Vann Nath Personified Cambodian Reconciliation
TRANSCEND MEMBERS, 12 Sep 2011
Emma Leslie – TRANSCEND Media Service
This week Cambodia bids farewell to Vann Nath. Nath is well-known as one of the seven survivors of the Khmer Rouge prison facility S21 or Tuol Sleng. But for me he will always personify the Cambodian capacity to remember, heal and reconcile their past.
Vann Nath was arrested in Battambang on December 29, 1977. One of his last exhibitions of paintings portrayed his transportation by the Khmer Rouge from Battambang to Phnom Penh, culminating in his incarceration in S21. He was an artist and a creative spirit, and was quickly identified to work in the section of the prison painting and sculpting images of Pol Pot. It was his abilities as a painter, which in effect saved him from execution, and later enabled him to portray vividly the horrors he had witnessed and heard about in Tuol Sleng prison.
Years after his escape from Tuol Sleng, with the arrival of Vietnamese forces into Phnom Penh, Nath would return to the Tuol Sleng genocide museum to share his story with students, researchers, archivists and tourists. One day in 1996, Nath saw a shy Cambodian man walking around the grounds of the site, whom he quickly recognised as one of the Khmer Rouge guards who had watched over him. He approached the man and asked him if he recognised Nath. The man said he didn’t. Nath challenged him further by mentioning his name and position at the prison. The man finally confessed that he was indeed one of the guards, and after so many years, he had returned to Tuol Sleng to remind himself of what had happened there and what he had done. (He had lived as a poor farmer on the edge of Phnom Penh with his wife and child, hoping no one would ever know what crimes he had committed.)
It is often said that it is not what happens to us in our lives which matters, but how we respond to it. Nath could have had a myriad of responses to the appearance of a S21 prison guard. In that moment, Nath chose to transform his own experience and befriended the guard, asking him to help him in his mission to share the painful stories of the past, where victims became perpetrators, and perpetrators later became victims again.
Nath invited the guard to look at his paintings displayed in the prison, and if he could verify if their memories were the same of that time. The guard agreed, all of what Nath had painted was indeed true. Nath and Huy went on to share their story with many others, most notably through the documentary S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine, often played in Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.
In 2006, I had the privilege of attending the opening of a Vann Nath exhibition. On that evening he was presented with an award for his contribution to the promotion of human rights. The Khmer Rouge tribunal was soon to commence, and a journalist suggested to Nath that he must be relieved, as the Tribunal would before long, provide justice for what he had suffered in Tuol Sleng.
Nath, in his quietly-spoken, calm voice replied (paraphrased), “While I was in S21, I contracted tuberculosis of the spine. To treat my condition I need US $ 10,000 a month. There is not a hospital in Cambodia, which can sufficiently handle this condition. When Cambodians have real health care they will have justice.”
Vann Nath is not just a survivor of the notorious Tuol Sleng prison. He is someone who transformed his experience into an opportunity to heal the past by befriending the very man, who had kept him imprisoned, recognising their common identity of ‘victims’ of Cambodia’s bloody past. As a father and grandfather, Nath used his artistic gift to document the past for next generations, and reminded us that while the past should indeed be remembered, it is the way Cambodians live today and how their basic needs are met, which will really bring real justice to the Kingdom.
Every day, Cambodians must reconcile their past: They live side by side – Khmer Rouge and non Khmer Rouge; republicans, royalists and communists; refugees and those who remained through the Vietnamese years. Every Cambodian ceremony, whether a wedding, a funeral, the P’chum Bin festival for honouring ancestors, or Khmer New Year, Cambodians share the stories of the past, heal memories and reconcile families and communities. Every day Cambodians choose to be survivors by living in the present, by building their country and seeking justice for the now, and for future generations.
Vann Nath was indeed a survivor, but more than that, he was a great Cambodian peace builder, who chose not to live a bitter, angry life, but took a unique moment to transform his personal story, so as to teach future generations and, in some small way, break the victim-perpetrator cycle.
Hail, Vann Nath! May his children, grandchildren and all who knew him, remember him, not for a bloody period in Cambodia’s past but how he lived today!
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Emma Leslie is Convener of the TRANSCEND Network for Southeast Asia and director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 12 Sep 2011.
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Living ‘Side by Side’ One Step in Long Reconciliation Process
Ly Sok-Kheang, PhD Candidate
Coventry University, United Kingdom
September 10-11, 2011
I am writing in response to the article “Vann Nath Personified Cambodian Efforts at Reconciliation”. I read this article with great appreciation. However, I found the statement: “Every day, Cambodians must reconcile their past: They live side by side[.]” subjective in many ways. While reconciliation is absolutely necessary in Cambodian society, it is a process that could take years or generations to achieve. To put it bluntly, reconciliation is a very personal matter. The only thing state and non-state actors can do is to offer various types of mechanisms aimed at reconciliation. Ultimately only individuals can decide whether to reconcile with the past or not.
There have been a series of political, social, cultural, religious and legal efforts toward reconciliation by both individuals and the state since the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979. Individuals take these steps in their daily lives. Interpersonal reconciliation has been supplemented by words (apologies) and actions (good behavior by former KR cadres) for years. Some former KR cadres have used both methods to show remorse and repentance for their past mistakes. Westerners can be blind to this cultural approach.
Many victims find it hard to hear, let alone to accept such apologies and forgive those who are directly or indirectly responsible for the disappearance or killing of their family members. Other victims want former Khmer Rouge cadres to voluntarily contribute to social and/or religious services. These volunteer services prove far more practical in fostering peaceful coexistence than apologetic words.
However, both victims and many former KR cadres have one thing in common. They have expressed their support for educating the younger generation about Democratic Kampuchea (DK) history. They are frustrated that some of their children do not believe in, or raise doubts about, the exact nature of Khmer Rouge atrocities. Seeing their children educated about the Khmer Rouge history in the classroom contributes to healing at home and in the community and acknowledges the suffering that many wish to hear from others in society.
Thus, the reconciliation process in Cambodia has already moved past living side by side. Daily conduct and apologies to restore mutual understanding and harmony have been taking place daily for more than thirty years. Today, incorporating Democratic Kampuchea history into the school curriculum provides one more mechanism
contributing to reconciliation. But what we MUST bear in mind is that it takes time and depends on each individual’s personal decision.
Well, we can forgive, but we cannot forget.