Original subtitles

S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine

Before the war, Cambodia was an independent,

neutral country of 7.7 million people.

1970: Overthrow of Prince Sihanouk

Extension of the Vietnam War: American bombings, civil war

600,000 dead

April 17, 1975: Victory of the Khmer Rouge

Displaced populations, inhabitants expelled from cities

Schools are closed, currency abolished, religions banned

Forced work camps, famine, terror, executions.

Genocide: Two million dead

Bright red blood

Covers the cities and plains of Kampuchea, our country

Sublime blood of brave workers et peasants,

The blood of men and women fighting for the Revolution,

Blood transforms into implacable hate,

In resolute hatred.

On April the 17th, under the Revolution's flag,

This blood delivered us from bondage...

Perform a ceremony so that we never relive it.

Who would want to relive it?

Why do you say that, Mama?

With a few centimes,

perform a ceremony so we never see those men again.

Become a new man from this day.

All those men were corrupt.

I wanted to re-enlist. I preferred to die.

You preferred to die? Then tell the truth!

Down there, Death was inevitable. Better to die at the front.

You wouldn't let me go.

I didn't force you.

And you didn't go willingly.

But people can't see that.

You must tell the truth.

Whether it was 100, 200, it doesn't matter who killed who.

You killed.

Tell the truth, then perform a ceremony,

Tell the Dead so they can find peace,

so there will be no more bad karma in the future.

What can you do? The country took this turn.

"I didn't want it!"

Ask the Dead to erase the bad karma.

"Who killed who, I didn't know!"

Stop it! My head hurts.

I'm sick all day...

I can't eat anything.

When I think about it, that it was either them or me,

someone else's son or my own...

Why did he do it?

I pity the Dead and I pity my son.

My son stayed at home.

He never behaved badly, he never insulted the elderly.

And they indoctrinated him,

they made him into a thug who killed men.

I raised my son well.

When I think of the Khmer Rouge,

who killed without hesitation...

What cruelty!

The Khmer said:

"Bones cry, flesh calls out."

There will be bad Karma.

What do you think?

If we killed people...

and if I killed as well...

of our own free will, this would be evil.

But they gave me orders.

They terrorised me with guns

and their power.

That isn't evil.

Evil is the leaders who gave the orders.

In my heart, I was afraid of evil.

I was afraid of dying.

Today I'm still afraid.

And I've only done good, ever since my childhood.

I've always remained good,

even today.

I don't steal, I hurt no one.

I was arrested in Battambang,

I was interrogated, tortured with electricity.

After a week, they made an appeal.

I was one of 30.

They put us in two trucks,

chains on our feet, linked to one another.

I told myself: "It's over, I won't live another day."

The trucks drove a long time, until night fell.

Electric light penetrated the truck.

I thought we were in Phnom Penh.

I was right.

The engine stopped,

I heard the young guards shout with joy,

like wolves before their food.

They removed the tarp, shined light on our faces,

others put handcuffs on us,

and jumped out of the truck.

After an hour in the truck, your body was numb,

you couldn't stand up.

They interrogated us on our biographies.

"What region do you come from?

"What zone?

"What's your function?"

I answered in the proper manner.

I heard the telephone ring,

I thought, full of hope:

"Here they use this kind of instrument,

"We're under the rule of law,

"I've done nothing wrong.

"They won't find me guilty, they'll let me go back home."

Then they took some cloth

to cover our eyes, one after the other,

for all the prisoners.

I felt a tickling on my neck.

They passed a rope around our necks

and they pulled us along, like cattle.

We could see nothing.

We followed the sound of our footsteps.

They hit those who fell.

They ordered: "Pick up your feet!"

We picked up our feet.

"Get down!" We got down.

When we obeyed, they laughed.

One of them cried out: "Real blind men!"

They all laughed. We were afraid.

They made us stop and removed our blindfolds.

We saw cameras.

They took pictures of us facing front and profile,

and when we'd all been photographed,

they put the blindfolds back on,

the rope around our necks, and pulled us along.

We followed each other, step by step.

I felt cold tiles.

We climbed stairs,

step by step, turning,

I didn't know where I was.

When they removed our blindfolds,

I saw about 10 detainees around me,

with long hair, skin livid as a cadaver's,

neither men nor women.

At that moment, I lost all hope.

It was over, there was no way out.

It's very difficult to talk about it.

I can't do it.

Nath!

You've suffered so much. Don't think about it.

Wife, children, I lost everything!

Nath, help me!

Don't think about it.

The Khmer Rouge is still alive,

what happened to them?

If I hadn't been detained at Tuol Sleng,

I wouldn't have lost my family.

You've suffered everything, and you can't talk about it.

When I came here,

I promised myself,

if their souls spared my life,

I'd shave my head and make an offering.

Nath, why did this happen?

We survived.

We've been very lucky.

Of all those that were with us, we're the only ones left.

All dead, tens of thousands.

There are few of us left.

I felt my way up the stairs, blindfolded.

How did I climb?

First floor, second floor... They hit me.

How do you resist,

when you're wearing handcuffs?

This is the notebook of your confession.

When Tith tortured you, he took down all your answers.

He wrote here:

"History of the Treasons of Chum Mey."

I've read the fundamentals in this notebook:

You intentionally left too many scraps in cutting the fabric.

When sewing, your group broke too many needles

and burned the belt.

Is that why they brought you here?

That's not true.

They hit me so much

that I couldn't take any more, and that's when I answered.

I couldn't take any more.

I read it in here...

It makes no sense.

If you'd thrown a grenade into the factory,

set it on fire,

that would have been logical,

but only that, that's treason?

