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Khmer Rouge survivor to testify Khmer Rouge survivor testifies
(about 4 hours later)
Cambodia's Khmer Rouge Tribunal is due to hear for the first time from a survivor of a notorious detention centre. One of the few survivors of the Khmer Rouge regime's notorious Tuol Sleng detention centre has testified at a UN-backed tribunal in Cambodia.
Around 15,000 people were detained at the facility known as S-21 or Tuol Sleng. Van Nath described how hunger had driven him to eat insects, and said he had also eaten the rations beside corpses of starved fellow prisoners.
There were only seven known survivors - and the man who ran the facility is on trial for crimes against humanity. He was appearing at the trial of the man who ran the prison, Comrade Duch.
Vann Nath, the survivor now due to speak, has been waiting for his day in court for 30 years. About 15,000 people were detained there in the late 1970s, but only seven are thought to have survived.
That is how long it has taken to bring to account the man best known as Comrade Duch. Unique perspective
Now at last the one-time prisoner is set to confront his former jailer across the trial chamber. Van Nath has been waiting for his day in court for 30 years.
It should produce compelling testimony. The tribunal has already heard plenty from Comrade Duch himself - as well as a number of expert witnesses.
The Tribunal has already heard plenty from Comrade Duch himself - as well as a number of expert witnesses.
WHO WERE THE KHMER ROUGE? Maoist regime that ruled Cambodia from 1975-1979Founded and led by Pol Pot, who died in 1998 Abolished religion, schools and currency in a bid to create agrarian utopiaUp to two million people thought to have died from starvation, overwork or executionWHO WERE THE KHMER ROUGE? Maoist regime that ruled Cambodia from 1975-1979Founded and led by Pol Pot, who died in 1998 Abolished religion, schools and currency in a bid to create agrarian utopiaUp to two million people thought to have died from starvation, overwork or execution
But Vann Nath can provide a unique perspective. He is one of only three men alive who can say they know what it is like to have been a prisoner at S-21. But according to the BBC's Guy DeLauney in Phnom Penh, Van Nath can provide a unique perspective, as one of only three men still alive who can say they know what it is like to have been a prisoner at Tuol Sleng.
Vann Nath owed his survival to his skills as a painter. He was forced to produce portraits of Khmer Rouge leaders - on pain of death. "The conditions were so inhumane and the food was so little," Van Nath told the tribunal, according to the French news agency AFP.
"I thought that if I could do good pictures and they were satisfied with what I painted, they would be happy and I would survive," said Vann Nath. "There were 20 or 30 of us in each row of shackles," he said.
"But if I couldn't do what they liked then I would die," he said. "We only had three spoons of gruel for each meal. And the spoon was like a coffee spoon, it was not a normal rice spoon. I lost my dignity."
Vann Nath's portraits passed muster - and he has since become one of Cambodia's most famous artists. Van Nath owed his survival to his skills as a painter. He was forced to produce portraits of Khmer Rouge leaders - on pain of death.
His work often depicts scenes from S-21 - the torture, murder and brutality from which he was fortunate to escape with his life. "I thought that if I could do good pictures and they were satisfied with what I painted, they would be happy and I would survive," said Van Nath before taking the dock.
Van Nath's portraits passed muster - and he has since become one of Cambodia's most famous artists, and his work often depicts scenes from Tuol Sleng.
Comrade Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, is accused of overseeing the torture and extermination of prisoners at the jail.
Earlier in his trial, the 66-year-old admitted responsibility for his role as governor of the jail, and begged forgiveness from his victims.
But he also insisted that he did not hold a senior role in the regime, and that he had had little choice but to work there.