Enemies of the People (2009)

[bunniefuu]

Some say that almost 2,000,000 people die

in the k*lling Fields.

Nobody understand why so many people were k*lled

in that time.

I just know that since Pol Pot die,

only this man, Nuon Chea, can tell us

why the k*lling happen.

My project is to find out why so many people die

in the k*lling Fields.

I do this work not just for my father,

my mother and my brother,

I do this for all the people.

First, I remember when I was small,

the American bombing aircraft.

This is not an invasion of Cambodia.

We take this action

for the purpose of ending the w*r in Vietnam.

This is not Vietnam.

We are living in Cambodia, next door.

And then the w*r was over.

We didn't know who controlled the country at that time.

We just know them as Khmer Krahom,

in English, Khmer Rouge.

There is only two on the top of the Khmer Rouge.

Pol Pot, they call him Brother Number One,

and Nuon Chea, Brother Number Two.

I am Thet Sambath,

senior reporter with the Phnom Penh Post.

And this project, I do in my spare time.

She refuse.

I go to the province every weekend.

I have done like this for 10 years.

My wife she doesn't have money for food today.

Because the money always go for the projects.

So I think the project is very important.

When I was small, I had no father and mother,

so I know about the difficulty for the children.

My work is very dangerous.

I told my wife about when we do a filming,

she is surprised about what we are doing.

And then I just said,

"Oh, we do a documentary about my work."

And then she asked me if something happen to me, if I die,

what she'd do.

What about the children?

She asked me that.

That question make me very surprised and make me very sad.

If I compare my work to the b*ttlefield,

I think I work more hard than in the b*ttlefield, really.

Go to work with Nuon Chea is not easy at all.

Very difficult.

He's very secretive man, very secretive man.

Go one time, doesn't know anything,

go next week, doesn't know anything.

For five months, know nothing.

For one year, nothing.

And two year, nothing.

So it's not easy to do the work like this.

I told him that this is not for journalism,

it is for history.

But I never told him about my family at all.

When they were fighting American,

Pol Pot and Nuon Chea, they were friends with Vietnam.

But they are more extreme and more communist.

No money, no market.

That is the reason that my father dies.

My father, he didn't want to join the Khmer Rouge at all.

He doesn't want, but the problem is,

he has a cow, buffalo, land, house.

All these thing, he doesn't want to lose.

And one time my father, he got up in a meeting in public,

organized by Khmer Rouge cadre.

And then the Khmer Rouge cadre they announce that,

so all the property, like cow, gold, everything,

please send to Angkar.

And then my father, only my father got up in the meeting

and he said,

"Why need to collect property from us to Angkar?

That is belong to us."

They arrest him and then they took him to the rice field.

They k*ll him not by sh**ting.

They k*ll him by thrust him by knife.

They stubbed him many time.

So the Khmer Rouge soldier, they stand around my father

and then the one man that jump and then thrust my father,

and then other men, they come and kick.

My father fall down and then they thrust.

He did not die immediately.

Very, very suffer.

Because my brother, he watched.

He hide in there and then he saw all this,

and he tell my uncle how they k*lled my father.

I don't want him to feel that I come to revenge him.

He asked me, how is my family?

I told him that they die in 1980.

That's what I said, yeah.

But later I will tell him again, in the near future

about, what is the truth?

I will take my time to talk about this.

The Northwest of Cambodia.

The area where most k*lling happen.

There are many hundreds of K*llers here,

but no one know who they are,

because they never admit until today.

Nobody understand why they k*ll

and who ordered them to k*ll.

Because the top Khmer Rouge leader always deny

they were K*llers.

I think only the k*ller can tel us the truth.

Why they k*ll the people and who ordered them to k*ll.

When I got information from a real k*ller,

I'm too excited.

I could not sleep much.

When I interview Khoun and Suon,

I always think about my father.

They're talking, how to k*ll people

but I am still smiling to them.

Nobody know I am a victim as well.

Mr. Khoun and Mr. Suon, they have sacrificed a lot

for telling me the truth.

I am very lucky to get this real history

and keep it for the new generation.

I have spent many years to find all these people,

because after the Khmer Rouge collapsed,

these people did not follow Pol Pot anymore.

They just go to live in other village

and different province quietly.

Not joined with Khmer Rouge anymore.

Some people I take a long time.

