Home » Images » 0050 Pictures From History » CPA0024551

Cambodia: Kang Kek Iew (Comrade Duch) as director of Tuol Sleng (S 21) Prison, c.1976-8

Kang Kek Iew or Kaing Kek Iev, Kaing Guek Eav (Comrade Duch or Deuch), a Sino-Khmer with the Chinese name Hang Pin, was born 17 November 1942 in Choyaot village, Kampong Chen subdistrict, Kampong Thom Province. He is best known for heading the Khmer Rouge special branch (Santebal) and running the infamous Tuol Sleng (S-21) prison camp in Phnom Penh.

The first Khmer Rouge leader to be tried by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia for the crimes of the regime, he was convicted of crimes against humanity, murder, and torture for his role in the Cambodian Holocaust and sentenced to 35 years' imprisonment. The Khmer Rouge, or Communist Party of Kampuchea, ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, led by Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Son Sen and Khieu Samphan. It is remembered primarily for its brutality and policy of social engineering which resulted in millions of deaths.

Its attempts at agricultural reform led to widespread famine, while its insistence on absolute self-sufficiency, even in the supply of medicine, led to the deaths of thousands from treatable diseases (such as malaria). Brutal and arbitrary executions and torture carried out by its cadres against perceived subversive elements, or during purges of its own ranks between 1976 and 1978, are considered to have constituted a genocide.