EXPERT WITNESS DAVID CHANDLER TESTIFIES ABOUT S-21

August 6, 2009

Morning Session by Socheat Nhean, Documentation Center of Cambodia, Graduate
Student of Anthropology at Northern Illinois University

Afternoon Session by Spencer Cryder, Legal Intern with the Documentation
Center of Cambodia and Candidate for J.D. 2010, Tulane University Law School

S-21 was Inhuman and Autonomous

A recognized expert on Cambodian history, Professor David Chandler, 76, has
extensively researched Cambodia since 1960, when he worked as a diplomat. In
the trial of Kaing Guek Eav (alias Duch), Chandler mainly testified
regarding his book, Voices from S-21: Terror and History in Pol Pot’s Secret
Prison. To write this book, Chandler spent a total of four years doing
research in the early 1990s, reading over 1,000 confessions of prisoners,
and interviewing numerous S-21 survivors and security guards.

Chandler testified that S-21 was an inhuman and autonomous prison created to
kill the enemy who desired to destroy the revolution and hid amongst the
cadres and people. Chandler found S-21 inhuman because prisoners were
tortured and forced to write confessions, security guards had virtually no
freedom, and everyone lived in a continuous and complete state of fear.

Chandler considered S-21 an autonomous institution because the people inside
S-21 were isolated from all other communities and no information from the
facility was broadcast to the outside world. Supporting this finding of
autonomy, Chandler noted that secrecy was the core of the Khmer Rouge
leadership and S-21 was not publicized. Communication only occurred between
S-21 and the Khmer Rouge central government. Chandler also quoted Nuon Chea
who told a Danish delegation in July 1978 that, “Secrecy was the top
priority of the Khmer Rouge leadership.”

Purge of Khmer Rouge cadres

In response to Judge Cartwright’s request for a general comment about S-21,
Chandler said that the Khmer Rouge set up S-21 to establish control over the
internal enemy. The paranoia regarding the internal enemy caused the Khmer
Rouge leaders to purge any cadre who rejected their policy. Accused of being
either CIA spies, KGB agents, or connected to the Vietnamese, the Khmer
Rouge purged untrustworthy cadres in late 1976 in the Northern and Eastern
zones. As an example, during this time, a secretary of the Northern zone,
Koy Tuon, was purged and sent to S-21 for a confession and subsequent
execution. Furthermore, any cadres loyal to Koy Tuon also met the same fate.
The numbers of S-21 prisoners reached its peak in 1977 when over five
thousand “enemies” were brought in. In the next step, cadres from the
Eastern and Northwest zones were sent to S-21.

Order to kill

Chandler stated that a written decision by the Khmer Rouge Central Committee
on March 30, 1976, caused the wave of killings. The Central Committee was
convinced that the internal enemy was everywhere in Democratic Kampuchea and
all of those enemies had to be “smashed.” In Duch’s morning response, Duch
also noted the importance of the March 1976 decision: “Before that decision,
the arrest focused on former Lon Nol government officials such as soldiers,
teachers and other officials. After March 1976, the arrests were targeted at
the internal enemy, i.e., party members and high-ranking officials.”

An Able and Efficient Administrator

During the afternoon session, the civil parties questioned Professor
Chandler regarding Duch’s administration of S-21. Based on his years of
research, Chandler regarded Duch as an enthusiastic and proud administrator.
Duch worked out the methodology of prison management from scratch because no
precedent existed in Democratic Kampuchea (DK) for such an operation.
Chandler noted that Duch’s constant innovation and improvement on the
functioning of S-21 should come as no surprise. Throughout his life, Duch
always pursued excellence – as a student, an apprentice, in his professional
life, and at S-21. Duch did not want to simply serve the regime; he wanted
to serve with a level of enthusiasm and skill that would make him proud of
himself.

Dehumanization of the S-21 Prisoners

When asked about the process of dehumanizing the prisoners, Professor
Chandler quickly noted that dehumanization is a global phenomenon. He
pointed out how societies often use euphemistic terms to avoid the brutal
reality of war, e.g., “body count,” “collateral damage,” and “smash.”
Furthermore, atrocities are not committed by some distinct kind of people in
a faraway land, but instead by normal people under extraordinary conditions.
These conditions existed at S-21: By combining a routinized behavior of
violence with no system of punishment for normally punishable acts, the S-21
staff eventually began to act with “revolutionary” enthusiasm towards a
dehumanized “enemy.” By acting with absolute confidence in the
implementation of their policy, Chandler compared the Khmer Rouge to a
waterfall in which everyone was caught up.

Some of the prisoners didn’t need dehumanization because the Khmer Rouge
considered the Vietnamese completely outside of the human race. Chandler
noted that females who were Vietnamese, ipso facto, were the group most
vulnerable to sexual violence. Furthermore, the dehumanization process began
in the trucks on the way to S-21; the prisoners were already considered and
treated as non-human garbage. Emotions such as mercy had no value inside the
walls of S-21; the prison served only to interrogate and execute prisoners.
Once inside the walls of S-21, the inhuman conditions were designed to
further break down the prisoners.

We Should Not Look Any Further Than Ourselves

While Defense co-counsel Kar Savuth attempted to discredit Professor
Chandler due to a lack of documentation regarding some of his opinions,
Defense co-counsel François Roux delighted in allowing an expert to expound
on such topics as Duch’s admission of guilt, the chain of command, and
“crimes of obedience.” When questioned about Duch’s acceptance of
responsibility for S-21, Chandler responded that the admission moved and
impressed him and it would be of service to history.

When asked about Duch’s statement that he was “both a hostage and an actor
in a criminal regime,” Chandler astutely noted that Duch’s regret emerged
only during the final six months of the DK era and did not result in him
deserting the movement in 1979 or the 1980s.

In relation to so-called “crimes of obedience,” Chandler acknowledged that
during the DK era those in authority positions gave the orders, those
receiving orders obeyed them, and little questioning of authority occurred
at any level. Chandler followed up by noting that while obedience doesn’t
explain everything, it does help to elucidate the context. Drawing
similarities to other atrocities, Chandler stated that the most frightening
lesson from the Holocaust was not that it could be done to us, but that we
could do it to others.

Roux followed up on Chandler’s comment by quoting a line from his book, “We
should not look any further than ourselves,” implying that the crimes
committed at S-21 could have been committed by anyone in those
circumstances. Chandler stood by this quote, confirming his belief that
virtually all human beings are capable of evil given the right
circumstances. However, Chandler stated that the mere capacity for evil does
not equate to the manifestation of evil, otherwise we would all be locked
up. While we all may be capable of such evil, the mere capacity to commit
evil does not inculpate individuals and it correspondingly does not
exculpate those who exercise that capacity.