Justice and Reconciliation for Cambodia

Jessica Hinman

University of Southern California



Determining the best method of justice and reconciliation after the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge regime is nearly impossible. Many people believe that there is no justice for genocide and there is no appropriate punishment for violence and cruelty on the scale at which the Khmer Rouge operated. Nothing can be done that will change what has happened, or the extent to which the Cambodian people have suffered. The best that can be hoped for is the initiation and continuation of programs which will facilitate reconciliation and progress for the country at large. However, because people cope with tragedies in different ways, it will be necessary to implement a wide variety of initiatives in order to include as many Cambodians as possible in the healing process.



The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (“ECCC”) is one of the steps in achieving this goal. The ECCC will conduct trials against the top officials of the Khmer Rouge regime and has since indicted Ieng Sary, Nuon Chea, Ieng Thirith, Khieu Samphan, and Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch. The five defendants have been accused of a variety of crimes, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, and breaches of the Geneva Convention. Additionally, they may be tried for crimes such as murder, torture, and religious persecution under domestic Cambodian law.[1] The trial of Duch, who served the Communist Party of Kampuchea (“CPK”) as the Chairman of the S-21 prison, commenced in March 2009.



In Cambodia , the ECCC trials are viewed by many as an important and necessary recognition of the atrocities that were suffered at the hands of the CPK. For the past 30 years, the widespread violence has been alternately denied, ignored, and supported by both domestic and international powers. While the perpetrators of the atrocities, including the upper echelons of the CPK, have often lived comfortably during this time, victims have been forced to try to rebuild their lives without any assistance or knowledge that the people who committed these crimes would ever be brought to justice. For many of these victims, a guilty verdict for the leaders of the Khmer Rouge would constitute an important step toward personal healing and reconciliation. Additionally, Buddhist beliefs and practices factor in as a large consideration because 95% of the population identify as Buddhists. While Buddhism conceives of vengeance as a self-perpetuating cycle of suffering, many of Cambodia ’s spiritual leaders believe that a fair judicial process is consistent with the teachings of the Buddha.



In addition, many victims have expressed a need to understand why the CPK acted in the way they did. In After the Killing Fields: Lessons from the Cambodian Genocide, Craig Etcheson explained, “when one probes beneath the surface public attitudes in favor of a tribunal, what most often comes out is not a wish for retributive punishment, but rather a desire for answers, for an explanation to the elusive, existential question, why?”[2] While these people may not be seeking vengeance, they desire an explanation as to why their family members were killed or tortured. Therefore, the ECCC trials could serve as a useful tool and help to answer these questions about the motives of the Khmer Rouge leadership.



Some Cambodians, such as interviewee Mayane, a female survivor and community leader, are uncertain as to whether the ECCC trials are actually beneficial. Because the trials are so far removed from the Khmer Rouge period, she does not believe that a guilty verdict will be effective in bringing about any sense of healing and closure for the victims.[3] Many survivors, both perpetrators and victims, expressed the feeling that they now have more pressing concerns to focus on, such as taking care of their families and farming their land. For them, the passing of time and the requisite actions of daily life have forced them to distance themselves from their past and move on to some extent. For some of the people who share this mindset, the ECCC trials serve as a painful reminder of the past without necessarily doing anything to foster healing or reconciliation.



Furthermore, the ECCC faces a significant structural problem of who should be indicted. The number of people who were involved in the CPK is so large that there are neither the funds nor the time to indict every perpetrator. Additionally, the blurring of distinctions between perpetrators and victims makes it difficult to decide who should be brought to justice. Many Khmer Rouge cadres were recruited by the CPK when they were children and they had been convinced that Pol Pot would lead a revolution that would put an end to the United States ’ bombing of Cambodia . They were trained and indoctrinated to forgo their families and all other ties in favor of “Angkar”, or the organization. Many were motivated by fear to follow the orders of their superiors, believing that if they disobeyed they would be labeled as enemies and would be killed along with their families. Interviewee Sok Phat expressed a common sentiment among past members of the Khmer Rouge, when he claimed that these motivations, along with the fact that he was not aware of the immense violence and cruelty propagated by the CPK, indicate that he is more of a victim rather than a perpetrator.[4]



The Khmer Rouge cadres do not consider themselves responsible for their own actions because they do not see themselves as having acted on their own. Individuality and initiative were largely replaced by proliferation of the belief that each cadre was simply a piece of Angkar and must act in its best interest at all times. A better understanding of this victimization of many of the perpetrators could go a long way toward helping the victims reconcile their feelings of anger and start to move on. The dissemination of this viewpoint has already begun through the Documentation Center of Cambodia’s performances of the play, “Breaking the Silence.” This play involves the telling of many individual stories that are representative of common experiences during the Khmer Rouge period. It displays a variety of perspectives in an attempt to promote empathy and greater understanding. If more programs like “Breaking the Silence” were initiated, it would provide an informal, grassroots venue for healing which would complement the more formal justice of the ECCC.



