Wednesday, 6 February 2008

Life at a Khmer Rouge torture center caught on canvas


enews.mcot.net
5 February 2008

This painting depicts memories of 63-year-old Vann Nath from his days of captivity under the Khmer Rouge. Prisoners were confined to a metal bar. Almost everyday prisoners died. Their corpses were not taken away immediately.

Those still alive had to sleep and eat alongside the bodies, knowing the same thing could happen to them. As the painter Vann Nath can well portray the ill-fated detainees as he was among those confined to a metal bar. Vann Nath is one of seven survivors- three of which are still alive today- of the dreadful Khmer Rouge’s secret prison where 14,000 men, women and children were interrogated, tortured and executed during 1975 and 1979.

Vann Nath was tortured and nearly killed. Fortunately, his painting skills saved his life, as he was put to work painting and sculpting portraits of the regime’s leader, Polpot.

In 1979, the artist prisoner escaped from S-21 as the Pol Pot regime collapsed under the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia. As a survivor, the Cambodian government asked Vann Nath to paint scenes he witnessed in S-21 to show the secret horrors of the ‘Killing Fields’.

These works still hang in the former torture center which today is a museum. Vann Nath said he found difficulty in creating the paintings as it reminded him of the painful years.

“Sometimes it’s very hard. When I start painting, it reminds me of all the pain and the faces of all my friends who were killed.

Everyday I can not live peacefully. Sometimes I don’t want to hear and to know anything about it,” said Vann Nath.

However, Vann Nath keeps painting because he wants to let the world know about the endurance of Cambodian people during the Pol Pot regime and to show the younger generations the misery of their ancestors so the regime would never be allowed to resurface.

A series of paintings by Vann Nath, entitled “Endurance” will be shown for the first time in Bangkok at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand until the end of February.

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