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Published: July 24th 2011
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The infamous Khemer Rouge prison S-21 or it's proper name the Tuol Sleng Prison was a high school. Only 7 prisoners came out alive!
The few dead bodies found in the prison by the "liberating army" (i.e. the Vietnamese) were buried on the grounds of the prison. Most of the inmates were killed in the "killing fields" slightly north of the city. I couldn't bring myself to visit there. The prison was a shocking experience by itself.
The building reminded me of my school in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Several buildings, each with 3 Floors, with standard classroom and blackboards. Some rooms had been crudely partitioned into tiny individual prison cells using brick and wood, with holes knocked between classroom to join them up internally. That way, the prisoners never got to see the outside.
Much of the killing was done with a strike from an iron bar to the back of the neck to save the cost of a bullet. But, plenty were shot through the head, as evidenced by the skulls on display.
What struck me was a narrative from survivors of this period who said that what they really lost was trust. They couldn't trust
their neighbours or family members or anyone ... the Khemer used the Mao inspired spying tacting of hiring the local grand mothers to spy on their neighbours. Petty grievances and jealousies often ended up casting victims to be sent to S-21.
Of course, the interrogators never made mistakes. One of their standard mantras, probably learned from a Catholic missionary, was "Angkor makes no mistakes. Angkor knows all." ... ala the infallibility of the Pope. Systems that don't allow for mistakes are ripe for abuse. Getting confessions from torture is relatively easy. The standard accusation was "you are CIA-KGB, Who were your collaborators?" ... Thousands were denounced as a result of torture.
And to think that after liberation from the Khemer Rouge, the Cambodian people continued to suffer on the International stage by having the Khemer Rouge keep representing them in the UN at the insistence of the USA, among others. Why would the USA support the Khemer Rouge over the liberators? Because they were still licking their wounds after having lost ... oh sorry won ... their war in Vietnam ... my enemy's enemy is my friend. Talk about the ethics of depravity.
Duch, the prison commander,
was a former school teacher. He used red ink on confessions to decide who was worthy of more torture or who should be taken to the killing fields. He is one of the four Khemer Rouge leaders on trial now. The strange thing is most of the people who did the actual killing are deserving of sympathy too. They had no choice. If they didn't do the bidding of the leaders, they too would have been killed without hesitation. No loyalty. No trust. Nothing worth living for.
So, when I read the words "Never again" following the genocide in WW II, I realize those are empty words. If Cambodia doesn't count as again, and Rwanda doesn't count as again, and ... oh well ... empty words.
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