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BOOK
REVIEW
The executioner's
tale
The Lost
Executioner by Nic
Dunlop
Reviewed by Julian Gearing
BANGKOK - Why did Cambodians slip into
an orgy of mass torture and murder? This is
a question that has troubled many people since
the first evidence of the Khmer Rouge's
reign of terror emerged from the "killing fields"
of Cambodia at the end of the 1970s.
Today, as
a United Nations-backed tribunal slowly grinds into gear, this question
looms large. One man locked up in a Phnom Penh
jail holds the key to a crucial part of the
atrocities carried out on behalf of Angkha or the
"Organization" that Pol Pot lorded over. Three
decades after the Khmer Rouge victory on  April 17, 1975 - a
victory that plunged the country into a nightmare
- the question of why such brutality took place
remains. It is a question that needs to be asked.
For author and photographer Nic
Dunlop, a small black and white photograph he used
to carry around in his wallet held a key to the
puzzle. This wasn't a picture of his girlfriend or
his family. When he first began to visit Cambodia
in 1989, he carried around a photo of the
notorious Khmer Rouge torturer and executioner
Comrade Duch (pronounced Doik) who was reported to
have overseen the torture and death of possibly
20,000 men, women and children. The man was in
charge of a secret facility, S-21, known today as
Tuol Sleng, where suspected enemies of the regime
were "smashed".
The
photo bugged Dunlop. In his travels documenting the
human wreckage of war and the devastating rule of
the Khmer Rouge, the photographer felt that
it was vitally important for the authorities to
reach out and arrest Duch and others like him for
justice to be done. But he also felt it was
important to gain an understanding of why the
Cambodian holocaust took place.
The
Lost Executioner tells the extraordinary story
of Dunlop's discovery of Comrade Duch hiding out
under an assumed name and identity as an aid
worker two decades after the Pol Pot regime
collapsed. The photographer stumbled across the
fugitive by accident. If it hadn't been for that
photo in his wallet he might not have recognized
the man considered one of the worst executioners
of the 20th century.
Dunlop's personal
journey into the heart of post-Pol Pot Cambodia is
a revelation. The photographer can now rightly
claim to be part of Cambodian history, the man who
discovered Duch and helped in no small way to kick
the struggling justice system into life. For his
efforts, he won an award from the Johns Hopkins
University for Excellence in International
Journalism.
Yet this is a story told by
a modest photographer and journalist who proves
a witness to history. Through the personal
stories of Cambodians, it tells of the buildup to the
Khmer Rouge victory, the country's descent into
darkness, its "rescue" by Vietnamese troops, and
its struggle to recover. At its heart is the story
of a quiet studious Cambodian boy who grew up to
be a killer.
Others have
delved deep to tell of this tragedy.
Cambodia: Year Zero by French Catholic
priest Francois Ponchaud was the first book to
provide an indication that something was seriously
amiss. Others followed with stories and books,
including the excellent work of John Pilger, David
Chandler, Ben Kiernan and Elizabeth Becker. A
recent addition is Getting Away With Genocide:
Cambodia's Long Struggle Against the Khmer
Rouge by Tom Fawthrop and Helen Jarvis, a book
that is required reading for anybody keen to look
at the details of how the Khmer Rouge culprits are
being brought to trial.
But Dunlop's
personal quest appears to go deeper into the
question of why. The Lost Executioner
offers readers a glimpse of why the genocide
took place. While it does not answer the whole
question as to why so much brutality was meted out
on fellow Cambodians, it does offer a good
insight into a society that, despite the smiles and
calm, harbored severe inequality and pent-up emotions in
the run-up to 1975.
The book has
wider significance. It seems strange that the world
has not learned from the trauma of the
Jewish Holocaust in World War II. The mass-murder in
Bosnia, Rwanda and currently in Darfur, Sudan, and
an emerging spectacle of murderous excess in
Nepal, indicate the world is not willing and
seemingly not able to act.
There are also
lessons here about the wider question of
responsibility, an element that Dunlop raises in
his book. Just how responsible was the United
States government for helping create the
conditions that helped the Khmer Rouge achieve
victory. They also supported the Khmer Rouge-led
guerrilla war, after Pol Pot had been kicked out
of power by the Vietnamese army in 1979.
Washington backed the baddies, despite the evidence
of mass graves and the mountain of skulls.
Will justice be done in the upcoming
tribunal in Phnom Penh? Dunlop expresses doubts.
Near the end of the book he grows despondent about
whether his efforts as a photographer to show the
world the aftermath of this brutal era will come
to anything. He questions whether his discovery of
Duch and the man's resulting imprisonment will
amount to anything.
Part of the problem is
the old guard of the Khmer Rouge is dying out or
are already dead and buried. Pol Pot died in
suspicious circumstances on the Thai border in
1998 before he could be brought to trial. Only two
prominent men are in prison - Duch and Ta Mok, aka
The Butcher. Many others who are guilty of torture
and murder are walking around free - ghosts of the
past still stalking the people.
For the
author of The Lost Executioner, the question is
whether he lessons currently being learned will help
prevent future tragedies?
Julian
Gearing has covered conflicts and religion in
Asia for over two decades.
The Lost
Executioner by Nic Dunlop. Bloomsbury,
April 2005. Hardback, ISBN: 0-7475-6670-4. Price
US$31.50. 352 pages.
(Copyright 2005 Asia
Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
contact us for information on sales, syndication and republishing.) |
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