经济学人下载:用绘画保命的柬埔寨人

The international media, whose questions about S-21 he patiently answered time after time, called him Cambodia’s Goya. He brushed it off. His principal fear was that young Cambodians would not learn about—or, worse still, would not believe—what he had witnessed. He painted, he said, so that Cambodia would never turn on itself so monstrously again.

国际媒体不断询问关于S-21的事，他都耐心作答。媒体称他是柬埔寨的戈雅，他对此不置臧否。他最深的恐惧是年轻一代柬埔寨人可能不会了解这些——或者更糟，不会相信他所见证的一切。他作画，他说，这样柬埔寨就不会再次变得如此怪异，如此邪恶。

Silent witness
沉默的证人

Two years ago Mr Vann Nath took the stand as a witness against Duch, his former master, who is now appealing a 35-year jail sentence handed down by a UN-backed war-crimes court in Cambodia. A second trial, of four senior leaders of the regime, is not expected to start until next year. The defendants say they are too ill to stand trial. They are attended, however, by a world-class team of doctors; Mr Vann Nath, who suffered years of kidney disease, struggled to afford even basic care. His testimony will be missing from subsequent proceedings. His paintings, however, speak for him.

两年前凡纳作为证人出庭，指证他从前的主人——杜赫，杜赫被联合国支持的柬埔寨战争罪法庭判处有期徒刑35年，现在正在为此上诉。由四名柬埔寨资深法官主持的二审要到明年才开始。那些被告说自己已经年老体衰，经不住审判，他们被囚禁，却受到一队世界级医生的照顾；而凡纳饱受多年的肾病折磨，却要努力维持甚至基本的护理。接下来的庭讯人们再不会听到他的证词，然而他的画会代他说出心声。