Bou Meng

Biography

Born in 1944, Bou Meng was a painter and artist working in Phnom Penh when the Khmer Rouge came to power. In 1977, he and his wife Ma Yoeun were arrested on suspicion of being CIA agents — a common pretext — and brought to S-21. His wife was taken away immediately; he never saw her again. Bou Meng was prepared for execution, but a Khmer Rouge guard discovered he was a painter. He was spared to paint portraits of Pol Pot and other regime leaders. For months he painted under guard, knowing that completing his usefulness meant death. He survived through a combination of his skills, extraordinary luck, and the chaos of the Vietnamese invasion, which caused his guards to flee before he could be executed. Bou Meng emerged from S-21 as one of only seven survivors from an estimated 17,000 prisoners. For decades after the genocide he carried the trauma largely alone. In 2009 he testified at the ECCC trial of Duch, confronting his torturer face-to-face in court — one of the most powerful moments in the entire tribunal process. He sat in the public gallery as the evidence of what had been done to him, his wife, and thousands of others was documented in legal proceedings. He co-authored a memoir about his survival, advocated tirelessly for justice, and became a living bridge between the world of the dead and the world of the living.

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