ANCHOR: As we have been reporting, a former Khmer Rouge prison chief is currently on trial in Cambodia. He's apologised for thousands killed at his prison, but still faces charges of crimes against humanity. STORY: Security is tight outside the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, as people trickle in for day three of Duch's trial.
The chief jailer who worked under Pol Pots Communist regime publicly apologised for the 14,000 people who brutally died at his S-21 prison, making him the first senior Khmer Rouge cadre to accept blame.
The 66-year-old former teacher is the first of five cadres to face the tribunal set up to prosecute those deemed "most responsible" for the 1975-79 reign of terror, which killed about 1.7 million people.
Despite the apology, at least one local observer still cannot fill the void caused by the death of loved ones.
[Kong Vuthy, Observer]: "I think that he cannot be given forgiveness because he destroyed our humanity."
Human rights groups say more ex-Khmer Rouge leaders should face justice, but Prime Minister Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge commander himself, would rather see the tribunal fail.
Pol Pot's death in 1998 was followed by a formal Khmer Rouge surrender that helped usher in a decade of peace and stability. Since then, only five Khmer Rouge leaders have been charged by the tribunal. The other four still to face trial deny any wrongdoing.
Prosecutors say Duch oversaw the torture of inmates forced to confess to spying and other crimes, before they were taken to the "Killing Fields" outside the capital Phnom Penh. More than 14,000 died.
Advocates of the tribunal - formally known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia - hope it will usher in a new era of peace and justice.
Final ruling from the court on the additional cases is still pending.
More than 30 years after the Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia, a showdown between a survivor and torturer has taken place in this Phnom Penh courtroom.
The testimony of Vann Nath was highly anticipated as the well known Cambodian artist became the first prison survivor to testify in the trial of Pol Pot's top torturer.
In graphic detail, he described the experience as "hell".
[Vann Nath, S-21 Survivor]: "When there were insects falling from the lamp, I collected them and ate them. When the security guards saw this, they asked, 'What are you eating?' So they hit me until I spit out the grasshopper or cricket from my mouth."
The man accused of the crimes listened as the testimony continued.
[Vann Nath, S-21 Survivor]: "When I didn't shower for such a long time, there were lice on my body and head. I scratched everywhere. So my life was like an evil animal."
More than 14,000 people died at the notorious S-21 detention center, a converted high school in the center of Phnom Penh.
Nath says he survived only because chief torturer Duch liked his paintings of Pol Pot.
Duch has admitted his part in the deaths but maintains he was only following orders.
With no death penalty in Cambodia, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
But Nath says he wanted to speak about the horrors of the regime in an effort to seek justice for all those who died at their hands ... and will remain forever silent.
Here are key facts about Cambodia's long road from genocide to justice:
THE GENOCIDE:
-- The communist Khmer Rouge seized control of Cambodia in April 1975 and immediately began dismantling modern society in their drive to transform the country into an agrarian utopia.
The regime abolished religion, schools and currency and exiled millions of people onto vast collective farms. Up to two million people died of starvation and overwork or were executed from 1975 to 1979. The horrors of the genocide were portrayed in the film "The Killing Fields."
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT:
-- The Khmer Rouge were driven from power in 1979 by Vietnamese troops and former regime members who defected, including Hun Sen, now Cambodia's prime minister. He was a mid-level military commander until fleeing to Vietnam in 1977. Under him, the Cambodian government fought the Khmer Rouge until the movement collapsed in the mid-1990s.
THE TRIBUNAL:
-- Cambodia and the United Nations signed an agreement in 2003 which essentially brought the tribunal into being and set out its mandate. Known as the Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), it is a complex hybrid court combining elements of international law with Cambodia's judiciary.
Its mandate is to prosecute "those most responsible" for crimes committed between 1975 and 1979.
The tribunal has faced controversy over allegations that Cambodian staff were forced by their superiors to pay kickbacks for their jobs.
It can impose a sentence of imprisonment of up to life in prison. There is no death penalty and no financial compensation for victims.
It is funded by foreign nations, the biggest donors being Japan and Germany.
WHO FACES TRIAL:
-- After Duch, the court is scheduled to try Khmer Rouge "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea, former head of state Khieu Samphan, ex-foreign minister Ieng Sary, and his wife, former social affairs minister Ieng Thirith, all on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The court is also due to rule whether to pursue charges against other former leaders after the Cambodian co-prosecutor said such a move would destabilise the country. Many observers say the decision on whether to prosecute more Khmer Rouge suspects represents a test of the court's independence from the current Cambodian government.
AND THOSE WHO ESCAPED:
-- Because of the tribunal's limited scope, thousands of lower-level Khmer Rouge members and fighters who carried out the regime's brutal acts will never face court. Also escaping justice are "Brother Number One" Pol Pot, who died in 1998, and military commander Ta Mok, one of the regime's most vicious figures, who was in jail when he died in 2006.
A senior Khmer Rouge figure, who ran the S-21 prison during the brutal years under the regime in the 1970s, goes on trial in a UN-backed court on Monday.
But do young Cambodians bother about past atrocities that resulted in the deaths of one and a half million people?
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