A soldier tops up his camo paint while a toddler looks on. Photo: Jamie Fullerton
For this work Burton and his colleagues used enormous, missile-like antennae protruding from the ground in a vast egg-shaped formation. When their shifts ended they sparked spliffs and headed into Udon Thani, which according to Burton was a “city of whorehouses, loud bars and Thai bands playing unintelligible covers of American rock’n’roll.”“Thailand denied the existence of any secret prisons on its turf, but leaked documents suggested otherwise”
The austere buildings at Ramasun where CIA prisoners may or may not have been kept. Photo: Jamie Fullerton
Displays in the museum celebrate “activities at the camp area” and Thai-American co-operation down the years. Photo: Jamie Fullerton
Soldiers seemed to be re-enacting what may (or may not) have happened to detainees at Ramasun. Photo: Jamie Fullerton
When a troupe of cross-dressing dancers arrived I became even more confident that the Lt Col was telling the truth. He’d laid on a bizarre opening party among the base’s derelict corridors, featuring rifle-toting soldiers demonstrating attack formations. As their guns clicked and pivoted in unison, grinning male dancers wearing dresses, red lipstick and coffee stain moustaches danced to rickety rock songs from a live band. It wasn’t Glastonbury, but it was hardly torture.“Cross-dressing dancers moved to rickety rock songs from a live band. It wasn’t Glastonbury, but it was hardly torture”
“Cross dressing dancers” were part of the opening celebrations. Because why not? Photo: Jamie Fullerton
Signs with self-help messages add to the strange atmosphere. Photo: Jamie Fullerton