Considering the sheer magnitude of the killing at Khmer Rouge security centers all around Cambodia, it is tempting to think that being arrested by the Khmer Rouge was tantamount to a death sentence. Many Cambodians certainly looked at it that way during the Khmer Rouge regime, and still do. But in fact, this was not necessarily the case. As shown by this year's mapping reports and those from the four previous years of mass grave mapping work, some individuals managed to survive incarceration in the Khmer Rouge security system. Hence we have many surviving witnesses to the brutality of those facilities. Fourteen such people were interviewed in the course of the 1999 mapping work.
Long-term psychiatric studies of Cambodian genocide survivors have shown that overt symptoms of serious psychological problems -- such as complaints of recurring nightmares, trouble concentrating or sleeping, and signs of clinical depression -- can endure for years after the traumatic experience has ended.[2] Recent studies have suggested that a significant proportion of the Cambodian population still suffer from these problems, which are often diagnosed as Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome.[3] Indeed, many trauma specialists believe that the effects of such severe trauma can last a lifetime:
Prolonged captivity undermines or destroys the ordinary sense of a relatively safe sphere of initiative, in which there is some tolerance for trial and error. To the chronically traumatized person, any action has the potential for dire consequences. There is no room for mistakes. [...] Prolonged captivity also produces profound alterations in the victim's identity. All the psychological structures of the self -- the image of the body, the internalized images of others, and the values and ideals that lend a person a sense of coherence and purpose -- have been invaded and systematically broken down. [...] Even after release from captivity, the victim cannot assume her former identity. Whatever new identity she develops in freedom must include the memory of her enslaved self. Her body image of herself in relation to others must include a body that can be controlled and violated. Her image of herself in relation to others must include a person who can lose and be lost to others. And her moral ideals must coexist with knowledge of the capacity for evil, both within others and within herself.[4]
Some survivors of Khmer Rouge prisons suffered extremely long periods of captivity, and the traumatic impact on these individuals is likely to have been far more severe than that experienced by the average Cambodian during the terror of the Khmer Rouge regime. In Ratanakiri Province, Mr. Bun Vantha was held an astonishing thirteen years, from 1966 to 1979 in the Boeng Kanseng Prison. Mr. Vantha believes he was arrested because of a complaint letter he sent to Khmer Rouge leader Nuon Chea in 1963, complaining of disorder and insecurity in areas “liberated” early on by the Khmer Rouge. He does not mention why he was spared, nor does he go into any detail regarding the exact circumstances of his release.
In Mondulkiri Province, Mr. Chann Tauch was arrested in December 1977, and imprisoned at the Phnom Kraol prison. Mr. Tauch says that he was arrested on suspicion of being associated with a group of senior region cadre who were being purged, but in the end, he says that he escaped death and was eventually released because his captors they came to believe that he was an “ordinary person” and did not have any links to the cadres who had been purged.
Likewise, Mr. Men Savet was held from 1977 to 1979 in Phnom Kraol prison, though he gave no indication of reasons for either his arrest or his survival and release. Also in Mondulkiri Province, Mr. Leng Chay was arrested in 1977 and incarcerated at the Koh Nhek security office. Mr. Chay says he was accused of being related to a group of traitors, but he, too, gave no indication of why he thinks he survived, or exactly when he was released. Mr. Sall Ra was arrested in December 1974 and held in a place called Office K-11 at Phnom Kraol prison; Mr. Ra says he was arrested on the accusation that his brother had fled to Vietnam, though he did not explain why or when he was released.
In Phnom Penh, students, diplomats and other Cambodians returning to the country after the Khmer Rouge came to power seem as a general rule to have been taken upon arrival at the airport directly to a place called the “Office of Consciousness and Work Education” in Phnom Penh, where they were held for a sort of observation. Those who were not deemed to have an appropriate level of consciousness were sent on to Tuol Sleng prison for torture and execution. Those who did not attract the attention of the authorities were sentenced to mere labor. Ms. Hem Vanna returned from study in France and was taken to the Office of Consciousness at Boeng Trabek. There, she says, she worked very hard and never talked about anything. “That was how we survived,” she recalled. Another inmate at the Office of Consciousness was Mr. Tep Vutha, who was held at Boeng Trabek for three years, until 1979. He says he had returned from his studies in France and Romania to help rebuild the country, but discovered that his role in rebuilding the country would be limited to handicrafts. Mr. Vutha says that he and his fellow inmates learned to survive by just working hard and staying quiet.
In Kratie Province, Mr. Yoen Chhoen was imprisoned for six months and ten days at the Kanh Chor sub-district security center, on the accusation of associating with Vietnamese. During the times when his jailers did not provide adequate water to the prisoners, he says he survived by drinking his own urine. He also attributes his survival to a successful deception he foisted on the Khmer Rouge; he changed his name, thus confusing the cadre in charge of the prison about his identity. Among eight hundred prisoners at this security center, Mr. Chhoen says, only three survived.
