I expected the additional two Khmer documents which Hilary sent to me from Johns file at Youk Chhangs Documentation Centre to be nearly identical to his official confession, perhaps later workings of what he had said which were abandoned but kept by the Khmer Rouge cadres as background information. And I ended up using the photographs in an Oxfam campaign. John and Kerry had been travelling along what they called the hippie trail, happily ignorant of the politics of the region they skirted around on their boat. He was very bright but hed had to leave university [when the Khmer Rouge came in]. Subscribe to receive all the latest news, tips, and travel updates delivered right to your inbox! In 2009, 31 years after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, yet at a time when none of the members of Angkar the governing party had been held to account for the mass torture and killings which they ordered, Case 001 opened at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. What everyone wanted was for him to break down in tears, says Nic Dunlop. Why does my grief and pain feel undiminished by the passage of time? Kerrys mother would stare out to sea whenever anyone expressed anxiety and brightly say: Dont you worry. If this confession is authentic, I would have to say that I learned a lot of new things about the Cambodian genocide I never thought such documents could exist., In their paranoid urges to keep track of every single person who made it through their doors, the brothers of the Khmer Rouge ensured their own downfall.
The most infamous of these prisons was the S-21 Tuol Sleng prison, run by Kaing Guek Eav (known as Duch), which detained between 14,000 17,000 prisoners, of which only 12 are believed to have survived. By all accounts, he was genuinely shocked that nobody took that to be a legitimate defence. Andrew Cayley stood as the international co-prosecutor of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal between 2009 and 2013 with the UN. Denise Affonco, a survivor of the genocide, stated in the Khmer Rouge tribunal regarding the conditions: Every day, people died in the village. The Khmer Rouge didnt want to waste bullets, so they came up with other ways to perform the executions. Paranoia in the regime was rife and there was great pressure on the torturers at the interrogation centres of which S-21 was just one of around 200, although it remains the most notorious to extract confessions from victims which would implicate other family members, friends or associates. Cambodia remains a country crippled by the actions of a violent few against an unsuspecting populace, I did think about the idea of forgiveness, says Hilary, but I felt it was impossible. Notably, Duch was sentenced to 35 years imprisonment in July 2010, which was later increased to life imprisonment. Meas Muth is presumed to have been in charge of capturing the Foxy Lady off the tiny, idyllic island of Koh Tang, which at that point unbeknownst to the sailors housed a Khmer Rouge military base. Here we share our favorite quick and easy recipes, plus travel tips and guides for our favorite places around the world. Registration is a free and easy way to support our truly independent journalism, By registering, you will also enjoy limited access to Premium articles, exclusive newsletters, commenting, and virtual events with our leading journalists, {{#verifyErrors}} {{message}} {{/verifyErrors}} {{^verifyErrors}} {{message}} {{/verifyErrors}}. Although such horrific events happened at the Killing Fields, today you can see these vibrant pink flowers blooming at the fields. Sadly, it seems he already realised his chances of emerging alive from S-21 were extremely slim. Thank you again and take care. Simultaneously, Sihanouk was overthrown by pro-American general Lon Nol in March 1970, and allied with the Khmer Rouge to urge Cambodians to retake control of the country. Really, all of this is just a personal experience.. It was mainly cameras, photographs. I say I can imagine the moment of opening the package being very poignant.
There is much work left to do. So tragic! I couldnt have done it, she says: it would have been too hard. While they initially relied on North Vietnamese fighters to capture large swathes of the Cambodian countryside through the late 1960s, the Khmer Rouge gradually increased in number and battle prowess themselves. A letter Hilary kept from 1998 details the work done by Oxfam in the region as a result of the donated photographs taken by John: The appeal fund which was set up in your brothers name was used to fund student placements for pupils who could not afford to pay tuition fees. Duch, it is said, went into hiding after the collapse of the Khmer Rouge but, according to Dunlop, he seemed fairly unconcerned about the idea that he might be prosecuted for his role in the regime when they met. In 1962, I was transferred to a private school called Royal Grammar School in Newcastle. Weeks without Kerrys reassuring words went by. The Khmer ideology had been influenced by Pol Pots time spent among hill tribes in the north-east, who lived a self-sufficient, communal lifestyle without need of money. The confessions of tortured prisoners arent the only