Cambodian tribunal summons former Khmer Rouge prison photographer

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: Cambodia's genocide tribunal has summoned a former photographer who captured thousands of haunting images of prisoners before they were tortured and executed by the Khmer Rouge, the photographer said Tuesday.

Nhem En, 47, said the tribunal's judges ordered him to appear before them on Nov. 1 "in regard to the criminal case of Duch," referring to his former boss, Kaing Guek Eav, who headed the Khmer Rouge's notorious S-21 prison and torture center.

Duch has been detained by the U.N.-backed tribunal on charges of crimes against humanity committed when the Khmer Rouge regime held power in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979.

The group's radical policies caused the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people from starvation, overwork, disease and execution.

Up to 16,000 suspected enemies of the regime were tortured at the prison before being executed in an area near the capital, Phnom Penh that later became known as the killing fields.

Only about a dozen of the prisoners are thought to have survived. The prison is now known as the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and is frequented by tourists.

Nhem En photographed thousands of prisoners before they were locked up, tortured and executed and their images are the centerpiece of the museum.

He has denied any involvement in the atrocities and said his job was merely taking pictures of the prisoners after they were brought to the prison.

"I will not oppose the summons. I support the tribunal to try the former Khmer Rouge leaders," Nhem En said.

Besides Duch, Nuon Chea, the former Khmer Rouge ideologist, is the only other suspect detained by the tribunal, which has charged him with crimes against humanity and war crimes.