At 85, Chum Mey can still recall the unbearable pain inflicted on him 40 years ago as if it had happened yesterday. During the Khmer Rouge era, he was tortured for 12 days and 12 nights at the infamous Security Prison 21 (S-21), a former high school.
Chum Mey, one of the survivors of Khmer Rouge genocide.
The prison was also known as the largest centre for detention and torture in Cambodia as more than 17,000 people (some records estimated about 20,000 people) were held from 1975-1979. They were imprisoned, tortured and taken to the killing fields to be executed.
Today, S-21 has been turned into the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and serves as a testament to the crimes of the Khmer Rouge.
Chum Mey is one of the few remaining survivors of the prison. He also testified at the international tribunal that convicted the chief of the prison, Kaing Guek Eav. In 2010, he founded the Ksaem Ksan Association, or the Association of Victims of Democratic Kampuchea, to help former victims of the Khmer Rouge. Today, the association has 3,013 members living in 17 provinces.
Chum Mey's cell.
Chum Mey has a small shop before the exit of the museum where he sells his books and DVDs featuring an interview and information about his experiences in prison.
Chum Mey never thought he would survive. "The Khmer Rouge soldiers told everybody that 'you will be killed at the end'. I knew that one day I would be killed too as I had already seen many prisoners next to my cell brought out and never come back. In my mind, I knew that I would be killed one day."
Like many prisoners during that bloody period when the Khmer Rouge rounded up hundreds of thousands of people, Chum Mey, who was a mechanic, never knew the reason he was locked up at S-21.
"I never understood why they took me. They always accused me of working for either the CIA or KGB. I tried to tell them that I was not CIA or KGB, but they kept torturing me by lashing me," Chum Mey said.
"They also gave me electrical shocks to my left ear. I heard the loud booming sound and fainted. They kept beating me for 12 days and 12 nights. Sometimes they stopped beating me and asked me if I worked for the CIA or KGB. My back got many lashes. It became very swollen. They also pulled out my right toenail. They stopped torturing me when I agreed to sign a confession [that he worked for the CIA]. As a result of the 12 days of torture, I lost the feeling on my left fingers and hearing in the left ear. I also lost the sight in my left eye.
Chum Mey said he was imprisoned for four months and 12 days. Each day the captors provided him with two meals and each time it was only two spoons of rice. To make it exact, he said, sometimes it was just soup without rice. Like other prisoners, he sometimes tried to catch lizards, mice and even cockroaches to eat.
"In the prison cell, there was a small jug for urinating and a small box for me to defecate in," he recalled. "If I made a mess, they forced me to clean the floor with my tongue. If I refused, they beat me."
On Jan 7, 1979, Chum Mey, along with 18 other prisoners, were due to be executed. It was also the day that the Vietnamese army invaded Cambodia. Some Vietnamese soldiers clashed with the Khmer Rouge who were escorting the prisoners. Some Khmer Rouge soldiers escaped and so did Chum Mey.
"I spent six days and six nights in the jungle without anything to eat or drink. I managed to find leaves that we normally used for cooking. Eating the leaves helped me survive. I learned later that only seven people out of the 18 prisoners survived on that day. Today only me and Bou Meng [an artist who also works at the museum and paints all the pictures exhibited in the museum] are still alive. Without the Vietnamese liberation army, I would not have had a chance to meet all of you."
Chum Mey said that after all these years, he can't forgive the top commanders of the Khmer Rouge.
"For the top leaders like Nuon Chea [89, known as "Brother Number Two"] and Khieu Samphan [84, who was Democratic Kampuchea's Head of State], I can't forgive," he said. "But for the head of the prison and soldiers who tortured me, I can forgive them, because they had to follow orders or otherwise they would be killed.
"I still think about the millions of lives that were lost. But if we still think about revenge, we will not be able to rebuild our country. So like Japan after the country was bombed, they moved on and developed the country." Chum Mey said that when he first returned to the prison after it was opened as a museum, he still felt horrified. But when he learned that tourists wanted to talk and listen to his experiences, bit by bit he began to feel stronger.
"Sometimes while I was telling my story, some tourists cried and I cried too because I feel that they shared my sadness." Chum Mey is now writing an autobiography.
"I want my book to spread the message to the world to understand the history," he said. "During the Khmer Rouge rule for three years, eight months and 20 days, the whole country had no laws. Khmer people killed each other. There was no religion, schools or hospitals. The Khmer Rouge eliminated everything. I've been invited to Japan, Germany and the US to spread this information, but not yet in Thailand. The last government invited me twice, but the programmes were cancelled because the situation was not stable. If I have a chance, I will go to share my story in Thailand."
The seven men who survived S-21, in 1979. Chum Mey is on the far left.
