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MONOGRAPHS |
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Victims and Perpetrators:
The Testimony of Young Khmer Rouge Cadres at S-21
Meng-Try Ea and Sorya Sim
2001
(USD18)
76 pages in English,
150 pages in Khmer
A note on
the Front Cover Photo
PDF
In
Democratic Kampuchea’s Region 31, the Khmer Rouge recruited
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children to serve
as
guards, “catchers,” and animal husbandry
workers in Tuol
Sleng Prison (S-21). This monograph explores how these and other
Cambodian youth were forced to become Khmer Rouge cadres, how they
were indoctrinated in the ideology of Democratic Kampuchea, how they
were affected, and the violation of their rights.
The authors used Khmer Rouge biographies and interviews with 73 people
to collect information on these youths. Eighteen of those interviewed
were Khmer Rouge cadres at S-21, 22 are family members of deceased
S-21 cadres, and 33 are survivors of the regime. The authors conclude
that these children were victims as well as perpetrators.
Funding
provided by the Human Rights Project Funds of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom through the British Embassy,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and the Government of Norway.
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Oukoubah:
Genocide Justice for the Cham Muslims under Democratic
Kampuchea
Osman Ysa
2002
(USD30)
140 in English, 205 pages in Khmer
PDF
This monograph explores the genocide of the Cham ethnic
group,
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making a case that the Cham, who are Muslims, were killed a rate that was
nearly double to triple that of the general Cambodian population
during the Democratic Kampuchea regime. It provides evidence showing
that the Cham comprised 10% of Cambodia’s population prior to 1975
(about 700,000 people), but numbered only 200,000 after the regime
fell in 1979.
The author presents case studies of 13 Cham prisoners at S-21 (7 Khmer
Rouge soldiers, 2 Lon Nol government officials, a student, a
fisherman, a peasant, and an interrogator at S-21), all of whom were
executed at the prison.
Funding
provided by the Human Rights Project Funds of the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom through the British Embassy,
Phnom Penh.
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The Khmer Rouge Division 703:
From Victory to Self-Destruction
Vannak Huy
2003
(USD15)
202 pages in English, 250 in Khmer
PDF
One of the most favored of the Khmer Rouge’s nine military divisions,
Division 703 was composed of 5,000 to 6,000 peasants, |
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primarily from Kandal province. At the end of 1975, its soldiers with “clean”
backgrounds were given positions at Tuol Sleng (the central-level
prison also known as S-21) or its branch office S-21D (Prey Sar
prison) and various government offices. At least 567 of these men were
later branded as “enemies” of the regime and executed at S-21.
This monograph examines the careers of 40 soldiers who worked in
Division 703. Most of those who survived the 1979 defeat of the Khmer
Rouge returned to their villages in the early 1980s, often after
spending time in prison as a result of their involvement with the
regime.
Funding
provided by the United States Department of State, Bureau of
Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.
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Seven Candidates for Prosecution:
Accountability for the Crimes of the Khmer Rouge
Stephen Heder and Brian Tittemore
2004
(USD18)
153 pages
in English (executive summary in Khmer)
247 pages
in Japanese Language
PDF
This study
examines the responsibility of seven
senior officials for |
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their
roles in developing and implementing the
murderous policies of the Communist Party of T Kampuchea (CPK), known to
its enemies as the “Khmer Rouge”: |
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Deputy Secretary of the CPK Central Committee Nuon Chea, who is
implicated in devising and implementing the Party’s execution
policies. |
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Deputy Prime Minister for Foreign Affairs and Central and Standing
Committee member Ieng Sary, who repeatedly and publicly encouraged
and facilitated arrests and executions within his ministry and
throughout Cambodia. |
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Democratic Kampuchea State Presidium Chairman Khieu Samphan, who
encouraged lower-level CPK officials to perpetrate executions and,
at least in some instances, monitored and contributed to the
implementation of Party policies by regional authorities. |
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Zone
Secretaries and Central Committee members Ta Mok and Kae Pok, who
directed or otherwise facilitated their subordinates’ arrests of
suspected traitors in their zones, and failed to prevent or punish
atrocities perpetrated by their subordinates. |
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CPK Military Division Chairmen Sou Met and Meah Mut, who played
direct roles in the arrest and transfer of cadre from their
divisions for interrogation and execution, and failed to prevent
or punish atrocities perpetrated by their subordinates. |
While
extensive work has been done to document and analyze evidence of CPK
crimes generally, this is the first comprehensive legal analysis of
available evidence against specific individuals for international
crimes. Heder and Tittemore also shed new light on how the CPK
designed and implemented the CPK’s policies of mass execution.
