Mr. Vann Nath

Vann Nath, 63, was called as a witness to testify on the functioning of S-21.

 Mr. Nath was arrested on 30 December 1977 while working in rice fields in Northwestern Cambodia. He was accused of being a "traitor" and was first detained at the prison located in Kandal Pagoda before being brought to S-21. After one month he was transferred to the artist's workshop to work as a painter, where Duch asked him to prepare a portrait of Pol Pot. He survived until the Vietnamese army seized Phnom Penh. As a witness, Vann Nath testified on the "inhumane" detention conditions at S-21, and recounted the impossibility for him to forget what he had endured at S-21. In the course of his testimony, some of his paintings depicting torture techniques at S-21 were shown.

Mr. Nath told the Trial Chamber that he wanted to testify as a witness in order to ensure that younger generations "would avoid repeating such a historical event," and he "wanted justice for those that had already died."

• Witness acronym :
  KW-01
• Age at the time of testimony :
  63
• Appeared as :
  Witness
• Cases : Case 001, 
• Date(s) of testimony :
  Mon, 06/29/2009 - 07:00