Erin Handley

 

Man or Monster? The Trial of a Khmer Rouge Torturer by Alexander Laban Hinton (Duke University Press, 350pp), $26.95 (paperback)

Asked of the notorious S-21 prison commander Comrade Duch, the question “man or monster?” bears all the hallmarks of a cliché. Kaing Guek Eav – better known by his chosen alias – is the only one of three people so far convicted for atrocities committed under the Khmer Rouge regime.

 

Assessing Duch as a savage torturer who reflects our basest instincts serves to comfort those who see him as an outlier. But he was also a meticulous mathematics teacher who, during his trial, recited French poetry and at times seemed to express genuine contrition for his actions. Perhaps anyone in his circumstances would have followed gruesome orders.

 

Man or Monster? is a also deceptively simplistic title for genocide scholar Alexander Laban Hinton’s new book, which examines Duch’s trial before the Khmer Rouge tribunal. Hinton is aware of constructing such a dichotomy: it’s meant, he says, as a provocation.

 

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No question about Duch: MONSTER !

He was a monster. They have been politically emboldened before; Nazis are the obvious example. I would be interested in the psychology that leads outwardly well educated people to fall into this type of monstrous behaviour. It seems to come from political extremes; something we should bear in mind at present.