Voices from S-21: Terror and History in Pol Pot's Secret Prison

Rating:
Summary: It haunts you long after you have finished reading
Review: An extraordinary view into the secret prison of the Democratic Kampuchean (DK) government of Cambodia (1975-79). This well researched book by a renowned historian provides the reader with an in-context look at the horrors of Pol Pot's regime and the consequences of his paranoia of "hidden enemies". Dr. Chandler's poignant use of confessions forced from unfortunate and often innocent victims paints a grizzly portrait of power without constraints. It mattered not that neither interrogators nor prisoners knew what crimes had been committed, it was merely enough they had been arrested and sent to S-21, therefore they were guilty. With their de facto "guilt" established, it was the interrogators job to obtain a proper confession of these unknown, but treasonous, crimes. With or without a confession, there was only one verdict-death. Dr. Chandler has woven extracts from these confessions, interviews from the hand full of S-21 survivors, prison workers, and senior DK cadre, including Pol Pot, and a comparative analysis of other similar atrocities from the 20th Century into a balanced, historically valid picture of the horrid activities that took place at S-21. This work will be useful text for any person interested in Southeast Asian history or human rights issues.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent view of a lost chapter in 20th century history!
Review: Chandler has done a magnificient job bringing the Khmer Rouge prison "S-21" into clear view.

During the reign of the Khmer Rouge S-21 was used as the prison, interrogation center, and finally, the place of execution for several thousand Cambodians who were suspected of counter revolutionary activity.

Chandler shows that the mania of the Khmer Rouge leadership could not differentiate between the truth and made up stories under torture. One example of this gross misconception of reality within in the minds of the Khmer Rouge leadership is the fact that people were thrown into S-21 and executed on grounds of counter revolutionary activity simply because they had broken farming equipment, thereby tried to hinder the outcome of the 4 year plan for the agricultural sector!

Chandler also manages to draw interesting parallells between the Nazi KZs and Stalin's terror in the 1930's, and the Chinese cultural revolution in the 60's. He shows that some ingredients of terror are always there, no matter if it happens in Treblinka, Moscow, the country side of China, or in the killing fields of Cambodia.

Chandler's book is more than just a story of an awful prison in Cambodia. It is about the mechanisms that make some humans commit unspeakable acts(apparently by their own free will) against their fellow human beings, simply because of a belief in a political ideology!

A must read for people interested in the thoughts and methods behind the slaughter of millions of people in communist and faschist countries in the 20th century!

Rating:
Summary: Disturbing
Review: David Chandler has made extensive use of the archives of S-21, with photographs and "confessions" to show the absurd paranoia of the leaders in Democratic Kampuchea. An excellent book, with some aspects that put me off, though: blunt anticommunism, some assertions about Soviet, Chinese and Vietnamese leaders that are rather anecdotal than based on serious historic scholarship, and weird comparisons between the turturers at S-21 and psychoanalysts.

Rating:
Summary: The Psychology of Horror
Review: David Chandler's "Voices from S-21: Terror and History in Pol Pot's Secret Prison" is a good book for a novice like me. Chandler starts by framing the book around the S-21 institution and its configuration. Chandler then dedicates and entire portion to the memoirs of the purges; the allegation santebal leveled at prisoners; and the various approaches of "politics" and "torture." The book concludes with short commentary of the "why" of S-21. Chandler's "Voices from S-21" is effectively a detailed history of the inner workings of the Khmer Rouge's secret police. Known as "santebal", and working out of a prison complex called S-21, the Khmer Rouge killed, tortured and interrogated "enemies" of the Democratic Kampuchea (DK). Due to the secretive nature of the Khmer Rouge, S-21 was "the place where people went in but never came out" (p. 7) - and this is an important issue to consider.

Between the years of 1975 and 1979, it is estimated that 14,000 prisoners (p. 36) entered S-21, but only four survived. The horrors of S-21 were uncovered during the liberation by the Vietnamese who found the prison's ghastly remains. Chandler used the S-21 record which were microfilmed by Cornell University in the early 1990s and synthesized the archive to produce this book. Because Chandler uses this technique the work is arguably incomplete, and it is my opinion, that in a lot of places it is largely speculative. Prisoner statements were extracted under torture, and other written records are tainted with party ideology or just laziness on the part of the recorders. Chandler, to his credit is writes that as Aristotle pointed out "more than two thousand years ago, confessions that flow from torture often bear little relation to the truth." (p. 128) Moreover, I admire Chandler for his creative use in including noted French philosopher Michel Foucault in his analysis but I am doubtful of both his interpretation and use of the same. On page 134, Chandler tries to fuse Foucault's notion of the "vengeance of the sovereign" into an almost Nazi like aura by describing the efficiency of the Khmer Rouge. Chandler pointed out earlier that the need for secrecy was an issue (p.17) but Foucault's notion of the "vengeance of the sovereign" is one of public display and notice - forming a contradiction to Chandler's initial observation/conclusion. Several notable issues regarding the book come to mind regarding his methodology. Chandler's creative use of Kundera/Kafka and the "establishment of guilt" is a very effective metaphor. Mind you, I am no expert in Cambodian history or the Khmer Rouge but when Chandler juxtaposes Kafka with S-21, you get the sense that one is guilty because he/she is arrested and not arrested because he/she is guilty much like Joseph K in "The Trial." Another issue that came home for me was the notion that after a while everyone was under suspicion. Folks like Son Sen who was trusted to watch over the "Eastern Zone" was later on suspected of treason. If it were not for the Vietnamese, he too may have ended up in S-21. (p.74-75) Lastly, is you have visited the work camp in Terezin in the Czech Republic, you will get a sense that most people who are incarcerated like this die less from torture but more from the atrocious conditions. Mind you, I am neither playing down the tortures, simply stating that the camp conditions were part of the horror as Chandler is good enough to point out.

