In 1977, young diplomat Ouk Ket was recalled to Cambodia 'to get educated to better fulfil [his] responsibilities'. Left behind in Paris were his French wife and their two young children; they never saw him again. Through this tragedy, the book explores the infamous S-21 prison, the UN-backed trial of its commander, and Cambodia's years of terror.
Les informations fournies dans la section « Synopsis » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.
ROBERT CARMICHAEL worked for a decade as a foreign correspondent in Cambodia, leaving in 2017. His first stint was from 2001-3 when he was the managing editor of the Phnom Penh Post. He returned in early 2009 to cover Duch's trial, working for German wire service dpa, Radio Australia, Voice of America, the BBC, Deutsche Welle and others. Robert developed excellent relationships with some of the leading lights at the tribunal as well as experts in related fields including academics David Chandler, Stephen Heder and Craig Etcheson and Youk Chhang, who runs the genocide research organization DC-Cam. Robert travelled widely, interviewing people about the Khmer Rouge period, the impact of the tribunal and the thorny issue of reconciliation.
Robert's website www.robertcarmichael.net contains many of his articles.
'To keep you is no benefit, to kill you is no loss'
Khmer Rouge motto
In 1977, young diplomat Ouk Ket was recalled to Cambodia 'to get educated to better fulfil [his] responsibilities'. Left behind in Paris were his French wife, Martine, and their two young children, Neary and Mackara; they never saw him again. Through this single family's tragedy, Carmichael explores the infamous S-21 prison, the trial of its commander and Cambodia's years of terror.
Under the Khmer Rouge, between 1975 and 1979, an estimated two million people, or one in every four Cambodians, died or were killed. More than 12,000 of them were tortured prior to their execution in Tuol Sleng prison, better known today by its codename S-21.
In describing the quest over many years of Martine and Neary to learn what had happened to their husband and father, and through the lens of the war crimes trial of Comrade Duch, When the Clouds Fell from the Sky illuminates not only the tragedy of a nation, but also the fundamental limitations of international justice.
'Crisply written, elegantly constructed and thoroughly researched . . . a perceptive, often heart-breaking book'
David Chandler, author of Voices from S-21: Terror and History in Pol Pot's Secret Prison
'A beautifully written book that does a masterful job weaving the history of the Khmer Rouge tribunal with a more personal story of human tragedy and redemption'
Peter Maguire, author of Law and War, Facing Death in Cambodia and Thai Stick.
'Arguably the most vivid and terrifying literary portrait of the prison to date'
Phnom Penh Post
Les informations fournies dans la section « A propos du livre » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.
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Paperback. Etat : new. Paperback. To keep you is no benefit, to destroy you is no loss.'During the Khmer Rouge's four-year rule of terror, two million people, or one in every four, Cambodians, died. In describing one family's decades-long quest to learn their husband's and father's fate and the war crimes trial of Comrade Duch (pronounced 'Doyk'), who ran the notorious S-21 prison in Phnom Penh, WHEN THE CLOUDS FELL FROM THE SKY illuminates the tragedy of a nation. In 2012, Duch was sentenced to life imprisonment, having been found responsible for the deaths of more than 12,000 people. He was the first Khmer Rouge member to be jailed for crimes committed during Pol Pot's catastrophic 1975-9 rule during which millions were executed or died from starvation, illness and overwork as Cambodia underwent the most radical social transformation ever attempted. Designed to outdo even Mao's Great Leap Forward, it was an unparalleled disaster.At the same time, the Khmer Rouge closed Cambodia's borders, barred all communication with the outside world and sought to turn the clock back to Year Zero. They outlawed religion, markets, money, education and even the concept of family. The revolution soon imploded, driven to destruction by the incompetence and paranoia of the leadership. Yet instead of recognising their own failings, the leaders sought unseen enemies everywhere. In their pursuit of purity, they destroyed a nation. Like hundreds of other returnees, when he returned in 1977 Ouk Ket was utterly unaware of the terrors being wrought in the revolution's name. Hundreds of thousands of other Cambodians perished in nearly 200 institutions like S-21. To illustrate this era and its consequences, Robert Carmichael has woven together the stories of five people whose lives intersected to traumatic effect: Duch; Ket's daughter, Neary, who was just two when her father disappeared; Ouk Ket himself; Ket's French wife, Martine; and Ket's cousin, Sady, who never left Cambodia and still lives there today. Through these personal stories, the author's own research, numerous interviews and months spent following Duch's trial, Robert extrapolates from the experience of one man to tell the story of a nation. In doing so, he reaffirms the value of the individual, countering the Khmer Rouge's nihilistic maxim that: 'To keep you is no benefit, to destroy you is no loss. In 1977, young diplomat Ouk Ket was recalled to Cambodia 'to get educated to better fulfil [his] responsibilities'. Left behind in Paris were his French wife and their two young children; they never saw him again. Through this tragedy, the book explores the infamous S-21 prison, the UN-backed trial of its commander, and Cambodia's years of terror. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. N° de réf. du vendeur 9781472143754
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