'History cannot be hidden' as Khmer Rouge leaders tried

Chum Mey visits S-21, a Khmer Rouge secret prison in Phnom Penh, where he was held for four months in 1978. The brutal communist regime killed his wife and daughter. (Photo: Calum MacLeod, USA TODAY)

Tuesday, September 14, 2010
By Calum MacLeod
USA TODAY

"People don't believe you can try the Khmer Rouge under this kind of government, who are Khmer Rouge themselves" - Son Chhay, opposition whip

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — The Khmer Rouge shot and killed his wife and child. They tortured him with electric shocks and yanked out his toenails. They turned rice paddies into "killing fields," where the corpses of hundreds of thousands of Cambodians were left to rot.

So for all that, jailing one old man for 19 years doesn't feel like justice to Chum Mey.

"It's a shame we don't have the death penalty anymore," says Chum, 79, inside S-21, a former Khmer Rouge secret prison where he was once jailed.

The subject of Chum's dismay is Kaing Guek Eav, 67, the former commandant of S-21 who is also known as Comrade Duch. In July, an international tribunal here convicted Duch of carrying out the torture and killings of 12,000 people.