Also in Kratie Province, Ms. Pal Ran was detained for more than three years at Wat Khnol Roka, in a prison known as Koh Barong. She says that after her husband was executed, she was accused of planning to throw grenades at Khmer Rouge cadres. But she gave Documentation Center interviewers no indication of precisely how or why she believes she may have survived.
In Kampong Chhnang Province, Mr. Kim Porn was arrested in April 1977 and held until October 1978 at a security facility known as Prey Damrei Srot prison. His offense was having had his staff cook rice for the “17 April” people, an act of kindness considered criminal according to the Khmer Rouge worldview. Mr. Porn gave no indication of why he was eventually released, but did say that he had been classified as a “light offense prisoner.”
Documentation Center researchers located and interviewed four Khmer Rouge prison survivors in Kampong Thom Province in 1999. Mr. Men Le was charged with having “connections” to the Sihanouk and Lon Nol regimes; Mr. Ao Yoeng said the reason for his arrest was that he had been accused of involvement in political affairs, in that he was a Buddhist movement facilitator; Mr. Chapp Bun was accused of having been a chief of Baray District; Mr. He Hai did not indicate what he believed was the reason for his arrest. All except Chapp Bun were held first at Tradet Prison, then transferred to Wat Baray Choan Dek, and were prisoners from 1976 to 1979. Mr. Bun says that he believes he stayed alive because he was a productive worker, making many ox carts for the Khmer Rouge, but there was no real indication from the other three how or why they survived.
It is fascinating to note that the majority of these former prisoners of the Khmer Rouge did not volunteer any information to Documentation Center researchers about why they think they survived their experience in the security centers of Democratic Kampuchea. This is a particularly intriguing question in those cases where the informants claim that they were among only a few out of hundreds or even thousands of prisoners to have survived incarceration in a particular facility, such as Mr. Yoen Chhoen of Kratie Province. It is possible that in some of these cases, the prisoners had to do things to survive which they would prefer not to recall today, certainly not to an interviewer with a tape recorder and a mandate to identify criminals from the “Pol Pot time.” To survive terrible times, some of them may have had to do terrible things. As Judith Herman has noted regarding victims of political terror, “If, under duress, she has betrayed her own principles or has sacrificed other people, she now has to live with the image of herself as an accomplice of the perpetrator, a ‘broken' person. The result, for most victims, is a contaminated identity.”[5]
On the other hand, it may be that so radical was the break between their lives before and after being thrust into Khmer Rouge security centers, that these survivors simply have no vocabulary in which to articulate what happened to them there.[6] But broken or not, voice-less or not, these victims did survive, in a time when many, many Cambodians did not survive. Exactly how many Cambodians did not survive the Khmer Rouge regime is a question to which we will now turn.
Long-term psychiatric studies of Cambodian genocide survivors have shown that overt symptoms of serious psychological problems -- such as complaints of recurring nightmares, trouble concentrating or sleeping, and signs of clinical depression -- can endure for years after the traumatic experience has ended.[2] Recent studies have suggested that a significant proportion of the Cambodian population still suffer from these problems, which are often diagnosed as Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome.[3] Indeed, many trauma specialists believe that the effects of such severe trauma can last a lifetime:
Prolonged captivity undermines or destroys the ordinary sense of a relatively safe sphere of initiative, in which there is some tolerance for trial and error. To the chronically traumatized person, any action has the potential for dire consequences. There is no room for mistakes. [...] Prolonged captivity also produces profound alterations in the victim's identity. All the psychological structures of the self -- the image of the body, the internalized images of others, and the values and ideals that lend a person a sense of coherence and purpose -- have been invaded and systematically broken down. [...] Even after release from captivity, the victim cannot assume her former identity. Whatever new identity she develops in freedom must include the memory of her enslaved self. Her body image of herself in relation to others must include a body that can be controlled and violated. Her image of herself in relation to others must include a person who can lose and be lost to others. And her moral ideals must coexist with knowledge of the capacity for evil, both within others and within herself.[4]
Some survivors of Khmer Rouge prisons suffered extremely long periods of captivity, and the traumatic impact on these individuals is likely to have been far more severe than that experienced by the average Cambodian during the terror of the Khmer Rouge regime. In Ratanakiri Province, Mr. Bun Vantha was held an astonishing thirteen years, from 1966 to 1979 in the Boeng Kanseng Prison. Mr. Vantha believes he was arrested because of a complaint letter he sent to Khmer Rouge leader Nuon Chea in 1963, complaining of disorder and insecurity in areas “liberated” early on by the Khmer Rouge. He does not mention why he was spared, nor does he go into any detail regarding the exact circumstances of his release.
In Mondulkiri Province, Mr. Chann Tauch was arrested in December 1977, and imprisoned at the Phnom Kraol prison. Mr. Tauch says that he was arrested on suspicion of being associated with a group of senior region cadre who were being purged, but in the end, he says that he escaped death and was eventually released because his captors they came to believe that he was an “ordinary person” and did not have any links to the cadres who had been purged.
