Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #186913 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-07
• Released on: 2006-02-07
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Long preoccupied by the Cambodian genocide in the late 1970s at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, Irish-born and Thailand-based photojournalist Dunlop homed in on Comrade Duch, head of the Khmer Rouge secret police and Pol Pot's chief executioner, who had vanished. How had a well-educated schoolteacher (born Kaing Guek Eav) become commandant of a torture center and complicit in the deaths of an estimated 20,000 political prisoners? asks Dunlop in this measured but horrifying book, a chronicle of his dogged efforts to understand the carnage and bring about justice. With Duch at the book's core, the author (who worked in Cambodia throughout the '90s) weaves a contemporary account of a war-ravaged nation into the history of its ancient past and rumination on terror in the name of ideology. Dunlop also deepens his story with thoughtful—and very personal—commentary on photography and violence. In 1999, Dunlop found and confronted Duch, who voluntarily confessed to his role in the Khmer Rouge. Though Duch was then charged and imprisoned, he has not yet been brought to trial. Cambodia's labyrinthine politics can occasionally be difficult to digest, but Dunlop's personal quest for international justice holds the narrative together. (Feb.)
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From Booklist
*Starred Review* Irish photographer Dunlop steps out from behind the camera to render this visceral account of the Khmer Rouge, the Cambodian Communist regime responsible for more than two million deaths between 1975 and 1979. Armed with a black-and-white photograph of Comrade Duch--Pol Pot's chief executioner--Dunlop traveled to the war-ravaged country to probe the dark depths of a once-studious young boy and dedicated teacher who became one of the twentieth--century's most notorious mass murderers. (More then 20,000 men, women, and children were reportedly executed during Duch's tenure as chief of Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh.) In April 1999, Dunlop's encounter with Duch--who had changed his name, slipped quietly back into village life, and become a lay pastor--led to a confession that shot ice through the photographer's veins. (Dunlop's role in exposing Duch earned him Johns Hopkins' award for Excellence in International Journalism.) Dunlop's interviews with former Khmer Rouge members are both wrenching and revelatory. Among the most memorable subjects is Prak Khan, who was like an "empty shell," with rigid posture and eyelids that "blinked slowly, as though he had difficulty keeping them open." To date, only two prominent Khmer Rouge perpetrators are in prison: Comrade Duch and Ta Mok, aka "the Butcher." For Dunlop, it is but a small step in a long journey toward justice. Allison Block
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Ordinary people can commit demonic acts (R.K. Lifton)
Nick Hornby poses the all important questions of how a vision of a better world can turn into bottomless evil, and how seemingly ordinary men can become mass murderers.
The ideological fundamentalists at the very top of the Red Khmer movement had a vision and a plan for the creation of heaven on earth (`the envy of the world'), but only for the 'good' soldiers. All the 'bad' ones, even (pregnant) women, children and babies, had to be simply murdered. Their utopia was a world of self-sacrifice, with no traces of individuality, no individual thought, no love (segregation of men and women), no foreign things, no towns, no money, no schools, no holidays.
The mass murdering was considered as an act of purification. It turned into a terrible real nightmare for the good and the bad. Everybody came to live in constant fear for their lives, acted in panic, told only what people wanted to hear and did what they were told to do. It was a system of paranoia, terror, constant surveillance and lies.
The Tuol Sleng prison became the heart of the movement, the centre of security, a symbol for a whole society as a slaughterhouse. Under torture people named names of innocent `spies', who in their turn named names, until ... `If the Organization arrests everybody, who will be left to make a revolution?'
After 4 years, the suspicions of conspiracies had killed more than three-quarters of the original Central Committee.

The answer to Nick Hornby's question is Duch, the Commander of the S-21 prison, a fundamentalist, a cold executioner of the orders of his superiors, a good father for his children, but living in constant fear for his own life, obsessed by the 'enemies' within, behaving irrationally, but enjoying his role as `butcher' for the creation of utopia.
As D. Chandler quotes at the end of his moving book `Voices from S-21', `ordinary people can commit demonic acts'. This potential is in all of us.

External facts
We should not forget the sometimes disturbing factors behind the rise to power, the violence and the stability of the Red Khmer regime.
Its Kampuchean enemies of the Lon Nol dictatorship were themselves extremely violent: 'Villages were burned and thousands were killed. Heads were mounted on stakes.'
Red Khmer guerillas were trained by British secret services.
The US secretly bombed Kampuchea during the Vietnam War driving the peasants into the arms of the Red Khmers.
And ultimately, nearly all governments of the world, the US, China, the Soviet Union, Great-Britain, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, made of Kampuchea the front line of the Cold War.

Nick Hornby wrote a frightening book, which shows what human beings are capable of doing with other members of their species.

I also highly recommend the works of D. Chandler and the documentary by Rithy Panh `S-21'.

Bringing down a monster........
This is a fine example of how ordinary people are capable of doing extraordanary things, in this case not only did Nick Dunlop write an incredible book but along with Nate Thayer was responsible for bringing enough attention to this bloody tyrant forcing the Govt. to finally incarcerate him. whether Duch ever goes on trial is anyboby's guess but without this book Duch would probably still be playing the role of missionary worker.

an eduction we all should have
This is one of those books that you won't want to put down until the last word has been read. He is a great writer and has given me quite an education. I highly recommend it!