Bou Meng

Last updated • 8 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
Bou Meng
ប៊ូ ម៉េង
Bou Meng at Tuol Sleng 2.jpg
Bou Meng presenting the book about himself (written by Huy Vannak) and the DVD inside Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, April 26, 2018.
Born1941 (age 83–84) [1] [2]
Kampong Cham Province, Cambodia, French Indochina
NationalityCambodian
OccupationArtist [1]
Known forSurvivor of the Tuol Sleng prison camp
SpouseMa Yoeun [3]
Bou Meng inside the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum Bou Meng at Tuol Sleng.jpg
Bou Meng inside the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

Bou Meng (Khmer : ប៊ូ ម៉េង, Bu Méng [ɓuːmeːŋ] ; born 1941 [2] ) is one of only seven known adult survivors [4] of the Khmer Rouge imprisonment in the S-21 Tuol Sleng camp, where 20,000 Cambodians were tortured and executed. [5] He was arrested with his wife, Ma Yoeun, in 1976 and taken into S-21; they never met again after then. Bou Meng was tortured for weeks, [6] with many kinds of torture devices (electric shock, bamboo sticks, whips, rattans, cart axles, etc.) and he had to fabricate confessions. He was spared from being slaughtered only because he was a highly skilled painter. [7] His wife, according to the records of Tuol Sleng, was tortured and killed on August 16, 1977. [3] His children ended up in a children's center, where they eventually starved to death. [8]

Contents

In 2002, he was believed to be dead. In January 2002, Cambodian newspaper Phnom Penh Post wrote that he had died in the 1990s, while Cambodian magazine Searching for the truth wrote that he had "disappeared". When Bou Meng found out that people thought that he was dead, he went back to S-21 (which had been converted into a museum). [8]

Early life

Bou Meng was born in 1941 into a peasant family. His father's name was Bou Hak, while his mother's name was Lay Kat; the family lived along the Mekong River, close to Kampong Cham. [8] As it was normal at that time, many Cambodians didn't have a birth certificate and they often didn't know their exact birth date. His family was poor, but their conditions weren't that different from other common Cambodian families. At that time, Cambodia was under the French protectorate and the French had imposed heavy taxes on Cambodians. This, combined with the lack of land to farm, worsened their living conditions. [2] Another problem was the lack of hospitals in the region where Bou Meng lived. If somebody got sick, they had to be taken to the district hospital. [9]

Bou Meng studied at Kor wat with the monks since there were very few schools and teachers. Therein the monks taught him Khmer literature and mathematics. In the same wat, he became very interested in painting and its interest grew stronger and stronger. [9]

In 1956, at the age of 15, Bou Meng became a monk. At that time, virtually every Cambodian family had at least a son who had become a monk, and it was a bad thing to not have a monk in one's family. In the meanwhile, he also used to visit a painting shop (named "Special Painting House") where he enjoyed seeing how pictures were made and, in the same shop, he met a few painters. A Chinese painter taught him to draw black and white pictures with a black powder made from petroleum, while another painter who had studied at the Fine Arts University in Phnom Penh taught him to paint "all kinds of pictures". [10]

In 1963, Bou Meng returned to his hometown - Kampong Cham - where he started to work for cinema theaters as a painter. His job was to paint the pictures for each movie. It soon earned him a good living, and he married Ma Yoeun. In 1968 he also ran a small painting shop in Chamkar Leu district of Kampong Cham province. [11]

Joining the revolution

On March 18, 1970 Prince Sihanouk was dethroned by a Coup d'état and Lon Nol took power over Cambodia. Cities and urban areas were controlled by the Khmer Republic dominated by Lon Nol, while the remaining areas were under the control of the Khmer Rouge. [12]

Shortly thereafter, an old friend of Bou Meng whose name was Nai and a man whose name was Chhon asked him to join the revolution/CPK. Nai explained that it was about liberating both the country and Prince Sihanouk. Bou Meng was still unsure about what to do, but one day he heard on the radio Prince Sihanouk speaking from Beijing and appealing to the people to join the revolution. After hearing this, Bou Meng no longer hesitated to join the revolution and, in June 1971, he left his village with his wife and went to the jungle in order to help the revolutionaries. Bou Meng joined the revolution mainly because he wanted Prince Sihanouk to return to power. [13]

On April 17, 1975 the Khmer Rouge successfully managed to take control of Phnom Penh and the whole country, and everybody celebrated inside the compound where Bou Meng was working. Short thereafter, they were told to travel to Phnom Penh and, on their way, they saw many city dwellers heading towards the opposite direction. Many were sad and some children were crying because they couldn't find their parents. Bou Meng "felt strange about these scenes" and since then he started to realize that he had been cheated by the revolution. [14]

