University of Southern California (USC)
“After 25 years people are still asking the same questions… we deserve justice as human beings. Victims are just like a glass that [has] dropped on the floor and broken, and you try to glue it back together. That’s what we are, broken [people] living in a broken society.”-- Youk Chhang, Director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia
What does justice looks like for a population that has survived genocide? When nothing can bring back the millions of souls lost, or restore people’s previous lives, it is difficult to even begin to atone for the loss the Cambodian people have suffered. However despite the criticisms that have enveloped the court and its arduous road to inception, there is finally an opportunity for transitional justice to take place for both national retribution and for individual healing to commence, as survivors finally see some of their abusers brought to justice. Community Restorative justice programs run through NGOs have contributed massively towards the individual healing process of the victims, however because of the deep pain inflicted upon the people with at least one generation—if not two—having been affected, this has not been enough. Retribution is what the people have been yearning for, and until now ‘[No one has] ever been judged, [and so there has] never been closure…’ (Chhang) and that is why it has been difficult to move on. This is why the ECCC tribunal represents an important breakthrough in Cambodia ’s legacy. The majority of the Khmer Rouge elite have perished before they could be tried, however some still remain and it is only once the Cambodian people have had a chance to share their stories and confront their tormentors; for the truth to be publicly exposed and for some responsibility to be taken, can the country can truly begin to move on again.
Three decades of having remained broken and ignored means that a new, creative melding and meeting of restorative and retributive justice is necessary to help resuscitate Cambodia out of their horrific past and into the twenty first century.
There have been many who have doubted the ECCCs value, relative to its expense; however overwhelming statistics suggest that the court has the support of the Cambodian people. One former Khmer Rouge cadre, Sok Phat, believes strongly that the top officials need to be on trial to pay for the death of his brother and those wasted years of his life, stating, ‘only by having a trial, will the Khmer Rouge machinery be entirely cut off for good.’ A significant step in victims feeling as though justice has been served lies in the greater hope that the question of “why” will finally be answered by the top officials who have never before been questioned in a court setting. They hope that by having the trials, by completing the trials, this chapter of Cambodia ’s history can finally be over, and put into the past as a lesson learned (Chhang).
In response to this demand, the Extraordinary Criminal Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) were established as a joint tribunal of Cambodian courts and the United Nations. The Cambodian presence speaks for the sovereignty and ownership of their history, while the United Nations uphold international standards relating to the Geneva Convention and the international communities’ refusal to accept such heinous crimes against humanity.
The United Nations’ (UN) role in the ECCC goes a long way towards creating legitimacy for the trials; however, victims who look to the courts to bring justice and peace also view their role as unimportant. Throughout wildly varied interviews with victims and perpetrators, the one consistent answer given by all was a genuine lack of understanding for the role of the international community in the ECCC. However, the United Nations presence not only brings overseas attention to a court that would otherwise go unnoticed, it also serves to educate the masses on the gravity of genocide. As Youk said, “[Cambodia] can’t do this alone…Genocide is a global issue and that every country has the obligation to take action to prevent, to educate, to learn, to heal, to try this issue.”
Since the over-arching goal of the ECCC is to provide justice to the masses, increasing access to the trials for victims is something that the court is continually striving to improve. On this matter, Youk states that the trials cannot bring back what has been lost, ‘ So for me the most important [thing] is that we have a process where the survivor[s] can participate to be witness of the history, can be the owner of the trial…”
However, going to the trials for days or weeks at a time is not plausible for most people, especially for those living outside of Phnom Penh . Chea Mao, a former Khmer Rouge S-21 guard, said though he would like to attend the trials, he cannot even find time to follow them on the radio because he has to tend to his farm. Similarly Sok Phat will not be able to visit the ECCC because he has no one to look after his cows during the day. This is a reality for most people: their livelihood is a daily task to take precedence over going to the courts.
Because it is physically impossible for the majority of the population to get to the trials, the focus of any funding should be on bringing the trials to the people. Not only should magazines and newspapers publish more articles on the progress of the ECCC, but they should also work on circulating the information to remote villages. To account for illiteracy, group readings of the proceedings should occur on certain nights of the week at schools and the local pagodas. Also, NGO’s and missions groups could collect, donate, and distribute radios and televisions to every few families as a way of encouraging people to follow the trials.
The ECCC has reached out to bridge national and individual healing by including victims’ testimonies as evidence in the trials. While the intention behind the action is legally essential, the actual court process is quite slow and is thus often behind schedule. Despite the shortcomings of the ECCC tribunal, its existence is helping to reverse many pervasive trends that have dictated Cambodia ’s past for decades. By having the trials take place in Cambodia , a precedence of legitimate justice is being set in Cambodia . Although it is difficult for some to accept that this process requires individuals such as Duch who have admitted to ordering numerous killings to be entitled to a defense at all; it is hoped that in the future, people will acknowledge that everyone should be guaranteed an attorney and a fair trial because they are basic human rights applicable to all.
