't actually get involved in the nitty gritty of what went on in the interrogation rooms at S-21. Who is he trying to kid? I don't have a list of future witnesses though I would expect people like Nhem En, who was the chief photographer of prisoners as they arrived at S-21, and interrogator Prak Khan to be called to testify. Nhem En is hardly ever out of the news, whether he's trying to sell Pol Pot's sandals, his own cameras or begging for money for his Anlong Veng museum. Prak Khan has a much lower profile though documents from S-21 clearly show his involvement in the torture that took place and he also showed up in Rithy Panh's film about S-21, when he confessed he thought of the prisoners as 'animals.' After the dismal failure of Mam Nay as a witness last week, let's hope that this week we'll hear more accurate testimony about the inner workings of S-21 and the activities of Comrade Duch. There's paper talk today about another request being sent by investigators at the tribunal to the King Father, Norodom Sihanouk. I can't imagine that he will agree to appear at the trials, though he has begun to serialize his memoirs of his imprisonment by the KR on his official website (in French).

Cruel Him takes the stand

After the complete waste of 2 days that took up the testimony of the former S-21 chief interrogator Mam Nay, who was too busy covering his own back to tell the truth, in the witness box today we have Him Huy (pictured), who has been much more candid about his involvement in countless newspaper and television interviews in the past. Okay, so he rearranges his story to suit the occasion - a while ago he said he killed thousands, more recently he said he killed five people - but at least we might now begin to hear some crucial details for the first time from a perpetrator witness. Him Huy, now 54, was a senior guard at S-21, and went onto hold the rank of administration chief before S-21 came to its end. He took prisoners to their deaths at Choeung Ek, he's admitted that many times and some prisoners knew him as 'cruel Him'. We shall see how his testimony pans out over the next day or two. One thing is for sure, he will tell us that he had to do it, and do it well, or else he too would've been killed by the S-21 machine, which is, by and large, how it worked at the prison. As for Mam Nay, I thought he would be on a second list of 'cadre most responsible for serious crimes' and liable for arrest and though the ECCC have given him immunity from prosecution under their mandate, he is someone who would not be out of place in the dock alongside his friend and mentor, Comrade Duch.