title: The Elimination: A survivor of the Khmer Rouge confronts his past and the commandant of the killing fields
author:  Rithy Panh 
description: "An unsettling, probing, morally urgent reflection on the Khmer Rouge years." <i>New York Review of Books</i><br /><br />The power of <i>The Elimination</i> lies in the telling details Mr. Panh employs to describe the madness of these years, when the Khmer Rouge worked to destroy every vestige of individuality... a searing, firsthand account of the Cambodian genocide and as such an important contribution to the history of those years. It is also an examination of the nature of evil as told from the perspectives of a victim and a perpetrator.<i>Wall Street Journal<br /></i><br />"Like no other book, <i>The Elimination</i> reminds us why it is crucial to study history, why education should be a nations highest priority, and why nothing is more important than culture and the arts. Masterfully written with the language and pacing necessary to tell such a story, <i>The Elimination</i> needs to be read by anyone who reads booksand more importantly, by those who dont." <i>The Coffin Factory<br /></i><br />An exceptional document of Primo Levis caliber  Rithy Panhs book, <i>The Elimination</i>, through its strength, the starkness of its language, and the depths of its mystery, shows its significance. <i>Elle <br /></i><br />"Harrowing personal reflections by the Cambodian French filmmaker of surviving the Khmer Rouge as a young teenager...A riveting, intimate look deep inside the machinery of the executioner." <i>Kirkus</i><br /><br />In this astounding work, Rithy Panh presents the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge regime as universal human history, intelligible to us all thanks to the extraordinary efforts of an individual. Timothy Snyder, bestselling author of <i>Bloodlands</i><br /><br /><i>"The Elimination</i> is a searing, firsthand account of the Cambodian genocide and as such an important contribution to the history of those years. It is also an examination of the nature of evil as told from the perspectives of a victim and a perpetrator." <i>Hudson Institute</i><br /><br />Having survived the killing fields,Rithy Panhnowilluminates them,both through his own wrenching recollectionsand his extraordinary interviews with Comrade Duch, abanalmastermind behindthe Cambodian genocide.That<i>The Elimination</i>is soelegantly understatedmakes it even more searingand essential.David Margolick, journalist and author of <i>Elizabeth and Hazel</i><br /><br />This is a great text, humble in tone and with universal import. We greet it today in the tradition of Jean Hatzfeld. For his part, Rithy Panh takes his place among those rare figures who have shared Vladimir Janklvitchs conviction: <i>its not enough to be sublime, one must be faithful and serious.</i> <i>Le Monde<br /><br /></i>In the tradition of a Primo Levi or a Solzhenitsyn, the Franco-Cambodian cinaste Rithy Panh has published an exceptional testimony in which he tells of how he survived the genocide orchestrated by the Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1979. <i>Le Figaro<br /></i><br />With the help of Christophe Bataille, the Cambodian cinaste Rithy Panh, having survived the Khmer Rouge massacres of the terrible years 19751979, gives us an incredibly powerful book.A book? More like a punch in the stomach! It is also a book with caustic intelligence, the slow deconstruction of a mad system  this book will remain inscribed in me as major. <i>La Libration<br /><br />"</i>Weaved like cross-stitches into this patchwork narrative of a life stripped bare, in which his parents, siblings and relatives wilted under increasingly extreme conditions, is a larger meditation on the forces galvanizing the destruction."<i>Asia Times</i>
zlib_text: Destroyer 74: Walking Wounded --------------------------------------------
  
  \--------------------------------------------
  
  Destroyer 74: Walking Wounded
  
  By Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir
  
  Chapter 1
  
  The footsteps began at the edge of consciousness. Even in sleep, Cung Co Phong
  recognized them. Somewhere in the deepest recesses of his mind, Phong
  understood that he slept. He did not want to awaken. Sleep was his only
  escape. But the familiar, hated footsteps intruded like drumbeats.
  
  Phong awoke in a cold sweat.
  
  The Americans still slept. Nothing seemed to rouse them from slumber anymore.
  They had been here at Camp Fifty-five so long that they'd ceased to fear the
  wrath of Captain Dai. But Phong feared Captain Dai. Captain Dai had made the
  task of breaking Phong's spirit his personal responsibility.
  
  Phong sat up. The hut was still dark. The hammering of his heartbeat was so
  loud in his ears that it wasn't until the footsteps were nearly to the rattan
  door that he realized the camp w