Due to the unusual set up of the ECCC tribunal that sees the involvement of civil parties alongside, criminal proceedings and a hybrid of civil and common law; these trials also are being observed to see what lessons, can be learned for future international criminal tribunals. In particular, the difficulty perceived in obtaining convictions against the leaders of the Khmer Rouge reflects the value in prosecuting on the heels of conflict so that more of the truth comes out, and society can begin to learn, heal, and move forward sooner.
Had there been an ECCC tribunal in the early eighties, then low-level cadres of the Khmer Rouge may have stood trial. However, trying these perpetrators today would serve more as an alienation and division in society instead of accomplishing any semblance of justice for victims. One of the older men we interviewed, Nhim Savath, a former Lon Nol soldier and victim of Pol Pot’s murderous regime, believes that the top leadership should be put to death, but he understands the lower level officials were just following orders to stay alive. This could be partly due to the nature of Pol Pot’s regime which incorporated forced conscription into the Khmer Rouge ranks and stories of ‘kill or be killed,’ and raise some questions of where the victim line truly lies.
His attitude is similar to some other victims who have come to realize—in spite of the frustration it raises—that perpetrators too had to do whatever it took to stay alive. In his book Why Did they Kill?, Hinton addresses the sentiments of both sides:
“…When I asked what he would say if he met one of his former prisoners on the street, Lor responded, “I would tell them, ‘Don’t be angry with me. When I worked at that place, I had to obey orders of others. I am not mean and savage. I didn’t do anything to anyone. If they had me arrest someone, I would go arrest the person. If they ordered me to do something, I would do it.’”
In light of this, reconciliation efforts on a communal level need to concentrate on having perpetrators and victims meet face to face. Most obviously, the goal of this would be for victims to tell their stories to perpetrators, who could in turn understand more personally the harm their role in the regime inflicted. This not only allows victims to tell their stories and express their pain to people who carried out the Khmer Rouge orders, but it also allows the perpetrators to show their own humanity. As Youk Chhang said in his interview about his own past, “For most of the victims, [they] feel release. They see [the perpetrators] look just like me. Most picture Khmer Rouge as monsters, but seeing them they think it’s like seeing [the] other side of us, same thing with the former Khmer Rouge having seen the victim they see other side of themselves.”
Not only is this dialogue a safe space for victims to speak, but because perpetrators also can share their own personal histories, the process promotes forgiveness and recognition for the lower level cadres who never got a chance to be heard. Youk recognizes this need for the perpetrators to feel human too: “Because the Khmer [Rouge] also need to be healed. They are people too. They also need the healing process… Allowing them the freedom to speak to the victims… it’s also important for the former [cadres] to also be free to tell you their story.” By having the opportunity to share their lives and to potentially be forgiven, former Khmer Rouge soldiers probably feel a relief from their pasts, release from any lingering guilt and haunting memories. This chance is also instrumental in ensuring that the country does not become post-genocidal again: “restorative justice is a forward-looking, preventive response that strives to understand crime in its social context. It challenges us to examine the root causes of violence and crime in order that these cycles might be broken. This approach is based on the assumption that crime has its origins in social conditions, and recognizes that offenders themselves have suffered harm.”(Maiese).
The face-to-face conversations are instrumental in evoking empathy from both sides towards the other’s histories, in hopes that the empathy will turn to compassion, and the compassion in turn becomes a channel through which to promote communal healing.
Another social program worth developing would be a support system for victims who are having difficulty coping still with haunting memories and nightmares. While therapy is a very Western remedy, it does have transnational merit. To make this more conducive to Cambodian society, healing groups need to be established through pagodas and facilitated by religious or village leaders. These programs should also be developed through NGO’s who could provide professional psychology specialists or pay Cambodian psychologists to come work in different villages. Regardless of how these programs were sponsored, the focus should be to “provide victims with material, psychological, and social support and aid in the healing process,” (Maiese). After time, these healing groups could have enough pervasive strength that each individual movement would be a part of a greater communal and national healing process.
