Vann Nath, who died yesterday probably aged 66, was one of only seven known survivors of S-21, the secret prison in Cambodia where, between 1975 and 1979, the Khmer Rouge tortured and killed more than 14,000 people; guards spared his life when they discovered he was an artist, putting him to work producing portraits of Pol Pot.
Vann Nath with some of his works depicting tortures inflicted by the Khmer Rouge
After the fall of the regime Nath painted the horrors he had witnessed, and became one of Cambodia's foremost artists. But it was his incarceration and remarkable survival for which he was most famous.
He had been arrested by the Khmer Rouge, the fanatical Kampuchean communists whose policies led to an estimated 1.5 to 2 million deaths, while working in rice fields near his home in Battambang, in the north-west of the country. Chained and put in a truck, he was transferred to S-21, where he arrived on January 7 1978. Like many of the Khmer Rouge's "enemies", he never knew why he had been arrested; 17 years later he described the Kafkaesque nature of his first interrogation:
"'What was the problem that caused them to arrest you?' the interrogator asked.
I said I didn't know.
'The Organization isn't stupid,' he said. 'It never catches people who aren't guilty. Now think again – what did you do wrong?'
'I don't know,' I said again."
At S-21, an interrogation facility in the grounds of a former high school in Phnom Penh, prisoners were tortured until they revealed "accomplices", and were made to write confessions admitting to "crimes against the regime". Those who weren't killed outright or through torture died of starvation and disease. "We were so hungry, we would eat insects that dropped from the ceiling," Nath told the court during the recent, belated trial (on charges of crimes against humanity) of the prison's chief, Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch. "We would quickly grab and eat them so we could avoid being seen by the guards. The conditions were so inhumane and the food was so little, I even thought eating human flesh would be a good meal."
Prisoners were shackled together, and when one died it could be hours before the guards came to take the corpse away: survivors ate their spoonfuls of thin rice porridge next to the dead bodies but, said Nath, "we didn't care because we were like animals".
After a month at S-21, already so weak he could hardly stand, Nath was unchained from the other prisoners and taken to see Duch, who had read his file and seen that he had trained as an artist. After questioning, Nath was moved to a workroom where he was made to paint propaganda portraits of Pol Pot. From then on, he was given more to eat, and kept in better conditions, and was able to survive until the Vietnamese invasion which overthrew the Khmer Rouge in January 1979.
Vann Nath was born into a farming family in Battambang. As a teenager he spent several years as a monk, then took up an apprenticeship with an artist. In 1969 he jointly set up a small business painting cinema placards, billboards, and private portraits. When the Khmer Rouge seized power in 1975 he was evacuated to the countryside to work in the rice fields, where he was eventually arrested.
When the regime fell and the Vietnamese opened S-21 as Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, Nath returned to paint scenes from prison life: a prisoner being whipped on the floor; a baby being taken from its mother; a guard pulling out a victim's fingernail. The unsparing nature of these images stemmed from a pledge he had made with fellow inmates when first imprisoned: everyone in the cell agreed that whoever survived would tell the families of the others what had happened.
Accordingly Nath felt it was his duty to tell the stories of those who had died. His graphic paintings now hang on the walls of the museum, bearing witness to the brutality that thousands suffered but only a handful survived to describe.
After being freed, Nath enlisted in the Cambodian Army, fighting the lingering Khmer Rouge insurgency in the Thai border region. After landmark elections in 1993, which followed peace accords in 1991 that ended decades of foreign meddling and conflict, Nath started painting again and began to receive wide recognition for his work. Since then, his pictures have hung in exhibitions around the world.
He also became, through writing and interviews as well as through his paintings, a leading advocate of justice for the victims of Khmer Rouge atrocities. In 1998 he published A Cambodian Prison Portrait: One Year in the Khmer Rouge's S-21 to tell his story in his own words, and he featured prominently in the documentary S21: The Khmer Rouge Death Machine (2003), in which he interrogated his former persecutors.
The trial of Duch was the first to be held at the UN-backed war crimes tribunal in Cambodia. It ended last July with his conviction and a 35-year sentence. So far, it is the only case to be completed. Case 002, in which the four most senior former members of the Khmer Rouge regime still alive are due to stand trial, will be the court's last. The tribunal's spokesman, Neth Pheaktra, could not confirm whether Nath would again have been called to testify.