Funding
provided by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency
and the OSI Development Foundation (a Swiss charitable foundation).
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Reconciliation in
Cambodia
Suzannah Linton
2004
(USD40)
274 pages
in English (executive summary in Khmer)
PDF
For the first time,
Cambodia’s
struggle to deal with its tragic past
is
put into global context through an examination of the growing
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of literature in this area, and comparisons with the
experiences of
such countries as Chile, Argentina, Rwanda, South Africa, and East
Timor.
The heart of this study is analysis of the extensive data collected by
DC-Cam’s magazine, Searching for the Truth, in the course of a
public survey of its Cambodian readers in 2002. The author provides
insight into the attitudes and perceptions of ordinary Cambodians on a
range of issues relating to the Khmer Rouge: accountability, revenge,
forgiveness, reconciliation, and their vision for the future.
Funding provided by
the OSI Development Foundation, the United Kingdom, US Agency for
International Development (USAID), and Sida (Sweden).
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154 pages in English
180
photographs
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Stilled Lives:
Photographs of the Cambodian Genocide
Wynne Cougill with Pivoine Pang, Chhayran Ra, and
Sopheak Sim
2004
(USD25)
PDF
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This book contains photographs and essays on the lives of 51 men and
women, |
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who joined the Khmer Rouge during the 1960s and 1970s. They were
what the Khmer Rouge called “base people”: those from the peasant
class who generally were treated less harshly than the “new people”
(city dwellers and those associated with the former Lon Nol regime).
The people profiled here served the Khmer Rouge as farmers, soldiers,
security personnel, or cadres (those with some degree of command
responsibility). Although most Cambodians view the former Khmer Rouge
as cruel and sometimes evil, this book shows that they and their
families faced the same struggles and hardships as their victims, and
points to our common humanity.
Funding provided by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
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The Chain of Terror:
The Khmer Rouge Southwest Zone Security System
Meng-Try Ea
2004
(USD25)
150 pages
in English
PDF
The Khmer Rouge security (prison) system was set up at virtually every
political level throughout Democratic Kampuchea. This
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monograph examines the structure of the security system in the
regime’s Southwest Zone, which was considered a model for therevolution, but contained over 250 security centers (DC-Cam has
located over 6,000 mass grave sites in this zone). It examines the
execution chain at the subdistrict, district, region, and zone levels,
and the relationships of the centers within the zone.
Funding provided by Swedish International Development Cooperation
Agency (Sida) and the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID) through The Asia Foundation.
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Tum Teav:
A Translation and Analysis of a Cambodian Literary Classic
George Chigas
2005
(USD23)
252 pages
in English
PDF
Tum Teav
is the tragic love story of a talented novice monk named
Tum and a
beautiful adolescent girl named Teav. Well known
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throughout Cambodia since at least the middle of the 19th century, the story
has
been told in oral, historical, literary, theatre,
and film
versions. This monograph contains the author’s translation of the
Venerable Botumthera Som’s version. It also examines the controversy
over the poem’s authorship and its interpretation by literary scholars
and performers in terms of Buddhism and traditional codes of conduct,
abuse of power, and notions of justice.
Funding provided by NZAID (New Zealand).
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The Cham Rebellion
Survivors' Stories from the
Villages
Osman Ysa
2006
(USD25)
184 pages
in English
PDF
In
October 1975, two Cham Muslim villages in Kampong Cham province staged
brief and ill-fated rebellions against
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oppressors, who had banned the practice of Islam. Armed with swords,
knives, sticks, stones and two guns, they killed a member of the subdistrict committee
and the chief of the district youth group. After the
rebellions were put down, the survivors were deported to malarial
areas, imprisoned, or executed. Only about 10 percent of these
villages 8,000 people survived the regime.