Work in Phnom Penh and captivity in S-21

Every night I looked out at the moon. I heard people crying and sighing around the building.
I heard people calling out, 'Mother, help me! Mother, help me!'
— Bou Meng,Huy Vannak - Bou Meng (2010) [6]

Once in Phnom Penh, Bou Meng was assigned to work inside the State Commercial Office, while his wife Ma Yoeun was assigned to work at a hospital. In 1976, he and his wife were assigned to work at another place, i.e. Rassey Keo Technical School, while their children were sent to a children's center. [15]

Not long thereafter, Bou Meng and his wife were sent to the Ta-Lei cooperative, an agricultural working site where he had to work very hard "from dawn to dusk", the food wasn't enough and he was losing weight day by day. He also found out that Ta-Lei cooperative was a sort of detention center and this shocked him. They couldn't understand what mistake they had made. He also noticed that people at Ta-Lei gradually disappeared and new people arrived every day. On August 16, 1977 two youths told Bou Meng that he was assigned to teach at the Fine Arts School of Phnom Penh and he was very happy about this, since he didn't have to work in that cooperative anymore. But after they departed, they noticed that it wasn't the right way to the Fine Arts School. They had been taken to a detention center, a building surrounded by barbed wire (S-21). Bou Meng told them that they had done nothing wrong, but the guard screamed at them that Angkar never makes mistakes. [16] Bou Meng described S-21 as "a hell on earth" (norauk lok kei). [17]

Torture

Bou Meng holding a copy of the Duch verdict Distribution of the "Duch"-verdict (6).jpg
Bou Meng holding a copy of the Duch verdict

Bou Meng was interrogated and tortured for weeks with methods like electric shocks, bamboo sticks and whips. Bou Meng once recalled that "they tortured me like an animal" and "my life was so miserable". [18] Bou Meng always answered that he was innocent and that he had done nothing wrong, but the guards kept torturing him and asking him where he had met the CIA, KGB and "Yuon land swallowers", despite him not even knowing what they were. He finally fabricated confessions, hoping that they would stop torturing him. He said that he had joined the CIA at the pagoda with the monks and that he was asked to join the CIA by a pagoda boy. The guards also asked him about the CIA networks in the jungle, and he had to provide the names of 20 people he had met in that period. [19]

Painting propaganda pictures inside S-21

A few weeks after his interrogation started, two youths visited the cells in order to find prisoners who could paint portraits and pictures. Bou Meng told them that he could do the job. But they also warned him that he would be killed if the picture was not lifelike. [20]

Then, Bou Meng was taken to the health clinic of the prison in order to heal his wounds, and he met Comrade Duch, the chief of S-21. His treatment completely changed after being appointed as painter. He had to paint portraits of Pol Pot, Karl Marx, and other propaganda pictures. He said: "Because of my painting skills, I was now treated less harshly". He was also in touch with other prisoners who had been granted special treatment because of his skill, and one of those was Vann Nath. [21]

Escape from S-21

The Vietnamese were getting closer and closer and, on January 7, 1979 Bou Meng and others were told to line up and they were walked to the exit gate of S-21. Bou Meng was scared, as he thought that his last day had come. They had to walk westward without being given food or water. They also passed Choeung Ek (the Killing Fields area) where they smelled a "stench of something like dead animals on the night breeze". [22] At a certain point, they heard the tanks of the Vietnamese army getting closer and closer and four guards fled. The prisoners also managed to flee and, among those, also Bou Meng, who escaped northward with a friend. On their way, Bou Meng saw a lot of murdered people. They often found corpses lying dead and they took clothes from one of those, eating whatever they could find, such as fruit, roots and so on. [23]

In 1981, Ung Pech, an ex-prisoner of S-21 (and one of only seven known adult survivors) who had become director of the museum, asked Bou Meng to come back to S-21. Bou Meng had never thought about coming back, but he saw it as an opportunity to recount the pain and fear he had suffered, and let both Cambodians and the whole world know about his experiences. [24]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Khmer Rouge</span> Members of the Communist Party of Kampuchea

The Khmer Rouge is the name that was popularly given to members of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), and by extension to Democratic Kampuchea, which ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. The name was coined in the 1960s by Norodom Sihanouk to describe his country's heterogeneous, communist-led dissidents, with whom he allied after the 1970 Cambodian coup d'état.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pol Pot</span> Cambodian communist leader (1925–1998)