In 2007 Nath was awarded the Hellman/Hammett Award, given by Human Rights Watch to writers who have shown bravery in the face of political persecution.
He owned a restaurant in Phnom Penh named after his wife, Kith Eng, which houses a gallery of his work.
When Nath became ill with kidney disease in 2005, donations from patrons and friends from around the world helped pay for his treatment.
Vann Nath and his wife had two children who died during the Khmer Rouge genocide. After 1979 Nath was reunited with his wife and they had three more children. She and they survive him.
At S-21, an interrogation facility in the grounds of a former high school in Phnom Penh, prisoners were tortured until they revealed "accomplices", and were made to write confessions admitting to "crimes against the regime". Those who weren't killed outright or through torture died of starvation and disease. "We were so hungry, we would eat insects that dropped from the ceiling," Nath told the court during the recent, belated trial (on charges of crimes against humanity) of the prison's chief, Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch. "We would quickly grab and eat them so we could avoid being seen by the guards. The conditions were so inhumane and the food was so little, I even thought eating human flesh would be a good meal."
Prisoners were shackled together, and when one died it could be hours before the guards came to take the corpse away: survivors ate their spoonfuls of thin rice porridge next to the dead bodies but, said Nath, "we didn't care because we were like animals".
After a month at S-21, already so weak he could hardly stand, Nath was unchained from the other prisoners and taken to see Duch, who had read his file and seen that he had trained as an artist. After questioning, Nath was moved to a workroom where he was made to paint propaganda portraits of Pol Pot. From then on, he was given more to eat, and kept in better conditions, and was able to survive until the Vietnamese invasion which overthrew the Khmer Rouge in January 1979.
Vann Nath was born into a farming family in Battambang. As a teenager he spent several years as a monk, then took up an apprenticeship with an artist. In 1969 he jointly set up a small business painting cinema placards, billboards, and private portraits. When the Khmer Rouge seized power in 1975 he was evacuated to the countryside to work in the rice fields, where he was eventually arrested.
When the regime fell and the Vietnamese opened S-21 as Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, Nath returned to paint scenes from prison life: a prisoner being whipped on the floor; a baby being taken from its mother; a guard pulling out a victim's fingernail. The unsparing nature of these images stemmed from a pledge he had made with fellow inmates when first imprisoned: everyone in the cell agreed that whoever survived would tell the families of the others what had happened.
Accordingly Nath felt it was his duty to tell the stories of those who had died. His graphic paintings now hang on the walls of the museum, bearing witness to the brutality that thousands suffered but only a handful survived to describe.
After being freed, Nath enlisted in the Cambodian Army, fighting the lingering Khmer Rouge insurgency in the Thai border region. After landmark elections in 1993, which followed peace accords in 1991 that ended decades of foreign meddling and conflict, Nath started painting again and began to receive wide recognition for his work. Since then, his pictures have hung in exhibitions around the world.
He also became, through writing and interviews as well as through his paintings, a leading advocate of justice for the victims of Khmer Rouge atrocities. In 1998 he published A Cambodian Prison Portrait: One Year in the Khmer Rouge's S-21 to tell his story in his own words, and he featured prominently in the documentary S21: The Khmer Rouge Death Machine (2003), in which he interrogated his former persecutors.
The trial of Duch was the first to be held at the UN-backed war crimes tribunal in Cambodia. It ended last July with his conviction and a 35-year sentence. So far, it is the only case to be completed. Case 002, in which the four most senior former members of the Khmer Rouge regime still alive are due to stand trial, will be the court's last. The tribunal's spokesman, Neth Pheaktra, could not confirm whether Nath would again have been called to testify.
In 2007 Nath was awarded the Hellman/Hammett Award, given by Human Rights Watch to writers who have shown bravery in the face of political persecution.
He owned a restaurant in Phnom Penh named after his wife, Kith Eng, which houses a gallery of his work.
When Nath became ill with kidney disease in 2005, donations from patrons and friends from around the world helped pay for his treatment.
Vann Nath and his wife had two children who died during the Khmer Rouge genocide. After 1979 Nath was reunited with his wife and they had three more children. She and they survive him.
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