Funding provided by NZAID (New Zealand).
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The
Khmer Rouge Tribunal
John
D. Ciorciari
2006
(USD11.50)
201 pages
in English
PDF
Between April 1975
and January 1979, the radical Khmer Rouge regime subjected
Cambodians to a wave of atrocities that left over one in four
Cambodians dead. For nearly three decades, call for
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justice went
unanswered, and the architects of Khmer Rouge terror enjoyed almost
unfettered impunity. Only recently has a tribunal been established to
put surviving Khmer Rouge officials on trial. This edited volume
examines the origins, evolution, and feature of the Khmer Rouge
Tribunal. It provides a concise overview of legal and political
issues surrounding the tribunal and answers key questions about the
accountability process. It explains why the tribunal took so many
years to create and why it became a "hybrid" court with Cambodians
and international participation. It also assesses the laws and
procedures governing the proceedings and the likely evidence
available against Khmer Rouge defendants. Finally, it discusses how
the tribunal can most effectively advance the aims of justice and
reconciliation in Cambodia and help to dispel the shadows of the
past.
Funding provided by
Switzerland, The Netherlands, and United States.
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Vanished:
Stories from Cambodia’s New People under
Democratic Kampuchea
Pivoine
Beang and Wynne Cougill
2007
(USD15)
143 pages
in English; 200 pages in Khmer
PDF |
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For
centuries, Cambodia’s rural peasants had lived in modest
circumstances with few entitlements, while the country’s tiny
urban elite enjoyed more opportunities and privileges. But in
April 1975 when the Khmer Rouge took control of Cambodia, they
reversed this social order.
Hundreds of thousands of city dwellers were evacuated to the
countryside, where they were forced into hard labor. Despised by
the peasants and Khmer Rouge cadres alike, these “new people”
were viewed as parasites and imperialists, and their rights and
privileges were removed. As many as two-thirds of them were
executed or died as a result of starvation, untreated diseases,
or overwork.
In
this monograph, 52 new people who survived Democratic Kampuchea
tell their stories and those of their loved ones under the Khmer
Rouge.
Funding provided by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)
with core support from the Swedish International
Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and the United States
Agency for International Development (USAID).
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2007
(USD13)
128 pages |
Night of
The Khmer Rouge:
Genocide and Justice in Cambodia
Depicting
Torture and Genocide:
Documentation Center of Cambodia and Rutgers
University’s Photo Exhibition on the Khmer Rouge
Alexander Hinton
Jorge
Daniel Veneciano
Youk
Chhang
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The task of preserving the memory of a horrific past is both
difficult and necessary. Rutgers University located in New
Jersey, America has accomplished this very task with their
recent photo exhibition titled, “Night of the Khmer Rouge:
Genocide and Justice in Cambodia” displayed at the Paul Robeson
Gallery. The graphic photos tell a frightening story of what
humanity can do to itself. The most ghastly chapter of
Cambodia’s history began on April 17, 1975 when Pol Pot’s Khmer
Rouge forces stormed victoriously into Phnom Penh after years of
civil war. Their victory meant the implementation of a radical
social and economic plan that would transform Cambodia into a
self-sufficient socialist society. The new government was
called Democratic Kampuchea. Labeling their plan a failure is a
gross understatement.
The terror and killing that enveloped Cambodia during the
government of Democratic Kampuchea lasted under fours years and
destroyed two million lives. Those who survived were left to
make do in a ravaged country stripped of its schools, shops,
temples, government structures, and sense of security. The
photo exhibition at the Paul Robeson Gallery shed light upon the
darkness that overcame Cambodia. In particular, attention is
focused on the highest level security prison then known by its
code name, S-21. Prisoner photographs taken at S-21
disturbingly reveal young faces, some as young as five years
old. Immediately one wonders how a child could be a prisoner of
S-21 which was intended for serious political offenses, but then
again the Khmer Rouge considered a starving person “stealing”
rice grains a crime worthy of execution. It has been estimated
that 14,000-20,000 prisoners passed through the gates of S-21
from 1975-1979 where they died or were taken to Choeung Ek (a
nearby field) for group extermination. The reflective essays at
the gallery provide some understanding of what occurred inside
Cambodia and the issues that face Cambodia now as it tries to
reconcile with this tragic past. Together with the photographs,
they expose a truth that must be told. This truth of what
happened in Cambodia is now being dealt with in the
Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) which
seeks to prosecute former senior Khmer Rouge leaders. It is
hoped that the legal justice delivered by tribunal will help
Cambodia commence genuine healing and reconciliation. DQK.
