SEK Dan
Pseudonym: KW-20
Cases: Case 001
Category: Witness
Background
Sek Dan was a child when he was taken by Angkar from Phnom Penh by two militias and sent to Sala Lekh Pram in Kampong Chhnang.
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He attended Prek Thnaot Technical School for three months, where he trained to fire and disassemble guns.
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He was then sent to work in a children’s unit near Phnom Penh to build dykes and undertake farming duties.
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By 1978, he was taken to S-21 to work as a child medic with three other children,
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until he fled in January 1979.
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He testified as a witness in the Case 001 trial proceedings on his role at S-21 as child medic, detention conditions, detainees deaths from illness, interrogation sessions and arrests.
Role as a Child Medic at S-21 & Health of Detainees
Sek Dan worked as a medic at S-21 under the supervision of two adult males, Pao and Yeun.
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His duties mostly involved distributing locally produced,
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black “rabbit pellet”
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medicine to detainees.
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Occasionally, he would also dispense the same medicine to S-21 staff who were sick.
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When he was hungry, Sek Dan would sometimes eat the rabbit pellets.
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While he claimed it ‘did not have any effect’ on him,
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he believed the medicine was sometimes effective.
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Most prisoners suffered from diarrhoea, fevers or headaches,
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and the majority were ‘sick because they were tortured’.
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Sek Dan would clean the wounds of tortured prisoners with saline water to encourage a fast recovery.
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Prisoners with wounds that did not heal would disappear from the prison.
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Sek Dan witnessed hundreds of prisoners who were sick and who subsequently died in the facility.
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The child and adult medics would carry their bodies and bury them in the surrounding vicinity of the compound.
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Detention Conditions
While working at S-21, Sek Dan would observe those in detention.
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Prisoners would typically stay between one and three months, depending on the allegations against them.
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Many prisoners were detained in the common detention rooms on the upper floor of the building in which Sek Dan worked.
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Prisoners would receive gruel for food.
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In the detention rooms, prisoners’ legs and hands would be cuffed.
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Sek Dan observed prisoners with wounds and sores on their bodies, and the majority had wounds on their backs.
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He witnessed some prisoners with fingernails and toenails missing and was aware of torture being inflicted on those who protested against the prison guards.
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Interrogation Sessions
While Sek Dan did not personally witness any torture,
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he was aware of prisoners being taken to various locations outside the S-21 compound to be “interrogated”
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at all hours.
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He was told to provide medicine to the prisoners to keep them alive prior to their interrogation, and then they would either be returned for further treatment or disappear.
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Most of the injuries sustained by prisoners were on their backs and limbs.
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When treating the prisoners after their interrogation sessions, Sek Dan noticed some prisoners with lesions on their bodies from electric shocks, bruises and wounds with fresh blood.
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It was obvious that the wounds arose from the interrogations sessions.
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He rarely asked many questions about the origins of the wounds as he was afraid of ‘being accused’.
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He was extremely worried that he would be killed.
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Treatment of Staff & His Supervisor’s Arrest
During his time in S-21, Sek Dan would attend “self-criticism” sessions where he would be instructed on sanitation practices.
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He was extremely scared that if he did not follow the rules, he would disappear like the prisoners.
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Sek Dan witnessed a number of adult medics who had ‘made some mistakes’ and disappeared.
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He suspected that it was Duch who ordered the evening arrests and disappearances of those adult medics.
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He was aware that Pao, the chief supervisor of his team, was arrested and detained in S-21 for allegedly providing a lethal injection to a prisoner by mistake.
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Subsequently, a man named “Yeun” replaced Pao as the chief of Sek Dan’s team.
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In 1979, just before the Vietnamese arrived,
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Yeun committed suicide by hanging himself in a separate house.
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Sek Dan believed he committed suicide because he was scared of facing the same fate as Pao.
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