The Lost Executioner: The Story of Comrade Duch and the Khmer Rouge

by Nic Dunlop

A real-life detective story, tracking down the man responsible for some of the worst atrocities of the killing fields.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Asia, Biography, Politics, War, Historical

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Paul Bryant · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third book on the Khmer Rouge I have read and I thought maybe this one would get to the heart of the mystery, but again, it doesn’t. So – what is the mystery?

You may already know that when Pol Pot’s army of children in black pyjamas took over in April 1975 they created a completely unique revolution. Nothing in the modern world was remotely like it. In Democratic Kampuchea (the country’s new name) money was abolished, all the cities were emptied of people, families were abolished, private life was abolished, religion, of course, was abolished, and all of this gave everyone much more time to spend on lunatic giant agricultural projects run by people with no education.

After the Khmer Rouge collapse in 1979 Cambodia lay in ruins. A third of the population was dead. Of 550 doctors only 48 had survived; out of 11,000 university students, 450 were found; and out of 106,000 secondary school students only 5,300 survived.

Nic Dunlop says that over the 1,364 days of Democratic Kampuchea 1,466 people died every day. He adds :

By percentage of population, the Cambodian holocaust remains the worst to have occurred anywhere in the world, elipsing the numbers killed in Nazi-occupied Europe and the Rwandan genocide put together.

THE MYSTERY OF POL POT

I wanted to know – and I still do – how anyone could come up with these totally lunatic ideas – to abolish money, to empty all the cities, to completely abandon all Western technology, and all at once. Okay, many revolutionaries have dreamed in cafes and bedsits and jungle hideouts of what would happen after the revolution. They will make a new society – no more rich and poor, no more capitalism, everyone equal. “We will expropriate the expropriators” – you’ve heard all that stuff. It’s one thing to dream, we can dream – we should dream. It’s another thing to wage a successful guerrilla war and overturn a corrupt foreign-supported regime which everyone hates. This is also something which can be done and is done. But then to abandon all common humanity, all logical thought and all compassion and declare Utopia Now! Instant Ultra-Communism! Empty the cities – literally! Abolish money! No more buying and selling! I wanted to know how any grown up people could think this was a) a good idea and b) could be done and c) will be done beginning next Monday.

Another example of the monstrous becoming cold reality is the Nazi Holocaust. Again, it’s one thing for Hitler to try to get the Jews to emigrate. And it’s another thing to herd them all together into ghettos. But it’s a whole new category of thinking to float the idea of the Final Solution – physical liquidation. How did that conversation happen? There must have been a conversation, at some time, in some room. Yes, we will do this. Do you think we could really do it? Really? Yes, yes we could. I will make sure of this. Leave it with me. After all the intense historical investigations of the Nazi period we still don’t know who came up with this idea and who greenlighted it. The documentation isn’t there. All the detailed plans of the extermination camps and the lists of the people who died there, they exist; but the decision to begin, that’s not there.

Nic Dunlop does not get the answers I was looking for. His excellent book is journalism rather than history. He gets obsessed with the famous prison S-21 aka Tuol Sleng (located in Phmon Penh) where around 17,000 people died. The person in charge of this facility was one Comrade Duch, and Nic’s book is mostly the story of what this guy did, and of Nic tracking him down and confronting him.

To give an idea of S-21, here is rule Number 6 :

While getting lashes or electrification you must not cry at all.

So this is somewhat like a journalist tracking down Fritz Stangl, commandant of Treblinka, or Josef Kramer of Auschwitz after WW2. And Nic Dunlop succeeds, too. For those of you who are Christians, the later history of Comrade Duch will be of great interest. It turns out that after the Khmer Rouge were thrown out by the Vietnamese and S-21 was liberated, Duch vamoosed with other cadres to the Thai border and ended up converting to Christianity. There was a refugee camp called Ban Ma Muang with a population of around 12,000 and Duch wound up there, employed by the American refugee Committee training teams of community health workers.

Much time was spent explaining to the people the importance of sanitation and effective irrigation. … According to an ARC official, Duch had been instrumental in stemming a typhoid outbreak in the camp, saving countless lives in the process.

