Implications of the Age and Health of the Charged Persons & Accused Before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia

Spencer Cryder, Tulane University Law School

Legal Associate, Documentation Center of Cambodia



The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) is unique among the international tribunals due to, inter alia, the advanced ages of the Charged Persons and the Accused and their corresponding declining health. Born 17 November 1942, and starting his trial at the age of 66, Kaing Guek Eav (alias “Duch”) is the youngest individual before the ECCC. The other four Charged Persons are at least ten years older than Duch, and their dates of birth are as follows: Ieng Thirith – 10 March 1932, Khieu Samphan – 27 July 1931, Nuon Chea – 7 July 1926, and Ieng Sary – 24 October 1925. An international tribunal dealing exclusively with Charged Persons/Accused in their late sixties, late seventies, or early eighties presents challenges to the ECCC’s objective of “bringing to trial senior leaders … and those who were most responsible” for the violations of international or Cambodian law during the reign of Democratic Kampuchea. In particular, because there are only five Charged Persons/Accused, the death or incapacity of one, or all, of them before the completion of their respective trial would inflict a serious blow to the ECCC as an institution and deny the rule of law from running its natural course.



This article will explore the implications of the age and health of the five Charged Persons/Accused on their mental fitness to stand trial, to be detained, and to be physically present or effectively participate at trial, as well as possible accommodations or proactive measures that the ECCC could implement to protect and respect the rights of the Accused to a fair trial while allowing the Court to reach a verdict before the inevitable organic death or mental or physical incapacitation of the elderly Charged Persons/Accused.



Internationalized courts have found that an Accused’s right to be mentally present is protected by the fitness to stand trial requirement, i.e., endowment with a mental capacity sufficient to exercise his or her implied or expressed procedural rights to make his or her defense. As well as defining fitness to stand trial, the 2004 ICTY Strugar decision also provided the now-widely-accepted standard for assessing an Accused’s fitness to stand trial: “[A]n accused is considered fit to stand trial … when an accused has those capacities, viewed overall and in a reasonable and commonsense manner, at such a level that it is possible for the accused to participate in the proceedings (in some cases with assistance) and sufficiently exercise the identified rights.” The main focus of the fitness to stand trial requirement is the capacity and functioning of an Accused’s mind. The mere presence of a physical or mental ailment and the corresponding possibility that it could affect the Accused’s mind or mental capacity is not determinative. A mental or physical ailment will only be relevant to the fitness assessment if it actually affects the individual’s mental capacity to exercise his or her procedural rights.



Furthermore, to be fit to stand trial the capacities of an Accused do not need to be present at their hypothetical highest level, or at the highest level that a particular Accused has ever enjoyed in respect of each capacity. Similarly, courts have found that it is a fact of nature that individuals vary as to their intelligence and understanding and these normal variations among individuals do not raise concerns about fitness for trial. Thus, a finding of incompetence to stand trial must be based on something more significant than merely low intelligence on the part of a defendant or a decrease in his or her capacity compared to the past.



If the issue of fitness to stand trial arises, the ECCC will presumably use the Strugar standard. At the ECCC, the advanced ages of the Charged Persons/Accused should not affect or alter the application of the clearly established Strugar standard. The Strugar standard essentially determines whether an Accused has the mental capacity to effectively utilize his or her express and implied procedural rights to make his or her case. The source that limits the mental capacity – be it purely physical, purely mental, a combination of both, or simply old age – is irrelevant. The determinative issue is the mental capacity of an Accused, i.e., the mental presence of an Accused during preparation for trial and at the trial itself. If a one-hundred-year-old individual can still participate effectively and exercise his or her procedural rights before the ECCC, then that person is mentally present before the court and fit to stand trial. Therefore, the Strugar standard, as currently stated, would be the most appropriate gauge of an Accused’s mental capacity to exercise his or her procedural rights.



Questions have been raised at the ECCC about when, i.e., at what stage of the proceedings, a party can request an assessment of the Charged Person’s fitness to stand trial. A Charged Person/Accused can request that the Pre-Trial or Trial Chamber appoint an expert to assess his or her fitness to stand trial during the Investigation and Trial stages of the ECCC. However, the Chambers require an adequate reason to question the Charged Person’s capacity to participate before appointing an expert to assess fitness to stand trial. While the ECCC has previously denied both of the requests for the appointment of an expert to assess the fitness of Nuon Chea and Ieng Sary, the ECCC has yet to consider recent jurisprudence from the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) that suggests doctors and experts should comment only with respect to issues that fall within their area of expertise. The ICTY Chamber provided a concrete example of how an expert appointed to comment on the physical ailment should not comment on psychological issues, “[L]imited weight will be given to … a gastroenterologist's comments about the mental health of the Accused.” The ECCC previously allowed cardiologists to comment on the mental health of the Accused, something not allowed under the ICTY’s latest jurisprudence. Furthermore, if the ECCC adopts the ICTY’s reasoning, the Trial Chamber should also consider whether the medical reports relied on in its decisions are the product of a primary care physician or a medical specialist, because the two should not be accorded the same weight.