documents that made their way out of S-21. He had converted to Christianity at that point and started working for a charity. I didnt understand it completely then, but now I have children of my own. However, this neutral position was eroded in the 1960s as both North and South Vietnamese insurgents were operating from sanctuaries just inside Cambodia. In 1978, three young men on agap yearstrayed into Cambodian waters and were discovered by members of the Khmer Rouge. John Dawson Dewhirst and Kerry Hamill were just two people in a genocide which took the lives of over 2 million, but they were people I feel I got to know as I researched their stories. Sihanouk finally broke off diplomatic relations with the US upon the escalation of the Vietnam War and allied himself with North Vietnam. Spending time on a boat meant you didnt always have the opportunity to post your letters anyway. The controversies between fictional CIA officers that he mentions are actually political scandals in Australia which were widely publicised in the 1970s. All Rights Reserved. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? The guides were local guides who were born and raised in that city so they were able to answer all of our questions about the history of the city. It is especially horrific. Instead, Khmer Rouge soldiers command us to leave. Another he gave as Major Ruse. He told me that S-21 was hell, where he was repeatedly shocked with electricity (using 220 volts of electricity from the wall) and had his toes removed. The media, the judges and the families of victims were prepared to face an unfeeling psychopath. Some were taken from their families to do the work of Angkar, others from orphanages. Others plant rice. Many die along the way. It doesnt seem right to be able to put it away in a box How can it not be terrible today when it was so terrible then? But those who murdered Bophana were probably teens who had been sent to brutal re-education centres or whose parents had been slaughtered in front of them. He describes methods of map-drawing and navigation something we know he was talented at, since he was the Foxy Ladys paid charter and mentions the name of his sister Hilary and the pub she ran at the time. Both Rob and Hilary are keen to stress their belief that the Pol Pot regime and its authoritarian communist Year Zero experiment isnt discussed enough internationally or taught properly in western schools (No one talks about it, says Hilary). When I first visited the town, it had a smattering of hostels; by 2017, and after the introduction of an airport, the main street, known (slightly bizarrely) as Pub Street, is ablaze with neon lights, and luxury hotels with American-style air conditioning and swimming pools line the roads leading up to the temples. The internet, of course, was decades off, and mail delivery across continents was slow at the best of times. Please take that strength with you to Cambodia. He completely evacuated the modern cities of Cambodia, including the capital of Phnom Penh. Those that disobey disappear. Hilary knows that after John left Tokyo and The Japan Times, he travelled extensively. Its because the cadres were so young and so numerous that there is little appetite in Cambodia to prosecute more members of the Khmer Rouge. Rob tells me he has tried to find solace by researching the rituals of grief in cultures across the world. He was only 3 years old. Survivors themselves often say that they bear no ill will towards the children who participated in their torture because they realise they had no choice and were brainwashed: in a country where its estimated every single family lost at least one member to violence, people are still painstakingly building their own paths back to normality. The Khmer Rouge were assiduous about documentation, Andrew Cayley tells me. But they are incredibly important sites to be aware of and learn from during your visit Phnom Penh. The Gaspesie Tour The Ultimate Canadian Road Trip in Quebec, 5 Best Places to See Cherry Blossoms In Vancouver Canada, Best Things To Do In Vancouver Canada Ultimate One-Day Itinerary. My mum and dad were beside themselves; my dad had been contacting every single port in southeast Asia trying to find out something, anything. You can make a difference and you will.. 100 days of slaughter: The Rwandan genocide, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-10684399, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16865834, https://www.ushmm.org/genocide-prevention/countries/cambodia/case-study/background/an-ancient-kingdom, https://www.facebook.com/International-Justice-Initiative-115888413184606/?view_public_for=115888413184606. Kerry describes his CIA training as centring around survival skills, three-week camping trips taken on Great Barrier Island where the recruits learnt the arts of spear-fishing, making and using fish traps and animal traps, recognition of edible grubs, roots, fruits and berries and the proper preparation of these foods. The idea that anything approaching normal could have happened in the country while such terrible crimes were being carried out seems almost offensive. Cayley tells me that he remembered Duch as an extremely complex character.
