theSun | THURSDAY JULY 2 2009
news without borders
Comorons protest over
crash, black box located
MORONI: French and US aircraft
hunted yesterday for survivors
from a plane that crashed off Co-
moros, while in Paris expatriates
from the Indian Ocean archipelago
tried to block another flight by the
same airline.
The European Commission
sent a letter to the airline, Yemenia,
saying its aircraft could be banned
in the European Union after a
Yemenia-run Airbus A310-300
went down in the Indian Ocean
on Tuesday with 153 people on
board.
The plane was coming in to land
at Moroni, the Comoran capital, on
the final leg of a trip from Paris and
Marseille to Comoros via Yemen.
The cause of the crash was still un-
known, but the black box has been
located, state-run Yemenia said.
Just one survivor – a 14-year-
old Franco-Comoran girl – has
been found in the sea so far, having
held on to floating material in the
darkness of the early hours.
“She clung to a piece of debris
from the plane for 12 hours,”
French Cooperation Secretary
Alain Joyandet told France Info
radio, adding she would be flown
to a Paris hospital.
“She signalled to a passing boat
and it was able to pick her up. She
really showed incredible physical
and moral strength.”
Comoran Vice-President Idi
Nadhoim told Reuters no other
survivors had been found. “But we
haven’t given up hope,” he said in
a telephone interview.
As a flotilla of boats took to
sea off the main Grande Comore
island at first light, angry Comoran
expatriates tried to block passen-
gers from checking into another
Yemenia flight from Paris’ Charles
de Gaulle airport to Yemen.
“We don’t want any more
coffins travelling. We don’t want
Yemenia any more,” said protester
Idris Ahmed.
The survivor from the flight,
identified as Bakari Bahia, had cuts
to her face and a fractured collar-
bone, but was stable overnight after
being picked up on Tuesday.
Her father, Bakari Kassim,
told French TV channel i-Tele
he had contacted his daughter by
telephone.
“I asked her what happened
and she said ‘We saw the plane fall
in the water. I found myself in the
water. I was hearing people speak
but I couldn’t see anyone. I was in
the dark. I couldn’t see anything.
Daddy, I couldn’t swim very well. I
grabbed on to something but I don’t
know what’.”
The airline said 75 Comorans
and 65 French nationals were on
board, along with one Palestinian
and one Canadian. – Reuters
Khmer Rouge
prison survivor
recalls torture
Relatives
PHNOM PENH: A distraught
survivor of the Khmer Rouge’s
main prison urged his former
jailer yesterday to reveal the
truth about his wife’s execution
three decades ago so he could
of the finally collect her ashes.
passengers Bou Meng was asked by the
on the judge at Cambodia’s war crimes
Yemenia court to compose himself as
flight at the he testified against prison chief
Marseille Duch, accused of overseeing the
airport. extermination of 15,000 people
at the communist regime’s Tuol
Sleng prison.
The 68-year-old also described
how his torturers beat him bloody
to make him confess to being a
CIA spy, but said that he escaped
his wife’s fate after he was put to
work painting pictures of Khmer
Rouge leader Pol Pot.
“There is a question I would
like to ask to Mr Kaing Guek Eav,”
Bou Meng said, using Duch’s full
name.
“I want to know if he asked
his subordinates to smash my
wife at Tuol Sleng or Choeung Ek
(the so-called killing field where
prisoners were executed) so I
can collect her ashes to make
her soul rest in peace.”
Bou Meng said that under
the regime he first worked at
a technical school, then was
made to build dams and canals
and finally planted vegetables
before he and his wife were
EPA
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taken in 1977 to Tuol Sleng. “My
wife and I put our hands behind
our backs, and then they cut our
hands. Then my wife cried and
said, ‘What did we do wrong?
We are both orphans,’” said
Bou Meng, the third survivor to
testify this week.
The couple were then
blindfolded with black cloth,
Bou Meng said, and he realised
they were being sent to prison
as they were taken to be pho-
tographed.
The court was shown the
photo of his wife, Ma Yoeun,
who Bou Meng said was about
25 at the time. With the number
331 pinned to her black shirt,
she looks directly from the
frame with a worried, pleading
expression.
Bou Meng said that during
torture sessions blood flowed
to the floor.
“My torturer asked me to
count the lashes. And when I
got to 10 lashes he said, ‘How
can you get to 10 lashes? You’ve
only had one lash,’” he recalled,
taking out a handkerchief to
wipe his eyes.
“Every time they beat me up,
they asked me questions. When
did I join the CIA and who intro-
duced me to the CIA network? I
did not know what a CIA agent
or network was, so how could I
respond?” he added. – AFP