Inhuman Humans

We´re bad! Really...we are really bad. We´re capable of horrendous behaviour which sometimes needs to be seen to be believed. We can read about stuff, hear reportings of stuff, but you get an additional perspective when seeing it with your own eyes.

How do i know this? I make a point of seeing what and when i can.

In 1995 i made a point of touring around Japan. I was in Hiroshima and Nagasaki for 50th Anniversary of the dropping of the nuclear bombs. Just a handful of structures in the cities survive. Parks were filled with literally millions of origami storks as people come to pay their respects to the thousands that died. This remains a constant source of serious disagreement between Pa and myself; for me there is no way you can ever defend the loss of innocent life, not least on a scale of such magnitude. Pa still maintains it was necessary to put an end to WW2.

Yad Washem, the holocaust museum in Jerusalem was another complete eye-opener for me. The monstrous systematic murders by the Nazis during the 2nd World War are clearly chronicled. This one is even more close to home having lost much of my family in the gas chambers. Exhibits include bars of soap made from human fat and a collection of human hair wigs.

There are also war memorial museums in both Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) and Hanoi that vividly depict the American invasion with graphic photos and video footage and young victims of Agent Orange in formaldehyde jars.

For me however, the one that probably disturbed me the most was S21 in Phnom Penh. It´s to be found in one of the suburbs and is now known as Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, this former school was converted in August 1975, four months after the Khmer Rouge won the civil war into a prison and interrogation centre.

It still looks like a school, yet the crimes committed here on Cambodians by Cambodians are just too surreal.

S21 - the converted school

From 1975 to 1979, an estimated 17,000 people were imprisoned at Tuol Sleng. At any one time, the prison held between 1,000-1,500 prisoners. They were repeatedly tortured and coerced into naming family members and close associates, who were in turn arrested, tortured and killed.

Later, the party leadership's paranoia turned on its own ranks and purges throughout the country saw thousands of party activists and their families brought to Tuol Sleng and murdered.

Some of the rules in the prefab prison have been translated as follows: -
You must immediately answer my questions without wasting time to reflect
While getting lashes or electrification you must not cry at all
Do nothing, sit still and wait for my orders. If there is no order, keep quiet
When I ask you to do something, you must do it right away without protesting
If you don’t follow all the above rules, you shall get many many lashes of electric wire
If you disobey any point of my regulations you shall get either ten lashes or five shocks of electric discharge

Even though the vast majority of the victims were Cambodian, foreigners were also imprisoned, including Vietnamese, Thai, Laotians, Indians, Pakistanis, Britons, Americans, New Zealanders and Australians.

There are only 12 prisoners known to have survived internment.

The museum is open to the public, and receives an average of 500 visitors every day.

Like all good mass-murdering bastards, everything was documented and photos taken of every prisoner. The partitioned classes are still stained with blood as are some of the wide varieties of torture instruments. Other exhibits include a huge world map made of human skulls as well as a vast pyramid of skulls in the school grounds.
The prison had a staff of 1,720 people. Of those, approximately 300 were office staff, internal workforce and interrogators. The other 1,400 were general workers, including people who grew food for the prison. Several of these workers were children taken from the prisoner families. The chief of the prison was Khang Khek Ieu (also known as Comrade Duch), a former mathematics teacher who worked closely with Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot.

photos of some of the victims of S21

In 1979, the prison was uncovered by the invading Vietnamese army and in 1980, the prison was reopened by the government of the People's Republic of Kampuchea as a historical museum memorializing the actions of the Khmer Rouge regime.

I share this story because at last some kind of justice is being dealt to the protagonists of this civil genocide.

Of course, Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge leader managed to avoid the courts and died in custody in 1998.

Now 67, former S21 former prison chief Duch is one of five aging senior Khmer Rouge members facing trial for the estimated 1.7 million Cambodians who died from overwork, starvation and murder under the regime's attempt to forge an agrarian utopia by abolishing religion, money and schools, and forcing most of the population onto collective farms between 1975 and 1979.

Duch - the mass-murdering bastard before and now

Duch, who converted to Christianity after the fall of the regime, has admitted to his role as prison chief and asked for forgiveness.

However, the remaining defendants — who by all accounts were chief architects in the revolution's policy making — have denied any involvement in the atrocities, making Duch's co-operation all the more important for laying the ground work for their prosecution.

International prosecutor William Smith said the prosecution approached this trial with the case against the remaining defendants "very much in mind," a strategy that looks like it may succeed.

"The major fact remains that he has confessed to his crimes, and his trial will make it nearly impossible for the other defendants to deny that they committed the crimes that Duch witnessed," observes Gregory Stanton, president of the Washington-based Genocide Watch.

"That is why his trial is so important, and why prosecutors were right to open with it."

Prosecutors are asking for a 40 year prison sentence. Duch himself today announced he wants to be acquitted and released.

In a court apology, Duch was quoted as saying

“I am deeply remorseful and profoundly affected by the destruction on such a mind-boggling scale,” he said as more than 1,000 people packed into the courtroom to hear him speak and millions more Cambodians watched on live television. “As for the families of victims, my wish is that you kindly leave your door open for me to make my apologies.”

Speaking so quickly that he had to be asked twice to slow down and repeat himself, Comrade Duch said he “could do nothing to help” his victims once Pol Pot and other senior Khmer Rouge leaders had decided their fate. He described his remorse as “excruciating” and said that he hoped one day “to again be recognized as part of humankind.”

What would be a fair punishment for this former Maths teacher? No human has the right to take another´s life, so, what would be an appropriate sentence for such heinous crimes? I did turn to Criminologist NG from St Mary´s University in London, but unfortunately all i got was "out of remit" in response.

Don´t hold your breath to find out Duch´s sentence however; the trial has been running for eight months and the final sentence won´t be released for several months.

My main African travel consultant Bubba (of bigtubofglue fame) has recommended I visit Kigali in Rwanda for even more shocks. I most certainly will.