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PHNOM PENH: A former child survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime's main torture centre wept Thursday as he told Cambodia's war crimes court of his harrowing separation from his mother as they arrived at the jail.
Norng Chan Phal, 39, was testifying at the trial of jail chief Duch, who is accused of overseeing the torture and execution of around 15,000 people who passed through Tuol Sleng prison during the 1975-79 regime.
"When my jeep took us to that location, I and my brother were happy because we could ride on a jeep. But then we were threatened and my mother was forced to get off the jeep and she was not very well," he told the court.
"They (Khmer Rouge cadres) shouted and threatened her and I was also terrified," Norng Chan Phal said, adding he and his younger brother were separated from his mother a night after arriving at Tuol Sleng.
Norng Chan Pal was just eight or nine years old when Vietnamese-backed forces invaded Phnom Penh in January 1979 to topple the communist Khmer Rouge, finding him with his younger brother and three other children at the prison.
The 66-year-old Duch begged forgiveness from the victims near the start of his trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity after accepting responsibility for his role in governing the jail.
But he has consistently rejected claims by prosecutors that he was a central figure in the hierarchy of the Khmer Rouge and says he never personally executed anyone.
Led by Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the Khmer Rouge emptied Cambodia's cities in a bid to forge a communist utopia. Up to two million people died of starvation, overwork, torture and execution during the 1975-79 regime.
Four other former Khmer Rouge leaders are currently in detention and are expected to face trial next year.
- AFP/yb
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