Millions of Cambodians died during the Khmer Rogue reign in the 1970s in what is now known as the Cambodian Genocide. I wrote something to him before he gave evidence. It is very common for the school children of Cambodia to visit on a field trip. Kerry Hamill and his girlfriend Gail aboard the Foxy Lady (Ro, Victims of the Khmer Rouge, displayed at the Toul Slenggenocide museum, An iron bed in one of the torture rooms at S-21: outside there are many bodies yet to be excavated, A keen sailor, Kerry loved travel and adventure, Men, women and children were indiscriminately executed by the cadres of the Khmer Rouge, A young Cambodian woman looks at the main stupa in Choeung Ek Killing Fields, which is filled with thousands of skulls of those killed during the Pol Pot regime, A photo from a Vietnamese news agency whose caption reads: The bloodthirsty Pol Pot-Ieng Sary gang turned the baseth lime rock mountain area, about 30 km northwest of Phnom Penh, into a huge prison where many Kampucheans were killed (Ge, Families of the Khmer Rouges victims help to educate younger Cambodians about the genocide(Y, (Youk Chhang/Documentation Centre of Cambodia), Pol Pot, leader of the Khmer Rouge, gives an interview to ABCin the Cambodian jungle in 1980, Khmer Rouge cadres were made up of children and teenagers, sometimes as young as 10 years old, Andrew Cayley and YoukChhang teach schoolchildren about the Khmer Rouge regime(, John Dawson's death feels somehow symbolic of the Khmer Rouge's pointless brutality, Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number, Please enter a name between 1 and 40 characters, You must be over 18 years old to register. Four major cases emerged concerning international crimes: including crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide. Paragliding over Oludeniz Beach (Turkey) Tips for Tourists, Best Places To Visit In The Dolomites Italy, Everything You Need To Know Before You Go To Iguazu Falls, 4 Best Places To Go in the Sacred Valley of Peru, Humantay Lake An Amazing Day Trip from Cusco Peru, Tips for Visiting the Golden Bridge in Vietnam, Best Things to Do in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), My Experience at the Killing Fields of the Cambodian Genocide, Best Things To Do in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, How to Visit Nubia The Colorful Nubian Village in Egypt, 5 Things You Absolutely MUST Do At The Dead Sea, What I Wish I Knew Before Skydiving In Dubai, Seaside Florida One Of The Very Best Beaches In Florida, Best Philadelphia Restaurants For Every Meal Of The Day, What You Need To Know Before Visiting Eastern State Penitentiary. Nevertheless, Siem Reap remains a beautiful and vibrant place, the slightly more laidback little sister of the much larger and harsher feeling Phnom Penh. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies, Youk Chhang/Documentation Centre of Cambodia. However, the appeal was a big success and raised double the amount expected, so it actually paid for 20. This is no sanitised memorial. It was here, in this landscape so abundant with suffering, that John Dewhirst and Kerry Hamill are presumed to have been taken after their confessions were meticulously typed up by Comrade Duch. Recently I was disguised as a teacher in Japan. You know the survivors have a lot to share. Twelve years after the UN-backed Khmer Rouge Tribunal began, only three people have been prosecuted for their part in perpetrating crimes against humanity Duch, Pol Pots right-hand man Nuon Chea (known as Brother Number Two) and Khieu Samphan, the chief of state. They had such hope and fear. He pauses. The family never recovered. It was a hybrid court, with a number of foreign judges from the UN sitting alongside Cambodian counterparts, and its first case was brought against the man who ran S-21 and ordered the murder of thousands. Its a difficult subject, but remembering the past and learning from it is essential. Overall, the court proceedings are mainly considered a success, since senior Khmer Rouge figures such as Duch were prosecuted, and the proceedings occurred inside Cambodia and allowed for Cambodians to witness and participate in the ECCC firsthand. Edinburgh International Justice Initiative. Utah Ski Resorts 5 Reasons Why Deer Valley Is Our Favorite! Nothing for me to share with my family and nothing for me except almost unendurable pain You might think that Im emotionally fragile but Im not. The increasingly brutal demands of the Khmer regime are, admittedly, even more difficult to imagine when juxtaposed with the youthfulness of the people who carried them out. I highly recommend booking a tour with a personal guide who can tell you their experiences and answer any questions you may have. But he didnt know if it might have been a different westerner. Rob Hamill heard the same story and wonders whether it might have been Kerry; it was a story that I encountered again and again in my research, until one rare survivor of the prison a man named Chum Mey told me that he was detained in the room next door to Kerry Hamill, and that Kerry was the one who met that awful fate. He names the best types of cameras to take photographs for the CIA and the lighting that would be needed to do it; particularly arresting turns of phrase stand out, such as when he says that capitalism is like a culture [in Britain] that has been passed down the generations, like a tradition. I thought of them constantly as I contacted people theyd known and places theyd worked, tracking their likely routes through Asia on a map fearless, vibrant Kerry whose childhood was spent on the idyllic shores of New Zealand; and gentle, creative John who was born a few streets down from me in Newcastle: both of them in love with travel and adventure. The last time I speak to Rob Hamill, hes about to set sail with his wife Rachel and three children Finn, Declan and Ivan to Fiji, via Minerva Reef. I contacted Simon Fraser University to ask whether Lebowitz might have travelled at that time and met John in person. The Hamills had had a tradition over the preceding months of sitting round the kitchen table together in New Zealand as their father read out the latest letter from Kerry vividly describing his adventures round the globe; sometimes an item of clothing or a trinket would arrive in a package for his siblings. The food shortages produced a man-made famine, as an estimated 500,000 to 1.5 million deaths occurred solely due to this. Rob Hamill is keen to impress upon me that in situations like this, there is a process, but there is no closure. Thank you for your thoughtful post. Does this suggest he was kept alive for longer than expected? 2022 National Cambodian Heritage Museum & Killing Fields Memorial, Partner of the Cambodian Association of Illinois, National Cambodian Heritage Museum & Killing Fields Memorial, 2831 West Lawrence Avenue, Chicago, IL, 60625. When you spend months researching the Khmer Rouge, their methods start to seem almost like pantomime horror, so creative in their monstrosity as to be surely dreamed up in a uniquely twisted imagination. Take care <3. He forced the people living there out of their homes and into the countryside to work in forced labor camps. The craters you see above are mass graves that have been excavated. 