I take one year, or two year, or three year

just to know them closely that when I go to meet them,

just say hello and talking with their children

or their wives, make a funny,

and then we have a chat a little bit and then I go back.

After I get close, I let them drink wine and enjoy together.

And then they start,

I start talking about the Khmer Rouge regime.

I heard some people, they k*ll a lot of people,

they k*ll in that place.

And then that man, he said, "Oh, you want to know?

I know , I also did it."

Some people they answer to me like that.

And then I keep quiet.

I do not ask him anymore.

Next week, I went to see him and then I start talking.

Did he k*ll the people or not?

And then I say that I know for a long time

about some people who k*ll.

And I know that you k*ll the people too,

but I did not ask you.

So I'm sorry to you.

So now I just dare to ask you

because we now we are confidential with each other.

To get the truth, you must talk to the uneducated farmer

who did the killings.

It's hard for foreigner and journalist to talk to them.

But for me, it's no problem

because I am a country person too.

The first time they always deny.

But you must find another way.

Now there is a Khmer Rouge tribunal with the United Nation

and they plan to charge the leader

with international crimes.

When I started this project,

no one thought the Khmer Rouge would ever go to trial.

In Khmer Rouge time Mr. Suon was a militia

in charge of village.

Mr. Khoun, he was higher than Mr. Suon

in charge of many people.

Both of them take me to see their boss.

Even I was close with him for more than three year,

Nuon Chea, he never told me anything,

but I feel confident that he would tell me at the end.

I go step-by-step and then finally he told me one day,

"Sambath, I believe you, I trust you.

I tell you the truth."

This is the first time that Nuon Chea admits

about the k*lling.

When Mr. Nuon Chea told me about all these problem,

and then I have everything in my hand.

Even today, Nuon Chea does not trust Vietnamese.

That's why during the Khmer Rouge time,

Poi Pot and Nuon Chea decide to get close to China.

But others in the Khmer Rouge party,

they want to follow Vietnamese.

This is the main problem in the Khmer Rouge.

After my father was k*lled, my mother was forced to marry

with a Khmer Rouge militia,

and then she cry, she cry a lot.

The militia man warned that if she refused

the whole, our family would be k*lled.

I remember that she just pat my head.

And all my brother and sister, all cry about this.

Because our father just die

and was k*lled by the Khmer Rouge.

And then the Khmer Rouge militia forced her to marry

to make us very sad among family.

Even my grandmother, all very sad.

And then she, pregnant, give birth.

And then she has many blood.

Before she die, she call me and call my sister.

And she just told us that, please take care of yourselves.

In the Khmer Rouge time I was allowed to cut the grass

along the road and later I was moved from the village

to very far area, 15 to 20 kilometer to make a dam.

It's very difficult to work like that

because, eat only porridge.

I was so hungry every day

and then one day I decide to leave.

And then, evening time, I run to my grandfather.

He secretly cook the rice and fish to eat.

Early morning, we go back.

And later my grandfather told us

that please don't come again,

otherwise you would be beaten or you would be k*lled.

Some night I dream and I could not sleep.

My father was k*lled and I had no father, I had no mother,

I had no brother to care of me.

When I see parent treat their children well,

it make me very sad.

I run away and escape from them.

Cambodia has made a symbolic start

to the trials of its former leaders.

Prosecutors are expected to begin work to decide

which of the Khmer Rouge leaders, many of whom are now

in their 80s, will face trial.

Nuon Chea who was the top deputy leader of Pol Pot

said he would gladly take part.

I have been with Mr. Nuon Chea since 2001.

It's not easy to make a communist man like Nuon chea

say everything to us.

I try to get close to him

to make him confident to say the truth.

Mr. Nuon Chea told me that he has investigate

who I am for many years.

I has to keep all the cassette

about Nuon Chea interview very secretly

because I'm worried that somebody

can confiscate all my tape.

This, very important for the history,

the facts from the top Khmer Rouge leader

that we call Brother Number Two, Nuon chea.

This is the first time a top Khmer Rouge leader

admits the k*lling like this.

Pol Pot, he never said this kind of stuff.

I try to imagine Pol Pot and Nuon Chea

sitting and talking in a room.

Pol Pot and Nuon chea thought that they could do

more than Mao Zedong.

They want to be more communist than China.

They had no experience, how to govern a country.

This is their big mistake.

So the people are unhappy and some try to topple Pol Pot.

