Reflections on Cambodia

Cambodia Today
Cambodia History Timeline

Lost Civilizations: In the Shadow of Angkor Wat
In the Shadow of Angkor
Cambodian Information Center
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National Gallery of Art - Cambodia
CyberCambodia

A Country Study: Cambodia/Khmer

Cambodia
http://www.bookmag.com/books/history/81.html

Formal Academic Engagements - Cambodia
Obscuring by numbers: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge

Special section (INTS 265): Chinese in...
Cambodian Chinese

Informal Sub-Section - Cambodia

Voices from S-21: Terror and History in Pol Pot's Secret Prison by David Chandler: David Chandler's "Voices from S-21: Terror and History in Pol Pot's Secret Prison" is a good book for a novice like me. Chandler starts by framing the book around the S-21 institution and its configuration. Chandler then dedicates and entire portion to the memoirs of the purges; the allegation santebal leveled at prisoners; and the various approaches of "politics" and "torture." The book concludes with short commentary of the "why" of S-21. Chandler's "Voices from S-21" is effectively a detailed history of the inner workings of the Khmer Rouge's secret police. Known as "santebal", and working out of a prison complex called S-21, the Khmer Rouge killed, tortured and interrogated "enemies" of the Democratic Kampuchea (DK). Due to the secretive nature of the Khmer Rouge, S-21 was "the place where people went in but never came out" (p. 7) - and this is an important issue to consider. Between the years of 1975 and 1979, it is estimated that 14,000 prisoners (p. 36) entered S-21, but only four survived. The horrors of S-21 were uncovered during the liberation by the Vietnamese who found the prison's ghastly remains. Chandler used the S-21 record which were microfilmed by Cornell University in the early 1990s and synthesized the archive to produce this book. Because Chandler uses this technique the work is arguably incomplete, and it is my opinion, that in a lot of places it is largely speculative. Prisoner statements were extracted under torture, and other written records are tainted with party ideology or just laziness on the part of the recorders. Chandler, to his credit is writes that as Aristotle pointed out "more than two thousand years ago, confessions that flow from torture often bear little relation to the truth." (p. 128) Moreover, I admire Chandler for his creative use in including noted French philosopher Michel Foucault in his analysis but I am doubtful of both his interpretation and use of the same. On page 134, Chandler tries to fuse Foucault's notion of the "vengeance of the sovereign" into an almost Nazi like aura by describing the efficiency of the Khmer Rouge. Chandler pointed out earlier that the need for secrecy was an issue (p.17) but Foucault's notion of the "vengeance of the sovereign" is one of public display and notice - forming a contradiction to Chandler's initial observation/conclusion. Several notable issues regarding the book come to mind regarding his methodology. Chandler's creative use of Kundera/Kafka and the "establishment of guilt" is a very effective metaphor. Mind you, I am no expert in Cambodian history or the Khmer Rouge but when Chandler juxtaposes Kafka with S-21, you get the sense that one is guilty because he/she is arrested and not arrested because he/she is guilty much like Joseph K in "The Trial." Another issue that came home for me was the notion that after a while everyone was under suspicion. Folks like Son Sen who was trusted to watch over the "Eastern Zone" was later on suspected of treason. If it were not for the Vietnamese, he too may have ended up in S-21. (p.74-75) Lastly, is you have visited the work camp in Terezin in the Czech Republic, you will get a sense that most people who are incarcerated like this die less from torture but more from the atrocious conditions. Mind you, I am neither playing down the tortures, simply stating that the camp conditions were part of the horror as Chandler is good enough to point out. Probably the most informative portion of the book is the detail relating to the "interrogations." What amazes me is that Chandler, despite his extensive bibliography fails to refer to Franz Fanon. Fanon's studies regarding the gendarme in Algeria could have shed light into many of Chandler's questions. Chandler adeptly coaxes his sources to illustrate the hopes and frustrations of prisoners and their interrogators. It can be argued that the most problematic portion of "Voices from S-21" is the concluding chapter. Here Chandler tries to set the horrors of S-21 in the milieu of other butchery of events like the Holocaust. Chandler brings up the Zimbardo and Milgram experiments (p. 147-148), but to make analogy with the Holocaust without referring back to it is impossible to do. Anyone who visits Toul Sleng museum will undoubtedly be moved by the degree and scale of atrocities committed in this secret torture center during the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. I recommend this book highly but it needs to be framed better for the reader by looking for something that sets the tone regarding Cambodia, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. For the background, it might be wise to start with Brother Number One: A Political Biography of Pol Pot (1992) (also available on Amazon.com) but for a psychology of horror - this book is second to none.

The Killing Fields DVD ~ Sam Waterston: "The Killing Fields" is about relationships. Roland Joffe is hooked on that little picture within big picture "thing." Truth is, the Joffe/Puttnam duo did in "The Mission" (also available on Amazon.com) and they are doing it here. The real locus of his (and Puttnam's) movies is to explore the interchange between two characters within this epic backdrop. In this case it was the Cambodian civilians. What that does is set a two hour melodrama within a historical context and does not explore the latter with any depth. Joffe really loves to take creative license with all his wonderful scenery -- in "The Mission" it was the Iguaca Falls, in this movie it is Angkor Wat. After having read David Chandler's "Voices from S-21" I got the sense that the killing was done in a more systematic fashion. The movie makes the Khmer Rouge look like a bunch of uncontrolled thugs. It looses the sense of institutional terror a film like "Schindler's List" works very hard and very successfully to portray. Chandler takes great pains to compare the Killing Fields to the Nazi Concentration Camps. He fails as much there as Joffe, et al. do here with "The Killing Fields." So what is it guys? Is it the secret killing of S-21, the rampage of "The Killing Fields" or a combination of both? For someone trying to get a handle on the horrors, the causes and the rebuilding of Cambodia, where is one to turn? Nonetheless, for all criticism I throw at this movie, I still feel it is a good one. The action flows really well. The scenes are exquisitely designed and managed. The acting superb and certainly the directing wonderful -- as a history lesson, maybe Joffe takes lessons from Oliver Stone (or vice versa). I was stunned, outraged, and confused but loved it.

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