And you denounced many people.

Here are their names.

Over 60 of them...64 people.

They hit me so hard I couldn't stand it anymore.

I said whatever, I denounced everyone.

I announced all kinds of people.

And if you'd given them four or five names?

It wouldn't have been enough.

I know nothing about what happened here.

They tortured me at Battambang, almost to death,

but once I was here, they didn't interrogate me anymore.

The people that you denounced, did you see them brought here?

I never saw them, neither arrested, nor brought here.

I was detained here for only two months,

before the fall of Phnom Penh.

Those that I denounced, I never saw them here.

That's why...

every day, I think about them, I pray to the gods,

that if I denounced them, if they endured the consequences,

to not inflict bad karma on me.

Day after day, these feelings remain in my heart.

If you think about it,

they arrested your leader, he must have given 50, 60 names,

including yours.

Since they arrested you, you gave them 50 or 60 names.

If each of them had given 50 or 60 names, and so on,

in a year or two, there would be no one left,

all the inhabitants of Cambodia would have been enemies.

Seak Thap.

He was arrested with me.

He was from Ksoy.

We arrived the same day, in the same truck,

but our feet were attached separately.

He was with his brother,

I don't know his brother's name, but there were two of them.

Were there a lot of you?

The day that I was brought, there were 32.

Was it at night?

3:00 in the morning, we'd left at midnight.

I'm looking for Say Sarak.

We were arrested at the cooperative the same night.

Transported on the same cart, the same motorcycle,

from the pagoda at Samrong to the pagoda at Kandal,

then padlocked and brought in the same truck to Phnom Penh.

- From down there? - Yes.

He was my cousin.

If I find him, I'll make a copy for his mother.

Is she alive?

Yes. When she sees me, she cries.

Here!

They "kept me to use me". My name...

"Ranking: 18.

"Heng Nath, 35 years old.

"Of the New Order.

"Region 4.

"Ex-painter, living in a region under enemy control.

"Entered 1/7/78.

"Keep to utilise."

If I hadn't been "kept",

I would have gone to my death.

This is Duch's handwriting.

A red line...

Duch...

At the time, I painted in this room.

Duch watched me,

seated in the chair or standing behind me.

He watched, and he talked to me about

famous painters like

Van Gogh or Picasso.

I could only listen, I didn't know them at all.

Sometimes when I painted,

I made the hair, there,

my touch was very light, without harshness

which would have shown a lack of respect.

Having come to that point, you had to show respect, light touches.

And you had to paint the face

with a pink tint, showing a skin smooth and fine,

beautiful like the skin of a young virgin.

Then he was happy, he accepted the picture.

Busts in plaster that came out of the mold

were sometimes cracked.

They didn't destroy them, you had to bury them.

It wouldn't have been good to see them being broken.

You had to bury them in the pit out back.

I know there were many painters

that came to work for them.

But they were all killed.

Some of them lasted one or two months,

others four to ten days.

Their drawings didn't please them, so they were executed.

I survived through sheer luck,

I survived because my painting pleased them.

Sometimes, I think about my fate.

Many came here, they're dead, only I remained.

Sometimes I think about them, and it torments me.

Why them? Some painted better than I did.

What happened?

Through what bad fate couldn't they survive?

All killed.

Houy!

You've gotten old!

You recognise me?

Of course.

This is Nhiem Ein.

I've forgotten his name.

Try to remember.

I can't.

Where do you live?

In Takeo.

We were in different groups.

We knew each other by sight, we were in the same unit outside.

Inside, we didn't work together.

Otherwise, you'd recognise my name.

You who worked in Tuol Sleng,

like Houy, Ein and you others,

do you consider yourself victims?

I want to know.

This business...I'd say...

It's as if you'd been in an accident.

I say that...

Wait, just a moment.

You consider yourself victims,

you who worked here?

In a word: All victims. Without exception.

If those who worked here were victims,

what about prisoners like myself?

We were secondary victims.

Here, if you didn't obey, you were dead, you couldn't escape.

I've already told you that.

Before, there were many of us.

- 600! - No, not so many.

600, at S21 and surrounding, all the branches together...

I only saw around 200.

- There was Prey Sor... - Let's talk about this place.

About this administration.

There was Prey Sor,

The asylum at Ta Kmao...

600 in all.

- Under the authority of S21? - Yes, 600.

If you were victims,

what were the executed prisoners?

I mean...

There were a lot of my men.

Why weren't they killed... um, hadn't survived?

They're almost all dead.

Out of 100, there are only 30 left!

All, even the guards are dead!

You don't believe me.

That's why I was terrorised.

When Son Sen came here,

I saw it was going badly, I asked to re-enlist.

Might as well die at the front as here,

where you were tortured, interrogated, executed...

I would have preferred to die on the battlefield.

The minister had refused to let me go.

I knew that here, you couldn't escape Death.

And the detainees?

It's the image of the cell

where I'd been shackled in 1978,

when I'd been brought from Battambang.

I was here,

they took one, then another,

then some new arrivals, I found myself there.

They took the prisoners I don't know where.

Death came every day.

Sometimes once every two days, someone died.

Sometimes twice a day.

They left the cadavers.

They took them out 10, 12 hours later.

And you slept with the cadaver.

He was between life and death.

He was still breathing.

The guard had brought him a plate of broth with rice,

propped him up to make him eat.

The next day, he was dead.

When he was dead,

a doctor, I think, or a guard,

came to kick him in the head for no reason,

when he was already dead,

and insulted him:

"Asshole, we let you live and you don't want to!"

Sometimes, at night,

the light attracted insects.