If the question of an Accused’s fitness to stand trial arises before the ECCC, one party will be assigned the burden of proof. There are essentially two options when assigning the burden of proof: the burden is on the Prosecution to prove that an Accused is fit to stand trial or the burden is on the Defense to prove that an Accused is not fit to stand trial. As the ECCC has already indicated in its PTC decisions, it will presumptively adopt the Strugar reasoning and allocate the burden of proof to the Defense. However, according to the more recent and nuanced Nahak reasoning, when determining which party has the burden of proving fitness to stand trial, the Court should consider whether the PTC or TC appointed an expert and whether the Prosecution supported or objected to such an appointment. If the PTC or TC appointed an expert to evaluate the detainee’s condition, thus acknowledging doubt as to the Accused’s fitness, then the burden should be shifted to the Prosecution. Similarly, if the Prosecution initially raised or supported a request by the Defense to assess the Accused’s fitness to stand trial, then the burden should be shifted to the Prosecution. It would be consistent with Nahak’s interpretation of Strugar for the ECCC to place the burden on the Prosecution to prove the Accused’s fitness to stand trial in all circumstances, even when the Chambers did not appoint an expert and the Prosecution did not raise or support the appointment of an expert. In this instance, the Chamber could rely on the language and structure of the Strugar assessment itself to justify its decision to place the burden on the Prosecution. Additionally, the Chamber could note that, since the arrest and detention of the Charged Persons, an inherent doubt has always existed about the Charged Persons’ fitness to stand trial due to their extraordinarily advanced ages and deteriorating health. Moreover, any unstated “presumption of fitness to stand” that might exist, would hold little weight considering the age and health of the Charged Persons.



While waiting to stand trial, all of the Charged Persons before the ECCC are currently provisionally detained. Consensus exists among the internationalized tribunals on releasing pre-trial detainees on humanitarian grounds when they are diagnosed with a terminal or life-threatening disease. Additionally, an Accused can be conditionally released for health reasons if effective medical treatment is not available at the detention unit or inside the host country. In either of these situations, an Accused does not need to be released to a hospital or private residence in the Accused’s hometown or province. Currently, no evidence exists showing that either the Accused or Charged Persons before the ECCC suffer from a life-threatening or terminal disease, and according to the general practice of the ECCC, they will continue to be detained during the pre-trial phase. However, a shift is occurring at international tribunals toward a presumption that detainees should be provisionally released unless clear circumstances warrant their detention. The ECCC’s presumption to detain Charged Persons could be challenged on the grounds that the detention of aging and infirm Charged Persons’ would be more appropriate – and more in line with the shift occurring at internationalized courts – in the form of “house arrest” at a hospital or private residence.



The mental presence of an Accused during the proceedings, protected by the fitness to stand trial requirement, and the right to be physically present at trial are both mechanisms that guard against trials where an Accused is absent – be it in mind or body. The general prohibition of international law against trials in absentia would be void of any substance if it only required the physical – without the mental – presence of an Accused at trial. But does the same logic apply when an Accused is mentally fit to stand trial, but physically unable to attend the trial because of illness or disease? In those circumstances, courts must decide whether to proceed in an Accused’s absence (i.e., a trial in absentia), implement accommodating measures that may derogate from the Accused’s right to be present (e.g., require an Accused to participate using a videoconference link from the hospital or detention unit bed), or adjourn the proceedings. Internationalized courts have grappled with this question and no fully satisfactory answer has materialized.



International law provides an Accused with the general right to be tried in his or her physical presence. The right to be present protects the right of an Accused to be physically present in the courtroom and therefore able to personally confront witnesses and mount a defense utilizing his or her procedural rights. Furthermore, the physical presence of an Accused at trial is of vital importance, not only because it is one of the minimum guarantees of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), but for the practical considerations of establishing the facts of the case and, if an Accused is convicted, to enable an appropriate and enforceable sentence to be passed.



