THE CAMBODIA - DISASTER - Kambodscha Desaster · “Kambodscha: Reisen in einem traumatisierten...

Vann Nath

Born 1946 in the province of Battambang. He studiedart, worked as a painter and commercial artist. In 1977he was separated from his family and thrown into thetorture prison Tuol Sleng (S-21). He was reunited withhis wife in 1979, his two sons had died though.VannNath was one of the seven prisoners who survivedbecause he was ordered to paint portraits of theKhmer Rouge leader Pol Pot. Since his release in 1979he paints scenes of torture from memory and fromdescriptions by other prisoners. For the InternationalTribunal Vann Nath is one of the most important wit-nesses of the crimes in Tuol Sleng.

Alexander Goeb

Born 1940 in Düsseldorf, he was an editor for variousnewspapers and magazines from 1964 to 1983. Follo-wing this, he was a freelance author and has visited nu-merous conflict areas in the world. In 1979 Goeb wasthe only journalist from the Federal Republic of Ger-many who was able to take part in the tribunal againstPol Pot and Ieng Sary. Over almost thirty years this de-veloped into a number of radio programs for theWDR and news features. He published the book“Kambodscha: Reisen in einem traumatisierten Land“[Cambodia: Travelling in a traumatized Country]; Ver-lag Brandes & Apsel 2007

Sponsoring of the exhibition:

Heng Sinith

Born 1968 in the province of Kandal. A large numberof his family lost their lives during the time of Pol Pot.Sinith survived the time of genocide as a cow herderand from 1984 he studied at the college of art inPhnom Penh. From 1994 he decided to become a pho-tographer and he has since worked for several Cam-bodian newspapers. Today he takes photos for thenews agency AP. From 2002 Heng Sinith started follo-wing the traces of former Khmer Rouge on behalf ofthe Documentation Center of Cambodia. He photo-graphed the subordinates of murder and torture whostill live freely in the provinces of Cambodia.

T H E C A M B O D I A - D I S A S T E RThe crimes of the Khmer Rouge: photos and descriptions

ALEXANDER GOEB VANN NATH HENG SINITH

Hamburger Stiftung zur Förderung von Wissenschaft und Kultur

Editorial:Alexander GoebScheidswaldstr. 6, 60385 Frankfurt am Main-Germany

Photographs:Vann Nath, Heng Sinith, Youk Chhang, Ea Meng-Try, Bettina Eichhorn, Alexander Goeb

Production: Mediaproduction Cologne-Germanywww.mediaproductiononline.de

Projekt.080506:kambodscha.100504 01.08.2010 16:50 Uhr Seite 1

whole nation. Three years, eightmonths and 20 days, all Cambo-dians know this time span. It is thetime of the Khmer Rouge tyrannyfrom 1975 to 1979. Thirty yearsago the Khmer Rouge fled fromthe advancing Vietnamese army inthe direction of Thailand. Subse-

Cambodia: A far away country.A dark country. An eerie country.But also a country of smiles. Mostpeople have heard of Pol Pot: aKhmer Rouge, a criminal, a murde-rer who together with others hasto answer for the deaths of sevenmillion people, a quarter of the

quently there was a brutal, almost20 year long civil war. Some of thecommanders of the genocide ofthe own people survived andtoday are old men. The others diedor were murdered. A tribunal maynow bring late atonement. Thepeople are gaining a little hope.

THE PEACEFUL CAMBODIA


Tuy Kin, 61 years old, soldier ofthe Khmer Rouge

“I got to know all the battle fields from1970 to the liberation of Phnom Penh onApril 17th,1975. Then I was put in Prey Sarprison. I did not know why. There I wasforced to work. After the time of theKhmer Rouge I went to prison again.

I had a baby which was seven months old.My husband found another woman whenI was four months pregnant. I swear that I did not kill any of my fellowcountrymen. If I am lying God will punishme.”


Him Huy, 53 years old, Security chief of S-21

“To tell the truth, I did not want to workthere. I asked Son Sen if I could go so-mewhere else. But he refused. I was the onlyone who dared to ask such a question. I asked because I was afraid that if I stayed

I would be killed. I did not feel good to seethe people when they died one after theother. I would have rather gone home to myparents. The people still denounce me as TuolSleng staff. I would not have been there vo-

luntarily. They forced me to work in the pri-son. If I would have refused they would havekilled me. If I get summoned before the tri-bunal I will not hesitate to testify what I didin prison and for what reasons I did it.”


