In Cambodia, between 1975 and 1979, some two million people died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. Twenty years later, nobody had been held accountable. Haunted by an image of Comrade Duch, Pol Pot's chief executioner, photographer Nic Dunlop set out to bring him to account. The result of his journey, "The Lost Executioner" is an unforgettable, illuminating document that, by bearing witness, reminds us that if we ever turn our backs on genocide, we...
There are few more chilling places in the world than the apparently innocuous buildings of Tuol Sleng, the school on the outskirts of Phnomn Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Low buildings surround a central courtyard or playing field on three sides; the design is a common one throughout southeast Asia. But while today's visitors to Tuol Sleng arrive in daylight and are able to walk out when the horror within the walls of the...
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Nic Dunlop poses the all important questions of how a vision of a better world can turn into bottomless evil, and how seemingly ordinary men can become mass murderers. The ideological fundamentalists at the very top of the Red Khmer movement had a vision and a plan for the creation of heaven on earth (`the envy of the world'), but only for the 'good' soldiers. All the 'bad' ones, even (pregnant) women, children and babies,...
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This is one of those books that you won't want to put down until the last word has been read. He is a great writer and has given me quite an education. I highly recommend it!
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Nic Dunlop's first-rate detective story on the trail of Pol Pot's chief executioner, the notorious Comrade Duch, is a fascinating journey into Cambodia's recent bloody history. Through a series of testimonies by Duch's family members and people who knew him, Dunlop builds up a compelling picture of this former teacher turned mass murderer, whilst also giving us a running commentary on the development of the Khmer Rouge organisation...
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It takes a special writer to bring light to an issue of seemingly impenetrable horror. A young Irish photographer has done it in this superb debut. Pol Pot's frenzied demolition of Cambodia in 1975-79 has been documented from within(The Stones Cry Out, Stay Alive My Son) and by outsiders (Year Zero, S 21). What more could be said? "The Lost Executioner" takes the form of a terrifying detective narrative. The young author...
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