Thirty Years Ago, Duch Took His Toenails; Today, He Took it to Duch

by Laura MacDonald, Member of the New York Bar and Consultant to the Center for International Human Rights, Northwestern University School of Law
— 30 Jun, 2009

In some respects, today was a lot like yesterday as a packed public gallery again listened to the testimony of an aging male survivor of Tuol Sleng prison (S-21) spared only because of a useful skill. However, mechanic Chum Mey’s testimony was much, much more than a repeat of artist Vann Nath’s testimony yesterday. With Chum Mey’s testimony, finally, the passion and anger of an S-21 victim has been properly injected into the trial of prison chief Kaing Guek Eav (alias Duch).

Chum Mey’s Story

When the Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975, 79-year-old civil party Chum Mey was a mechanic working in Phnom Penh. Chum Mey and his family were forced to evacuate the city, but a series of tragedies and events brought him back to Phnom Penh to fix sewing machines and other equipment in a Khmer Rouge factory where the black clothes worn by the soldiers were produced. After over three years there, Chum Mey was called away from the factory under the pretext of fixing a Khmer Rouge vehicle. He was delivered to a place he later learned was S-21 where he was arrested, accused of being CIA or KGB, handcuffed, blindfolded, photographed, and stripped to his underwear…

Read more: ctm_blog_6-30-2009

Cambodia Tribunal Monitor’s Trial Observer posts are written according to the personal observations and opinions of the writer and do not constitute a transcript of ECCC proceedings or the views of Cambodia Tribunal Monitor and/or its partners. Official court transcripts for the ECCC’s hearings may be accessed at the ECCC website.