Enemies of the People

via Khmer NZ

How a low-budget film helped to catch a Khmer Rouge leader

Jul 29th 2010

THE Khmer Rouge “Brother Number 2”, Nuon Chea, plays with his grandchildren, watches a broadcast of Saddam Hussein’s execution and dreams of Democratic Kampuchea. For years Pol Pot’s right-hand man has had visits from Thet Sambat, a journalist whose parents and brother died in the genocide. The writer wants to learn why, but does not tell his story, hoping that the taciturn ex-leader will volunteer an explanation. He also tracks down Khuon and Suon, low-level cadres who executed villagers, slit stomachs to eat their gall bladders and buried victims in ditches.

The edgy and often surreal conversations of these men are shown in “Enemies of the People”, a prize-winning documentary made on a shoestring. It has drawn interest from the tribunal that will try Mr Nuon Chea and three other regime leaders next year, and which has tried to subpoena the footage.

The film has two climactic moments. First, when the writer brings the cadres to Mr Nuon Chea, who initially says Cambodians were not responsible for killings and then assures his former underlings: “You did not have any intention, therefore you did not commit any sin”. His hybrid Buddhist-Maoist logic is chilling. “Ours was a clean regime”, he insists. Even now he calls his victims “enemies of the people”, their deaths justified by the revolution. Then the writer reveals (just before Mr Nuon Chea’s arrest) how his family suffered. Brother Number 2 seems moved—he too lost many relatives to a regime which he helped run. Distinctions between victims and perpetrators are blurred in a traumatised country.

Never before have cadres confessed to murder on screen; and never since has this leader spoken frankly of his role. Mr Thet Sambat shows a smiling determination to uncover terrible histories, but says that “I need to stop researching the past.” Others will conclude the opposite.