They dropped here and there.

You took them secretly and put them in your mouth.

If the guard surprised us,

he came in.

With his shoe, he knocked us on the ears,

three, four times on each side.

You almost lost consciousness.

The cricket would jump out of your mouth.

Their eyes were blue, they were almost bleeding.

I'd been there for a month,

I'd gone to the bathroom twice,

I had nothing in my stomach.

On two spoonfuls of broth a dday, who could hold out?

I thought this was the end.

I don't understand

the reason for such savagery,

and how you, who worked here,

could get used to seeing us suffer.

I came to Bureau S21.

In the beginning, I was educated, to reinforce...

my ideological position.

S21 was the heart of the nation,

its wall of containment.

We were the right hand of the Party,

we had to have a resolute position.

Faced with an enemy,

we couldn't hesitate, we were determined before the enemy,

even if he was your brother, your father, your mother.

If he was here, you distinguished your friends from your enemies,

you didn't hesitate.

And children less than a year old,

breast-fed, who could barely walk,

they were against what?

They were enemies?

The administration of Bureau S21 told us:

When the Party arrests, it arrests the enemies of the Party.

If you arrest the husband, you arrest the wife and children as well.

Even our parents, our brothers and sisters,

if the Party arrests them, then they are the enemies of the Party.

You had to know how to distinguish.

This which was above everything was Angkar, the Party.

If you were ordered to destroy them, you destroyed them.

Didn't you think at all?

The Party, S21, never made a mistake.

They were our enemies.

Your capacity to reflect as a man,

was lost.

You no longer recognised father or mother.

You couldn't believe your parents? How did they indoctrinate you?

I was told they were the enemy, so I said they were the enemy.

"Daily Report:

"1. Yourn Yin,

"building A, room 3, cell 1.

"Stuffed the keyhole.

"2. Kieu Phin,

"building A, room 1, cell 8.

"Cries, doesn't know why Angkar has accused him.

"3. Building F, room 3, cell 1.

"Oun Oeun.

"Hid a spoon, gave it to H�m Hok

"to break the padlocks.

"4. Leng L�n,

"building B, room 3, cell 1.

"When the comrades searched him, he threatened to kick them.

"5. Building B, Doung Davuth, complains

"of not getting enough to eat.

"6. Yoeur Yath, building B, room 3, cell 4,

"holds up his pants with mosquito netting."

"Method For Writing the Document:

"Have them describe scenes of their treasonous life.

"Reading will reveal the secret history,

"edifying and perfectly clear,

"causes of espionage that undermine us from within,

"step by step, according to their plan.

"It's good that they write it themselves,

"in their own words.

"Procedure For Interrogation:

"There are two ways.

"Political pressure

"must constantly be exercised.

"Torture is a complementary procedure.

"In the past,

"our comrades have applied it too quickly,

"giving it more weight than psychological pressure.

"This is a mistake that must always be avoided.

"The enemy doesn't confess in order to help us.

"Confession under political pressure

"is performed at the most fundamental level.

"Torture is in�vitable.

"The only question is how much."

To locate a detainee, I had the cell number

written on the palm of my hand.

Room 39, Prisoner 13.

Bring me Detainee 13 for interrogation.

Number 13, stand up! I order him to get up,

I cover his eyes with a kramar,

I handcuff him behind his back,

then I unlock the bar,

I relock the padlock,

I take him by the arm and leave.

When I receive the detainee,

I hook his arm through mine and I lead him out.

"Torture:

"The purpose of torture is to obtain an answer.

"It is not practised for amusement.

"You must cause pain to the detainee,

"so that he responds quickly.

"You are required

"to break him, inspire fear, terrorise him.

"You don't torture to vent your anger.

"You must strike them so that they become afraid,

"but under no condition should it kill them.

"Before torture, you must determine their condition,

"examine the stick,

"you don't want to proceed too quickly.

"If they die, there will be no document."

This is the list of detainees interrogated

by the group "Dying".

These are the comrade interrogators.

My name, Prak Kh�n.

A'N�n, leader of the group "Dying".

There were three groups.

"Gentle", "Hot" and "Dying".

The group "Gentle" had to exercise political pressure.

If they obtained the goal, you wrote your document.

Those that didn't answer passed to the group "Hot".

They were hit and tortured.

The skin on the back broke, the head was covered in blood.

If he answered, you wrote the document.

If not, he passed to the group "Dying".

One or two hits with a stick,

blood burst from wounds not yet closed up.

Some answered, you had them write their document.

Others didn't, you continued to "bite"

for months, years,

if it didn't progress, you let them rot.

When you torture, you have a savage and cruel heart.

I didn't think about it.

I was arrogant, I had power over the enemy,

I didn't think about his life.

I considered him an animal.

When I raised my hand,

my heart didn't stop my head,

it didn't keep my hand or my foot from striking him.

The heart and the hand worked together.

That was torture.

We knew that the detainees who arrived at Bureau S21

were going to die.

Once they were at S21,

once you had their answers, you killed them all.

When I went on guard duty, I checked the padlock four times.

I shake the padlock and the iron bar,

I check it, all is well.

I pass to the next row.

I shake the padlock and the bar, all is well.

I come to the middle.

The middle is here.

This row, stand up!

Raise your hands!

I begin to search them.

I feel their pockets.

I look everywhere.

They mustn't have a feather

so they can open their veins,

nor hide bolts and screws

to kill themselves by swallowing them.

I go back to the middle.

Sit! Don't move!

I move to this row.

Get up!

Stand up! Raise your hands!

I start to search them,

I look, I feel,

the pockets, the waist,

I feel,

I look.