Shown at Rutgers’ Paul Robeson Gallery in Newark, New Jersey
from January 16 to February 22, 2007, this exhibition featured
photographs from Democratic Kampuchea held in DC-Cam’s archives.
Funding for the exhibition and catalogue was provided by the
Soros Foundation's Open Society Institute, the US Agency for
International Development, the Swedish International Development
Agency, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of
State, the Cultural Programming Commission of Rutgers-Newark,
and the NJ Commission on Holocaust Education.
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A History of Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1979)5-1979)
Khamboly Dy
2007
(USD7)
73 pages in English. 100 pages in Khmer
PDF 1
(Eng)
PDF 1 (Kh)
PDF 2
(Eng)
PDF 2 (Kh) |
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Foreword
Chinese diplomat Chou Ta-kuan gave the world his account of
life at Angkor Wat eight hundred years ago. Since that time,
others have been writing our history for us. Countless
scholars have examined our most prized cultural treasure and
more recently, the Cambodian genocide of 1975-1979. But with
Khamboly Dy’s A History of Democratic Kampuchea,
Cambodians are at last beginning to investigate and record
their country’s past. This new volume represents two years
of research and marks the first such text written by a
Cambodian.
Writing about this bleak period of history for a new
generation may run the risk of re-opening old wounds for the
survivors of Democratic Kampuchea. Many Cambodians have
tried to put their memories of the regime behind them and
move on. But we cannot progress -- much less reconcile with
ourselves and others -- until we have confronted the past
and understand both what happened and why it happened. Only
with this understanding can we truly begin to heal.
Intended for high school students, this book is equally
relevant for adults. All of us can draw lessons from our
history. By facing this dark period of our past, we can
learn from it and move toward becoming a nation of people
who are invested in preventing future occurrences of
genocide, both at home and in the myriad countries that are
today facing massive human rights abuses. And by taking
responsibility for teaching our children through texts such
as this one, Cambodia can go forward and mold future
generations who work to ensure that the seeds of genocide
never again take root in our country.
Youk Chhang
Director
Documentation Center of Cambodia
The text was submitted to the Government Working Commission
to Review the Draft of the History of Democratic Kampuchea.
On January 3, 2007, the Commission decided that, "the text
can be used as a supplementary discussion material (for
teachers) and as base to write a history lesson for (high
school) students.
Funding for this project was generously provided by the
Soros Foundation’s Open Society Institute (OSI) and the
National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Support for DC-Cam’s
operations is provided by the US Agency for International
Development (USAID) and Swedish International Development
Agency (Sida).
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Buddhism under Pol Pot
Ian Harris
2007
(USD15)
304 pages in English
PDF1
PDF2
PDF3
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This new book
by Ian Harris, Professor of Buddhist Studies at the University
of Cumbria, UK, explores the fate of Buddhism before, during,
and shortly after Democratic Kampuchea. Prum Phalla of the
Documentation Center of Cambodia provided research assistance on
this project.
Dr. Harris
begins with an examination of Buddhism under Sihanouk and Lon
Nol, and then traces the origins of Khmer Communism and its
relationship with Buddhism in Cambodia. He then looks at the
fate of Buddhism early in the regime, including monk evacuations
and flights abroad, defrocking, forced marriage, military
service, and executions. The practice of Buddhism during the
regime is also examined, including Buddhist rites and the fate
of pagodas, images, and religious texts. Dr. Harris weighs the
claims of monk deaths and pagodas destroyed during Democratic
Kampuchea against his findings from extensive interviews and
documentary research. He concludes that there was no policy for
the systematic liquidation of monks in Democratic Kampuchea.
