Prosecuting the perpetrators (The Khmer Rouge genocide, Part 3)

[This is the third of four posts by Dr. Leakhena Nou on the legacy of the Khmer Rouge genocide.]

In the 21st century, efforts have been made to promote restorative justice and end the culture of impunity in Cambodia. For example, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, a hybrid court drawing on U.N. and Cambodian legal teams, began prosecuting senior Khmer Rouge perpetrators in February 2009.

Killing Fields bones
Killing Fields bones of children in Cambodia. Photo by Oliver Spalt used under CC Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.

In Case 001,  Kaing Guek Eav (alias Duch, former S-21 Chief Commandant), was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity (murder, enslavement, torture, and other inhumane acts). When Duch appealed the verdict,  the ECCC responded by handing down a sentence of life imprisonment without parole or further appeals.

Duch’s formal apology was disseminated to the public:

“May I be permitted to apologize to the survivors of the [Khmer Rouge] regime and also the loved ones of those who died brutally during the regime […] I know that the crimes I committed against the lives of those people, including women and children, are intolerably and unforgivably serious crimes. My plea is that you leave the door open for me to seek forgiveness.”

In your view, how should Cambodians and others respond to such an apology after a genocide?

Case 002 brings to trial four other senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge including Ieng Sary (former Minister of Foreign Affairs), and his wife Ieng Thirith (former Minister of Social Affairs).

Despite current legal initiatives to end the culture of impunity and deter violence, Cambodia remains plagued by chronic, multifaceted, and evolving social problems. These include

  • Human and sex trafficking and other related human rights abuses
  • High rates of unemployment, poverty, diseases, and domestic violence
  • Widening inequalities among social groups, and
  • Lack of access to adequate education, health, and social services.

 

These shortcomings highlight and reinforce many of the social, economic, political, and structural problems and conditions that ignited the Khmer Rouge violence nearly forty years ago.

Leakhena Nou, Associate Professor of sociology at California State University at Long Beach and executive director of the Applied Social Research Institute of Cambodia

An incalculable loss (The Khmer Rouge genocide, Part 2)

[This is the second of four posts by Dr. Leakhena Nou on the legacy of the Khmer Rouge genocide.]

Skulls in the Stupa of Choeung Ek
Skulls in the Stupa of Choeung Ek. Photo by Michael Darter, used under CC Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.

The devastation wrought by the Khmer Rouge on the Cambodian people resulted in an incalculable loss of social capital and cultural knowledge.

During the four years of Khmer Rouge rule, Cambodians lost a large part of their collective identity, their individual sense of self, and their mental and physical well-being.

Now, nearly four decades after the genocide, Cambodians everywhere still struggle to make sense of the genocide and find peace, justice, and reconciliation. Among the residual traumatic effects of the Khmer Rouge are two troubling, unanswered questions:

  • Why did the violence occur?
  • How were Cambodians capable of killing their own people, including mass killings of innocent civilians, the elderly, children, and babies?

The 2009 Cambodian Diaspora Victims’ Participation Project is designed to engage survivors in the ongoing trials of the alleged Khmer Rouge perpetrators in the Extraordinary Chambers in Courts of Cambodia. In my work with living witnesses in the U.S. as part of the project, it became clear that the lingering, multi-layered symptoms of trauma resulting from the genocide run both deep and wide.

Throughout Cambodia, the U.S., France, New Zealand, and Australia, many Cambodians suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Cambodian populations also have alarmingly high rates of depression, anxiety, memory loss, and difficulty concentrating.

Additionally, survivors commonly report anger and violent tendencies, and engage in various addictive and abusive or self-abusive behaviors, such as gambling and domestic violence. (For more on this work, please see ASRIC: Applied Social Research Institute of Cambodia and ASRIC’s Facebook page.)

Many survivors have intentionally suppressed or simply been unable to cope with their traumatic memories. They often keep their experiences a secret from their children and their friends to avoid upsetting them or having to face the stigma of impaired mental health.

Leakhena Nou, Associate Professor of sociology at California State University at Long Beach and executive director of the Applied Social Research Institute of Cambodia

The Khmer Rouge genocide (Part 1)

Our guest author for a new series on the Cambodian genocide and its aftermath is Dr. Leakhena Nou, who has done extensive research on Cambodians both in Cambodia and the Cambodian diaspora.

An estimated two million Cambodians died under the Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1979. Over one-quarter of the population perished due to forced evacuation, forced labor, rape, execution, torture, starvation, and disease, among other crimes committed against the vulnerable.

Choeung Ek commemorative stupa
Choeung Ek commemorative stupa filled with skulls. Photo by Quadell, in public domain.

Under the leadership of Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge instituted an oppressive policy of radical social engineering aimed at achieving the “super great leap forward.” This secured the Khmer Rouge’s place as one of the most brutal regimes of the 20th century.

The Khmer Rouge forcefully evacuated the inhabitants of Phnom Penh and other cities, marching them to the countryside, where they worked as slave laborers in agricultural work camps. City dwellers, lacking any farming experience, often died of starvation and/or torture in labor camps.

In addition to depopulating the urban centers and imposing a farm-based economy, the Khmer Rouge also confiscated all private property, banned religion, and shut down all social institutions, including schools and hospitals.

In its attempt to create a classless society, the Khmer Rouge quickly and systematically wiped out Cambodia’s intellectual, economic, cultural, and social elites.

Khmer Rouge soldiers executed artists, teachers, lawyers, doctors, journalists, and other members of the “intelligentsia,” along with anyone who displayed any vestiges of ethnic, religious, or class distinction. People were murdered simply because they wore glasses–a sign of presumed wealth, high social status, and education.

After sweeping the more populated cities, the Khmer Rouge forced surviving members of the targeted groups into labor camps, where they were often literally worked to death, tortured, and/or eventually executed at prisons such as Tuol Sleng (Security Prison “S-21”) or in the infamous Killing Fields such as Choeung Ek.

Leakhena Nou, Associate Professor of sociology at California State University at Long Beach and director of the Applied Social Research Institute of Cambodia