Khmer Rouge survivor's paintings saved his life

By SOPHENG CHEANG – 30 minutes ago

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — A survivor of the Khmer Rouge's main prison said
Wednesday that his ability to paint larger-than-life images of the regime's
late leader, Pol Pot, and portraits of other communist icons helped save his
life.

Bou Meng was put to work painting portraits that glorified Mao Zedong of
China and North Korea's Kim Il Sung and another that mocked Ho Chi Minh, the
father of Vietnam's communist revolution.

"I was ordered to paint a picture of Ho Chi Minh's head on the body of a
dog," 68-year-old Bou Meng told a U.N.-backed tribunal. Cambodia's archenemy
was neighboring Vietnam, which eventually invaded to oust the Khmer Rouge in
1979.

Bou Meng was the third and final survivor of the S-21 prison to testify at
the U.N.-backed trial of Kaing Guek Eav — better known as Duch — who headed
the Khmer Rouge's notorious facility in Phnom Penh between 1975-1979. An
estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died from forced labor, starvation, medical
neglect and executions under the regime.

Duch is accused of overseeing the torture of some 16,000 prisoners before
they were executed. Seven people are believed to have walked out of S-21
alive, only three of whom are alive today.

Bou Meng, like the other two survivors, said torturers beat him relentlessly
to force a confession that he was a CIA spy.

"I didn't even know what the CIA was," he said. "I kept repeating my answer
and they kept beating me."

The beatings stopped when his jailers found out he had a skill that could
serve them.

"I survived because I could paint exact portraits of Pol Pot," he said. His
first job was to copy Pol Pot's image from a photograph and make a towering
painting that was 10 feet high and 5 feet wide (3 meters high and 1.5 meters
wide). It took three months to complete.

Duch then ordered him to make three more paintings of Pol Pot and the other
communist leaders.

Duch would sometimes oversee his work and smile at him when he did a good
job or give him cigarettes, Bou Meng said.

Survivor Chum Mey, 79, testified Tuesday that he endured beatings, electric
shocks and had his toenails pulled out but was spared execution because he
knew how to fix cars, tractors, sewing machines and typewriters.

The only other living survivor, 63-year-old Vann Nath, testified Monday that
he too escaped execution because he was an artist and painted portraits of
Pol Pot.

Duch, (pronounced Doik), is charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes
and murder. He has previously testified that being sent to S-21 was
tantamount to a death sentence and that he was only following orders to save
his own life.

Duch is the first senior Khmer Rouge figure to face trial and the only one
to acknowledge responsibility for his actions. Senior leaders Khieu Samphan,
Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary and Ieng Sary's wife, Ieng Thirith, are all detained
and likely to face trial in the next year or two.