The lost executioner
Subtitle: a journey to the heart of the killing fields
By: Nic Dunlop
Edition: 1st U.S. ed.
Publisher: Walker & Co.; Distributed to the trade by Holtzbrinck Publishers
Published: 2006
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 326
ISBN-13: 9780802714725
Subjects: Parti communiste du Kampuchea; History
Description: In Cambodia, between 1975 and 1979, two million people died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. Twenty years later, not one member had been held accountable for the genocide. Haunted by the image of one of them, Comrade Duch, photographer Nic Dunlop set out to bring him to life, and thereby to account. "I needed to understand how a seemingly ordinary man ... could turn into one of the worst mass murderers of the twentieth century." Dunlop unfolds the history of Cambodia as a filter for understanding its tragic last forty years. Guided by witnesses, he teases out the details of Duch's transformation from sensitive schoolchild and dedicated teacher to the revolutionary killer who later slipped quietly back into village life. This result is a vivid reminder that, whether in the killing fields of Cambodia or the deserts of Darfur, if we turn our backs on genocide, we must bear a collective guilt.--From publisher description.
Notes: "First published in the United Kingdom in 2005 by Bloomsbury Publishing"--T.p. verso.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [318]-324).
Table of contents: title: Kaing Guek Eav; title: 'Better to destroy ten innocent people than let one enemy go free'; title: The burden of Angkor; title: The good Khmer Rouge; title: 'The tree grows in the rural areas, but the fruit goes to the towns'; title: 'Brothers and sisters, go to the jungle and join the guerrillas'; title: Comrade Duch; title: A vision of a better world; title: Democratic Kampuchea; title: The perfect institution; title: The interrogators' manual; title: A city with no people; title: The photographer; title: The last joint plan; title: Feeding the guilty; title: My enemy's enemy is my friend; title: Hang Pin; title: The return of the Khmer Rouge; title: 'Policies and practices of the recent past'; title: Salvation; title: The humanitarian; title: The confession; title: The quest for justice; title: Living with the past; title: Lessons from an empty schoolhouse.