If they don't have a feather

to open their veins,

or bolts and screws

that they could swallow.

I come to the middle.

Sit up!

Don't move!

I turn around.

You there! Where's your shirt?

Without the guard's permission?

You dare take off your shirt to hang yourself with it?

Give it here! I tear it from him and take it away.

In the children's unit, I watched the oxen.

The head of the cooperative sent me to the office at Ourng.

There they gathered children from all the districts.

There were around a hundred of us.

After one night, trucks from Kaing Ta Chan came.

The trucks backed up,

they piled the children inside and left.

There were 20 to 30 kids in every truck.

On the way,

some of them became sick and threw up.

We arrived in Phnom Penh at night.

"There it is, Phnom Penh!" We were lost.

We went to Boeung Tchipon

to raise pigs,

then they sent us to technical school in Pr�k Thnoat

to learn karate, to take apart rifles, to clear landmines...

At the end, the leader told us:

"Comrades, collect your things, you're going back to the village."

But instead of the village,

they took us to the prison in Tuol Sleng.

We saw the interrogators take out the prisoners,

handcuffed, blindfolded.

We, who were children, were very afraid.

They let us live on the outside.

We had to raise pigs,

plant vegetables.

When they had confidence in us,

that we were well indoctrinated,

they had us guard the prisoners on the inside.

"My reasons for joining the Revolution,

"were that I'd suffered

"under colonialists old and new,

"and capitalists, feudal lords, reactionaries,

"and imperialists, who oppressed the people.

"That is why

"my conscience was awakened

"and I joined the ranks of the Revolution

"to serve it, to fight American imperialism,

"liberate the classes, liberate the people."

When I wrote my biography,

I was asked:

"What faults did you used to have?"

"I stole some jicamas to eat,

"and mangoes, is that a fault?"

"Yes, it's a fault, put that in your biography."

"And if I was in love with a girl?"

"That too, these are the feelings of dreamers,

"put that in your biography."

Afterwards, when I was at Bureau S21,

I wrote this in my biography:

"I am faithful to the Party,

"I respect it and obey it.

"I observe correctly the discipline of Angkar."

When Angkar assigned me to go arrest people,

I was determined, I went.

When we had to take out the detainees and execute them,

I was determined and I took them out.

To demonstrate

my position towards Angkar,

my fidelity to Angkar,

I killed so that they would be convinced

that I was a child of Angkar.

I did that to survive.

At the time, Angkar gave you orders.

But without a determined heart, you couldn't have executed them.

When I wrote my biography,

I did so in a way

that the leaders would trust me.

For my reasons for joining the Revolution,

I wrote:

"Angkar has nourished

"my political conscience,

"and I've experienced pain and anger

"against class enemies, both feudal and capitalist."

But my real reasons for joining the Revolution,

this was in 1970,

Lon Nol's group had overthrown

Prince Norodom Sihanouk.

Afterward, the Prince made an appeal

to our brothers and sisters, to join the resistance

to liberate our nation.

In my village, revolutionary forces had said:

"In a week, we'll liberate the whole country."

It's because of the appeal of Prince Sihanouk

and my anger over the American bombings

that I joined the Revolution.

In 1975,

after the liberation of the country,

I realised I had been fooled.

I was put in this place where you killed men.

Once I came here, I couldn't escape.

So in order to inspire confidence,

I worked very hard, even if it was work...

That was heavy, difficult and complicated.

Even in writing my biography,

I wrote to please them.

I wrote:

"I am a model element.

"I am the right hand of the Party."

So that they would trust me.

I've heard about how

you have to reconcile yourself,

you mustn't feel rancor, these kinds of things.

Nath, what do you think

of the idea of putting Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge on trial?

Speak honestly.

Reconciliation? They can do what they want.

But up to now, has anyone said

that this past act was a defect,

that the two million dead of the Khmer people

was a defect, has anyone asked forgiveness?

Have you heard that

from the mouths of the leaders or the executers?

Have you heard that? - No.

Me neither.

Then how can you expect

the families of the victims and the survivors

to find peace?

How can you acknowledge this was a crime?

They won't even say this was a defect!

If there's no defect, they've nothing to ask forgiveness for.

They brought us to Tuol Sleng to torture us,

it makes no sense.

Two million dead makes no sense either.

Does it?

Everyone brushes it off and says they weren't guilty.

What can you do?

I don't want to take my revenge on these people.

But to tell us to forget, because it's all in the past...

This isn't like passing a pond

taking a dip, drying off and then forgetting about it.

It's a painful history, genuinely painful,

and even with 20 years past, it's not much time.

It hasn't "dried".

To the end of my days, Nath...

What I've seen, nothing will erase.

At 10:00 pm, the interrogator brings back the detainee.

Stay there!

I open the lock, the door.

I bring him back in.

Stay there! I open the padlock, I put his shackles back on.

I remove the handcuffs.

I remove the blindfold, I leave.

Keep quiet. Don't make noise.

Or you'll get the club!

I lock the door.

Why are you standing up again? Watch it or you'll get hit!

Lie back down, and no noise!

You too, turn around!

If I come back, look out!

A plate of broth? I'll bring it in.

Come on, eat, it's all there is!

And you, don't poke him.

Otherwise, look out.

I lock the door.

And you, stop moving about.

If I come back, it'll go badly for you.

You there, you're turning around, why aren't you sleeping?

Sleep without moving about, you son of a bitch!

You need to go? I'll bring in the box.

The box...I open the door...

Go on, do your business.

Attention, not on the side!

It stinks, there's only me to clean it up!

If you knock it over, expect to get hit!