Soan Nim, 60 years old, KhmerRouge group leader

“1974 the KR began recruiting for thearmy. I joined up voluntarily because Ithought that it was better than buildingdikes and trenches like normal citizens,that I would get better food. My father didnot want that, but I was determined to doso, because I did not want anyone to look

down on me. My father was a very strongman but on the day I left he cried. The KRdestroyed my family. During their regimewe suffered hunger and were separated.We rarely met. I did not believe what theytaught me but I could not do anything be-cause everyone was under their control.To save our lives we had to do what wewere told.”


Suos Thy, 56 years old, worked inthe office of S-21

“1976 I worked in the documentationdepartment of S-21. I thought that theyhad appointed me to this job because Ihad experience of writing. 1983 I wentto prison for three years. I thought it wasvery unfair to be in prison while the KR

leaders were free. The murderous regimewas created by them and they have to becharged for it. I am not trying to defendmyself. When I heard that the leaders ofthe KR were saying that they did notknow anything about the existence of

Tuol Sleng prison I had to laugh out loud.It was a large prison, not a small one, andthe founders must have had top positi-ons in the revolution. Prisoners from allover the country were brought there.The leaders are definitively lying to us.”


Meas Pengkry, 52 years old, soldier of the Khmer Rouge

“I saw good times and bad times duringthe Khmer Rouge regime. I will tell mychildren that during the time of Pol Potpeople were forced to work without abreak and got very little to eat. The people

ate everything eatable they could find liketree leaves and roots. Now I exhort mychildren to work hard. We have to workfor ourselves. If we don’t, nobody will sup-port us.”


Lo Sim, 55 years old, Khmer Rouge group leader

“I don’t know what to say about the KRleaders. They were cruel, they killed theirown people. In Prey Sar prison I displayedhonesty and obedience and I worked veryhard so they would spare me. Every night

four to five people would be killed. Theywere told that they had to work a certaindistance away from the prison pealingkapok fruit. But instead they were takenaway to die.“


Nheb Ho, 57 years old, Khmer Rouge group leader

“All the KR leaders who said that they didnot know of the existence of the TuolSleng prison tried to defend themselves asthey all worked with Pol Pot, the founderof this one square kilometre compound.

They should not be able to charge theman in the street in order to hide theirown crimes. That is unfair. The people inthe village called me pro Pol Pot. I do nothold it against them, as it is true that I

worked for the KR. Most of the villagersknow that I worked in Tuol Sleng prison.I do not regret it, but I feel for my wifeand my children when they suffer fromwhat people say about me.”


Nuon Hong, 49 years old, soldierof the Khmer Rouge

“During the rule of the Democratic Cam-bodia I continuously lived in fear of beingtaken away. Everyone felt it. Every few daysa truck full of people would be taken away

without giving clear reasons. One lived incontinuous fear of making a mistake, beingarrested and being killed. Once you werein prison the chance of survival was small.”


Im Chanta, 52 years old, soldierof the Khmer Rouge

“In Prey Sar prison I lost a knife. My col-league had hidden the knife. My boss the-refore hit me with a stick. The KR leadersshould be executed for their cruel mur-der of people and because they hurt me.”


of state, threatened with military courtsand death sentences. Khieu Samphan de-cided to flee into the jungle.

Khieu Samphan was born 1931 in theprovince of Svay Rieng as a son of a lowstate official. 1954 he went to Paris andstudied law and economics. 1959 he didhis doctorate on the topic “The Economyof Cambodia and the Problems of Indu-strialisation”. After his return from Parishe at first edited a newspaper, was brieflyarrested and then taught at the renownedSisovath-Lyzeum in Phnom Penh. A turningpoint for Khieu Samphan, who was laterconsidered the “gentleman” among theKhmer Rouge, was an uprising in 1967 inthe province of Battambang for which the“left” and the “communists” were blamed.It was, however, the local farmers whowere protesting against the low price ofrice and the arbitrary confiscation of riceby the military. Prince Sihanouk, the head

Ieng Sary was “brother No. 3” and aclose friend of Pol Pot. He was born in theSouth Vietnamese province of Vinh Longas Kim Trang. The year of his birth is notexactly known. It is said that he was bornbetween 1922 and 1925, but 1929 is alsomentioned. His father was Vietnamese, hismother a Khmer-Krom, which is the eth-nic Khmer who live in South Vietnam. Theparents were wealthy landowners. IengSary later tried to cover up his Vietnameseheritage. He visited the Sisovath-Lyzeumand went to Paris to a business school in1950. 1955 he became the chairman of theKhmer Student Association and returnedto Sisovath-Lyzeum as a teacher in 1957.Like Pol Pot he went into hiding in thejungle in 1963.