The right of an Accused to be physically present at trial is not absolute. Internationalized courts and the ECCC have specific rules allowing them to proceed in the absence of an Accused if he or she is intentionally disrupting the trial or refusing to attend. However, the analysis becomes much more complex when a delay, disruption, or absence of an Accused is due to an unintentional act – e.g., a health condition. If absent for health reasons, the ECCC is in a particularly difficult situation because the ECCC Internal Rules require the consent of the Accused before the Trial Chamber can implement accommodating measures that prevent the physical presence of the Accused or continue the trial in absentia. While the Chamber can proactively implement an adjusted trial regime to accommodate the Accused’s physical inability to participate in long trial sessions taking place several days a week, the trial schedule can only be adjusted to a certain point before the trial comes to an effective halt (e.g., trial for half a day, one day a week). Likewise, an Accused can always waive his or her right to be present, but it is highly unlikely to occur when an Accused alleges that he or she is ill and believes that the proper course of action is the adjournment of the proceedings. If this situation arises, the ECCC will have to weigh the medical reports and decide whether or not an Accused’s illness or ailment in fact prevents him or her from being physically present at trial or participating via a video-link. At least one court has held that an Accused who claims to be too unwell to attend court on a particular day bears the burden of showing that that is indeed the case.



If the Trial Chamber finds that an Accused is capable of being physically present or effectively participating via a video-link, but the Accused refuses to attend, the ECCC will most likely be forced to derogate from the Accused’s right to be physically present at trial. In order to derogate from a fundamental right, the ECCC must be satisfied that no reasonable alternative exists – e.g., adjourn the proceedings to facilitate recovery – and the derogation serves a sufficiently important objective – e.g., avoiding substantial trial delays. If derogation is required, then the restriction or derogation must impair the right no more than is necessary to accomplish the objective.

A Trial Chamber’s determination of whether an Accused’s condition or act is intentional – in the form of a delay, refusal to attend, or disruption of trial – or unintentional, is of great significance. While intentional acts may be held to be implied waivers of the right to be present, unintentional acts or conditions that are no fault of an Accused, but delay the trial, generally lead to a trial or appeals chamber emphasizing that derogation of the right to be present should be avoided if at all possible. The ECCC Trial Chamber will have to walk a fine line between “over” restricting the right of an Accused to be present and achieving the objective of a reasonably expeditious resolution of the trial.



If the ailment is not of the nature that recovery is possible or probable, the ECCC will most likely be forced to require an Accused to participate effectively via video link. Furthermore, if the Accused refuses to participate via the video link, then the ECCC will have to continue in absentia. The ECCC will be able to justify the trial in absentia because at some point an Accused who claims to be incapable of attending trial due to an alleged illness or medical condition may be found to be refusing to attend trial, one of the enumerated exceptions in the ECCC Internal Rules that allows trials in absentia when an Accused refuses to attend trial. On whatever grounds the Trial Chamber justifies a potential trial in absentia, it will likely tarnish the appearance of a fair trial. While by no means the ideal solution, continuing the trial in absentia may be the only option that allows for the trial to continue and preventing it from grinding to an effective halt.



Finally, while a trial proceeding with the joinder of multiple Accuseds may ostensibly appear to save time, it should be noted that the right to be present requires the contemporaneous physical presence of all of the Co-Accused at trial. If the Chamber is required to sever the cases of one or more of the Co-Accuseds due to trial delays as a result of health issues, an adjusted trial regime could be implemented. For example, trying some of the Co-Accuseds in the morning session and trying the remaining Co-Accuseds in the afternoon session.



The advanced ages and deteriorating health of the Charged Persons/Accused will undoubtedly place unique strains on the ECCC. However, those inevitable strains can be proactively countered by acknowledging and implementing mechanisms that will decrease the likelihood of trials in absentia. While an Accused may legitimately reach the point where he or she cannot physically attend trial, accommodating measures should be ready for implementation from the outset. Even if a trial in absentia is required because the Accused refuses to participate, the act of providing accommodating measures throughout will increase the appearance of a fair trial and signal a genuine effort by the ECCC to honor an Accused’s right to be present.

Sihanouk's fall played fateful role

By A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
Pacific Daily News (Guam)

Forty years ago tomorrow, on a ride to Moscow Airport, Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin told Prince Sihanouk that the prince had been removed from power as Cambodia's chief of state.

The events that led to Sihanouk's downfall and those that followed cause me to write today's column with a heavy heart. Cambodia's national tragedy cost Cambodians two million lives and delivered the country to Vietnamese expansionism. The tragedy also took my parents' lives, alienated some of my best friends and separated me from the land of my birth.

Had those in power chosen different courses of action, much loss could have been avoided. As Karl Marx said, "History does nothing; it does not possess immense riches, it does not fight battles. It is men, real, living, who do all this."