Ian Harris and
Prum Phalla:
Ian Harris is
Professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Cumbria, UK
and Tung Lin Kok Yuen, Visiting Professor on Buddhism and
Contemporary Society at the University of British Columbia,
Vancouver, Canada. Co-founder of the UK Association for Buddhist
Studies (UKABS) and author of many works on Buddhist ethics and
politics, his previous book was Cambodian Buddhism: History and
Practice (2005). He is currently investigating the links between
Buddhism and politics in pre-Pol Pot Cambodia.
For copies of
Buddhism under Pol Pot, please visit the Documentation Center of
Cambodia's Public Information Room or Monument Books in January,
or contact the Center at dccam@online.com.kh or 023-211-875.
Price: $15. We wish to thank the Swedish International
Development Agency (SIDA) for funding this publication and USAID
and SIDA for their core support to our center
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Winds from the West:
Khmer Rouge Purges in the Highlands of Mondul Kiri
Sara Colm and Sorya Sim
(to be
printed in 2007)
(USD15)
179 pages
in English.
PDF
The authors examine the Khmer Rouge’s purges in Democratic
Kampuchea’s
Region 105 (present-day Mondul Kiri province). |
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The monograph begins by
exploring the social and political co-existence
of the Khmer Rouge and the region’s highlanders, and how that
relationship soured when the Khmer Rouge imposed communal living,
work, and purges, practices that had a devastating impact on
traditional highlander culture.
Funding provided by the Human Rights Project Funds of the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom through the British Embassy,
Phnom Penh (for research) and the Government of Sweden (for
publication).
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Living Hell:
Democratic Kampuchea, August 1978
Text by
Gunnar Bergstrom - Photos by Gunnar Bergstrom and Hedda Ekerwald.
A Retrospective Exhibition and
Seminars with Gunnar Bergstrom.
2008
(USD18)
108 pages in English.
PDF (Eng)
PDF (Kh)
Brochure |
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Gunnar Bergstrom has not returned to
Cambodia since he joined a delegation that toured the country thirty
years ago. For fourteen days in 1978, Bergstrom and other members
of the Swedish Cambodian Friendship Association undertook a “public
relations” tour choreographed by the Khmer Rouge, whose intention
was to use the Swedes to rally support for the Khmer Rouge from
abroad -- particularly from other communist countries. During
Bergstrom’s trip, Khmer Rouge cadres took him and the other
delegates to Phnom Penh as well as Kandal, Siem Reap, Kampong Som,
and Kampong Cham provinces. They saw hospitals, factories, and
schools. They watched workers plant rice in the fields. They even
had dinner at the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh with Pol Pot and Ieng
Sary, the Khmer Rouge leaders and masterminds of the carnage. But
while the Khmer Rouge leaders “wined and dined” the Swedish
delegates, turmoil roiled the rest of the country. Cambodian were
overworked, starved and resigned to the wanton destruction of their
country. Many were dying. After the Swedes returned home, they
proclaimed that Cambodia was at the early, albeit imperfect, stages
of creating a model communist society. They said communism would
save the Cambodian people. It was not until Gunnar heard the stories
of thousands of miserable refugees who poured into Thailand a year
later that he realized he had made a grave misjudgment.
On November
15, 2008, Bergstrom will return to Cambodia for the first time since
1978 to speak with over 400 commune chiefs and villagers. He will
tell Cambodians — and ultimately the world — about the things he
saw, ignored, and was never shown during his first visit. To mark
Bergstrom’s return, the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) in
collaboration with the Living History Forum of Sweden, has put
together a traveling exhibition entitled Gunnar in the Living
Hell, which features never-before-seen photographs taken
exclusively from Bergstrom’s personal archive of his 1978 tour. They
are in color – unusual for pictures taken in Democratic Kampuchea.
Starting on November 18, 2008, the exhibition will open at Reyum
Arts Gallery and at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of
Cambodia (ECCC) in Phnom Penh. It will also travel to Kampong Cham,
Takeo and Battambang. Finally, the exhibition will be put on
permanent display at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh.