So there is your moral conundrum of the day : will Comrade Duch fry in hell for overseeing (and participating in) the death by torture of several thousand people in S-21 or will he be elevated to the realm of heavenly bliss because he took Jesus into his heart and started doing good?
A question way above my pay grade, as they say, but I’d be interested in any suggestions.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read First They Killed My Father before going to Cambodia this past December, just weeks ago. It told the personal story of a child who lived through Pol Pot's regime. And it was captivating.
And then i went to Cambodia and saw Tuol Sleng Museum (S-21) and the killing fields.

But reading this book gave me a fuller understanding of the horrors (that word is so ... insufficient) and, more importantly, it gave me an understanding of the complex local and international politics that contributed to the Khmer Rouge's rise, fall, rise again and final demise. It also brought home the point that Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge did not exist only between 1975 and 1979. The mass killing may have been done during that time but killings, violence, war, insecurity - the Khmer Rouge existed for several decades in Cambodia.

Mostly this book made me sad for the legacy of the Cambodian people. And for their present condition. And frankly, this book does not give me a large sense of hope for their immediate future. I do hope that I am wrong.

[Rebecca Adelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

"He once told me," she said, referring to Sokheang, "you can talk about the Khmer Rouge, but you can't cry."

"Why not?" I asked.

She paused. "Because there would be no stopping."
- The Lost Executioner

I had to read this book in bits and pieces to process the ruthless brutality and evil that happened. The stories of suffering under the Khmer Rouge are heartrending.

This story is based around the story of Comrade Duch, the commander of S 21. Of the approximately 20,000 prisoners sent to this execution center, only seven emerged alive. After the Khmer Rouge was overthrown, he moved to a new area under an alias. In 1997, he became a believer after meeting a Khmer-American pastor. He worked as a volunteer in refugee camps and preached Jesus with as much determination and passion as he had carried out execution orders. After the author discovered and exposed his identity, Duch turned himself in and spent the last 15 years of his life in prison for his crimes. He continued to proclaim Jesus until his death in September 2020.

Glimmers of redemption in the midst of dark eras like the Khmer Rouge bring so much hope to my heart. Praise God!

[Devon · Rating 5 out of 5]

cue me just whispering what the fuck repetitively in coffee shops for the past two weeks

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came to this book from the experience of seeing a superb production of Lauren Yee's Cambodian Rock Band last year. Comrade Duch is a leading character. My guess is that Yee drew from Dunlop's work, which is a fascinating read in and of itself.

The attempt by the Khmer Rouge to dismantle Cambodia in 1975-1979 was proportionately the worst genocide of the modern era. Dunlop, a photographer, comes face to face with the images of the victims whose death was overseen by Duch. He begins a search for the missing butcher, and discovers him at last in a village. Duch is a born-again Christian schoolteacher who has also worked for an international aid agency. The mind . . . boggles. He is arrested by the end of the book, but it finishes before the outcome. Duch is currently incarcerated for the rest of his life.

The book is at its best when Dunlop interviews those who knew Duch or were part of the Khmer Rouge movement. Like the Nazis at the end of World War II, there were simply too many left to exclude from an administrative role in the "liberated" Cambodia/Kampuchea. There seems to be no remorse, or at least none that matters. Dunlop actually encounters the man who took the last pictures of those killed under Duch's authority. He preens at the thought that his work is now on display in New York and London galleries. For Dunlop, the divorce of the pictures from their immediate context is almost nauseating, and he has a fascinating meditation about photography as a means by which modern society can distance itself from horror. It made me think of the image of the refugee holding his dead toddler, both drowned in an attempt to enter the United States. Are we so numb in this country to horror?

Highly recommend.

[Sanjota Purohit · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading Nicholas Spark's 'Three Weeks With My Brother' where he visits Cambodia and explains a little about the history, I ended up being curious about this country. Read few books about the Khmer Rouge revolution but none of them gave a clear picture as this book did!

If you want to know how developed countries like the US, UK try to suppress the small countries then read this book.

This book is about a forgotten country Cambodia. What happened there was no less than Holocaust! Three million lives were tortured and then butchered like animals .. It all happened under Khmer Rouge. US-funded this faceless organization for more than thirty years. The UK trained its soldiers to torture and kill people.

While the whole world talks about Holocaust no one talks about Cambodia.

