Executioner living in fear
PHONM PENH: The Khmer Rouge's chief executioner has gone into hiding, fearing for his life since resurfacing last week and expressing willingness to implicate his former comrades in genocide.
Reports last week said that Kaing Khek Iev, better known by his revolutionary name Duch, was living quietly in western Cambodia.
Journalist Nate Thayer said that Duch had good reason to fear.
Thayer, who made his name by seeking out and interviewing top Khmer Rouge, including their late leader, Pol Pot, denied that he himself was hiding Duch, but suggested that he was in the Battambang area.
Human rights groups and experts on the Khmer Rouge fear that former leaders living freely in Cambodia and ex-members now in the government could ensure Duch's silence by killing him.
Duch, aged 56, has been working as a school principal in his home town of Samlot, his sister said. He was also a principal in the 1960s before joining the Khmer Rouge.