PHNOM PENH?Finally, a Khmer Rouge leader is held accountable for the ?killing fields? that devastated a generation of Cambodians more than 30 years ago.

In the first verdict involving a senior member of Cambodia?s murderous regime in the 1970s, a UN-backed tribunal on Monday found the Khmer Rouge?s chief jailer guilty of crimes against humanity for presiding over the torture and killing of up to 16,000 people.

The tribunal sentenced Kaing Guek Eav?also known as Duch?to 35 years in prison. Prosecutors had sought a 40-year prison term for the man who oversaw a system that came to symbolize a regime responsible for the deaths of more than a million people.

Victims and their relatives burst into tears after hearing that the prison sentence had been whittled down to just 19 years after taking into account time already served and other factors. That effectively means the 67-year-old Duch could one day walk free.

?I can?t accept this,? said the 46-year-old Saodi Ouch, who was shaking so hard she could hardly talk. ?My family died . . . my older sister, my older brother. I?m the only one left.?

The war crimes tribunal?10 years and $100 million in the making?has sought to find justice for victims of the Khmer Rouge regime that killed an estimated 1.7 million people from starvation, medical neglect, slave-like working conditions and execution from 1975-79.

The group?s top leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998 and four other senior Khmer Rouge leaders are awaiting trial. Some legal experts said the tribunal may have acted more leniently with Duch because it was saving the worst punishment for members of the regime?s inner clique.

Duch (pronounced DOIK) headed Tuol Sleng, a secret detention center also known as S-21 for the worst ?enemies? of the state.

During the 77-day proceedings, Duch admitted to overseeing the deaths of up to 16,000 people who passed through the prison?s gates.

Torture used to extract confessions at the detention center included pulling out prisoners? toenails, administering electric shocks and waterboarding.

The tribunal said at least 100 people bled to death in medieval-style medical experiments.

Contrition doubted

Unlike the other defendants, Duch has several times expressed remorse, even offering at one point to face a public stoning and to allow victims to visit him in jail.

But his surprise request on the final day of the trial to be acquitted and freed, left many wondering if his contrition was sincere.

?He tricked everybody,? said Chum Mey, 79, one of just a few people sent to Tuol Sleng who survived.

Mey, a key witness, wiped water from his eyes. ?See ... my tears drop down again. I feel like I was victim during the Khmer Rouge, and now I?m a victim once again.?

Duch showed no emotion as he listened on Monday to the judge talk about the court?s findings.

Nil Nonn, the chief judge, said the jailer was often present during interrogations at Tuol Sleng and signed off on all the tortures and executions, sometimes taking part himself.

Nonn said the court had rejected arguments that the defendant was acting on orders from the top because he feared for his own life.

?He worked tirelessly to ensure that S-21 ran as efficiently as possible and did so out of unquestioning loyalty to his superiors,? the judge said.

When the verdict was read out, Duch stood up and looked straight ahead, his eyes shifting but showing no emotion.

The prosecution and defense have one month to appeal.

Ultimate killing machine

A former math teacher, Duch joined Pol Pot?s movement in 1967. Ten years later, he was the trusted head of its ultimate killing machine, S-21, which became the code name for Tuol Sleng.

After a Vietnamese invasion forced the Khmer Rouge from power in 1979 after a bloody, four-year reign, Duch disappeared for almost two decades, living under various aliases in northwestern Cambodia, where he had converted to Christianity. His chance discovery by a British journalist led to his arrest in May 1999.

Though the tribunal has been credited with helping the traumatized nation speak out publicly for the first time about atrocities committed three decades ago, it has been criticized as well.

The government insisted Cambodians be on the panel of judges, opening the door for political interference. It also sought to limit the number of suspects being tried?fearing, some say, it would implicate its own ranks. The prime minister and other current leaders were once low-level members of the Khmer Rouge.

Unacceptable

Though most people doubted Duch would get the maximum life imprisonment, few expected he?d get less than 35 years in jail. The decision to shave 16 years for time already served and illegal detention in a military prison, means he has 18 years and 10 months left.

More than 1,000 villagers showed up for the verdict, some traveling more than 300 kilometers by bus.

?It?s just unacceptable to have a man who killed thousands of people serving just 19 years,? said Theary Seng, a human rights lawyer who lost both of her parents and has been working with others to find justice.

?Now no one is going to have the energy to look at the second case,? Seng added.

An international civil rights lawyer and associate fellow of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs also criticized the court?s ?unimaginative? reparation order, which was limited to simply publishing the judgment.

Mahdev Mohan said the tribunal could have ordered Duch to build a memorial to the victims and to do other work to deter future crimes against humanity.

Two views

Among those at Monday?s verdict was New Zealander Rob Hamill, the brother of one of a handful of Westerners killed by the Khmer Rouge. Kerry, then 28, was sailing across Asia when his yacht was captured in Cambodian waters in 1978. He was taken to Toul Sleng and killed.

Another brother committed suicide months later, and their mother died seven years ago.

?All I can say is my family, who are no longer here to see justice, would not want to see this man set free, even if it?s in 19 years time,? said Hamill, 46, struggling to contain his emotion. ?It?s reality but I?m not happy ? he should not be a free man.?

Alex Hinton, director of the Center for the Study of Genocide, Conflict Resolution and Human Rights at Rutgers University in New Jersey, offered a different view.

?For 30 years, the victims of the Khmer Rouge waited while a civil war raged, international actors bickered and the leaders of the Khmer Rouge walked free,? Hinton said.

?Now, for the first time, one of them has been held accountable. The importance of this moment can?t be underestimated.?