The past has been buried. People who did such heinous crimes are still out there living a happy life. Duch, about whom this book has been written, was one of the commandants who witnessed and involved in mass murder. Even after many years, there is no judgment and the trial is still under process.

Nic Dunlop, the author of this book risked his life, spent years to unfold the truth. He is the one who found Duch and exposed him. It's unfortunate how we never come across such bitter events. Even the Cambodian textbooks don't mention this dark history.

Today US people visit Cambodia like any other tourist place, completely unaware of they were the ones who plagued the country by violence.

If you visit Cambodia it's hard to see people above 60+ because most of them were killed under Khmer Rouge.

But no one talks about it!

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just devastating. The book lost energy once Duch is found, but that's appropriate considering that lack of interest in bringing the KR Cadres to justice. The UN and US collusion with China to keep the KR alive for their own ends was heartbreaking -- with the Thai military as corrupt go-between in the geo-realpolitik-- demonstrating once again that the Cambodians are long-suffering pawns, in close running with the Poles for the "most unfortunate location" sweepstakes. The corruption of the UN, US and NGOs, whether it be the moral corruption of the leadership or the financial grifts of those on the ground, is sobering as they allowed KR control of many refugee camps and their constant rearmament. The self evaluation of the author was pretty brutal, too, and somewhat unfair considering the commitment (and fairness) of the quixotic quest to the heart of darkness, which can be symbolized by a can of Pringles, the favored snack of Pol Pot in his senescence.

[Robyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a book that left me heavy hearted, perhaps because I just visited Cambodia in January. It was difficult to weave the extent of the war to the people I've met there, and the beautiful place it is.

Couldn't break away from the book, was a great recount by Nic.

[Rhuff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Original post:

I'm going to swim upstream here and stir a few bitter waters.

I do not doubt the gruesome facts of Mr. Dunlop's reportage. Comrade Duch is like any torturer ever profiled: a sadistic yet very ordinary twit, right out of Edgar Allan Poe, whose initial high idealism finds an outlet for his inner demons in a special time and place by torturing the "sins" in others (and literally pulling it out of them.)

Nor do I have an objection to studying the grisly photobucket of the S-21 torture - excuse me, "enhanced interrogation" facility - and pondering the all-too-human inhumanity captured not in the photos, but in the photographer taking them. My criticism is of the conventional mythology upheld by Dunlop and his readers: that there was a "genocide" in what is yet a densely populated Third World country that still cannot feed itself; that socialism and Buddhism are somehow politically and culturally responsible; that the US and the UN could have "done" something.

First, the US had already "done" quite enough: invaded the country, imposed the usual satellite flunkey regime, set about bombing the country literally into the proverbial Stone Age, exhausting its resources and credibility before washing its hands of the blood. No fatuous Indochina War = no Khmer Rouge. Second, the KR (or "KC" as they were known in the US at the time) were *not* exceptionally brutal: As Shuyun Sun unearthed in her retracing of Mao's Long March, this same kind of inner blood purge trailed behind his army; the excesses of the Cultural Revolution and Kampuchea had strong precedent here. Third, the same gothic inhumanity was found in the torture chambers of Latin America with US complicity. Here the "moral responsibility" of the US to "do something" took a very sick twist indeed.

Again, while the KR regime was undoubtedly pathological it's necessary to ask why. In dealing with a psychotic patient, any therapist will tell you to examine his home life and the circumstances of his development. Abused nations, like tortured children, produce monsters. The usual Western remedies were part of the problem; so better to damn the monster than admit he's a product of your own neglect and abuse.

----------------------

At the request of the author I have deleted his reply to my initial review.

--------------------

Reply:

As Mr. Dunlop strongly suggested my review was so vague and general that I hadn't read the book, I took it on myself to reread it over the last month to see if I had been hasty or unfair. After doing so, I'll post this lengthier response in the body of the review itself - where I must maintain my original criticism. I will offer my reasons in detail. But first, to be fair, let me present the book's strong points.