Likewise, Mr. Men Savet was held from 1977 to 1979 in Phnom Kraol prison, though he gave no indication of reasons for either his arrest or his survival and release. Also in Mondulkiri Province, Mr. Leng Chay was arrested in 1977 and incarcerated at the Koh Nhek security office. Mr. Chay says he was accused of being related to a group of traitors, but he, too, gave no indication of why he thinks he survived, or exactly when he was released. Mr. Sall Ra was arrested in December 1974 and held in a place called Office K-11 at Phnom Kraol prison; Mr. Ra says he was arrested on the accusation that his brother had fled to Vietnam, though he did not explain why or when he was released.
In Phnom Penh, students, diplomats and other Cambodians returning to the country after the Khmer Rouge came to power seem as a general rule to have been taken upon arrival at the airport directly to a place called the “Office of Consciousness and Work Education” in Phnom Penh, where they were held for a sort of observation. Those who were not deemed to have an appropriate level of consciousness were sent on to Tuol Sleng prison for torture and execution. Those who did not attract the attention of the authorities were sentenced to mere labor. Ms. Hem Vanna returned from study in France and was taken to the Office of Consciousness at Boeng Trabek. There, she says, she worked very hard and never talked about anything. “That was how we survived,” she recalled. Another inmate at the Office of Consciousness was Mr. Tep Vutha, who was held at Boeng Trabek for three years, until 1979. He says he had returned from his studies in France and Romania to help rebuild the country, but discovered that his role in rebuilding the country would be limited to handicrafts. Mr. Vutha says that he and his fellow inmates learned to survive by just working hard and staying quiet.
In Kratie Province, Mr. Yoen Chhoen was imprisoned for six months and ten days at the Kanh Chor sub-district security center, on the accusation of associating with Vietnamese. During the times when his jailers did not provide adequate water to the prisoners, he says he survived by drinking his own urine. He also attributes his survival to a successful deception he foisted on the Khmer Rouge; he changed his name, thus confusing the cadre in charge of the prison about his identity. Among eight hundred prisoners at this security center, Mr. Chhoen says, only three survived.
Also in Kratie Province, Ms. Pal Ran was detained for more than three years at Wat Khnol Roka, in a prison known as Koh Barong. She says that after her husband was executed, she was accused of planning to throw grenades at Khmer Rouge cadres. But she gave Documentation Center interviewers no indication of precisely how or why she believes she may have survived.
In Kampong Chhnang Province, Mr. Kim Porn was arrested in April 1977 and held until October 1978 at a security facility known as Prey Damrei Srot prison. His offense was having had his staff cook rice for the “17 April” people, an act of kindness considered criminal according to the Khmer Rouge worldview. Mr. Porn gave no indication of why he was eventually released, but did say that he had been classified as a “light offense prisoner.”
Documentation Center researchers located and interviewed four Khmer Rouge prison survivors in Kampong Thom Province in 1999. Mr. Men Le was charged with having “connections” to the Sihanouk and Lon Nol regimes; Mr. Ao Yoeng said the reason for his arrest was that he had been accused of involvement in political affairs, in that he was a Buddhist movement facilitator; Mr. Chapp Bun was accused of having been a chief of Baray District; Mr. He Hai did not indicate what he believed was the reason for his arrest. All except Chapp Bun were held first at Tradet Prison, then transferred to Wat Baray Choan Dek, and were prisoners from 1976 to 1979. Mr. Bun says that he believes he stayed alive because he was a productive worker, making many ox carts for the Khmer Rouge, but there was no real indication from the other three how or why they survived.
It is fascinating to note that the majority of these former prisoners of the Khmer Rouge did not volunteer any information to Documentation Center researchers about why they think they survived their experience in the security centers of Democratic Kampuchea. This is a particularly intriguing question in those cases where the informants claim that they were among only a few out of hundreds or even thousands of prisoners to have survived incarceration in a particular facility, such as Mr. Yoen Chhoen of Kratie Province. It is possible that in some of these cases, the prisoners had to do things to survive which they would prefer not to recall today, certainly not to an interviewer with a tape recorder and a mandate to identify criminals from the “Pol Pot time.” To survive terrible times, some of them may have had to do terrible things. As Judith Herman has noted regarding victims of political terror, “If, under duress, she has betrayed her own principles or has sacrificed other people, she now has to live with the image of herself as an accomplice of the perpetrator, a ‘broken' person. The result, for most victims, is a contaminated identity.”[5]
On the other hand, it may be that so radical was the break between their lives before and after being thrust into Khmer Rouge security centers, that these survivors simply have no vocabulary in which to articulate what happened to them there.[6] But broken or not, voice-less or not, these victims did survive, in a time when many, many Cambodians did not survive. Exactly how many Cambodians did not survive the Khmer Rouge regime is a question to which we will now turn.
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