It was in one of these prisons that Francoise Bizot was interred, and where we learn, that the interrogation, torture and execution techniques Duch later became infamous for were developed and finely honed. After being freed in an amnesty given by Lon Nol in 1970, he fled to the maquis and was soon head of a series of forest prisons near Amleang, Kampong Speu province. It seems likely that much of what he later put into practice as a jailer may have been learned there. Duch had been a teacher in Phnom Penh in the 1960s, and because of his zeal in promoting his political ideas, he came to the attention of the authorities and was imprisoned in Prey Sar in 1967. As head of S21 prison, he had presided over the torture and execution of countless people, and we learn here, many of his previous friends and colleagues were amongst them. He visited S21 prison, but little did he know then that within ten years he would track down one of the most notorious of the Khmer Rouge leaders, Kaing Guek Eav, better known by his nom de guerre Duch. Nic Dunlop first visited Cambodia as a student in 1989, a time when visitors per year numbered in tens rather than the more recent millions. Although it doesn’t set out to be one, this book is probably the most thorough biography ever made of a top level Khmer Rouge cadre.
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