I lock the door.

You, why are you twitching?

If you don't mind me,

I'll come in and you'll get it.

You too,

you get up, you turn around.

If I come in, look out!

What, you want water?

I'll give you water!

I open the lock, the door.

Here, water.

They're pulling there!

I hit all of them on the back.

Wait to drink!

You fight, then nothing!

No discipline, sons of bitches!

I lock the door.

I didn't tell you to talk!

You'll wait to drink!

You too, there, you're pulling.

You'll get nothing!

What, some water? I'll give you some.

I put down the bowl.

I open the lock, the door.

Here, share this water.

If you make a mess, I'll take it back!

Have you finished going? I take out the box.

Look out for the club!

I lock the door.

It's late. Sleep.

No more noise.

If I come back, you'll be sorry!

You too, you turn around, you don't stop moving.

If you don't understand, I'm coming back in!

Respectable meeting, respectable group,

respectable comrades.

This is the report of Brother Duch

addressed to the leaders,

on the enemy who had taken a gun

and committed suicide with it.

Incident happened at Ta Hor,

through the negligence of the guard,

who left his rifle near the door

and gone to empty the box.

When he returned, the detainee had taken the rifle,

had shot at the guard, and then committed suicide.

The guard had used a chain that was too long,

so he could get up and take the gun.

There where I worked, I attached the iron bar to the table,

not to a long chain like that.

The bar is attached to the table,

so he can't move.

The other day, Pouv fell asleep during guard duty,

I woke him with a kick in the ass.

The collecting of the accounts of the groups

is a daily business.

We must be attentive

to our essential mission of security:

To keep the enemy from escaping,

to take the guns, to break the keys,

to work hard in the prison.

We must be vigilant.

But if you're not attentive,

but negligent,

the enemy can grab the gun and kill himself.

A bullet under the chin.

It came out there.

The guard was alone?

He didn't get out of it, he was arrested

and was led to destruction.

In Duch's report to the leaders,

he wrote in conclusion:

"This failure,

"the presence of enemies, hidden or not, among our young people,

"is due to a principal cause,

"a painful point.

"Among the S21 administration, there is still no solidarity,

"no unity.

"I am firmly resolved to solve this problem by stages.

"Respectfully, Duch."

Let us be vigilant and determined

to guard the enemy with success.

Determined!

"Long live the revolutionary army of Kampuchea,

courageous and glorious!"

"Long live the glorious revolution of Kampuchea!"

"Long live the new society of Kampuchea, without rich or poor!"

Why are you yelling?

Are you talking to the other cell?

Don't make me climb back up two or three times!

It wears me out!

Don't you hear the guards?

Someone wrote that for you, can't you read?

"Don't be too free!"

If you're free, why weren't you stillborn?

Stop yelling! Otherwise I'll come in there and hit you!

It is the greatest, the most immense victory

in the history of our Kampuchea

an old woman more than 2000 years old.

This is the place where we interrogated the detainees.

You put the iron bar on, attach them to the table.

The paper is for the confessions of the detainees,

they must be written on this table.

Torture consisted in hitting and suffocation in a sack.

This sack suffocated them.

These wads of paper...

for when the confessions weren't clear,

the interrogator tossed them.

We tortured him,

he stank, his body was gangrenous,

he was hit til he bled,

you'd call the doctor to bandage him.

"Registry of Illnesses:

"Names of the Dead:

"Vong Len, called Th�n,

"chest pain, exhaustion.

"Chan Sali,

"chest pain, exhaustion.

"Tep Butmani, called Pong,

"torture.

"Serious Illnesses:

"Chea Loun, chest pain, exhaustion.

"Em Out, dysentery, chest pain, exhaustion.

"Mean Sokmi, called Ban Tchong, stomach ache, exhaustion.

"Toy Sopheap, called Sokun, fever, exhaustion.

"Chin Den, exhaustion.

"Nhiem Sim, chest pain, exhaustion.

"Kim Phouc Toung, torture, wounds.

"Kieu Chieang, called At, dysentery, exhaustion.

"Chum Savorn, fever, exhaustion.

"Heng Ean, torture.

"Chin Lorn, chest pain, exhaustion.

"Kim Eng, chest pain,

"difficulty breathing, dizziness.

"Inn Sreang, called Phan, chest pain, exhaustion.

"Sar Pouth, called Sar Sovann, fever, diarrhea, exhaustion."

In the time of Pol Pot, I was in Phnom Penh.

Chan, Duch's adjunct,

sent me to study medecine in Ta Khmao,

for 3 months and 20 days.

We learned

to make injections on pillows, not on people,

to recognise the ampules of drugs.

We made vitamin C

with flour, sugar and vinegar.

After this study, I came here, to S21,

to take care of the detainees.

That is, when a detainee had been interrogated,

when the back was bloody,

I cleaned the wounds with salt water,

I applied mercurochrome and a compress.

If there was paralysis, injections of B12 and B1.

For exhaustion, vitamin C.

You had to take care of them to facilitate more interrogation.

Then the care given to the detainees

was just to give them a little strength

so you could start hitting them again?

Yes.

A doctor tends a patient to heal them.

You tended them so they could be tortured,

and afterwards, you tended them again?

This report

tells of a detainee who wrote out his confession.

He took the lamp, doused himself with petrol

and set himself on fire.

Did you know that?

I didn't hear about it.

You didn't know.

And he as well,

he also was writing.

He took his pen and stuck it in his throat.

You knew that?

That story, yes.

But I didn't tend him, I just heard about it.

Someone told you?

And this.

The detainees were entrusted to the doctors.

