U.S. ambassador praises former Khmer Rouge photographer for apologizing

The U.S. ambassador to Cambodia shook hands Thursday with the former chief photographer at a notorious Khmer Rouge torture center and praised him for apologizing for his role in the regime that caused nearly 2 million deaths in the 1970s.

Ambassador Joseph Mussomeli said Nhem En had "set a good example for apologizing for his part in those atrocities," which included executions, starvation, overwork and inadequate medical care during the radical communist group's 1975-79 rule.

"Contrast what he has done with the fact that no Khmer Rouge leader has ever stepped forward to admit guilt or accept blame for the regime's brutal crimes," said Mussomeli, who posed for pictures beside an American flag at the embassy with Nhem En.

Nhem En photographed thousands of prisoners at the infamous Khmer Rouge S-21 prison before they were locked up, tortured and executed.

He asked for forgiveness and offered his apology Thursday, two days after announcing his plan to set up a museum with pictures of the former Khmer Rouge leaders.

He said he was the chief of six photographers at S-21 who worked in shifts, photographing prisoners when they were brought there, often blindfolded.

"After the blindfolds were removed, prisoners would ask what wrong had they done. I would just tell them I don't know anything and that my duty is to photograph them," Nhem En said.

Haunting photos of the victims are the centerpiece of the former prison site, also known as Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, in Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh.

"During that era, I was merely a cog in the (Khmer Rouge) machine," he said. He called on surviving Khmer Rouge leaders Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary and Khieu Samphan to issue public apologies for the crimes committed under their rule.

No senior Khmer Rouge leader has been tried for the atrocities. The movement's top leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998, and Ta Mok, the Khmer Rouge army chief, died last July while in detention pending trial by a joint Cambodia-United Nations special tribunal.