Torture chief takes the stand in first Khmer Rouge trial

The chief of a notorious torture centre appeared before Cambodia's genocide tribunal today for the start of the first trial over the deaths of an estimated 1.7million people at the hands of the Khmer Rouge regime.

Kaing Guek Eav - known as Duch - headed the S-21 prison in Phnom Penh and is charged with crimes against humanity. He is the first of five defendants due to be tried at the UN-backed tribunal. Today's hearing was procedural, and testimony about the horrific events more than three decades ago was not expected until late next month.

Duch was driven to the hearing in a bulletproof car from a nearby detention centre. He followed the proceedings in a courtroom packed with some 500 people. He was watched by Vann Nath, one of fewer than 20 survivors of S-21. "It is not only me wanting justice today. All Cambodian people have been waiting for 30 years now," he said. "I look at Duch today and he seems like an old, very gentle man. It was much different 30 years ago." Vann Nath, who survived by painting and sculpting portraits of Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, described Duch as a "very cruel man".

Duch, 66, is accused of committing or abetting a range of crimes including murder, torture and rape at S-21 prison - formerly a school - where up to 16,000 men, women and children were held and tortured, before being killed.

Presiding judge Nil Nonn told the chamber: "This first hearing represents the realisation of significant efforts to establish a fair and independent tribunal to try those in leadership positions and those most responsible for violations of Cambodian and international law." Duch has made no formal confession. However, unlike the other four defendants, Duch "admitted or acknowledged" that many of the crimes took place at his prison, according to the indictment from court judges.

Duch, who converted to Christianity, has also asked for forgiveness. The tribunal said: "Duch necessarily decided how long a prisoner would live, since he ordered their execution based on a personal determination of whether a prisoner had fully confessed to being an enemy of the regime."

After the fall of the Khmer Rouge, Duch disappeared for two decades before he was located in north-west Cambodia by a British journalist in 1999, and then arrested. Others facing trial are Khieu Samphan, the Khmer Rouge's former head of state; Ieng Sary, its foreign minister; his wife Ieng Thirith, who was minister for social affairs; and Nuon Chea, the movement's chief ideologue.