The narrative of Comrade Duch's several lives is engagingly written against the catastrophes of 20th century Cambodia. Mr. Dunlop has a solid knowledge of Cambodia and its culture which comes through clearly even to the most general reader. He also offers a good summary of the rise and fall and rebirth of the Khmer Rouge, the Cambodian civil war, and how these entwined with the US and Vietnamese occupations. The sweeping agony of these years is best summed by a survivor on p. 67, "You can talk about the Khmer Rouge, but you can't cry . . . Because there would be no stopping." The Tuol Sleng prison regime under Duch's command was as evil as anything in the contemporaneous torture pits of South America or Africa.

His critique of the subsequent exploitation of this suffering is spot on: the political agenda of the Vietnamese occupiers in arranging the Tuol Sleng museum; the patronizing cynicism of many UN personnel and NGO workers; the sudden US interest in Cambodian human rights and justice upon the Khmer Rouge, now that they'd served their purpose, as a way to bury one's own war guilt; and Dunlop's self-critique of his own sense of First World voyeurism, as he gazes on the faces looking back from this house of the dead. A story without a conclusion indeed, as he attests on p. 167. He also draws attention to the lingering aftershocks of war, in the continuing devastation of land mines upon new generations - perhaps the only solid, surviving link of new generations to their own history.

He's on the money also on p. 284, reiterating that it's the standard defense of mass murders and torturers, from Rwanda to Bosnia, to plead they were only following orders and doing their jobs. He might also have included those from (the former) Saigon to Washington in his cartography, as well-able to hide behind their machinery of destruction (though more high-tech), "deaf to the screams of the people caught up in its grinding cogs" (p. 287). Finally he is honest enough to critique his own purpose in exposing Duch at all, as a pyrrhic victory in terms of real justice.

Yet I still feel he's caught in the conventional tropes of defining the Khmer Rouge regime. Over and again he vents upon its "genocidal" nature. This is a common debasing of the term, wherein any mass murder gets plastered with this label. There are simply certain criteria for the term, as with first degree murder. One is the intention to "kill them all", "even unto the seed," as with the Biblical tribe of Amalek. The second is the extent of the mass murder. In neither case does the Khmer Rouge regime fill the bill of indictment for that crime. The evidence that a third of the population was killed between 1975-79 isn't backed by demographics; nor the common belief that the majority of KR fatalities occurred at the hands of people like Duch. Most deaths in these years occurred from disease and hunger. It would be hard to separate the causation as stemming from the Khmer Rouge regime alone, or the cumulative effect of a decade of uprooting and devastation.

Examples of this hyperbole are scattered throughout the book: "murder on a scale never before seen in history" (p. 103). I believe a little thing called WW II might give Democratic Kampuchea more than a run on its never-issued currency. Elsewhere he compares the slaughter of Cambodians in the DK years to the genocide of North American Indians. Yet the last time any Westerner was in Cambodia, I'm sure s/he saw more trace of the Khmer people and their cultural presence than a few historic place names. Another howler appears on p. 156, when KR practices are presented as parallel to traditional Buddhist acts of purification. Really? Khmer monks engaged in rites "not dissimilar" to KR cadres' killing of entire families? A few Western ethnographers must have mislaid their field notes. . . .

On p. 261 the author brushes aside the issue of national sovereignty defended by former UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, a sore point for former colonial nations that Europeans are so eager to dismiss in their zeal to do even more "good." Though, on p. 124, we're told that the horrors Cambodians endured seem "so at odds" with the country most people experience. Yes, just as tourists in the US must find it hard to reconcile their everyday experience with American troops in Indochina: the body-counting, the "mere gook rule" of engagement, the destruction of entire nations to save them, in acts of purification by Napalm. The insanity of war - and the pathology it produces in otherwise normal, decent persons - is not confined to particular nations, or cultures, or ideologies, a fact that is so conveniently forgotten like the air we breathe when it comes time to point fingers and issue bills of moral indictment.

It is not necessary to exploit and misuse the concept of genocide to indict the Khmer Rouge, or their S-21 facility, or dutiful servants like Comrade Duch. The thousands of photos papering its walls do not equal genocide, but they are enough to damn the perpetrators forever. As usual, the wrong lessons are taught, that it's something "those people" unlike "us" are capable of; though Dunlop strays close to the truth in recounting how even a Khmer Rouge leader can savor a fresh can of Pringles, just like we do. The KR, at least, posed their victims at S-21 in positions of dignity - unlike the judges and victors of the Free World, at Abu Ghraib. Trust me, there will never be a Western-funded museum of memory within *those* walls.

