Emotionally Charged Day as Civil Parties Begin Testifying

Today proved to be one of the most emotionally charged days to date in the trial of Kaing Guek Eav (alias Duch) as the civil parties were given the opportunity to share accounts of their suffering with the court.

Mother and Daughter; Widow and Orphan

The court first called the civil party Martine Lefeuvre to read her statement. By way of introduction, and pursuant to the Chamber’s request, her lawyer explained that Lefeuvre was married to Ouk Ket, who was a prisoner and had been executed at the Tuol Sleng prison (S- 21). She and Ouk Ket had met in Paris and were married in October 1971. Shortly after their marriage, the family moved to Senegal where Ouk Ket worked as a Cambodian diplomat. While there, Lefeuvre gave birth to two children, one son and one daughter.

In April 1977, Ouk Ket received correspondence from the foreign ministry requesting his return to Phnom Penh. According to Lefeuvre, Ouk Ket was looking forward to the opportunity to return to his country so that he could take part in its reconstruction. He seemed confident about the situation and was not afraid to return. However, before he left, Lefeuvre impulsively told her husband that if she were to find out that he died she would never believe it to be a natural death, to which her husband responded, “Honey, Cambodians are not savages.”

The family received two postcards from Ouk Ket after he left but after the second correspondence they never heard from him again. After 3 months of silence Lefeuvre contacted the Chinese embassy (Ouk Ket’s last postcard was sent from China), the International Red Cross, and Amnesty International in search of help and answers. She even contacted Prince Sihanouk whom she had met once before. Despite her efforts, she was unable to obtain any additional information about her husband…

Read more: ctm_blog_8-17-2009