Cambodia prison chief on trial for genocide

Hundreds of Cambodians, some survivors of the murderous Khmer Rouge, queued outside court today (Tuesday) to see the first trial of the regime's leaders.The regime's chief torturer, was driven in an armoured car to a court specially built for the UN-backed genocide trial.

Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch sat behind bullet proof glass for the landmark hearing which comes 30 years after the end of the dictator, Pol Pot's brutal tyranny that left 1.7 million Cambodians dead.Duch is accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his part in the deaths of at least 12,380 prisoners. The former teacher, was commander of the notorious Tuol Sleng torture centre, otherwise known as S-21, in the capital Phnom Penh, for four years after the Khmer Rouge victory in 1975. He is accused of personally overseeing the systematic torture of more than 15,000 prisoners. Most victims were forced to confess to a variety of crimes -- mainly being CIA spies -- before being bludgeoned to death in a field on the edge of the city. Women and children were also killed. Only a few survived.

"Duch's hands are full of blood. It's time for Duch to pay for his actions," Norng Chan Phal, told Reuters news agency. Phal, 39, is a child survivor whose mother was killed at S-21 months before Vietnamese soldiers toppled Pol Pot's regime in 1979. Now aged 66 and a born-again Christian, Duch is because he has expressed regret for what he did, and asked the forgiveness of his victims. He is one of five former Khmer Rouge leaders who will face trial.. "Duch wishes to ask forgiveness from the victims and the Cambodian people. He will do so publicly," French defense lawyer Francois Roux told Reuters news agency.

The trial is a landmark for the strife-torn country where nearly everyone lost loved ones in the violence, starvation and disease that followed Pol Pot's dream of a utopia built on farming. Pol Pot's death in 1998 was followed by a formal Khmer Rouge surrender which helped to usher in a decade of peace and stability, threatened now by the global economic downturn.

With more than half Cambodia’s population under the age of 18 years, there are serious concerns for their economic and social well-being. It is also one of the worst affected countries in the region by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. SOS children has three bases in the country.The third SOS Children's Village opened at Battambang in the north-west of the country. and has space for 150 children. SOS Mothers based at this Village are specilaly tained to care for HIV-infected children.

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Written by Hayley Jarvis for SOS children