Searching for the truth Issues 28 - Documentation Center of Cambodia
Searching for the truth Issues 28 - Documentation Center of Cambodia
Searching for the truth Issues 28 - Documentation Center of Cambodia
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100 100 100 100 100 100 50 50 50 50<br />
Black<br />
Yellow<br />
Magenta<br />
Cyan<br />
Number <strong>28</strong>, April 2002<br />
(Continued from <strong>the</strong> March 2002 issue)<br />
Sun Ty, in his confession, scribbled a private<br />
note to <strong>the</strong> Organization that protested his innocence<br />
and said he had been tortured: “At first I refused to<br />
answer, but after I had been beaten with a heavy stick<br />
I invented an answer. I beg <strong>the</strong> Party not to arrest <strong>the</strong><br />
people I named. Our comrades are good. I am not CIA<br />
or Khmer Serei.” The presence <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se comments in<br />
Sun Ty’s file suggests that <strong>the</strong>y never left S-21.<br />
Instances <strong>of</strong> torture mentioned in <strong>the</strong> archive<br />
and by survivors are given in<br />
<strong>the</strong> following list.<br />
◆ Beating<br />
by hand<br />
with a heavy stick with<br />
branches<br />
with bunches <strong>of</strong> electric<br />
wire<br />
◆ Cigarette burns<br />
◆ Electric shock<br />
◆ Forced to eat excrement<br />
◆ Forced to drink urine<br />
◆ Forced feeding<br />
◆ Hanging upside down<br />
◆ Holding up arms <strong>for</strong> an entire<br />
day<br />
◆ Being jabbed with a needle<br />
◆ Paying homage to image(s)<br />
<strong>of</strong> dogs (all from 1978)<br />
◆ Paying homage to <strong>the</strong> wall<br />
◆ Paying homage to <strong>the</strong> table<br />
◆ Paying homage to <strong>the</strong> chair<br />
◆ Having fingernails pulled out<br />
◆ Scratching<br />
◆ Shoving<br />
◆ Suffocation with plastic bag<br />
◆ Water tortures<br />
immersion<br />
drops <strong>of</strong> water onto <strong>the</strong> <strong>for</strong>ehead.<br />
The list does not include many <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> tortures<br />
that are depicted in Vann Nath’s paintings. Talking to<br />
East German filmmakers about S-21 in 1981, Nath<br />
recalled: “This is <strong>the</strong> room I used to work in. Sometimes<br />
20<br />
Voices from S-21<br />
Chapter Five: Forcing <strong>the</strong> Answers<br />
David Chandler<br />
<strong>Searching</strong> <strong>for</strong> <strong>the</strong> Truth ⎯ HISTORY<br />
I could see through a crack in <strong>the</strong> window what was<br />
happening outside. So I saw <strong>the</strong>m submerging prisoners<br />
in water. O<strong>the</strong>rs were brought to interrogation stark<br />
naked. Whatever I observed in secret I tried to record<br />
[later] in my pictures.”<br />
Of <strong>the</strong> 21 interrogators listed in <strong>the</strong> 1978 telephone<br />
directory <strong>for</strong> S-21, 18 were implicated in torture in<br />
<strong>the</strong>ir own comments to prisoners’ confessions, in o<strong>the</strong>r<br />
interrogators’ confessions, or in self-critical study<br />
sessions conducted <strong>for</strong> prison staff. Of <strong>the</strong> twenty-four<br />
interrogators at S-21 who<br />
were later arrested, eighteen<br />
admitted torturing prisoners.<br />
Eleven confessed to beating<br />
prisoners to death, as did one<br />
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> guards. Some <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
confessions implicated o<strong>the</strong>rs<br />
on <strong>the</strong> staff whose confessions<br />
have not survived. The<br />
archive suggests that certain<br />
interro-gators resorted to<br />
torture more readily than<br />
o<strong>the</strong>rs. One <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>m, Buth<br />
Heng, who was eventually<br />
arrested, confessed to a series<br />
<strong>of</strong> barbaric sexual assaults and<br />
to beating several prisoners to<br />
death, including one who had<br />
already been severely injured<br />
after a suicide attempt.<br />
Sexual violations <strong>of</strong> female prisoners probably<br />
occurred frequently, but sexual references seldom surface<br />
in <strong>the</strong> confessions <strong>of</strong> S-21 personnel. Such <strong>of</strong>fenses<br />
were certainly frowned on by <strong>the</strong> men administering<br />
<strong>the</strong> prison, as an entry in Chan’s note-book suggests:<br />
“When questioning females, <strong>the</strong>re must always be two<br />
people asking <strong>the</strong> questions. Don’t lie down [with<br />
<strong>the</strong>m?], and don’t pinch <strong>the</strong>ir hair or <strong>the</strong>ir cheeks.”<br />
All <strong>the</strong> survivors remember being beaten, and,<br />
as <strong>the</strong> S-21 survivor Ung Pech told David Hawk, “For<br />
beating, anything that fell into [<strong>the</strong> interrogators’]<br />
hands was used: different kinds <strong>of</strong> tree branches,<br />
bamboo, whips hurriedly made from electric wire.”<br />
<strong>Documentation</strong> <strong>Center</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Cambodia</strong> (DC-Cam)