"Extermination for the taking of blood."

Did you know about it?

The taking of blood that I've seen...

You took blood from three or four people,

you put it in a refrigerator,

and I don't know where it went.

Kh�n, did you hear about that?

Some taking of blood, I witnessed in the doctors' building,

on the road to the school.

You brought detainees there,

you put them on box-spring beds,

you shackled their feet

and their arms on each side of the bed,

you blindfolded them, you gagged them,

their heads tied to the bed.

Then we attached tubing to each arm,

with pouches for blood,

and we pumped it out.

I asked how many pouches they took.

They told me: Four pouches per person.

Nothing was left!

Once the drawing was complete, we left them against the wall.

They breathed like crickets,

their eyes rolled back.

They didn't move?

There was only those eyes, this breathing.

They couldn't feel anything anymore.

The pits were dug not far from there.

And that's where we buried the cadavers.

Did that happen often?

They took blood according to demand,

when the large hospitals ran out of blood,

once a month, every two months.

Here are the forms for taking blood.

You said two or three...

This is only one part. "Taking Blood", all of it.

I saw around 20 people.

All of them: "Taking blood."

The cadaver is in front of this room.

There's a piece of wood missing on the door.

It's in this building.

Look, the end of the spool of electrical wire.

We put in some jars full of water,

to give to the detainees to drink

and to wash the floor.

And there's barbed wire, six or seven rows of it,

out of fear that the detainees could jump over.

Look at this photo.

There, a kramar,

and there, the same thing.

He wasn't dead of illness or exhaustion,

he still had some flesh left.

He'd been tortured, look at the marks.

When he died under torture,

they photographed him, for the report to the leaders.

This detainee died during the day,

he was put in the hallway,

and after dark he was buried behind the prison.

There's one thing that I don't understand.

When they brought detainees here,

we had to create a document on them,

interrogate them in detail

on their personal history.

On the outside, in the villages and the countryside,

when a guy pulled up potatoes to eat them,

he was arrested and executed immediately.

We didn't create documents then, there was no interrogation.

Here, they were interrogated in d�tail.

Why? I don't understand.

The decision was made

to kill them,

but there was an ulterior motive.

You had to interrogate them

to find a defect,

a source of guilt,

and afterwards, you killed them.

In democratic Kampuchea,

Angkar's policy was to rule with justice.

When we created the Revolution, we wanted justice for the people.

And if we arrested someone, there had to be a motive.

Angkar had eyes everywhere,

it made no mistakes, it had grounds for arrest.

That's how it was!

If I understand correctly,

when you wrote a document, it was an invention.

We invented sabotage activity,

we invented evidence,

so we could execute an individual.

There was no tribunal to judge them.

When the document was finished, we put them to death.

Each man has his memories,

everyone has his history.

We had to dismantle their memory

and make it one of treasonous activity.

Their friends and families

became networks

in this treasonous activity.

From this, we had the evidence. We could kill the person.

Then we arrested the people in these networks

and we put them in prison.

"Experience:

"Our negligence in the past.

"Certain detainees,

"the Party forbids you to strike, but we will.

"The Party charges you to exert pressure, we exert another.

"Certain comrades forget

"the recommendations of the Party.

"Other comrades are full of self-importance.

"They interrogate not on political history,

"but on moral depravity, on women,

"subjects that could excite them.

"The Party says to strike the detainees

"with a stick, not your hand. Observe this restriction.

"The written responses

"must be signed, verified

"and clearly dated,

"the first as the second time,

"so that the Party can evaluate their moral evolution."

Nay N�n was the doctor at Hospital 98.

I interrogated this young girl

for four or five days without getting an answer.

She said she didn't know anything. I insisted:

What organization did she belong to?

What were her relations, the leader of her unit?

For four or five days, she refused to answer.

I asked for advice from Duch and Chan.

They told me to use a strong hand,

to terrorise her.

I followed their advice.

I insulted her, intimidated her,

I slammed my hand on the table,

I took a branch and struck her with it.

She pissed herself in fear.

When I hit her, she pissed on herself.

Then she asked to make her confession.

The confessions of Nay N�n,

I had her write them in four or five days.

I took a page.

In reading it, I didn't know

what network it spoke of, which part, there was nothing.

Then I spoke to her, and recommended that she write

according to my method.

She needed to describe a network, a party,

some kind of sabotage,

a network leader...

At length, we succeeded in writing this document.

This is the document.

On the last page, there's a signature,

Pr�k Kh�n, your signature, dated 1/5/77.

This is the answer of this young girl:

"H�n had given me a mission:

"To shit on the rice, the beans, near the bathroom,

"in the buildings and the houses,

"to make the command's hospital lose face,

"because it was a model hospital.

"The named Tchen gave me a mission:

"To shit in the operating room..."

I don't understand.

Did anyone believe in this kind of sabotage?

You could take that into account.

I saw "sabotage", I believed in it.

When I interrogated her,

I gave her three targets:

Among the three, she chose the CIA.

Then, I interrogated her in this direction.

In locating her network, her leader,

her accomplices, the sabotage at the hospital.

That's why I could believe her.

I don't believe in sabotage by the CIA,

and this young girl was only 19, according to her biography.

Is this her handwriting?

That's mine. She'd had no schooling.

I never read it, she made some mistakes.

So I wrote it for her, corrected it, embellished it a little.

What had happened to your education, your feelings,

and those of Duch, of Chan?

How could you accept that as the truth?

At the time,

the goal was to indoctrinate us.

You had to believe in sabotage,

or you couldn't stop the enemy.

When Duch received the document, he made no commentary.

