BIZOT François
Pseudonym: TC-01
Cases: Case 001
Category: Witness
Background and Role
Francois Bizot is a professor and researcher.
1
In October 1971 he was researching Cambodian Buddhism in Cambodia.
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He was detained by Khmer Rouge soldiers and accused of being a CIA spy, and subsequently detained at Security Office M-13.
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He was released on 26 December 1971.
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In 2000, Bizot wrote a book, Le Portail (“The Gate”).
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He testified he wrote it “based on the reconstruction of an emotion,”
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but he no longer remembered all the events that he had written about in the book at the time he testified.
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Bizot’s Cambodian assistants
Bizot had two Cambodian assistants, Hok Lay and Baing Son.
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They were detained with Bizot and transferred to M-13 with him. When Bizot was released, he was told that they would also be released, but they were kept at M-13.
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In 2008, while Duch was in detention, he met with Bizot and told him that Lay and Son were later executed in another camp, approximately one year after Bizot was released, based on an order from the higher echelon.
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M-13
Duch was the head of M-13 .
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Duch’s reputation was as a tireless worker who did not speak much and was devoted to his duties.
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Bizot testified that the guards consequently respected Duch very much.
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Bizot understood Duch’s job included writing reports about the interrogation of detainees.
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He saw his life as being in Duch’s hands.
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However, Bizot considered that Duch was also trapped in his job and fearful,
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and believed decisions about the prisoners such as when they were to be executed were made at a higher level of command and relayed to Duch to be implemented.
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Bizot testified that Duch had a deputy and estimated that there were about 5 or 6 guards, with rare rotations.
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Duch outranked the deputy and could countermand his orders.
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The deputy was a “rather brutal” person, but Bizot did not remember his name.
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Most guards were young men from the local villages whose families supported the revolution.
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Guards would hold “self-criticism” sessions with an instructor in which they confessed small errors in order to adhere better to Khmer Rouge standards of behaviour and then accused each other of similar errors.
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Bizot believed M-13 was a counterespionage center.
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He testified that it was not equipped to detain military prisoners and explained that at one point a group of military prisoners arrived, but the camp went into “upheaval” and the military prisoners were sent off the next day.
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Bizot testified that there was a constant atmosphere of fear and death at M-13.
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There were about 50 prisoners at M-13.
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Most were peasants from areas under Khmer Rouge control.
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At one point, a girl of about nine years old was held at MS-13, but Bizot did not see other children detained there.
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Detainees were kept in three huts.
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In each hut, they would be shackled to a single bar.
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They would have to urinate and defecate in front of the group, and some prisoners fell into the small pit used for defecation.
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Bizot was able to bathe daily.
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Detainees were fed a plate of rice in the morning
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and once Duch determined that Bizot was not guilty, Bizot also was permitted to eat the same soup that the guards at MS-13 ate.
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Most prisoners were ill, as was Duch, but Bizot himself maintained good health during his detention.
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About fifteen people died of malaria while Bizot was held at M-13, including a detainee who was an informer as mentioned below.
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Only a small number of detainees were not shackled during the day, including those who prepared food in the morning; those who had worked and obeyed the conditions imposed on them; and one detainee who was an informer.
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One of the detainees who prepared food ran away and the guards said they had caught and killed him, but Bizot is not sure if this was true.
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Duch personally interrogated Bizot.
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Bizot was not beaten during interrogations,
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but would cry or become angry at the injustice of his detention.
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He observed that Duch compared Bizot’s different statements carefully and would question him about inconsistencies.
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Bizot was required to draft a statement of innocence and demonstrate to Duch that he was in fact a scholar of Cambodian Buddhism.
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At one point, Duch told Bizot that Bizot had been discovered to be a spy, but after Bizot broke down Duch lifted him up and told him that it had been a joke.
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Bizot came to understand that prisoners at M-13 were beaten
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, though he himself was not.
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On the eve of Bizot’s release, Duch told Bizot that sometimes Duch personally beat prisoners because they would lie and he hated lying.
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While Duch did not express remorse, he did seem uncomfortable but considered it was something he had to do.
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Bizot also saw a place near where he bathed where prisoners would be tied up outside.
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He had the impression that prisoners who were taken out’ of the camp were being brought for execution, but could not confirm this.
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The Trial Chamber relied on his testimony (together with others) to conclude that Duch personally supervised the interrogation of detainees, which were frequently carried out by his staff through violence.
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Relationship with Duch
Bizot’s imprisonment and interrogation brought him into close contact with Duch and they developed a familiarity.
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Bizot believed Duch took a risk to have Bizot released,
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but based on Duch’s position he testified that Duch was “frightening” in the camp.
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Similarly, he acknowledged that Duch was a human being who perceived himself to be fighting against injustice but also acknowledged the inhumanity of Duch’s conduct,
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and concluded “there is no possible forgiveness” for Duch’s crimes because of the suffering they had imposed on the victims.
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