By Lauren Crothers
PHNOM PENH
The grisly reality of life under the Khmer Rouge is being rehashed at a United Nations-backed tribunal once again, as hearings got underway in Phnom Penh on Wednesday after a spate of delays.
Case 002/02, as it is known, sees former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan and "Brother Number 2," Nuon Chea, charged with genocide, exploring allegations of executions, purges and other serious crimes.
Meas Sokha, who was imprisoned for nearly three years at the Kraing Ta Chan prison in Cambodia’s southwest, took to the stand again to continue his testimony, which was cut short earlier this month after Khieu Samphan, 83, fell ill and was hospitalized until last week.
On Wednesday, Sokha provided a shocking account of cannibalism, executions and torture at the prison. According to the prosecution’s case file, witnesses say the skulls of between 10,000 and 17,000 people were exhumed at the site after the fall of the ultra-Maoist regime, which ruled the country between 1975 and 1979.
"Before prisoners were killed, [the Khmer Rouge guards] would play music through a loudspeaker to hide the sounds of the killing," Sokha told the court, under questioning by prosecutors.
Prisoners were often tortured, he said; guards would use pliers to pull out their victims’ fingernails, or would use plastic bags to suffocate prisoners. Interrogation of prisoners focused largely on whether or not they were CIA operatives working for either the U.S. or Vietnam, he said, describing behavior that was indicative of the extreme paranoia of the Khmer Rouge.
"One prisoner was suffocated for five minutes, then he confessed, then they continued to beat that prisoner," he said.
Tasked with tending cows, he often bore witness to the systematic execution of large groups of people, ranging from 50 to 100 -- although at one point witnessed the killing of around 130.
The killings would only begin at around 2 p.m. and could last for six hours. Gathered before pits, the victims’ throats would be cut by soldiers, who would then throw the dead in to the graves. Children would be beaten against a tree and tossed on top. In some cases, "organs were eaten by the cadres," he said.
"I could see gall bladders were dried in the sun by the fence and I knew they were from human beings," he said.
As the day drew to a close, Khieu Samphan, who had earlier retired to his holding cell to observe proceedings, was reportedly suffering from high blood pressure.
His lawyers Kong Sam Onn, Arthur Vercken and Anta Guisse could not be reached. The trial is scheduled to resume Thursday.
The reign of the Khmer Rouge saw around 1.7 million people – including Cambodian Muslims and Buddhists -- killed through execution, starvation and overwork.
Samphan and Nuon Chea, 88, were sentenced to life in prison in August in the trial’s first phase, accused of crimes against humanity in connection with their role in mass evacuations.
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