- He agreed? - Yes.

This is Bouth Heng's answer,

leader of the interrogation group at Bureau S21.

"My Acts of Sabotage:

"To interrogate women in striking them so their clothes fell down,

"burn their buttocks until they had gangrene,

"to make them lose their heads

"so that they died without giving a response.

"I lost two women in this way.

"One of them was from France, the other Regiment 310.

"I interrogated Sin and Chan.

"I interrogated them together.

"My activities consisted of placing them face to face.

"They had to interrogate each other.

"Sin lost consciousness. I went to look for Try.

"We burned her buttocks, thinking she was pretending.

"I put her back in her cell.

"My activity was to strike Chan.

"The bitch was pregnant. The Great Brother didn't allow it,

"but I struck her and she fainted.

"Fearing that Angkar would know about it,

"I laid her out on a cot.

"This was meant to keep her from responding,

"to delay the document,

"in order to create similar documents and create confusion."

I was the guard for this cell.

A member of Group 5 had raped the woman who was pregnant.

She was a beautiful woman.

He ordered the other detainees

to lie down and turn toward the west, the south, the north.

He said:

"Anyone who moves will be executed!"

They all remained silent,

no one dared move.

He took this detainee, this beautiful woman with child,

and he raped her.

The guards caught him,

they made a report,

the superiors came and took him away.

The rape happened around 11:00 at night.

At this moment, at S21,

there was no female staff.

We were only boys,

we were between 13 and 14 years old

and 22 and 23 years old.

We were at the height of our youth,

we were overflowing with sexual urges.

They didn't let us go home,

we didn't go anywhere, we were stuck here.

When we saw new detainees arriving,

We joyfully gathered to see them.

Like the interrogators,

some of us brought out the detainees to interrogate them

in remote rooms,

they took advantage of them

to feel their breasts, pinch their cheeks,

caress their buttocks.

I saw it all in utter shame, I'm hiding nothing.

Nay N�n was quite beautiful,

for her I felt both love and pity,

but at that moment, she was the enemy.

It was forbidden to have feelings for girls,

and forbidden to love an enemy.

My heart was on fire, I was full of sexual desire,

I was furious that I could neither make love to her, nor touch her,

that irritated me,

I was full of hate, and I hit the enemy.

I was a guard in this cell for women and children.

The detainees couldn't get up if I didn't let them.

They sat down if I told them to.

The guard from Group 5 had raped the detainee.

You, Thi, you came up with an interrogator

to lead a detainee to interrogation.

When she came back,

she'd been hit, her back was covered in blood,

she held her child and rolled around on the tile floor.

You came back with a register and with Peng.

Peng, my brother, didn't speak to me.

You and Peng, you lied to the detainees.

"We're going to take away your children to take care of them."

You and Peng,

you took those who could walk.

Sri's group came to get those who couldn't walk

and took them out.

Sri and Peng took away the children

to kill them behind the prison.

You and Houy, you brought in a register,

you came to look for the detainees.

You said:

"We're taking you away to treat your wounds."

You and Houy, you had them killed.

Houy told them:

"I'll blindfold you, you mustn't see my base."

He made them climb into the trucks

to go to Choung Ek.

Towards 8 or 9 in the morning,

Hor received from Duch the register of names.

Duch had noted:

"Peng, strike them until only dust remains.

Duch, 5/30/78."

Hor brought me this register

to make the list of the detainees to take out.

We saw

that there were some parents with their children.

Hor had decided to take them out in two different groups.

First we took out the children.

Because if you took out the the children with the parents

in trucks to Choung Ek, they could scream or cry,

and it wouldn't remain a secret.

Towards 11:00, or noon,

Peng had had the children brought out,

and towards 6:00, 7:00 at night,

the men from Houy came to look for the parents.

Before we had them pile in,

we blindfolded them all.

If the detainees were husband and wife,

we wouldn't put them in the same truck,

but in different ones.

We were afraid husbands and wives would recognize each other, talk,

and cry out, it would no longer be a secret.

But the detainees didn't know

that they would be executed together at Choung Ek.

Here are the names of the detainees arrested as a family, 7 in all.

Two parents and five children.

Nhiem Malis, housewife,

Long Thin, teacher, Long Bothdara, teacher,

Long Sotheavy, student, Long Kirivuth, student,

Long Socheat, student, Long S�reyroath, sergent.

Here's Nhiem Malis, the mother,

and Long Thin, the father.

When we arrested the father,

we arrested the mother, the children and grandchildren.

One time, in Battambang,

I had to arrest a father,

the cooperative's management told me to arrest the wife and children.

We were told to "arrest by blood"...

as you would say "tear out the grass and its roots".

That's what it was, the arrest of the interior enemy,

the enemy who gnaws from the inside, the worm in the flesh.

You arrest members of the New Order, then of the Old Order,

and at the end, you arrest the revolutionary forces.

Revolutionary or not, we arrested everyone,

even here.

I grabbed the register when the detainees arrived.

When they came,

I knew they were dead.

I never thought of them as living.

In my mind, they were already dead.

So I never asked:

"Uncles, brothers and sisters? Reasons for your arrest?

"What are you guilty of?"

I only thought of taking down their name and their biography,

and putting them in cells.

As it was said:

"It's better to arrest by mistake

than allow the enemy to devour us from within."

I believe that the majority of them weren't guilty.

It's like in my case: When I was arrested in Battambang,

I was given no reason.

Only: "We're gathering people to cut rattan in Po Sath,

we lack manpower, comrade, go with the others."

It was an order, so I left.

At the cooperative, I was arrested.

