[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.]
In a house situated behind Building A [at S-21], Bou Meng was forced to lie on his stomach. The windows and door were shut. Someone asked him to pick the stick with which he’d like to be beaten.
”I said, ‘That’s for you to choose, brother.’ “
It was the chief interrogator, Mam Nai, a man with pimply skin covered in red rash, who started, says Bou Meng. Then someone else took over. They heaped insults on him. They made him count the strokes. When his lacerated skin began to bleed, someone threw salt water on his wounds. Sometimes, as many as five interrogators unleashed their fury on him at once. They threw jackfruit skins at his head. After the beatings, they sometimes gave him tablets, so-called medicines produced by the Glorious Revolution. Bou Meng calls the medicine “rabbit pellets.”
[…]
”I didn’t know anything about any CIA or KGB networks. I didn’t know what to say. I would be happy if 50 percent or even 60 percent of justice had been done. Because I had committed no offense,” says a visibly upset Bou Meng.
For thirty years, this thought has been boring through his brain like a gimlet: what crime had he committed? He had done every single thing that the Angkar had asked of him. Yet his torturers told him again and again that it was pointless to ask himself such questions, since the “Angkar was like a pineapple” – it had hundreds of eyes that saw everything, everywhere.
One day, Bou Meng was taken to Building D. He was electrocuted until he lost consciousness. They woke him by throwing water on him. But he still didn’t talk. So, weary of waiting, his tormentors ended up writing his confession for him. All he had to do was sign. Remembering this, he says he would’ve preferred to die of malaria in the jungle. Then he massages his forehead with Tiger Balm:
I don’t remember what was in my confession. I had conflicted feelings at the time. I was fearful, I was worried, I did what I was ordered to do. They had absolutely no reason to suspect me of being a CIA or KGB agent. I signed with my hand. But in my heart of hearts, I did not confess.
Source:
Cruvellier, T., and Alex Gilly. “Chapter 4.” The Master of Confessions: The Making of a Khmer Rouge Torturer. Ecco, 2014. 29-30. Print.
Further Reading:
Mam Nai or Mam Nay, nom de guerre Comrade Chan
សារមន្ទីរឧក្រិដ្ឋកម្មប្រល័យពូជសាសន៍ទួលស្លែង (Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum) / Security Prison 21 (S-21)
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