A survivor of a secret Khmer Rouge prison where 14,000 people were brutally murdered is among the 45 recipients of this year’s Hellman/Hammett grants, awarded each year to individuals who have shown extraordinary courage in the face of political persecution.

Vann Nath is one of only seven survivors of the secret prison, Tuol Seng, or S-21, where he endured torture and near starvation. A talented artist, his jailers spared his life in order to put him to work painting and sculpting images of the former Cambodian dictator, Pol Pot. “Vann Nath is an important painter and writer whose memoirs and paintings of his experiences in the Tuol Sleng prison are a powerful and poignant testimony to the crimes of the Khmer Rouge,” said Marcia Allina, who coordinates the Hellman/Hammett programme.

According to Human Rights Watch, which administers the grants, Vann Nath will likely be a key witness in the tribunal being organised by Cambodia and the UN for the trial of former Khmer Rouge leaders. He was one of 45 writers from 22 countries who received grants on Tuesday. The recipients include journalists, novelists, bloggers, poets, calligraphers, and historians.

More than half of the recipients are from China, Vietnam, and Iran.

The programme was founded in 1989 by the US playwright, Lillian Hellman, when she willed that her estate be used to assist writers in financial need as a result of expressing their views. She was inspired by her own experiences during the anti-communist witch-hunts of the 1950s, when she and her long-time companion, writer Dashiell Hammett, were questioned by US congressional committees about their political beliefs and affiliations. “The Hellman/Hammett grants aim to help writers confront and survive persecution,” said Allina. Several of the recipients have asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals against them or their families. In the past, it has been difficult to track down some recipients because they have been in hiding, according to Allina. Still, most of recipients agreed to publicise their stories.

Among the recipients was China’s Huang Qi, an internet journalist convicted of “inciting the overthrow of the government” for publishing articles recalling the massacre of students on Tiananmen Square on the 11th anniversary of the incident, according to HRW. Huang Qi served five years in a high-security prison where he was regularly beaten. Released in 2005, he has returned to internet journalism, but he is closely watched by the government.

According to an annual report by the Committee to Protect Journalists, China is currently the world’s leading jailer of journalists with 31 media workers behind bars. Another recipient, 27-year old Roozbeh Mir Ebrahimi of Iran, has worked as an editor and reporter for several newspapers that have been shut down by the government of Iran. He has written extensively on key human rights cases in Iran, and was detained and held in solitary confinement for 60 days in 2004. In addition, the government has prevented the publication of his two books on Iran’s modern political history.

The Hellman/Hammett grants have distributed more than $2.5 million to more than 500 writers from around the world in the 16 years of the programme’s existence. They typically range from $1,000 to $10,000. — IPS