THE MEANING FOR THE CHAM MUSLIM COMMUNITY WHEN FOUR KHMER ROUGE SENIOR LEADERS INDICTED

Like other survivors, the Cham Muslims have been restlessly longing to the indictment of the four Khmer Rouge senior leaders, Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirith, Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea.

Yesterday's indictment fulfilled the Cham Muslims’ wishes.

Among the charges, genocide of the Cham and the Vietnamese heavily draws Cham Muslims’ attention on the case because it is very important and rational, as they put it. The four Khmer Rouge senior leaders have yet to admit their guilt. Cham Muslims were allegedly singled out on their ethnic and religious grounds under the Khmer Rouge regime.

Evidently, according to Man’s oral account, hundreds of Cham families were selected among other families and sent to O-Trakuon, located in O-Trakuon pagoda, to be killed in 1977. Only Man and his wife survived because they could hide themselves and stayed in the stream for days and nights. He requested that the court sentence those who committed this crime on him and his people.

Yusof Mohammad, Hakem of Sach So, 67, is happy with the indictment as he lost his relatives in O-Trakuon killing. In addition to the killing site, as he states, the Khmer Rouge treatment of the Cham, including ethnic and religious prohibition, can add to the Khmer Rouge's criminal responsibilities.

Many Cham Muslims, both the complainants and ordinary Cham people, have prepared themselves for Case 002 and will get involved more actively than Case 001. Aminah, who lost her father and brother in Svay Khleang rebellion, filed her complaint with the Victim Support Section in 2008.

She said that she is very satisfied with the court indictment and is prepared to testify if the court invites her. “This indictment is rightful…we have been waiting for it to happen. I have a story to tell. Others have a lot [of stories] to tell. We want justice.”

Given the passion the Cham Muslim community, what the court must do is to safeguard the rights of the victims, as well as their full participation in legal proceedings.

More importantly, the court must work to speed up the trial and deliver justice for the people timely and in a meaningful way.

Farina So
Team Leader, Cham Oral History Project
The Documentation Center of Cambodia



Independently Searching for the Truth since 1997.
MEMORY & JUSTICE

“...a society cannot know itself if it does not have an accurate memory of its own history.”

Youk Chhang, Director
Documentation Center of Cambodia
66 Sihanouk Blvd.,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia