[The following is in regards to the trial of Kaing Guek Eav, commonly known as Comrade Duch, who was the head of the Khmer Rouge’s internal security branch, in which he oversaw the Tuol Sleng (S-21) prison camp where thousands were held for interrogation and torture. While the trial itself takes place in the early 2000s, I still felt it appropriate, as the trial only covered events taking place between the years 1975-1979. Every testimony is from that time period, and everything depicted by the author, who was present at the trial, are essentially reactions to this gruesome period of history by contemporaries who were present or had participated. In that sense, I feel this fits well for our purposes, and I do not believe it breaks the 20 Year Rule.]
A month went by in these unhuman conditions [imprisonment at S-21]. Sitting down without the warden’s permission was forbidden. On a blackboard were chalked orders to not talk or to listen to the guards. The prisoners were served a meager bowl of gruel at eight in the morning and another at eight in the evening. They had to relieve themselves in the same room in which they were shackled, in an old munitions container, an iron box some fifteen centimeters deep.
Vann Nath was covered with lesions. He couldn’t stop scratching himself. He, too, hoped that a gecko would fall from the ceiling. But if it did, he’d have to gulp it down right away without being seen by the guard. If not, they would beat him. Unfortunately for him, Vann Nath was too far from the window, where the insects and lizards clustered: “Death loomed over us. People died one after another. They took the bodies away at ten o’clock. We didn’t even care. We were like animals.”
Vann Nath counted as many as sixty-five prisoners in his cell, lying on the ground in rows, their ankles shackled to a long metal rod. In one month, he saw four of his cellmates die. Sometimes the number in his cell fell to forty, when others were taken away and never seen again.
The hardest thing was knowing that you hadn’t done anything wrong, he says. The hardest thing was making up stories in order to survive, in order to avoid being tortured.
Source:
Cruvellier, T., and Alex Gilly. “Chapter 4.” The Master of Confessions: The Making of a Khmer Rouge Torturer. Ecco, 2014. 24. Print.
Further Reading:
សារមន្ទីរឧក្រិដ្ឋកម្មប្រល័យពូជសាសន៍ទួលស្លែង (Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum) / Security Prison 21 (S-21)
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