Norng Chan Phal is one of a few people to survive the school converted into a grisly prison , where more than 14,000 perished at the hands of the ultra-Maoists bent on creating an agrarian utopia -- an experiment that failed and left at least 1.7 million people -- or nearly a quarter of Cambodia 's population -- dead from execution , disease , starvation and overwork , according to the Documentation Center of Cambodia .