Center for Khmer Studies Library

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The master of confessions : the making of a Khmer Rouge torturer / Thierry Cruvellier ; translated from the French by Alex Gilly.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextLanguage: English Original language: French Publisher: New York, NY : Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2014Edition: First editionDescription: vi, 326 pages ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780062329547
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 959.6 CRU
Summary: With chilling clarity, a veteran international journalist delineates the totalitarian ideology and horrific crimes of the leaders of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge. A witness to and chronicler of the war-crimes trials of Rwanda (Court of Remorse, 2010), Cruvellier likewise attended the arduous eight-month Khmer Rouge Tribunal in 2009 of the notorious head of the S-21 "death mill" in Phnom Penh, Kaing Guek Eav, aka Duch. Duch managed the prison, formerly a high school, between 1975 and 1979, and he was tasked with interrogating, eliciting confessions by torture and "smashing" the victim--the verb preferred by the court. A meticulous, methodical former math teacher and a loyal Khmer party member, Duch, then in his mid-30s, was the "perfect fit for the job" of interrogator. The pride he took in his work was reflected in the careful records he diligently kept and did not destroy before he fled upon the invasion of the Vietnamese in early 1979.

"From Le matre des aveux, published in France by Editions Gallimard."

Originally published in France in 2011 by Editions Gallimard/Versilio as Le maitre des aveux.

Includes bibliographical references.

With chilling clarity, a veteran international journalist delineates the totalitarian ideology and horrific crimes of the leaders of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge. A witness to and chronicler of the war-crimes trials of Rwanda (Court of Remorse, 2010), Cruvellier likewise attended the arduous eight-month Khmer Rouge Tribunal in 2009 of the notorious head of the S-21 "death mill" in Phnom Penh, Kaing Guek Eav, aka Duch. Duch managed the prison, formerly a high school, between 1975 and 1979, and he was tasked with interrogating, eliciting confessions by torture and "smashing" the victim--the verb preferred by the court. A meticulous, methodical former math teacher and a loyal Khmer party member, Duch, then in his mid-30s, was the "perfect fit for the job" of interrogator. The pride he took in his work was reflected in the careful records he diligently kept and did not destroy before he fled upon the invasion of the Vietnamese in early 1979.

English

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