A duplicate exhibition will be shown at the Living History Forum in
Stockholm, Sweden in the summer of 2009 and will travel around
Sweden beginning in early 2010. Gunnar and his colleagues also
filmed parts of the trip, and the Documentation Center of Cambodia
keeps those films.
Gunnar
in the Living Hell
tells the
story through the lens of one man, Gunnar Bergstrom. Some of the
photographs included in this exhibition depict Bergstrom and the
other delegates happily smiling with Khmer Rouge cadre in the
Cambodian countryside, at the Royal Palace, Angkor Wat, and in an
almost-deserted Phnom Penh. Other photographs present a skewed and
manipulated glimpse into the daily “life” of the regime: Cambodians
eating communally, working in rice fields, building dams and other
irrigation projects. But as with most visual documents produced for
the Khmer Rouge, Bergstrom’s collection includes no photos of the
torture, starvation, death, and despair for which the Khmer Rouge is
so reviled. These omissions beg the questions: Was there any
justification for the Swedes’ support of the Khmer Rouge? Did the
Khmer Rouge cadres filter what the Swedes saw, or were the Swedes
willfully blind to the conditions surrounding them? Were the Swedes
hapless bystanders -- or were they, too, victims of the Khmer Rouge,
manipulated and duped by the regime?
Hopefully,
Gunnar in the Living Hell will expose the truth behind his
tour and others like it, spark discourse and scholarship about the
international community’s willful neglect, then and now, and
encourage other people who visited Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge
years to share their stories and experiences. And perhaps more than
anything else, the exhibition may foster reconciliation for
Cambodians who saw or heard about foreigners who visited the
country, survivors who have wondered for the last thirty years why
the international community never came to their rescue. While the
tribunals may bring reconciliation, they must also involve former
victims, perpetrators and bystanders -- whether it was people who
willingly committed crimes, or other people who provided tacit
support with their silence. Bergstrom was a member of that second
group, which is why his return to Cambodia is so important. (sjd)
Acknowledgement by the Author
This book would not have been possible without help and support from
several people and institutions. Chief among them are the victims.
Many are unknown to me, but they have testified to the misery
imposed on their lives under the Khmer Rouge. They told stories that
contributed to my belated understanding of the Khmer Rouge terror
that lay behind the polished surface that was shown to us during our
trip.
Thanks must
also go to Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of
Cambodia (DC- Cam). The original idea for the book and accompanying
exhibition were his, and he provided the initial editing. The United
States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Swedish
International Development Agency (Sida) and Living History Forum in
Sweden provided funding. Sophorn Huy and Sarah Dickenson organized
the project proposal and funding. Joel Brinkley of Stanford
University edited the manuscript. Yvonne Wong provided the book's
graphic design. Sim Sopheak and Kim Sovanndany helped get the book
published. Kalyan Sann with the assistances from Sirik Savina and
Olivia Altaras of DC-Cam and Ly Daravuth at Reyum Arts Gallery
arranged and set up the exhibition in Cambodia. Sayana Ser and
Kalyanee Mam arranged and set up the exhibition at the Extraordinary
Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). Hedda Ekerwald allowed us
to use her photos.
Supports:
Funding for
this project was generously provided by the US Agency for
International Development (USAID), Swedish International Development
Agency (Sida) and The Living History Forum (Forum för Levande
Historia). The Exhibition’s event is supported by Ministry Culture
and Fine Arts (Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and National Museum of
Cambodia) and the Ministry of Interior (Commune Chiefs) of the Royal
Government of Cambodia. |
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Breaking the Silence
A new Cambodian play
Script by Annemarie Prins
2008
A Note from the Director
In order
to make this play, I have tried to understand |
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this country
of wonders and its wonderful people. It has been over four years
since I was invited by Fred Frumberg, executive director of
Amrita Performing Arts, to give a workshop for the theatre
teachers at the Royal University of Fine Arts. Using text
fragments of my beloved writer Samuel Beckett, I introduced six
actors/teachers (four of which perform in this show) to the
world of western contemporary theater. During these two weeks,
some of the actresses started tell me fragments of their
childhood stories. Those were the seeds of our first new play,
‘3 year, 8 months, 20 days’: a production based on the memories
of three actresses as young girls during Pol Pot’s reign,
featuring Morm Sokly, Kov Sotheary and Chhon Sina. They play was
conceived as a small scale indoor performance and has been
presented in Phnom Penh and at the 2007 Singapore International
Arts Festival. It was only at that stage that I realized that
this production, which delved deeply into Cambodia’s
recent history, would reach a very limited Cambodian audience.
