Honouring The Dead
(Abdul Qadir)
BANGKOK: After Mumbai's frenetic hurly-burly, incessant paparazzi intrusions, "you bloody Indians" allegations and the like, a quiet meditation and tribute to Cambodia's genocide victims at the harrowing S-21 Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh must surely have been a welcome change of pace for the Brangelina couple. Brad Pitt, Oscar-winning partner Angelina Jolie and her adopted Cambodian son Maddox, on a surprise visit to Cambodia, paid a brief visit to the museum last week to pay tribute to Cambodia's Khmer Rouge victims. It is being regarded as significant since it has come at a time when the trial of former Khmer Rouge leaders draws near. According to the Bangkok Post, Documentation Centre of Cambodia director Youik Chhang said of the visit: "She (Jolie) wanted to see S-21 to understand better the Cambodian heart, and it seems she does." He said Jolie was "subdued and obviously moved" while viewing photographs of the victims tortured at Khmer Rouge Pol Pot's secret prison. Chhang saw his sister murdered by Khmer Rouge soldiers and is a survivor of the inhuman regime.
Chey Soipheara, director of S-21, said Jolie had set an example and earned a legion of new fans by visiting the site "as a simple person and quietly meditating on the horrors that had taken place there". The centre has been collecting evidence of Khmer Rouge's unimaginable atrocities, which will form the basis for prosecutions in the imminent trial. The prison's former director, Duch, is believed to be the sole Khmer Rouge leader now in custody awaiting trial. Only a handful of people survived S-21, which is also known as Toul Sleng. Thousands died of starvation and torture within the prison walls and many of those who survived were taken for execution at Choueng Ek, the notorious 'killing fields' outside the capital.
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