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terror in democratic kampuchea 189
themselves made choices about how to react. The choices they made in these cases
were politically and “aesthetically oriented commentar[ies]” (Bull 1997:270) that
contradicted expectations and that illustrate a key feature of Pol Pot’s totalitarianism.
Certain tales or characters, such as Hanuman, as well as physicality, spirituality,
or music of a specific sort resonated with some members of the Khmer Rouge.
Lafreniere (2000:134) relates the experience of Daran Kravanh, a musician who,
in Democratic Kampuchea, happened upon an accordion, the instrument of his
expertise. The Khmer Rouge soldiers came to know him as the accordion player:
A soldier came to me one day and said, “There is a girl I love and I want to find out
if she loves me. I order you to play your accordion for us.” This was an unusual request
from a soldier, but of course I agreed. ...I played my accordion while sitting
on the floor between them. As I played, they looked at each other. After a time I suggested
they dance and they did....Then they began to sing a question and answer
song back and forth. 22
The accordion is not a particularly common instrument in Cambodia. Indeed, it
is known to be a foreign import, something Khmer Rouge ideology might paint as
anathema to the purity of the new society. But the music it held the possibility of
creating kept it and Daran in demand, and gave Daran access to the personal, emotional
world of his oppressors, a world, at least as far as romance was concerned,
denounced by official rhetoric.
Prerevolutionary resonances coexisted with the Khmer Rouge contention that
history had started anew with their rule. It is here that we can locate the production
of the contradictions so essential for the maintenance of a state of terror. 23
Were we to try for an ethnography that brings to light more such contradictions,
our understanding of the Khmer Rouge regime would be all the richer.
Terror haunts the constantly shifting ground upon which the inexplicable and
the unspeakable dwell side by side. 24 The extreme confusion and intimidation experienced
under the Khmer Rouge helped lay the groundwork for the emotional,
physical, social, and spiritual scars lodged in Cambodia and her people.
NOTES
An earlier version of this essay appeared as Anthropologies of the Khmer Rouge Part 1: Terror and
Aesthetics, Genocide Studies Program Working Paper GS 06 (New Haven: Yale Center for
International and Area Studies, 1998). I would like to thank David Chandler, George Chigas,
Alexander Hinton, Ben Kiernan, Edward Kissi, Sally Ness, Sally Nhomi, Niti Pawakapan,
Thavro Phim, Puangthong Rungswadisab, Sek Sophea, Anne Sheeran, and Michael
Vickery for their insightful comments and suggestions.
1. This dance was performed for me by a former Khmer Rouge dancer who also provided
the lyrics.
2. Prince Norodom Sihanouk became king in 1941 and then, taking the title of prince,
stepped down in the mid-1950s to become head of state until the 1970 coup d’état. He named