SUOS Thy
Pseudonym: 2-TCW-816
Cases: Case 002/02
Category: Witness
Background and role
From 1972, Suos Thy was a combatant in Division 12 (or Division 703) of the Special Zone.
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From 1974, he was in charge of keeping lists of members of the army in the battalion and the amount of weapons and ammunition, and daily reports to the regiment.
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From December 1975 to 7 January 1979, he was in charge of the registers of prisoners at the S-21 Security Center, including registering names of incoming prisoners, keeping the registers, writing brief biographies of prisoners, and detailing entrances and exits in the lists.
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He testified as a witness before the Trial Chamber in Case 002/02 on the S-21 Security Center, and was considered as one of the key witnesses on this segment.
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He also testified in Case 001 (see separate summary).
Location and structure of S-21
S-21 was first located within the premises of the judicial police department in Phnom Penh (PJ).
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There were around 100 detainees.
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Around late 1975 or early 1976, S-21 was moved to Tuol Sleng, in Pohnea Yat High School.
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The new location had a large geographical area surrounded by an iron fence and extended to the sewage canal.
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The surface area was surrounded by two levels of fences: one surrounding the prison compound with a wall mounted with barbed wire and another outer fence.
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Nat was the commander of Division 703 and the first chief of S-21.
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Hor, who came from Division 703,
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was Duch’s deputy – he received direct orders from him at S-21.
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Duch had responsibility for interrogation, ordering the execution of prisoners and other tasks;
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whereas Hor had authority over all the guards.
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There were different units at S-21: namely, the interrogation unit (S-21A), guard unit (S-21B) and rice farming unit (S-21D).
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The interrogation unit included interrogators, typists and photographers, whereas the guard unit included guards, cooks, drivers and a medical section.
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S-21D, the rice farming unit, was supervised by Huy who was Suos Thy’s former battalion commander.
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Meng was the head of the interrogation office in charge of drawing up the lists for interrogation until he was arrested;
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and worked closely with Duch.
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Suos Thy was in the guard unit, under the supervision of Hor – Hor was the only person who gave him orders at S-21.
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At the start, he was the only person in charge of registering incoming and outgoing prisoners at S-21.
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He sent the information to Meng for the master lists, which were then sent to Duch.
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Later on, Suos Thy was assisted by a young man called Lann, aged 14 or 15 years old, in registering the incoming prisoners,
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and recording the cell numbers.
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Suos Thy worked and lived in Hor’s main office that was located opposite the entrance of the prison.
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The interrogation unit was located far away from the prison compound and close to the outer fence area.
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Medics were from Division 703, and were ultimately arrested and replaced by children, who were brought from Amleang by Duch.
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The special prison was for senior-level prisoners, including sector and zone chairmen or the military division commanders.
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It was first located outside the main prison compound, and later moved inside the main prison.
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Those prisoners did not go through Suos Thy’s office, and were taken straight to the special prison for detention - the upper level had known about them arriving at S-21 in advance.
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Duch or Hor had charge of the special prison including the execution of prisoners there.
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Study sessions and attitude to prisoners
Unlike other S-21 staff, Suos Thy attended the political study sessions which were presided over by Duch only once in a while, because he was busy with his duties inside the compound.
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During the study sessions, staff were advised to clearly perform their duties and tasks.
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At that time, everyone was afraid of committing infractions that could lead to arrest and imprisonment, having been considered an enemy.
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They did not bother having any kind of sentiment or pity on the prisoners.
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Those who came into S-21 were already considered dead or to be killed.
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The Trial Chamber relied on the witness’s testimony, along with other evidence, to establish the central role which the CPK had in disseminating policies and insisting on a common ideology to guide the work of cadres at S-21; and to find that the indoctrination and incitement of hate instilled absolute respect for the Party hierarchy and the principles to be followed at S-21, including the identification and killing of perceived enemies.
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Prisoners and registration
During the time that S-21 was located at PJ, most prisoners were former factory workers and internal staff members.
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Later, when S-21 moved to Tuol Sleng, prisoners were arrested from various locations and zones across Cambodia including the East Zone.
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It was rare that any prisoners were released and survived.
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There was no list of released prisoners; Suos Thy didn’t know about any releases which occurred, although he said that perhaps somebody came and released people.
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No prisoners in the main compound were transferred to Prey Sar.
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He was not involved in recording prisoners bound for Prey Sar; they were sent away from the previous reception point by the special forces before reaching his office.
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Suos Thy was responsible for ensuring that there were no discrepancies regarding the numbers of detainees and kept daily lists with the number of incoming prisoners, those removed to be killed and those who had died in their cells.
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He confirmed his signature on contemporaneous S-21 documents,
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and provided details on how he received and compiled documents, including daily entry lists,
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and daily lists tracking the total numbers of prisoners arrested and “taken out” or “subtracted” from S-21 in any given day.
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The Trial Chamber relied on his testimony authenticating the numerous S-21 lists, finding them to be generally reliable.
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Prisoners who were brought into the compound had to pass by his office for registration;
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their biography contained their date and place of birth, the names of their family members, occupation, domicile and which division or zone they came from.
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Only a brief biography was needed since they would be questioned later at length by the interrogation unit.
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On some occasions, Suos Thy went into the cells to take biographies – i.e. when a large number of prisoners (about 100) from the East Zone arrived and were brought directly into cells.
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Prisoners were photographed and photographs attached to their biography sheet.
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After the registration had concluded, Suos Thy recorded the cell number for each detainee – this was decided by the guards depending on the available space.
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Children brought in with prisoner parents were not registered.
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Babies or toddlers were not separated immediately from their mother by the guards until they received instruction from Hor.
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As for prisoners from the S-21 staff, Suos Thy was in charge of producing the biographies of those from the guard unit, and Meng for those from the interrogation unit.
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Those who belonged to the same network as the prisoner were usually arrested.
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There were both civilian and soldier Vietnamese detained at S-21: civilians were arrested from the sea, and soldiers from the battlefields at the borders.
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A prisoner called Chan who spoke Vietnamese assisted Suos Thy in asking them for their biographies.
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Following Hor’s instructions, Vietnamese soldiers were labeled as spies and the civilians as fishermen.
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The Trial Chamber relied on Suos Thy’s testimony, among others, to establish that Vietnamese civilians were identified at S-21 without detailed findings about the precise name or number of those detained; and to find that the Vietnamese prisoners included soldiers and civilians, as well as children; and were targeted as an enemy group and as a threat to the DK.
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Detention conditions and killings
The detainees had to relieve themselves in the same place where they ate and slept, and they could smell their excrement and urine.
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Most of them were emaciated since they did not have any proper place to sleep or proper food to eat.
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The reports on prisoners who died in the cells were made by the medic who was stationed at each building to be sent to Hor who in turn forwarded it to Suos Thy for daily registration of the situation. The causes of death were mentioned on the reports: "bruised" meant torture and "numb" meant the swelling due to the lack of food.
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He estimated that one or two prisoners died every day at S-21 from illness or beatings.
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He only knew about the process of drawing blood through the reports provided by the medics.
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Following Hor’s instructions, prisoners who had their blood drawn and died were mentioned on the list of names of prisoners to be “smashed”.
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Only Duch and Hor had the authority to allow prisoners to work within the prison compound.
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Hor ordered the execution of the prisoners only after permission from Duch, his superior.
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Suos Thy checked the names of the prisoners being loaded onto the trucks against the names on his list of those to be taken out for the killing.
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