Wednesday, 29 August 2012
May Titthara and Stuart White
Phnom Penh Post 
ទីតាំងផ្ទះតា ម៉ុក នៅខេត្តតាកែវ កំពុងសង់ជាសាកលវិទ្យាល័យ។People stand outside Ta Mok’s house in Takeo. Photograph: Alan Parkhouse/Phnom Penh Post
A road leading to Ta Mok´s residence
A gate to Ta Mok's house
In an ironic twist of fate, the former home of one of the top officials
of the Khmer Rouge regime — a government notorious for its purges of
intellectuals — may be converted to an institution of higher learning by
Build Bright University.
An administrator, who did not wish to
be named because he was not authorised to discuss the matter, said on
Monday the one-time residence of the Khmer Rouge’s final leader, Chhit
Chhoeun — better known by his nom de guerre Ta Mok — was being
“reconstructed” to serve as a campus in Takeo province as early as the
2012-2013 school year.
BBU’s upper management, however, would confirm only that the university was looking to expand.
University
president Virak Chey said that expected enrolments for the coming year
would necessitate more space, but for the time being, expanding onto the
Ta Mok property was “just a rumour”.
Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia,
an organisation dedicated to researching the Khmer Rouge era, said that
to “reclaim” the home for intellectual pursuits would help students
understand even better a regime that ruthlessly persecuted the educated.
“To
understand the history of the Khmer Rouge is to be on the grounds of
the original site,” he said, stressing the importance of maintaining the
original architecture, lest its historical significance vanish.
“You can understand politics through architecture, as well, I think. It tells you a lot about what they were thinking.”
Long
the commander of the Khmer Rouge’s southwest zone, Ta Mok — nicknamed
“The Butcher” — was made commander-in-chief of Democratic Kampuchea’s
army in 1977, and reportedly orchestrated extensive purges to weed out
“disloyal” cadres.
After the fall of Democratic Kampuchea, Ta Mok
eventually stripped overall control of the movement from Pol Pot, and
waged a guerrilla war almost until his arrest in 1999.
He died of natural causes in detention in Phnom Penh in July, 2006.
To contact the reporters on this story: May Titthara at titthara.may@phnompenhpost.com
Stuart White at stuart.white@phnompenhpost.com
2 comments:
Wow ! Looks better than the whitehouse of US president.Khmer rouge's leader got power but don't know how to use it.Next world be Hun xen's compound and Heng Damrin's compound,confiscate as national's property,all that was stolen from Cambodge.
Ta Mok lived like a king or better than some kings.
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