THE PERPETRATORS


indoctrination camps: “We do not needthe old generation anymore because theycan not change their thinking.”

Ieng Tirith, former Social Minister ofthe Khmer Rouge and member of the Par-ty’s Central Committee was born asKhieu Tirith and is the wife of Ieng Sary.Her older sister Khieu Ponnary was thefirst wife of Pol Pot. Ieng Tirith held espe-cially extreme views of the Khmer Rouge.She focused totally on the young and ruth-less guards which had run through proper

Nuon Chea was “brother No. 2” anddeputy of Pol Pot. He was born in Bat-tambang in 1927 and is of Thai-Chinesedescent. At the end of the 1940s he wor-ked in the Thai Foreign Ministry. 1951 hewent to Hanoi for three years and afterhis return became deputy Secretary Ge-neral of the Cambodian RevolutionaryPeoples Party. Nuon Chea is consideredthe chief ideologue of the Khmer Rouge.After 1975 he was Prime Minster forsome time. His vision of the future ofCambodia: “For the coming ten, hundred,thousand, ten- and hundred thousandyears it will be our duty to defend Cam-bodia and its workers and peasants, or-ganized in communes, and in huge stridesbuild up a new society.” Until his arrest in2007 he lived as a “simple farmer” in vici-nity of Pailin on the Thai border.

THE PERPETRATORS


Kaing Guek Eav called Duch, was thewarden of the torture prison S-21 TuolSleng from 1976. He was born in 1942close to the town of Kampong Thom,comes from a Chinese-Cambodian familyand visited, similar to most of the otherleading Khmer Rouge, the Sisovath gram-mar school. Later he was arrested as a “lef-tist” under Sihanouk, but was able to thendefect into the jungle. Him Huy, the late se-curity chief of S-21 who was charged withmore than 2.000 murders, commentedabout him: “He was strict but fair. What hesaid was done.” In the 1990s Duch turnedto evangelical communities and convertedto Christianity. Only in 1999 a journalistwas able to reveal his identity. ThereuponDuch was arrested and imprisoned. In No-vember 2007 he was transferred to the In-ternational Tribunal.

Pol Pot, real name Saloth Sar, was thedreaded “brother No. 1” of the KhmerRouge. He was born in 1928 in the pro-vince of Kampong Thom. His parents werewealthy for Cambodian standards and themother was Chinese. He graduated froma technical middle school in Phnom Penh,he learnt to be a carpenter and joiner andin 1949 he went to Paris to study radioengineering. After he failed the exam threetimes he returned to Phnom Penh in 1953.Some said that he was more interested inpolitics and French literature. Verlaine wasone of his favourite poets. Later Saloth Sartaught at Lyzeum Kamputh Both and be-longed to several leftist groups. In 1963 hedefected into the jungle. For many yearsnobody knew who was behind the assu-med name Pol Pot. It was not until 1977

THE PERPETRATORS

when a photo of him was published inChina that he was recognized as SalothSar. Pol Pot died in 1998 in the vicinity ofAnlong Veng in the north of Cambodia.


The International Tribunal

called the Extraordinary Chambers in theCourts of Cambodia is a unique con-struction which has to do with Cambo-dian history. Over more than severaldecades the UN Security Council ignoredthe genocide in Cambodia. China and theUSA prevented every criminal prosecu-tion and even agreed that the KhmerRouge represented Cambodia at the Uni-ted Nations after 1979. This also has a hi-storical reason. In 1975 the small Vietnamhad militarily defeated the large USA, andVietnam had also liberated Cambodiafrom the terror regime of Pol Pot whichhad been supported by China. Vietnam re-

mained the occupying power in the coun-try of the Khmer until 1989. After a projectby the UN which cost billions in 1992/93and which should end the civil war, the re-fugee problem and introduce democraticconditions, the UN Human Rights Com-mission firstly addressed the prosecutionof those responsible for the genocide in1997. In 2001 the Cambodian National As-sembly finally passed the law for the crea-tion of the Extraordinary Chambers in theCourts of Cambodia for the prosecutionof crimes during the time of the Demo-cratic Cambodia. In March 2003 there wasan agreement with the UN.

