Top: former Khmer Rouge leader "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea (L) a courtroom in Cambodia (AFP/ECCC/File, Mark Peters) and (below) Cambodian filmmaker Thet Sambath (AFP/Getty Images/File, Matt Carr)
By Suy SePHNOM PENH (AFP)— A Cambodian film-maker spent years to win the trust of a former top Khmer Rouge leader and capture a startling confession that he now refuses to hand over to a landmark genocide trial.
In a dogged attempt to understand why up to two million people, including his own family members, died during the regime's bloody 1975-1979 rule, journalist Thet Sambath sought answers from "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea.
The ex-revolutionary, now 84, was not an easy man to befriend but after years of weekend visits he finally relinquished, saying: "I will tell you the truth."
The unprecedented revelations that followed were captured in the award-winning 2009 documentary "Enemies of the People" and could now play a key role in Nuon Chea's upcoming trial -- despite the film-maker's objections.
"What I did is for the people, not the court," Thet Sambath told AFP.
In the film Nuon Chea, for once not donning his trademark sunglasses, can be seen sitting at a table in his modest wooden home, calmly telling Thet Sambath that the Khmer Rouge killed perceived traitors if they could not be "re-educated" or "corrected".
"These people were categorised as criminals... They were killed and destroyed. If we had let them live, the party line would have been hijacked. They were enemies of the people," he said.
A secretive cadre even by the standards of one of the world's most enigmatic movements, Nuon Chea also opened up about his relations with "Brother Number One" Pol Pot, who died in 1998.
Ten years in the making, the much-lauded film is the product of a collaboration between Thet Sambath and Briton Rob Lemkin.
It charts the complex friendship between Nuon Chea and Thet Sambath, who for years kept his own suffering at the hands of the Khmer Rouge a secret, not wanting the elderly man to think he was out for revenge.
But shortly before Nuon Chea's arrest by Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court in 2007, the journalist at last confided that he lost his parents and a brother under the regime -- and received a rare apology.
"I would like to say how deeply sorry I am," Nuon Chea told him.
The pair then shared a final meal together before the accused was taken to prison.
His joint trial with ex-head of state Khieu Samphan, former foreign minister Ieng Sary and his wife and ex-social affairs minister Ieng Thirith begins on Monday.
It is the court's second case after the landmark July conviction of former Khmer Rouge prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch.
All four suspects face a string of charges including crimes against humanity and war crimes over the deaths of nearly a quarter of the population through starvation, overwork or execution in Pol Pot's bid to forge a communist utopia.
Like his co-defendants, Nuon Chea denies the allegations, making the hard-won revelations in the film all the more remarkable.
The prosecution told AFP it wants the "candid admissions" in the film to be used in the trial but Thet Sambath and Lemkin have refused repeated requests to hand their tapes to the court.
"The documentary has played a valuable role in helping to inform the public about the horrific crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge," said Craig Etcheson, an investigator for the prosecution.
"It can play an even more valuable role now in helping to bring justice for the millions of victims of this period, and we hope the film-makers will cooperate in making this important evidence available to the court."
But Thet Sambath said he promised Nuon Chea and other former cadres he would not use the information against them.
"I told the court they can use what is shown in public," he said. "But I will never hand it to the court myself. I must respect my promise to the people I worked with."
The court has stopped short of seizing the footage, instead telling prosecutors they can seek to add the documentary to the case file during the trial once the film is in the public domain.
The movie has yet to have a general release in Cambodia but it has been widely shown abroad and picked up numerous awards at film festivals.
It remains to be seen how important the footage will be to the case but Thet Sambath believes Pol Pot's right-hand man is unlikely to repeat the confession when he takes the stand.
"Before the court, he may say something else," Thet Sambath said. "But what he told me was the truth."
2 comments:
If the price is right; then the film will be released. It all about money. Why not? He worked hard and the court wanted free? Those judges should work for free too.
It is obvious in hindsight to see how the crimes of such proportion could take place in Cambodia.
Extremities have no place anywhere under the sky.
The KR leaders never preached reconciliation and never understood the concept of unity among the very people they claimed to defend and help to prosper.
They were full of revenges and created hatred in the mind of the peasants against the city people forgetting that those who then lived in the cities were once lived in the countryside. These top leaders had been themselves in Phnom Penh living and enjoying a city life before they went to the jungle. Certainly they are hypocrites!
They also created division among Cambodians using ethnicity as a mean and physical colors and characteristics as a model to decide allegiance to the state.
They truly and insanely believed that they could build Cambodia from the pure Cambodian race, whatever that was supposed to be.
They themselves defined physically what Cambodians should look like and those that did not fit physically in that model they had insanely created were automatically considered not good Cambodians and for that reason were prone to becoming traitors to their party and their organisation. Are they the only ones who are capable of loving Cambodia?
How does one define a Cambodian and a love for Cambodia?
My definition of a Cambodian is quite simple and it is someone who takes or wants to take a Cambodian citizenship, loves Cambodia and considers it his or her country and is willing at all cost to defend her and her interests.
Being born in Cambodia and having a dark color with curly hair are not important. Cambodia of modern day is composed of various ethnic groups who enjoy her culture, traditions, ways of life and consider her their home. This is a fact which cannot be ignored and ignoring it will only lead to more bloodshed and tragedy.
Imagine the US were at war with Cambodia and the Americans decided that the Khmers who had come to live there were not to be trusted and therefore should all be deported back to Cambodia. What do you think of that policy?
Now, your allegiance to the US is being tested, isn't it? Which country do you show your allegiance to? I am not going to answer that question, but let each one of you who is a Khmer and lives in the US answer the question yourself.
Cambodian political and national problems are quite complex and it is not easy to find a good solution to all the problems Cambodia faces. It will certainly takes a long time to address all the problems.
For prosperity and peace in Cambodia, we need to move beyond the ethnicity and race issues.
What do you think of the idea of incorporating or absorbing the Vietnamese who live in Cambodia into Cambodian society by making them part of Cambodia, the same way the Americans make Cambodians who live there part of their society and do it in such a way that when these Vietnamese inside Cambodia defend her, they are also defending their interests, their livelihood and that of their children in Cambodia.
A lot of Vietnamese who came to live in Cambodia may have come here for economic reasons, better opportunities and freedom thus will not support the Vietnamese government’s ambition over Cambodia.
Not working with them would give them with no choice, but to support the status quo in Cambodia. After all, some of them or a lot of them may also want to see a better Cambodia where freedom, democracy and prosperity reign. The SRP with their policy of sending them back to Vietnam has certainly lost millions of votes that could have been obtained. It is certainly doubtful that the argument accusing them to be all working for the interests of Vietnam is correct.
I am welcoming all ideas to address this issue with only one request that debate be civilized and no swearing, please. If you cannot refrain from swearing, then just accept that we agree to disagree on this issue and you can move on without leaving any dirty comments here.
Anet Khmer
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