Thirty-five years after the Marxist coup called the Khmer Rouge rose to power in Cambodia and initiated torture practices and widespread massacres, the former leader of one of the coup’s largest prisons is on trial by the UN for crimes against humanity. Former prison leader Kaing Guek Eav, or “Duch,” recently sat through the testimony of one of the few remaining prison survivors who described life in the Tuol Sleng prison as receiving a few teaspoons of rice porridge for each meal and being shackled in his cell with orders not to move or speak. Watch his testimony here.

The Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975 and attempted to create a new Cambodia centered around agricultural production and the working class. They systematically “purged” Cambodia of intellectuals, professionals, and other individually minded people that threatened the system. The coup went so far as to arrest people who wore glasses, had traveled, had associated with a former Cambodian government official, or for an unrelated reason. In total, the Khmer Rouge was allegedly responsible for two million deaths.

photo: Rules of Tuol Sleng prison

featured photo: Cell at Tuol Sleng prison