13-08-2009
By Stéphanie Gée
Ka-set

Mrs Bou Thoeun, a survivor of Prey Sar (S-24), took the stand on Wednesday August 11th to recount the hell she went through and offered a rare moment of intense emotion. She threw her indelible wounds, probably suppressed until then, at the tribunal, reminding each and everyone why it was created and placing the victims back at the heart of Duch’s trial. The accused was not impervious to these outbursts of suffering and anger, and declared he was ready to offer himself to his compatriots’ wrath and accept the punishment they would like to impose on him.

Anlong Korn, a component of Prey Sar

“I suffered a lot because I was beaten. Because I did not manage to do what I was asked to do, I was mistreated. I was between life and death. Only I survived. My daughters and other relatives are dead and I found myself alone after the end of the Khmer Rouge regime.” From the start of her testimony, Mrs Bou Thoeun, who belonged to the “new people,” the “April 17th,” soberly summarised her personal tragedy. Shortly after her husband, carrier at the Ministry of Energy, “disappeared” in 1977, she was sent to Anlong Korn, South from Prey Sar, “in some kind of transit for prisoners before they were divided between different sites.” One month before, she had given birth to a fourth child. The accused later explained that Anlong Korn “was an important office, that is where Huy was stationed, the director of Prey Sar, which included this village.