Having gained more and more insight into the effects of the
genocide and the near extinction of entire generations of
artists and intellectuals, I realized I had to make a second
play. This new production would need to be made to tour
throughout the country and deal not only with history, but also
with the question of how to go on. Breaking the Silence is based
on many interviews I conducted during a research trip in January
2008, several meetings with Chhang Youk – director of DC-Cam,
the viewing of hours of footage and reading every available book
on the topic. The main goal of this production is to find a way
out of trauma’s silence; contributing to open dialogue as
part of the process of reconciliation.
Travelling, talking, reading, viewing and most of all: working
with this amazing team, helped me get closer to knowing the
Cambodian soul. And I am grateful to the beautiful Cambodian
poets, especially Sam Ou Oeur who is very present in this show.
They all helped me to begin to understand.
I hope you will appreciate Breaking the Silence.
Synopsis
O, darling, my darling!
Now you are dead.
You’re shot dead... Buddho!
You’ve left me alone
in the middle of this island
From today onward
I shall have no hope.
This play is about regaining hope.
We will tell you stories.
The real stories of people who survived the Khmer Rouge era.
Stories that continue to evolve.
You’re invited to imagine their future, which could also be your
future.
1. A story about divided people: two women and two men in their
50’s.
2. A story about two women who were young, so very young when
their lives
were ruined: and now are two adult women in their 40’s.
3. A story about betrayal and guilt: a 76 year old woman, caring
for her 51 year old
son.
4. A story about a student who dreamed about a better world: a
man of 52 meets his
mother of 75.
5. A story about a little girl, who wanted to say sorry but
could not: she’s now 38
years old.
6. A story about a girl who stopped talking: then she was a
teenager, now she’s 47.
7. A story about a boy and a girl who were once upon a time dear
friends: they are
now nearly 50 years old.
I won’t mind
if you have thoughts
to add to mine.
I won’t say
yours word are “good” or “not good”
If you have more to add
that would be wonderful. |
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BOU
MENG: A
SURVIVOR FROM KHMER ROUGE PRISON
S-21
Justice for the Future, Not for the
Victims
175
pages in English
Nearly
30 years after the fall of the brutal Khmer Rouge
regime,
a survivor of its ruthless torture machine emerges from
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history to
announce: “I am still alive.”
The
Khmer Rouge imprisoned and tortured 14,000 Cambodians at its
notorious Toul Sleng Prison, also known as “S-21.” Imprisonment
at S-21 was a certain death sentence--only a handful of men
walked out alive. Among them was Bou Meng, an artist. Years
after the collapse of the Khmer Rouge regime, one of the most
horrific in history (1975-1979), and three decades after S-21
was closed, Bou Meng was believed dead. In January 2002, an
English local newspaper in Phnom Penh reported that he had died
in 1997 or 1998, and in October 2002, a Cambodian magazine
called Searching for the Truth ran a photo of S-21
survivors gathered at the former prison site, reporting that Bou
Meng had “disappeared.”
But Bou
Meng actually survived, an astonishing escape from execution
made possible only because of his skill as a portrait artist.
During his imprisonment at S-21, Bou Meng was forced to paint
propaganda portraits of Pol Pot and other Communist
leaders. Only because of his unique talent did the murderous
leaders of S-21 keep him alive. But it could not save Bou Meng's
wife, Ma Yoeun, or his two children. Ma Yoeun was tortured and
died at the killing site, Choeung Ek. Bou Meng's children
starved to death at a Khmer Rouge child center.
Bou
Meng’s story is the story of millions of Cambodians who endured
relentless suffering, torture and imprisonment during a vicious
and murderous regime. Today, Bou Meng’s story has also become
the particular story of one man’s quest to use his memory as a
tool in the search of truth and justice.
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