Probably the most informative portion of the book is the detail relating to the "interrogations." What amazes me is that Chandler, despite his extensive bibliography fails to refer to Franz Fanon. Fanon's studies regarding the gendarme in Algeria could have shed light into many of Chandler's questions. Chandler adeptly coaxes his sources to illustrate the hopes and frustrations of prisoners and their interrogators. It can be argued that the most problematic portion of "Voices from S-21" is the concluding chapter. Here Chandler tries to set the horrors of S-21 in the milieu of other butchery of events like the Holocaust. Chandler brings up the Zimbardo and Milgram experiments (p. 147-148), but to make analogy with the Holocaust without referring back to it is impossible to do. Anyone who visits Toul Sleng museum will undoubtedly be moved by the degree and scale of atrocities committed in this secret torture center during the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. I recommend this book highly but it needs to be framed better for the reader by looking for something that sets the tone regarding Cambodia, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. For the background, it might be wise to start with Brother Number One: A Political Biography of Pol Pot (1992) (also available on Amazon.com) but for a psychology of horror - this book is second to none.

Miguel Llora

Rating:
Summary: Superb work
Review: David Chandler, a well-known historian of Cambodia, has penned a superb work. As an historian of Southeast Asia, I am acutely aware that most works on the region only appeal to a specialized audience. This work, limpidly written, is different. It is a powerful witness to one of the great disasters of the twentieth century: the deaths of approximately 1.7 million Cambodians under Khmer Rouge rule. The work draws on a wide range of scholarship, ranging from studies of the Holocaust to those on Stalin's terror. But what makes this work compelling is that Chandler zeroes in on one place -- S-21, or the infamous Tuol Sleng prison, where the Khmer Rouge interrogated, tortured, then killed suspected enemies of the state. Drawing on the mass of forced confessions recorded by the prison interrogators, this book takes us into the terror of Khmer Rouge rule. A powerful, disquieting book that will "appeal," if that is the word, not simply to specialists on Cambodia but to a wide range of persons troubled by humankinds propensity to engage in acts of terror and brutality.

Rating:
Summary: Terrified and terrifying
Review: Prof. Chandler gives us a remarkably deep analysis of Pol Pot's secret prison S-21, which within the autogenocide of the Cambodian people stands out as a haunting symbol. It reflected the unlimited paranoia of Angkar and its schizophrenic regime that 'was at once terrified and terrifying, omnipotent and continually under threat'.
All family members (women, children and BABIES) of the condemned were slaughtered. Only 7 of the 14000 inmates survived.

As prof. Chandler remarks chillingly: 'a reign of terror and continuous revolution requires a continuous supply of enemies.'
There were no limits. As one of the interrogators rightly asked: 'If Angkar arrests everybody, who will be left to make a revolution?'

The same subject has been treated by Ben Kiernan in his book 'The Pol Pot regime'. But whereas Ben Kiernan sees racism as the main motive behind the murderous regime, prof. Chandler digs far deeper and concludes clinically that 'the real truth behind S-21 is to be found in ourselves'!
Indeed, the S-21 experience is not unique in the 20th century with its Nazi camps, communist show trials, Indonesian, Rwandan and Bosnian mass killings, Argentinean tortures ...
He remarks also that the Cambodian regime was an imported phenomenon. The Khmer leaders were all recruited and educated by the Stalinist French PC in the 1950s.

This nearly unbearable book should be read as a reminder that 'ordinary people can commit demonic acts' (R. F. Lifton).
David Chandler is not afraid to say 'how things really are' (L. Betzig).

A terrifying book about a terrifying experience.

Rating:
Summary: Betrayal, torture, fear and bravery in the anteroom of death
Review: S-21 -- an interrogation center where even the interrogators eventually fall prey to a mindless system of betrayal, false accusation, forced confession, torture and execution. A place where guilt or innocence is irrelevant to the task at hand. "Voices from S-21" is an in-depth study of extensive archives of S-21 "death confessions" interwoven with stunning interviews of surviving Khmer Rouge cadre who try to explain how and why they carried out the orders of the "Upper Brothers". David Chandler's meticulous research sets the stage for his thoughtful, scholarly, and compassionate analysis of this horrorific Cambodian tragedy, and places the brutal acts that occurred there in international historical perspective. With "Duch", the former S-21 commander, now in detention awaiting an agreement on an international tribunal on crimes against humanity during the Pol Pot regime, "Voices from S-21" is most timely, and will be an invaluable resource to human rights advocates around the world.

This book served in some ways as an inspiration to Ysa Osman, a young Cambodian Muslim researcher at the Documentation Center of Cambodia, who in September 2002 published "Oukoubah - Justice for Cham Muslims under the DK Regime." The author profiles 13 Cham Muslims who were held at S-21, including one of the most vicious interrogators on the staff who was eventually himself executed there. Using biographical material in their confessions, this ambitious reseacher tracked down surviving family members and neighbors for the full details of how each prisoner was arrested and an overview of DK genocide against Muslims. Highly recommended for readers of "Voices from S-21."

Rating:
Summary: Not what I expected from the title
Review: The title "Voices from S-21" suggests that Chandler's book will contain interviews/narrative from the prisoners held at the infamous Cambodian santebal. There is very little in the book detailing any one individual's personal experience (understandably, since only a handful survived). The book is extremely well-researched (45 of the total pages are footnotes) and I found it a dry read. Gets into theory of the prison's existence and why the interrogators carried out their orders with such detachment. However there is very little by way of firsthand accounts of what went on, if that's what you're expecting from the book.