I knew nothing. I was tortured with electricity,

but I had nothing to say.

You had to make something up.

I had nothing to say, I had to make it up!

You made a law that forced people to lie,

not to the interrogators like you, Kh�n,

but to lie to themselves.

We denounced we didn't know who,

for acts of which we were ignorant,

but there had to be some respite.

For the interrogator as well:

I had to give an answer, true or false.

So nothing human remained?

We had to have a history, words and sentences.

You killed off all humanity.

Once the document was created, you left us in our cells,

with nothing to eat, the living dead, neither man nor animal.

And when the moment came, you led them out.

When you killed them, they weren't human anymore.

At this time, every person who worked here,

whether he wanted to or not, owed total obedience to Angkar.

I don't want to hear about "obedience to Angkar".

If everyone only thought of Angkar, discipline, and the obeying of orders,

executing orders or being killed,

that's the end of the world, of justice.

There are no more ideals, no more human conscience.

We distinguish between humans and animals.

Man is different from animals,

these are two distinct things, man and animal.

If some men transform human beings into animals,

or into worse than animals...

This is not right...

This is not right.

When you think of the word "destruction", it's more than cruel,

in "kill", there seems to remain a moral sense,

but in "destruction", there's nothing left of the human,

you become dust,

particles swept away by the wind.

The world "kamtech", if I understand the sense of it,

it means to annihilate, so nothing is left.

Annihilation, nothing left.

With "kill", there remains...

there's still a certain worth,

but with "destruction", it's the end.

Even with animals, you don't speak of destroying them, but of killing them.

They become dust, carried off who knows where,

no humanity remains.

I think that "destruction" is said of the flesh, of the body,

but not of the soul.

Look, it all remains.

All this evidence remains,

these witnesses...

It's there, but you don't pay attention.

I want to know, for example Houy, you who worked here,

when you took out men,

what were you thinking of?

At the time I was young,

I didn't think far ahead.

I was hot-blooded,

when someone told me to do something, I did it,

to work for something, I did it,

to take them out to kill them, I did it.

From the moment that I obeyed Angkar.

Today, when I think back, it was against the law.

I'm ashamed of myself.

But I didn't think. When I think of it,

I get a headache.

So, when someone invites me to eat and drink,

I get drunk, I come home and I sleep.

For me, it's not like that.

For me, each of our meetings is very painful.

I don't want to come to these meetings,

because this isn't a nice story that we recall.

We only talk of a past that's difficult to endure,

and which we can't escape.

As for me, I can't.

I try to understand what happened to me,

to make sense of it. That's what I want to know.

We meet each other,

but this isn't a chance to clean the dirt off.

I remember this place well.

I remember the trees, this palm tree.

It's the base at Choung Ek, where prisoners were killed.

There, the old Chinese tombs. A shed was constructed

for the detainees brought from Tuol Sleng.

The trucks were parked there,

We made the prisoners enter the shed.

We told them:

"Don't be afraid, you're going to a new house."

They were led out one by one, we took their names,

and took them out...

to kill them there, where the pit had already been dug.

Once they were killed, we tossed them into the pit.

The second time,

we still brought them to Choung Ek,

there was a stench,

I saw the ground was cracked open,

the cadavers stank.

We applied ourselves to killing.

Afterwards, we brought in others,

that were also killed,

it still stank, but it became normal,

the stench was normal...

We were used to it.

I didn't think anymore, I asked no more questions,

I said nothing, I brought them out to be killed,

so I could return as quickly as possible.

Watch them attentively. Pay attention to the detainees.

Don't doze off.

Check the lock.

Here, it was very quiet.

No one passed by nor walked around.

We transported the detainees from Tuol Sleng to here.

Arriving here, in Choung Ek,

We turned on the generator in the shed

so they could hear nothing, to drown everything out.

We backed up the truck just to the shed,

we raised the tarp, they rolled to the ground

and we made them come into the shed.

Then we made them come out one by one,

we took down their names, we lied to them:

"Don't be afraid, you're going to your new house."

Duch was sitting on a mat and smoking,

he was waiting to witness the execution at the edge of the pit.

During the execution, if it rained,

we put down a tarp

to keep the rainwater from filling up the pit.

The detainees were placed on their knees.

Their hands were handcuffed behind their backs,

with a kramar over their eyes.

We took an iron bar and hit them

on the back of the neck.

They fell face down.

With a knife, we cut their throats.

Then we took off their handcuffs.

If their clothes were not stained,

we took them too,

but not those stained with blood.

We kept them in a corner.

We dragged the bodies and threw them into the pit.

After the execution,

we checked the registers.

If there were prisoners missing,

we had to drag out the bodies and recount them.

When the count was correct,

we threw them into the pit and buried them

making sure the pit was closed up.

I collected the handcuffs,

I put the clothing in the truck

to clothe other detainees.

I drove the truck here.

Houy yelled: "Help us guard."

I went on guard duty in the detainees' shed.

Later on, after dark, he yelled:

"Comrade, help us!"

Then, I brought out a detainee to the place of execution.

It stank of cadavers, it stank of blood.

I made two, three full trips,

my legs hurt, I returned to guard duty.

When it was finished, Houy yelled: "Comrade, hurry!

"Let's get back before daybreak!"

I rushed to the truck, we left.

Back at S21, before lying down, I had to wash the truck.

It was full of shit and urine, it stank.

Afterwards, I could rest.

In the afternoon,

I looked for morning glories and grass

to feed the rabbits, the sheep and the goats.

Dedicated to memory...

Original Translation: B. Eisenschitz - R. Panh

Subtitles: NICE FELLOW English translation: ironhills