While there is a large need for this type of community wide healing, other survivors feel that this process would not be beneficial as an individual way of finding peace. For example, Chea Mao felt that the people who died during the Khmer Rouge died with dignity, but those who survived constantly think about the past, where there is no justice or peace to be found. Even attending a social-coping group would not benefit him though because regardless of his inner peace, he says he can never have justice as long as he lives under the poverty line (Mao). On the other hand for Nhim Savath, he has found peace in knowing that he is not alone through all of this, although recalling the memories and speaking about it was physically exhausting and mentally draining (Savath). For some, like Youk, having the opportunity to share his testimony has helped him heal. He says, “The most important thing the victim is looking for is for someone to really listen to their story. Just listen to it. They want to tell you their story. And when you listen to it is very helpful. You don’t need to do anything… It’s all about human, human touch, human instinct. Money cannot bring about a process of reconciliation, you can try but it’s not working.” Still for others, like Him Huy, being asked to recount his past only serves to make the painful memories come back. When asked what would bring him peace, he quickly and adamantly responded “For all of you to just leave me alone, to stop asking me questions.” For the many that have not found peace through sharing their testimony, personal healing may come through other facets, like meditation and religion.
Many Cambodians have turned to Buddhism as another means through which to feel their dignity restored. Because the majority of the population is Buddhist, on both a local and national level the Buddhist beliefs and institutions should continue to play a significant role in healing and reconciling survivors. One of the main Buddhist teachings persuades against vindictiveness. Rather, their faith holds that their crimes in this life will be judged and satisfied through karmic cycles in their next lives. For almost three decades this tenant has helped minimize vengeance seeking of victims towards perpetrators who live side by side. For example, Chea Mao said that vindictiveness is not the answer to justice; instead, karma is justice through Buddhism. Similarly, most of the people we spoke to while in Cambodia placed strong emphasis on the role of religion in their personal healing processes.
Buddhist teachings also hold that forgiveness is key to moving forward in life. For this reason, many Cambodian believers are open to speaking to former perpetrators as a way to let go of their own anger by forgiving those who inflicted harm on them and their families. As one Cambodian woman said, citing Buddha, “Hatred does not cease by hatred… Even if we punish the wrongdoers, we cannot bring the victims back to life,” ( Taylor 250). Her sentiment is echoed in the many Cambodian victims who have granted forgiveness to perpetrators and thus found peace. In the movie New Year Baby, the translator realizes that the former Khmer Rouge nurse they were interviewing worked at the hospital where his mother died. Through a quick, though painful, conversation, both people were able to find humanity through recognition of each other and each other’s story, leading to an emotional forgiveness. Buddhism has given people a reason and an avenue to forgive and heal together.
Although not all Cambodians are Buddhist, the surviving Cham Muslim population has also looked to Allah as a way to reconcile with their pasts. When we spoke to El Sam, a 78 year old Cham, she told us that her religion helped because she used Islamic teachings for a higher healing process. Alongside the three other generations who live in the household, she recites Islamic teachings as part of her personal rebuilding process. After enduring over thirty-five years of hardship since her husband was killed by the Lon Nol regime in 1972, she could only find peace in knowing that “healing depended on Allah’s will.” Her testimony is evidence that regardless of the specific belief systems, Cambodians—like believers all over the world—find hope and relief in the belief of something greater where justice and mercy will be served.
While the hackneyed “never again” phrase often comes up in post-genocide societies, only through the physical manifestations of this phrase are people able to fully grasp the gravity and severity of the promise. Even though Cambodia is still in the early stages of retributive justice reconciliation, memorialization efforts throughout the country are quite prevalent. For example, Choeung Ek is one of over one hundred sixty memorial killing sites. The skull towers juxtaposing pagodas sprinkled in village centers serve to remind people on a daily basis of Pol Pot’s massive genocide against the Cambodian people. Tuol Sleng Prison in Phnom Penh has also been forever immortalized as a reminder to the public of those four dark years. While these physical landmarks are painful memories for all survivors, their simple existence will serve both informatively to future generations and as a remembrance of those who endured the Khmer Rouge genocide.
In addition to sites that remain from those years, the Cambodian government should take several steps to recognize the genocide as part of a national reconciliation process. One common way that other countries have promoted this type of healing is by renaming important buildings, parks, and streets in memory of these unspoken periods of their history. By placing names that directly speak homage to important leaders who fought against the regime, dialogues are immediately instigated as the citizens constantly see these physical manifestations that remind them: Cambodia endured, Cambodians overcame.
The government should also sponsor national reconciliation through the creation of national holidays, similar to the annual Day of Anger on May 20th. On this day “students re-enact the torture and executions inflicted by the ultra-communists under whose mid-1970s rule about 1.7 million people perished... The performance [this year] was staged just yards away from a memorial filled with victims’ skulls and mass graves where thousands of the executed were buried,” (Day). Ceremonies like the one described take place all over the country on May 20th. If the government created and furthered the integration of more “national healing days” like Day of Anger that connect personal, communal, and national healing, then justice would be less elusive and more inclusive, more lasting, more meaningful.
