David Chandler: “Obedience plays into the horror of it all”

Kambol (Phnom Penh, Cambodia). 06/08/2009: Bags belonging to Sieam Reap residents who left their village at midnight to arrive on time for Duch’s trial, which has known records of attendance (Photo: John Vink/ Magnum)

10-08-2009
By Stéphanie Gée
Ka-set

Thursday August 6th saw the highly anticipated hearing of U.S. professor David Chandler, one of the leading experts on Cambodia’s recent history and author, among others, of “Brother Number One” (1992) and “Voices from S-21” (1999). In addition to highlighting the characteristics of S-21, the “anteroom to death” where prisoners were all bound to be executed, the 76-year-old expert shed a bold light on the human dimension of the accused, by choosing to stress the vulnerability of the man who may be led to commit “crimes of obedience” rather than giving any credit to the idea of absolute evil. He thus agreed with the thesis defended by Duch, who says he was an “actor and hostage of this criminal regime.” However, there was a huge regret mixed with an incomprehension: why did the judges decide to hear this important witness over one day only, when the analysis of the heart of the case neared its end, while other witnesses with less significance were summoned over one or two days of trial?

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Prison was 'anteroom to death'

Aug 6, 2009
AFP

PHNOM PENH - AN EXPERT witness told Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes tribunal on Thursday that the most notorious Khmer Rouge prison was a secret 'anteroom to death'.

American professor David Chandler, 76, was testifying at the trial of Duch, the man accused of overseeing the torture and execution of about 15,000 people at Tuol Sleng prison, also known as S-21.

'I use the word anteroom (to death) because... every single person in S-21, except for these handful of survivors and some of the staff, (had a) forceful and violent death,' he said.

Mr Chandler said he believed the prison was able to exercise a high degree of autonomy because of the value put on secrecy under the regime.

The 66-year-old Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, has previously accepted responsibility for his role governing the jail and begged forgiveness.

Led by Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the Khmer Rouge emptied Cambodia's cities in a bid to forge a communist utopia. Up to two million people died of starvation, overwork and torture or were executed during the 1975-1979 regime.