wfn.org | Notorious Cambodian prison chief becomes evangelist

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Jan. 29, 2002  News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn.
10-33-71BP{029}

NOTE: This is a sidebar to UMNS story #028. Photographs are available.

By Linda Worthington*

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (UMNS) -- Nearly half the population of Cambodia was
born since the Pol Pot years, 1975-1979, when almost 2 million Cambodians
lost their lives from execution, malnutrition or torture. 

A visit to the Tuol Sleng prison museum, its walls covered by black and
white photos of the nearly 16,000 people executed there, reveals some extent
of the horror. Only seven people are believed to have survived incarceration
in the prison, including an artist who was commandeered to paint some of the
methods of torture that took place. Those pictures are on display. The man
in charge of the prison was known as "Duch," the head of national security. 

Of the seven key leaders during the years of the "killing fields," Pol Pot
died of natural causes in 1998, Son Sen the defense minister, was murdered
in 1997, and three defected from the Khmer Rouge, which no longer has power
in Cambodia, and are living in the town of Pailin, the Far Eastern Economic
Review reported in 1999. Ta Mok, the army chief of staff, is in prison
awaiting trial.

And Kang Kek Ieu, 60, better known as Duch, alias Ta Pin and Hong Pen, is a
born-again Christian.

According to many evangelical Christians, he experienced a true conversion
experience. He served as a missionary under yet another alias and reportedly
made thousands of Christians in the northwest part of the country near the
border with Thailand, said the Rev. Michael Collins, country director of the
United Methodist Mission.

After several years working in the area, someone recognized Duch and
informed the authorities. His missionary days ended about five years ago,
and he is in prison awaiting trial for war crimes. He made a full confession
of his crimes and asked forgiveness, Collins said.

In 1999, Duch told Nate Thayer of the Far Eastern Economic Review: "The
first half of my life I will remember forever. Then I thought God was very
bad, that only bad men prayed to God. ... I feel very sorry about the
killings and the past. Now in the second half of my life, I want to serve
God ..."

Critics have said that Duch's conversion was self-serving and feigned to
escape imprisonment. They believe that someone so evil, responsible for
ordering the execution of 16,000 innocent men, women and children, could
easily simulate a conversion and charismatically spread the Gospel to
uneducated, poor people. He has maintained his true belief in the saving
power of Christ throughout his imprisonment, Collins said.

The trial is set for April, but it has been postponed many times.

"He has to pay for his crimes," Collins said. "Even Christians who are
guilty of crimes must pay."
# # #
*Worthington is on the communications staff of the United Methodist Church's
Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference. She visited Cambodia in early
January.

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United Methodist News Service
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