In May 2003 the UN General Assemblyratified the tribunal resolution which wassigned by both sides. According to the re-solution the court is based in Cambodiaand employs mainly Cambodian judges.Nevertheless, at least one internationaljudge has to agree to a majority decision.From August to November 2007 fourpeople who belonged to the leadership ofthe Khmer Rouge were arrested andtaken to the tribunal prison. The formerdirector of the infamous torture prisonTuol Sleng (S-21), Duch, who had been ina military prison since 1999, was also tur-ned in to the tribunal.

THE TRIBUNAL


Around 1995, a number of KhmerRouge soldiers surrendered to the go-vernment. I was told by a friend that Huy, a formerbutcher of Tuol Sleng, had defected to go-vernment authorities in Sa'ang district,Kandal province, where he admitted killingmore than 2,000 people. A friend showedme his photograph.

With one glance at the photograph, I re-cognized him to the bone. But when heconfessed that he had killed only 2,000people, I thought it was too few. In 1978alone, tens of thousands of people weretaken to Tuol Sleng. There were just a fewguards who killed the prisoners, and Huywas one of them. So the 2,000 people hesaid he had killed must have been just afraction of the total number.

After I heard about Huy's defection, I could not remain peaceful. I rememberedthe corpses stacked on top of each other.I could still see the guards’ jubilant faceswhen they beat people. It was incrediblethat a butcher who had killed thousands ofpeople now had the right to live happilywith his wife and children.

I had determined in my mind that I mustmeet Huy.

One day as I entered the prison and wal-ked towards the painting room, I saw the

director in the yard. One of the staff walkedto me and said in a low voice:

“Uncle! There — it’s A-Huy! You wantto see him? He's over there!”

I was startled and asked, “What? Whatdid you say?”

“I said that A-Huy is right over there,”the man stressed.

I stopped about two meters from him andlooked him in the eye. He did not noticemy presence. My voice seemed very di-stant when I began speaking.

“You are Brother Huy, aren't you?”A-Huy turned to me quickly and spoke

in a gentle manner. “Yes, it's me,” he said,turning away to watch the scenery wit-hout paying much attention to me.

He did not know that I was staring athim to the bones.

“Do you know me, Brother?” I asked.This time, he turned to me, looked at

me a bit longer, and then said, “No, I don't.”“But I know you very well. Why don't

you know me? You used to be the chief ofsecurity in this prison,” I said.

As I spoke, the expression on his facegreatly changed.

“Do you recognize me? I was one of thefour or five painters who worked in thatroom,” I said pointing at our former wor-kroom. “You used to go there often.”

“At that time I was told to take the pri-soners for them. How could I get away

from following their orders?” he said.

“How many people did you kill?” I askedwith emphasis.

“ I was forced then ... I killed about fouror five people, because I could not avoiddoing that,” he said.

I laughed and thought that even thoughhe had turned from a cruel young man toquite an old man, his heart and mind hadnot changed, as none of his words weretrue.

“According to the reports, when youdefected you confessed that you had killedmore than 2,000 people. What do youthink?” I asked this question to probe furt-her, but he in turn gave me a tricky answer.

“First I told them the truth — just threeor four — but they didn't believe me andthey kept asking. I thought that if I told asmall number, they wouldn’t believe me. SoI told them this big number — 2,000 —and they believed me.”

I shook my head, feeling confused.“Huy, I don't have any ill intention against

you. If I did, you wouldn't be able to standin front of me now. “

I asked if he had seen the paintings I hadhung in the museum. He said he had.

“What do you think of the paintings?Are they too exaggerated?” I asked.

“No, they are not exaggerated,” he said.“There were scenes more brutal thanthat.”

VANN NATH: DIALOG WITH A MASS MURDERER

Photo above left: Nath as a prisonerPhoto down left: Nath in his studioPhoto obove right: Him HuyPhoto down right: prison cell in Tuol Sleng


THE CAMBODIA - DISASTER - Kambodscha Desaster · “Kambodscha: Reisen in einem traumatisierten...

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