July 25, 2010
By Miranda Leitsinger
Phnom Penh, Cambodia (CNN) -- Carrying burning incense sticks and pink lotuses and wearing scarves of mourning, dozens of people marked the deaths of 14,000 victims of the 1970s Khmer Rouge regime at the S-21 torture prison in the Cambodian capital Sunday, one day before a genocide tribunal renders the verdict in its first case, against the man who ran S-21.
Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, was the head of S-21 and is standing trial on various charges including crimes against humanity. Few people brought to the prison made it out alive -- only about a dozen were found by the Vietnamese who invaded Cambodia in 1979.
"We call on the souls of ... those brothers and sisters who have died in Tuol Sleng (S-21) and (the killing fields of) Choeung Ek after enduring unspeakable atrocities and who are now in the afterworld to please come back and to listen to the verdict," said Chum Sirath of the victims association of the Khmer Rouge regime. "When you have heard the verdict, we ardently pray for your souls to enjoy peace and happiness with words denied to you during your time on this earth."
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