Pol Pot was a Cambodian politician and revolutionary who was the dictator of communist Cambodia from 1976 until his overthrow in 1979. He oversaw mass atrocities and is widely believed to be one of the most brutal despots in modern world history. Ideologically a Maoist and a Khmer ethnonationalist, Pot was a leader of Cambodia's Communist movement, known as the Khmer Rouge, from 1963 to 1997. He served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea from 1963 to 1981, during which Cambodia was converted into a one-party state. Between 1975 and 1979, Pot perpetrated the Cambodian genocide, in which an estimated 1.5–2 million people died—approximately one-quarter of the country's pre-genocide population. In December 1978, Vietnam invaded Cambodia to remove the Khmer Rouge from power. Within two weeks, Vietnamese forces occupied most of the country, ending the genocide and establishing a new Cambodian government, with the Khmer Rouge restricted to the rural hinterlands in the western part of the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lon Nol</span> 21st Prime Minister of Cambodia

Marshal Lon Nol was a Cambodian military officer and politician who served as Prime Minister of Cambodia twice, as well as serving repeatedly as defence minister and provincial governor. As a nationalist and conservative, he led the military coup of 1970 against Prince Norodom Sihanouk, abolished the monarchy, and established the short-lived Khmer Republic. Constitutionally a semi-presidential republic, Cambodia was de facto governed under a military dictatorship. He was the commander-in-chief of the Khmer National Armed Forces during the Cambodian Civil War and became President of the Khmer Republic on March 10th, 1972. On April 1, 1975, 16 days before the Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh, Lon Nol fled to the United States, first to Hawaii and then to California, where he remained until his death in 1985.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norodom Sihanouk</span> King of Cambodia (1941–1955; 1993–2004)

Norodom Sihanouk was a member of the Cambodian royal house who led the country as King and Prime Minister. In Cambodia, he is known as Samdech Euv. During his lifetime, Cambodia was under various regimes, from French colonial rule, a Japanese puppet state (1945), an independent kingdom (1953–1970), a military republic (1970–1975), the Khmer Rouge regime (1975–1979), a Vietnamese-backed communist regime (1979–1989), a transitional communist regime (1989–1993) to eventually another kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Khmer Republic</span> Country in Southeast Asia from 1970 to 1975

The Khmer Republic was a Cambodian state under the United States-backed military dictatorship of Marshal Lon Nol from 1970 to 1975. Its establishment was formally declared on 9 October 1970, following the 18 March 1970 coup d'état which saw the overthrow of Norodom Sihanouk's government and the abolition of the Cambodian monarchy.

Articles related to Cambodia and Cambodian culture include:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum</span> Museum dedicated to the Cambodian Genocide

The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, or simply Tuol Sleng, is a museum chronicling the Cambodian genocide. Located in Phnom Penh, the site is a former secondary school which was used as Security Prison 21 by the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 until its fall in 1979. From 1976 to 1979, an estimated 20,000 people were imprisoned at Tuol Sleng and it was one of between 150 and 196 torture and execution centers established by the Khmer Rouge and the secret police known as the Santebal. On 26 July 2010, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia convicted the prison's chief, Kang Kek Iew, for crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions. He died on 2 September 2020 while serving a life sentence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kang Kek Iew</span> Cambodian security official and war criminal (1942–2020)

Kang Kek Iew, also spelled Kaing Guek Eav, aliasComrade Duch or Hang Pin, was a Cambodian convicted war criminal and member of the Khmer Rouge movement, which ruled Democratic Kampuchea from 1975 to 1979. As the Chairman of Tuol Sleng (S-21) prison camp, and head of the Santebal, Kang Kek Iew was responsible for the interrogation and torture of thousands of individuals, and was convicted for the execution of at least 12,272 individuals, including women and children, but up to 14,000 in total could have died under his oversight.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Son Sen</span> Cambodian Communist politician and soldier (1930–1997)

Son Sen, alias Comrade Khieu (សមមិត្តខៀវ) or "Brother Number 89", was a Cambodian Communist politician and soldier. A member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kampuchea/Party of Democratic Kampuchea, the Khmer Rouge, from 1974 to 1992, Sen oversaw the Party's security apparatus, including the Santebal secret police and the notorious security prison S-21 at Tuol Sleng.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chea Sim</span> Cambodian politician (1932–2015)

Chea Sim was a Cambodian politician. He was President of the Cambodian People's Party from 1991 to 2015, President of the National Assembly of Cambodia from 1981 to 1998 and President of the Senate from 1999 to 2015. His official title was Samdech Akka Moha Thamma Pothisal Chea Sim.