[Nia Nymue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoughtfully written personal account with a sprinkling of cultural education. Of all things, I enjoyed the little tale of the Buddha's loyal student at the end most.

This book makes me appreciate how hard truth and trust have become.

[Dave Gagnier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Irish photojournalist Nic Dunlop’s 2005 documentation of his time in Cambodia searching for Kang Kek Iew (“Comrade Duch”), the overseer of the Phnom Penh’s S-21 Toul Sleng Prison is an exceptional biographical reportage on one of the key figures responsible for the documented atrocities of the Khmer Rouge.

First drawn to the story of Duch through a teenage encounter with National Geographic photos from the prison, Dunlop’s narrative documents his time as a photographer in Cambodia interviewing former Khmer Rouge collaborators, soldiers and executioners as well as family members of those who lost their lives during the regime’s reign from 1975-1979 and during the decades afterward when the group remained only partially in exile, aided by Western governments in refugee camps on the Thailand border and eventually reintegrated into Cambodian society - some notably brought into the Cambodian People’s Party at the official end of the Cambodian Genocide.

The Lost Executioner does not contain many photographs, but it is proof that Dunlop is a gifted writer. As with many who have written about the Khmer Rouge before him, the earlier chapters of Dunlop’s book perform due diligence of providing context for the rise of The Communist Party of Kampuchea. Here, Dunlop outlines this history with a focus on education, revealing Duch as a committed mathematics student and then teacher, brought under the wing of his own disillusioned communist instructors as a youth. Dunlop argues that Duch, like many of his age, had become part of “an educated elite whose prospects were bleak… broken from the traditional life of their families and [feeling] an increasing detachment from the world of their parents.” The writer presents Cambodian King Sihanouk as one who modernised his country’s education system without the foresight to see how it would prove incompatible with his own form of feudalism: “Sihanouk had created breeding grounds for a revolution that would depose him as head of state, imprison him and send the country back to the stone age” (51).

By what feels like the midpoint of the volume, Dunlop takes readers inside the prison (now the UNESCO-recognised Toul Sleng Genocide Museum) in its time of operation. The contributions of the few survivors and still-living perpetrators of the torture and executions combined with the documentations of forced confessions allow for an enduring portrait of the place. These chapters are curated anecdotes of ineffable horror. The photographs on display at the prison remind us that the atrocities were regularly committed against children incarcerated with their parents, “because, frankly, they would become a nuisance,” a former prison guard admits.

When Dunlop is looking through the family photos of Sokheang, a friend and former Khmer Rouge loyalist whose personal and familial losses were not limited by this loyalty, he comes to a realisation that “all photography is about death: photographs immortalise their subjects. Like the photographs of the condemned in Toul Sleng, they are both proof of lives lived and lives extinguished.”

It is a walletsised photo of Duch, the overseer of such extinguishing, that drives Dunlop’s search for the former prison commander. The last one to leave S-21 when the Vietnamese Army liberated Phnom Penh in 1979, Duch flees with the escaping Khmer Rouge soldiers, and in the decades that follow is eventually able to reinvent himself under a new alias. He converts to Christianity. He becomes a human rights worker. It is in a chance encounter 20 years after the Khmer Rouge was driven from the capital that Dunlop recognises the man responsible for tens of thousands of deaths in Toul Sleng. It’s the moment that the book has promised from the start, and it properly unnerves.

Dunlop pauses in later chapters and begins to question his role and the consequences of his encounter - Duch briefly hiding before surrendering to authorities and ultimately becoming the first Khmer Rouge leader to be brought to state trial. “Only five people are to be held accountable for the deaths of 1.7 million”, Dunlop posits as he likens the moment and the reverberations to the complexity of Rwandan reconciliation: “What will people think when a handful of old people go on trial in far away Phnom Penh and the killer of their relatives continues to live freely in a nearby village?”

In one of the final chapters, Dunlop interviews a woman living in dilapidated housing just outside the prison-turned-museum. The writer reminds us that not all prison executions took place at the killing fields of Choeung Ek just outside of the city limits - the first burials occurred just beyond the prison walls. There is a recurring significant depression in the kitchen where the tiles have fallen slightly but noticeably into the Earth - the house built on a mass grave. It happens again each time it rains. When asked why she doesn’t move, the reader is reminded that most places in the country are not far from a killing field. Also, she can’t afford to live anywhere else, and she has become used to the ghosts.

