Wednesday, 18 August 2010 15:02 David Boyle and Sun Narin
Photo by: Anne Heindel
The church in Battambang province's Samlot district where former S-21 prison
chief Duch converted to Christianity.
Battambang province
OUTSIDE a small, cross-topped church in Samlot district, a crowd of about
100 people gathered yesterday to discuss a notorious mass murderer's day of
judgment.
It was here, some 15 years ago, that the notorious Tuol Sleng commandant
Kaing Guek Eav, convicted and sentenced to 30 years' jail by the Khmer Rouge
tribunal last month, first confessed his sins and became a born-again
Christian.
At the community forum, organised by the Documentation Centre of Cambodia,
Duch's former pastor, San Timothy, urged those assembled to accept the
verdict, forgive Duch and put the past behind them, something that most in
this former Khmer Rouge stronghold appeared happy to do.
"God brought him to lovingness - to appear in the court and confess
everything," he said. "God always forgives people, even though this person
was his enemy. He is the sample of forgiveness."
In 1999, Irish photographer Nic Dunlop found Duch working in Samlot for an
American aid organisation under the pseudonym Hang Pin. The former jailer
claimed to have converted to Christianity several years earlier.
On trial at the Khmer Rouge tribunal in Phnom Penh last year, Duch claimed
to have repented and expressed "profound regret" for his actions at Tuol
Sleng, where he is thought to have overseen the torture and killing of up to
16,000 people.
During the trial's closing arguments, Duch shocked observers by demanding
that he be released.
But after watching a projection of the closing moments of Duch's July 26
verdict, San Timothy's fellow pastor Sang Horn proclaimed the former prison
chief a hero for having had the courage to repent.
"He is a hero because he did something that is in the past, not now, and he
confessed his sins in front of God and the people," he said.
In Samlot, the restive breeding ground of the Khmer Rouge insurgency and the
refuge of many cadres following the regime's fall in 1979, attitudes about
Cambodia's communist nightmare remain ambivalent.
After receiving documents including DC-Cam's historical textbook and a
published copy of the verdict, many of those in attendance expressed a
desire to leave the past behind.
Chuon Pheng, the chief of Ta Sanh commune, where the event was held, told
the forum that he and other villagers were not aware of the Khmer Rouge top
brass or the existence of Tuol Sleng prison.
"We experienced the regime, but we were not aware of Pol Pot. We only tried
to work for living," he said.
Youk Chhang, DC-Cam's director, lamented the culture of denial that had
taken root among some elders in Samlot, though he welcomed the church's
participation in the forum, which he said he hoped would facilitate greater
community engagement with the historical record.
"A hero is not somebody who murders 12,000 innocent people, and if you
define someone like this as a hero there is clearly a danger that genocide
will return," he said.
"Clearly you can see that some of them were here with the Khmer Rouge for a
long, long time and deny knowledge of what happened," he added.
Youk Chhang also regretted the absence of Duch's sister, Hang Kim Hong, and
brother-in-law, Nop Bun Long, who were both invited to attend.
Like many of the area's residents, their personal ties to the Khmer Rouge
appear to remain strong, even after the passage of so many years.
"It seems to be that she has this question in her mind," he said of Duch's
sister.
"What if Duch hadn't been discovered and arrested?"
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More:
http://www1.voanews.com/khmer-english/news/Center-Screens-Duch-Film-for-Former-Khmer-Rouge-100984524.html
Independently Searching for the Truth since 1997.
MEMORY & JUSTICE
“...a society cannot know itself if it does not have an accurate memory of its own history.”
Youk Chhang, Director
Documentation Center of Cambodia
66 Sihanouk Blvd.,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
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About Me
- Duong Dara
- Dara Duong was born in 1971 in Battambang province, Cambodia. His life changed forever at age four, when the Khmer Rouge took over the country in 1975. During the regime that controlled Cambodia from 1975-1979, Dara’s father, grandparents, uncle and aunt were executed, along with almost 3 million other Cambodians. Dara’s mother managed to keep him and his brothers and sisters together and survive the years of the Khmer Rouge regime. However, when the Vietnamese liberated Cambodia, she did not want to live under Communist rule. She fled with her family to a refugee camp on the Cambodian-Thai border, where they lived for more than ten years. Since arriving in the United States, Dara’s goal has been to educate people about the rich Cambodian culture that the Khmer Rouge tried to destroy and about the genocide, so that the world will not stand by and allow such atrocities to occur again. Toward that end, he has created the Cambodian Cultural Museum and Killing Fields Memorial, which began in his garage and is now in White Center, Washington. Dara’s story is one of survival against enormous odds, one of perseverance, one of courage and hope.
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