Despite the problems with the ECCC trial process, it does maintain the possibility of providing a sense of justice to survivors of the Khmer Rouge. However, in order to achieve this, it will be necessary to improve access to and involvement in the trials. Currently, a large number of the population of Cambodia lives in rural, provincial areas. Despite television, radio, and internet broadcasts about the trial process, as well as articles in various periodicals, many people in these provinces either do not know about the ECCC trials or are not able to keep up on a regular basis. DC-Cam has taken the initiative by informing people about the trials and helping them fill out civil party applications and complaints. On an individual level, this process is helpful because it helps the victims feel as though they contributed to the process of bringing perpetrators to justice. For this reason, more must be done to spread the news about the work of the ECCC and to increase the involvement of victims.



Furthermore, the ECCC could work to provide reparations of a more substantial nature to Khmer Rouge victims. In finding Khmer Rouge officials guilty, the court should confiscate part of their monetary and property assets. These assets could then be used to bolster the funds allocated to social programs and other methods of reconciliation.



Beyond the ECCC trials and the work of DC-Cam, other initiatives must be started as well. One of the most important objectives of justice and reconciliation programs should be to increase the amount of information available about the CPK period. Such programs should have two distinct areas of focus. One focus should be on formal education initiatives, which would be aimed at the Cambodian people and directed by the Ministry of Education. Perpetrator and interviewee Him Huy claimed that “education is the only way out; being uneducated leads to darkness. I want my children to know.”[5] In addition to information about the CPK being added to formal curricula, it would be beneficial to educate impoverished, rural Cambodians that do not have access to schools. Both of these education initiatives are crucial in Cambodia because of the disproportionately large percentage of the population which is under the age of thirty. If there is no effort to educate this segment of the population about the CPK period, within a relatively short time the atrocities of the past will be almost entirely forgotten.



The other area of focus for education initiatives would be aimed at informing members of the international community of what happened under the Khmer Rouge regime. A majority of the visitors to Cambodia spend most of their time in the province of Siem Reap to see the famous ancient temples of the Angkor Wat complex. Understandably, the city of Siem Reap is focused almost entirely on providing services to tourists and does little to educate them about what happened only a few decades ago. The lack of any education program allows visitors to spend the majority of their time in Cambodia without ever coming in contact with any of the memorials or scars left behind by the atrocities of the past. The Ministry of Tourism should create programs which would work to tie popular tourist areas, such as Angkor Wat, to their history during the CPK period as well as the ancient Angkor Empire. This would serve as a way to disseminate information about the violence and genocide to a wider variety of visitors, rather than simply to serve the macabre interests of a few. While these memories are painful and disturbing, and some people may prefer to forget about the past in order to move on, education about the CPK regime is extremely important, both for prevention of recurrences in the future and for honoring the memory of those who suffered so greatly.



Another suggestion by interviewee Mayane was for those that survived the Khmer Rouge regime to write down their personal and family histories.[6] This would allow them to record the past in their own words and in their own perspectives. Each family could then decide whether to keep the records for themselves or to submit it to a repository where it could be preserved for future generations as well as members of the international community. This would serve to promote personal healing because it would allow individuals to tell their stories and would help victims and perpetrators alike come to terms with their past. At the same time, it would facilitate communal healing by allowing people to read about the sufferings of those around them, and allow them to relate to and empathize with the victims of the Khmer Rouge.



Finally, regardless of what types of programs are created and utilized, it is vital that these programs are initiated by the Cambodian people themselves. According to Youk Chhang, while the international community can and should be involved in reconciliation efforts, the leadership of such efforts must be Cambodian. The Cambodian people have to own the healing of their country in order for it to be truly effective. Through a variety of outreach programs and education initiatives, the Cambodian people can continue to heal and learn from the events of the past.