Former Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch told a UN-backed court Wednesday Pol Pot’s revolutionary vision recreated education, the economy and religion, creating a struggle among Cambodians for survival.

“The wildly jumping education domain was a new education system never seen, which was a dream” of Pol Pot, Duch said in his hearing, responding to questioning from judges.

“The economic domain consisted of only two classes, farmers and workers,” he said. “Productivity belonged to communism. We worked hard, and we only had food two times [a day]. The economy was changed, and the religion was also.”

Duch, 66, whose real name is Kaing Kek Iev, is facing charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture and murder for his role as head of a prison system blamed for the deaths of at least 12,380 people.

In testimony Wednesday, he highlighted a preeminent philosophy of the paranoid regime.

“The principle of the policy was: the children of the enemy were the enemy, so you must not keep them, for fear of revenge,” he said.