The 1970 Cambodian coup d'état was the removal of the Cambodian Chief of State, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, after a vote in the National Assembly on 18 March 1970. Emergency powers were subsequently invoked by the Prime Minister Lon Nol, who became effective head of state, and led ultimately to the removal of Queen Sisowath Kossamak and the proclamation of the Khmer Republic later that year. It is generally seen as a turning point in the Cambodian Civil War. No longer a monarchy, Cambodia was semi-officially called "État du Cambodge" in the intervening six months after the coup, until the republic was proclaimed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Democratic Kampuchea</span> 1975–1979 state in Southeast Asia

Democratic Kampuchea was the official name of the Cambodian state from 1976 to 1979, under the government of Pol Pot and the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), commonly known as the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge's capture of the capital Phnom Penh in 1975 effectively ended the United States-backed Khmer Republic of Lon Nol.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hu Nim</span>

Hu Nim, alias "Phoas" (ភាស់), was a Cambodian Communist intellectual and politician who held a number of ministerial posts. His long political career included spells with the Sangkum regime of Prince Norodom Sihanouk, the Communist guerrilla resistance, the GRUNK coalition government-in-exile, and the administration of Democratic Kampuchea, when the country was controlled by the Communist Party of Kampuchea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vann Nath</span> Cambodian writer and sculptor (1946-2011)

Vann Nath was a Cambodian painter, artist, writer, and human rights activist. He was the eighth Cambodian to win the Lillian Hellman/Hammett Award since 1995. He was one of only seven known adult survivors of S-21 camp, where 20,000 Cambodians were tortured and executed during the Khmer Rouge regime.

Preap In was a Cambodian political dissident of the 1950s–1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GRUNK</span> Government-in-exile of Cambodia (1970–1976)

The Royal Government of National Union of Kampuchea was a government-in-exile of Cambodia, based in Beijing and Hong Kong, that was in existence between 1970 and 1976, and was briefly in control of the country starting from 1975.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dien Del</span> Cambodian politician/general (1932–2013)

General Dien Del was a prominent Cambodian military officer and later, politician. He directed combat operations in Cambodia, first as a general in the Army of the Khmer Republic (1970–1975) and then as a leader of Khmer People's National Liberation Front (KPNLF) guerrilla forces fighting against the Vietnamese occupation (1979–1992). Following Vietnam's withdrawal from Cambodia in 1990, he presided over the demobilization of the KPNLF's armed forces in February 1992. In 1998 he was elected to the National Legislative Assembly as a member of FUNCINPEC. He spent the last fifteen years of his career as advisor to the Cambodian government.

Mam Nai or Mam Nay, nom de guerre Comrade Chan (សមមិត្តច័ន្ទ), is a Cambodian war criminal and former lieutenant of Santebal, the internal security branch of the Khmer Rouge communist movement, which ruled Democratic Kampuchea from 1975 to 1979. He was the leader of the interrogation unit at Tuol Sleng (S-21), assisting Kang Kek Iew, the head of the camp where thousands were held for interrogation, torture and subsequent killing.

Venerable Pang Khat also known as Bhikkhu Viriyapandito was a Cambodian Theravada bikkhu monk who was notorious from 1940 to 1975 and who is most famous for his translations from Sanskrit language to Khmer.

Oum Som was a Cambodian intellectual who was considered "the monk with the most clerical education in post-Pol Pot Cambodia" helping to restore Buddhism in Cambodia after the Khmers Rouges had eradicated the sangha.

References

  1. 1 2 "How two men survived a prison where 12,000 were killed". BBC News. 11 June 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 Huy Vannak (2010), p. 16
  3. 1 2 "The day I met Bou Meng". 27 June 2011.
  4. ↑ Voices From S-21: Terror and History in Pol Pot's Secret Prison David Chandler
  5. ↑ "BBC – History – Into the Heart of Darkness: Extracts from a Film Diary". Archived from the original on 2008-05-06. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
  6. 1 2 Huy Vannak (2010), p. 1
  7. ↑ Huy Vannak (2010), pp. 37-43
  8. 1 2 3 Huy Vannak (2010), p. 11
  9. 1 2 Huy Vannak (2010), p. 18
  10. ↑ Huy Vannak (2010), p. 20
  11. ↑ Huy Vannak (2010), p. 21
  12. ↑ Huy Vannak (2010), p. 22
  13. ↑ Huy Vannak (2010), pp. 24-25
  14. ↑ Huy Vannak (2010), pp. 29-30
  15. ↑ Huy Vannak (2010), pp. 30-32
  16. ↑ Huy Vannak (2010), pp. 32-35
  17. ↑ Huy Vannak (2010), p. 36
  18. ↑ Huy Vannak (2010), p. 41
  19. ↑ Huy Vannak (2010), p. 42
  20. ↑ Huy Vannak (2010), p. 43
  21. ↑ Huy Vannak (2010), p. 44
  22. ↑ Huy Vannak (2010), p. 51
  23. ↑ Huy Vannak (2010), pp. 50-51
  24. ↑ Huy Vannak (2010), pp. 54-55

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.