Leakhena Nou – Engaging Peace

Promoting the voices of survivors (The Khmer Rouge genocide, Part 4)

Posted on October 18, 2012October 17, 2012 by kathiemm

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

The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) provides a unique opportunity for victims to participate in the trials of their accused Khmer Rouge perpetrators.

Survivors’ participation is vital to the judicial process and essential for bringing about participatory democracy and social justice for the Cambodian people.

For this reason, I established the Applied Social Research Institute of Cambodia (ASRIC), and implemented the 2009 Cambodian Diaspora Victims’ Participation Project (CDVPP) to address this critical and urgent opportunity.

In order to participate in the trials, individuals needed to qualify as victims, which the Practice Direction on Victim Participation defines (in brief) as any person or legal entity that has suffered harm as a result of the crimes heard by the ECCC.

To date, ASRIC has submitted the largest collection of victim testimonies in the U.S. Remarkably, the ECCC has accepted 100% of the them.

The work of the CDVPP is ongoing, and various video links of the CDVPP and ASRIC’s other activities–such as the Art as Witness Initiative–can be found on our website.

ASRIC is driven by the desire to promote the voices of the survivors. As Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano wrote,

“When it is genuine, when it is born of the need to speak, no one can stop the human voice. When denied a mouth, it speaks with the hands or the eyes, or the pores, or anything at all. Because every one of us has something to say to the others, something that deserves to be celebrated or forgiven by others.”

If you would like to help survivors’ voices be heard in the ECCC, please consider signing ASRIC’s petition urging the Courts to proceed with the trials of Case 003 and Case 004, and then encourage your friends to do the same.

Thank you for joining in ASRIC’s collective call for justice.

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

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

Posted on October 15, 2012October 10, 2012 by kathiemm

[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 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)

Posted on October 11, 2012October 10, 2012 by kathiemm

[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. 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)

Posted on September 27, 2012October 10, 2012 by kathiemm

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 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