Khmer Rouge torturer tells how babies were killed UPDATES

PHNOM PENH (AFP) — The former Khmer Rouge prison chief told Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court Monday that some inmates had blood completely drained from their bodies or were used for medical experiments.

"First, live prisoners were used for surgical study and training, second blood drawing was also done," Duch told the court.

The testimony represented a new admission of guilt for Duch, who previously stated he knew nothing of prisoners being drained of blood.

Also Monday, defence lawyers at the Khmer Rouge tribunal said a document obtained from a source they declined to identify could perhaps be evidence that Prime Minister Hun Sen was directly involved in the selecting of judges at the UN-backed court.

The allegation came from the lawyers of former Khmer Rouge leader Nuon Chea, who in recent weeks have alleged that classified documents were stolen from their office and who first argued that Victims' Unit chief Helen Jarvis's expressed political views could compromise her work at the court.

Cambodia’s ministry of education is restructuring the syllabus dealing with the history of the Khmer Rouge.

Together with the country’s leading genocide research organisation - the Documentation Centre of Cambodia (DC-Cam) - education officials have created a comprehensive study programme that involves the use of the first textbook in the country about the Khmer Rouge. It is called ‘A History of Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1979)’.

The glossy 70-page book, launched in May, contains photographs and maps, survivor testimony and background on key people and events within Khmer Rouge history. It also explains how the Khmer Rouge rose to power, and how the group then ran Cambodia.

Ton Sa Im, herself a former teacher, understands the issue better than most: Her entire family - both parents and all seven siblings - died during the Khmer Rouge period. But she says the risks associated with teaching the syllabus are completely outweighed by the risks of not teaching it in the first place.

"The research in this book is so detailed that it can enable students to understand the reason why such a genocidal killing occurred, and can remember that atrocity, so they understand that this chapter of history should never be repeated," she says.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — The Khmer Rouge regime of the 1970s killed babies and toddlers — sometimes by holding their legs and smashing their heads against trees — so they would not seek revenge later in life, the group's former chief jailer said Monday.

Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, commanded the Khmer Rouge's notorious S-21 prison, where as many as 16,000 men, women and children are believed to have been tortured before being sent to their deaths.

Duch, 66, is being tried by a U.N.-assisted genocide tribunal for crimes against humanity, war crimes, murder and torture. An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died under the 1975-79 communist Khmer Rouge regime from forced labor, starvation, medical neglect and executions.

"I am criminally responsible for killing babies, young children, and teenagers," Duch, 66, told a U.N.-assisted tribunal. He never mentioned whether he personally carried out such killings. "It was done by my subordinates. I do not blame them, because this was under my responsibility."

"The horrendous images of the babies being smashed against the trees, I didn't recognize it at first. But after seeing the photographs I recalled that it had happened," Duch said. "It was done by my subordinates. I do not blame them because this was under my responsibility."

Duch denied one of the grisly allegations in the prosecutor's indictment, that children of S-21 prisoners were taken from their parents and dropped from third floor windows to break their necks. Duch told the tribunal that hurling children from windows would have panicked other prisoners, which would have run contrary to his orders. He said that prisoners were supposed to be kept in the dark of their destiny to be killed.

Duch is the first senior Khmer Rouge figure to face trial, and the only one to acknowledge responsibility for his actions. Senior leaders Khieu Samphan, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary and Ieng Sary's wife, Ieng Thirith, are all detained and likely to face trial in the next year or two.