Because the Khmer Rouge was so thorough in wiping out the middle and upper class, they also succeeded in eliminating the vast majority of the population with higher education; because of this, a large brain drain has developed. This in turn has created other social problems, including a massive void of leadership in the country; due to the psychological damage caused by Pol Pot, no one has been willing to band together, few are willing to actively put their voice out there. In her book The Road of Lost Innocence, Somaly Mam often speaks of the mindset of Cambodians as a result of the regime:
“People learned from those years that they couldn’t trust anyone—friends, neighbors, not even their own family. The more you let people know about yourself—the more you speak—the more you expose yourself to danger. It was important not to see, not to hear, not to know anything about what was happening. This is a very Cambodian attitude toward life.” (Mam 14)
Youk emphasizes that Cambodians need to claim leadership and ownership of their past and their present progress, ‘Any lasting change that is to come needs to be from within the Cambodian people.’
The best way to keep history from repeating itself is through education. The survivors understand that by educating their youth, they can hope to make sure that the past’s mistakes are not remade. Him Huy voiced the opinion of many by saying “education is the only way out,” (Huy). Through the Documentation Center , the Cambodian schools have just now begun teaching younger generations about the Khmer Rouge period. Before this past year, the Pol Pot era was mentioned in maybe two sentences of textbooks, and the word genocide was never brought up. For this reason, the young generation has very little idea the extent of the destruction during those four years. While new textbooks will help, teachers should talk to students about their own experiences. There should also be several outreaches to invite other community members to come speak to classes about their pasts. Schools could also reach out to the ECCC to bring class trips to the trials for a day, so children can see not only the consequences and gravity of their shared past, but also to see the value of high education. Watching the lawyers and judges work may encourage students to dream, to see that limits can be overcome for a chance at college degrees.
However, for the many young whose parents told them about life under the Khmer Rouge, there is hesitation and even outright defiance about hearing anymore. It is difficult for children to relate with their parents unfathomable past. This trend is universal: youth rebel against their parents as a way of exerting independence, and thankfully, the world has already learned many ways to work through this. Sok Phat said that while he thinks educating the youth would be a great step towards reconciliation, the children “don’t care and don’t want to hear about the past, about the Khmer Rouge.” (Phat). In response to this, perhaps these children should be encouraged to hear other people’s story, have them speak to non-family members as a way of not feeling like their parents are weighing them down with “family history”. This would not only give other survivors a chance to speak, but would also teach children about this shared, collective history that all Cambodians will carry for centuries to come.
Cambodia ’s horrific genocide has lingered for nearly three decades without any sense of closure. With the start of the ECCC trials, the Khmer people are finally beginning to see hope: hope that there is an end to the Pol Pot machine, hope that their children will not repeat their generation’s mistakes, hope that the future holds better opportunities for children than the present does. As Youk hopes that, “in this new century, with all this modern technology, we can do better … It’s important for society to have the foundation for the rule of law, but [from there] the people have to make their own decision on how they lead with their lives. And the thing with the Tribunal it is going to be the most important process of all because people can always refer to it and we can bring Khmer Rouge to history books and finish the Khmer Rouge. Because [genocides] kept happening in this last century, we keep saying never again, after World War 1 and World War 2. It’s still happening, so I hope that this new century we can make it become a reality. And I hope that upcoming Khmer Rouge Tribunal can be one of the most important lessons for all humanity, for all of us.”
As Youk Chhang, my two great professors, the many genuine, open-hearted Khmer people we spoke to, and this whole experience have inspired me, I hope that humanity will let themselves feel the wounds and the scars of the Cambodian people in order to truly understand that we are all in this together, and we will have to unite to fight oppression to guarantee that “never again” is not a hollow statement, but a promise to our future.
Works Cited
Chhang, Youk. Interview. Documentation Center of Cambodia . Date not listed.
“’Day of Anger’ in Cambodia .” The Straits Times. Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. Co.: 20 May, 2009.
Hinton, Alexander L. Why Did They Kill? Berkeley, CA.: University of California Press, 2005.
Huy, Him. Personal Interview. 10 June 2009.
Maiese, Michelle. “The Aims of Restorative Justice.” Beyond Intractability.Org. University of Colorado : October 2003.
Mam, Somaly. The Road of Lost Innocence. Spiegel & Gran: New York , 2008.
Mao, Chea. Personal Interview. 3 June 2009.
Mayane. Personal Interview. 4 June 2009.
New Year Baby. Produced and Directed by Socheata Poeuv, 74 min. Broken English Productions: 2006, DVD.
Nhim Savath. Personal Interview. 5 June 2009.
Taylor, Rachel S. “Better Later Than Never: Cambodia ’s Joint Tribunal.” Accountabilities for Atrocities: National Responses. Ardsley , NY : Transnational Publishers: 2003.
No comments:
Post a Comment