My volume of The Lost Executioner includes an update from the tribunals that found Duch guilty in what, to many Cambodians, was a grossly disappointing sentencing of only 19 years in prison. Duch admitted to his crimes, he toured the prison and killing fields, and he broke down repeatedly and asked for forgiveness from the families of those whose deaths and torture he oversaw. He sought a Christian existence in a world where Buddhist Karma would demand limitless reincarnations worth of contrition to make amends. For Dunlop, “it’s important to believe that people can change. To think otherwise is to embrace what the Khmer Rouge believed: that people were beyond redemption and must be killed” (322).

[Farizi Fatwa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must-read book if you want to know the life of Comrade Duch.

This book covered the extensive period of his turbulent life, being one of the brightest pupils in Cambodia during his youth, and then transformed into a terrible genocide perpetrator, despite his calm and unassuming appearance.

This book clearly depicts his early conversion into Communism and how the anger of the masses caused by the widespread corruption during Lon Nol's regime, has constructed Duch's political view that ultimately motivated him to actively participate in the murderous Khmer Rouge regime.

Also, we can dive into his personal grief that led to his conversion to Evangelical Christianity.

[William French · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dunlop is a shrewd observer of people and events. The questions that came to me while reading were always answered with deep insights, especially into the character of Duch. I think he grew very weary of the endless brutality, even coming to question the efficacy of his photographic endeavors. Yet, he persisted in the face of extremely dangerous conditions. He must have nerves of steel. If the evil Duch had come out from behind his Christian mask, Dunlop would have been promptly executed at his last interview with him. What Dunlop (and Thayer) handled with aplomb would have scared the bejeezus out of anyone else. This is a very important book.

[Nikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having read many books about Cambodia in general and the Khmer Rouge in particular, Dunlop's book is up there in my top 5 must reads. He weaves together his own journey to find "Comrade Duch" the head of the notorious S-21/Tuol Sleng prison at the heart of the Khmer Rouge genocide, with the story of Duch and the organisation he was part of. It reads like a novel yet is objective in the presentation of his research, interviews, and the questions he reflects on while trying to find and understand Comrade Duch. A must-read for anyone who seeks to understand Cambodia's complicated journey.

[Ben Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Journalistic account of Comrade Duch's rise among the Khmer Rouge. Good background on the Khmer Rouge, how they organized, the political and social aspect of the organization. More of a historical narrative and not the passionate first person account as First They Killed My Father or Stay Alive My Son.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

The narrative of this nonfiction account is engrossing. While the story helps the reader start to develop a full understanding of Cambodia before, during, and after the Khmer Rouge, it also makes one question human capacity to do both evil and good.

[Lgordo · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a child of the 90s, I was too young to follow Cambodia when it was in the news, too old to learn about it in history. I knew vaguely that the CIA did lots of "bad stuff" during the cold war, propping up regimes just because they weren't communist, but I wasn't clear on any specifics. I have picked up details about the Vietnam war, but not very many. I knew that volunteering to do humanitarian aid in Cambodia was trendy, but I assumed it was just because they were poor.

Nic Dunlop walks you through the history of Cambodia from about the Vietnam War era to modern times. He does it via the biography of a man who ran a torture prison during the Pol Pot era. Dunlop does it patiently, not sparing feelings or descriptions, but also leaning away from torture porn and romanticism. Dunlop is cynical and bitter, and though he tries to restrain it, it bursts through at times. One can hardly blame him.

The theme of The Lost Executioner is ambiguity. Has Comrade Duch perpetrated horrific acts? Yes. Did he do them of his own free will? Unclear. Has he spent his subsequent life helping people, genuinely? Yes. Did locking him up actually improve Cambodia? Not really. Understanding this ambiguity until you too feel Nic Dunlop's despair is the journey of the book.

Highly recommend.