Pol Pot and Nuon Chea react by smashing these people.

Their big mistake is the decision to k*ll.

I want to know if Noun Chea felt in his heart,

he did wrong or not.

He asked me, how about my family members, about my parent,

and I just told him that, "Oh, they are fine.

They are working in the co-operative."

"So how are they now?"

I just said, "Oh, they die.

They die during 1980s."

I do not tell him that they die during 1975, '79,

because I don't want him to feel that I do revenge to him.

Even now, I want to tell him,

but I feel that it's not the right time for me

to tell him all this problem.

These chilling uncensored images

of S*ddam Hussein's final moments are at the center

of an awkward Iraqi government investigation, into itself,

and all that went wrong with the execution.

The government has said that it detained

two security guards, it says, could be responsible

for filming and distributing these images.

I had the idea to take Mr. Suon and Mr. Khoun

to see Nuon Chea.

I want the top leader and the k*ller

like Mr. Suon and Khoun to meet

and ask Nuon chea why they are k*lling the people.

My brother was arrested

during the purge by Pol Pot.

He was not a Khmer Rouge, no,

but he was writing a document for the Khmer Rouge cadre.

He was mistakenly arrested

because during the purge they just arrest anyone.

I saw my brother ride a bicycle,

and then he saw me, he call me.

He call me, Sambath.

And then I wait, and he call me, Sambath,

and then I ran to him.

And then he ask me how I am.

And then he just took his hand, touched on my hair

and for about 10 minutes.

And then he said goodbye, he need to go to work.

But before he left, I ask him,

"Brother, can you give me one fighting c*ck?"

And then he said, "Yes."

I asked him, "When?"

He said, "Tomorrow."

And then, "You wait me here."

And then tomorrow I come to stand on the road.

I think I stand like this, yeah.

I just standing like this waiting to that direction.

Just waiting, he ride a bicycle coming.

And then I waiting, almost the whole day,

since the morning until evening.

I am waiting and then he coming.

I saw him coming by bicycle.

And then I ask him, "Where is the fighting c*ck?"

And then he said, "Oh, I forgot, Sambath."

And then I felt disappointment with my brother.

And I felt that, "Oh, my brother did not love me.

That's why he did not bring a fighting c*ck for me."

His face look very sad.

I don't know what he was thinking about.

Very sad, he did not smile at me, but he look,

his face signaled he thought a lot.

But I don't know what he was thinking about,

because I just focus about my fighting c*ck.

And then I got information that he was k*lled.

When I come here, it make me very sad.

Too sad because it's...

When I come here, it remind me about my brother,

and my mother, and my father,

that were treated bad by the Khmer Rouge regime.

My brother and my sister,

they did not understand what was happening,

and among us, we try not to say about our family.

We never talk about our relative, my brother, my sister,

about my mother die during Khmer Rouge,

my brother was k*lled and my father was k*lled.

We never talk.

Since the Khmer Rouge took power,

it make my family destroy, k*ll.

We are living separately.

Now I think that it's the right time

to tell Nuon Chea about my family.

If I did not tell him right now and the court is coming,

if he was arrest

and I did not have a chance to tell him this,

I feel, would be a big mistake for me.

When I told him about my brother, and my mother,

and my father in front of him, I also feel very, very sad.

And he also, very sad too, almost could not talk

when he heard about my family like that.

Many year, we always talk very friendly to each other.

It like nothing happened to my family.

He could not bring my father, my brother,

and my mother back to life.

He could not talk much about that.

I understand about that.

After I told him about my family, I felt better.

After the Vietnamese invade, k*lling is finished.

Fighting between Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese continue

for more than 10 years.

I went to live in a refugee camp

along the border with Thailand.

One of the architects of the infamous Khmer Rouge

is now under arrest.

The charged crimes against humanity, Nuon Chea,

who is now 82 helped Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot-

The most senior surviving member

of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia has been charged

with w*r crimes and crimes against humanity

When he was taken into the aircraft,

that made me very sad.

No to say he's a good man,

but because we had used to work together, almost 10 year.

I am sad, yeah.

I have bought some land along the border.

I plan to plant some fruit trees, some potato and some corn.

Now the project is finished.

I plan to stop and take a rest.

I need to stop researching the past.

I would like to spend more time

with my family, my children, my wife,

and concentrate on farming the land.