[Danial Tanvir · Rating 5 out of 5]

This may be one of the best books I have read and the best on Cambodia.
it is based on a true story.
it is about the genocide which took place in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979.
2 million people were killed,
and it was the deadliest killings in history.
comrade duce was responsible for 20,000 of the people who were killed.
and then a man called Nic Dunlop who became obsessed with brining this evil man to justice and then he did it and brought them to justice!.
there are details given about Cambodia and could relate to it as I have been to Cambodia!.
this is about pol pots Cambodia!.
I could relate to the places in Cambodia and I love the country.
there were details given about Siem Reap and about the Angkor watt.
it is a book about the genocide and the history of Cambodia!.
in the end after many years this man is brought to justice by him.
and this genocide is also compared with the crisis in Rwanda in 1994.
what a lovely book this was!.
I have also read other books on Cambodia!.

[Khải Đơn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is a very important document, in which the Irish reporter tracked down one of the most important leader in S-21 - Toul Sleng Prison - a terrifying execution center under Khmer Rouge Regime. Duch - head of S-21 - was found by Nic's patience and serious research in Cambodia after the 1979 war between Cambodia and Vietnam. I felt that I actually traveled with the author in his painstaking journey to find Duch and reveal his sins to the world. Nic was the first westerner exposing Duch and dark corners
of S-21 under this man's brutal management.

It is important because it is the 1st document of Duch - with Nic's direct counter and interview - which will become evidence against Duch in ECC trial.

[Clement Ting · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book tries to put the attention on an executioner whom the author claims played a highly significantly role during the genocide days of Cambodia. Instead, it focuses mostly on his journey towards finding the missing pieces of this executioner, and the plot very often branches off into describing a Cambodia of the past versus the current state of Cambodia he was in. A few personal tales of the various people he interiewed was also shared while he searches for the puzzle pieces of the executioner.

[Michael Riddell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great account of life in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. We have all seen the movies, but to be able to read about the behind the scenes is an eye opener. This author has risked his life to bring us the truth, and someone to justice. A must read for anyone interested in the history of this era and region. Well done Nic.

[Harshita · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book makes you travel along! A tale of a war torn country that carefully examines the truth of humanitarian aid, politics, culture and history - all set in the background of human emotions. A very well researched piece that leaves no facet untouched.

[Suchan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started this book immediately after visiting Tuol Sleng, hoping to be able to make some sense of the atrocities perpetrated by the KR.
With Comrade Duch at its center, the book was a good place to start as I hoped to learn more about events leading up to Year Zero and beyond.

[Campbell Kennedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terrifyingly ordinary genocide

The switch of normal people to cold blooded killers is astounding. It shows that this can happen anywhere. This is a human problem, not just a Cambodian one....

[Eamonpw · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chilling but excellent history of the Khmer Rouge. Interspersed with portraits of the author's friends and acquaintances who help him uncover, record, and understand (even if only slightly) such an ungraspable horror and its morally complex aftermath. Who deserves punishment? Who should be held responsible? Which killers were also victims, trapped by circumstance? Who or what forces are to blame?

[B.]

I wish this was written by a different author. Dnf

[Devin]

Rob henderson: pol pot rec 2 of 3

[Louis Swagboy Galore · Rating 5 out of 5]

so yeah the world is a bad place

which seems obvious when i put it that way like

seriously

it's bad

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know where to begin. This is a challenging and slightly tough to read and yet very informative.

[Robert Carmichael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this several times - it's easily one of the best books written about Cambodia's tortuous late-20th century history.

Nic Dunlop is a Bangkok-based Irish photojournalist who spent years searching for Comrade Duch (the executioner of the title), the man who used to run the Khmer Rouge's notorious S-21 prison in Phnom Penh during Pol Pot's 1975-79 rule.

An estimated 2 million people died in that four-year period; more than 12,000 of them were taken to S-21 as suspected enemies of the revolution where they were tortured (for their so-called confessions) and then executed.

Dunlop's long search ended with him finding Comrade Duch in one of the Khmer Rouge's last strongholds after the movement collapsed in the late 1990s. A decade later Duch went on trial charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. Dunlop's book doesn't cover that (it was written well before Duch's trial), but it is an excellent primer on the brutality of the Khmer Rouge and on the man whom Pol Pot's revolution relied heavily upon during its reign of terror.

Dunlop writes with a photographer's eye - his prose is a delight to read and his insights into the human condition are first-rate.