Men tend to reject what they don't conform to their view, because not to reject means accepting they were wrong. They look for what supports their views, brush off what doesn't, and they dig in.

To argue that Sihanouk's overthrow brought the Vietnam War to Cambodia ignores the reality that Cambodia's compromised neutrality under Sihanouk's leadership brought Vietnamese infiltration and U.S. response across the Cambodian border long before the overthrow.

To argue U.S. bombings gave rise to the Khmer Rouge overlooks Sihanouk's role in their expansion and the years of support they received from Vietnamese and Chinese communists. The support continued even when the Khmer Rouge's atrocities were impossible to ignore.

Eventually, the Khmer Rouge, having developed a sense of omnipotence, became defiant of their Vietnamese benefactors. This led to the December 1978 military invasion by Vietnam. The success of that invasion led to the ouster of the Khmer Rouge, the establishment of a Vietnamese puppet regime in Phnom Penh, and the imposition of the 1979 unequal treaty of peace, friendship and cooperation, which opened the door to Cambodia becoming part of greater Vietnam, in fulfillment of Ho Chi Minh's dream.

We shall never know what now King Father Sihanouk and deceased former Premier Lon Nol conspired to achieve in March 1970.

"Les absents ont toujours tort," the French say. "The absent are always in the wrong" -- they cannot defend themselves.

Sihanouk won't tell. His political missteps led to Vietnamese presence in Cambodia as they fought their compatriots and the Americans. To get the Vietnamese communists out of Cambodia, Sihanouk reportedly told Lon Nol to organize anti-North Vietnamese and anti-Vietcong demonstrations, which got out of hand March 11.

On that day, Sihanouk told journalists, "I plan to ask the Russians and the Chinese authorities to ask the Vietcong to leave us in peace," otherwise Cambodia might go to "the right" with Lon Nol. Reportedly, Lon Nol assured Sihanouk on that day there was room for friendship with the communists, but the Lon Nol government told the communists to depart before dawn on March 15.

Seizing the political moment, an enraged Sihanouk denounced Lon Nol and company before leaving Paris for Moscow on March 13: They were "more patriots of the dollar than patriots of Cambodia."

Eventually, it was reported that a cassette recording of a closed-door meeting came to light. In the meeting it was alleged that Sihanouk threatened death to government leaders and Lon Nol. In Moscow later that day, Soviet President Nikolai Podgorny urged Sihanouk to return right away to Phnom Penh.

In Peking, China's foreign ministry summoned French Ambassador Etienne Manac'h on March 15 to ready an Air France plane to fly Sihanouk to Phnom Penh as soon as he arrived from Moscow. Press media reported from Phnom Penh of festive preparations to welcome Sihanouk along the road from Pochentong Airport.

But Sihanouk postponed his trip to Peking.

Lon Nol was said to have dragged his feet against Sihanouk's ouster until the evening of March 17, when he allegedly was confronted with the tape. On March 18, the Cambodian parliament voted 92 to 0 to depose Sihanouk as chief of state.

On March 21, the prince told the press in Peking: "It is absolutely not my intention to try to regain the power which I lost."

But two days later, on March 23, he reversed himself. Over Peking Radio, Sihanouk called on Khmers and foreign residents "to engage in guerrilla warfare in the jungle against our enemies," and announced the formation of the "National Union Government," the "National Liberation Army" and the "National United Front of Kampuchea."

In his "message and solemn declaration," Sihanouk spoke of personal revenge: "In the struggle which I am determined to see to its end (or at least until my death in the underground which I will soon join), I seek among other things, one personal goal. ... I will say that I want revenge."

On March 26, the Vietnamese Communists began military action in Cambodia's southern provinces.

On April 15, 1970, Sihanouk declared in a message, "Henceforth, I shall irreversibly be engaged in combat." He spoke of his "single objective of establishing in Cambodia a socialist regime whose leaders would be, on the one hand young, progressive nationalists, and on the other, communists.

And that's where we are today in Cambodia.

A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam, where he taught political science for 13 years. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.

COMMUNE TEACHER TRAINING -- The Teaching of "A History of Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1979)"

DOCUMENTATION CENTER OF CAMBODIA

With the Cooperation of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport



GENOCIDE EDUCATION PROJECT
The Teaching of "A History of Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1979)"

PROVINCIAL TEACHER SEMINAR
Siem Reap Province
March 27 - 29, 2010

COMMUNE TEACHER TRAINING
Kampot, Kep, Preah Sihanouk, Koh Kong, Kratie, Mondul
Kiri, Ratanak Kiri, Preah Vihear and Stung Treng provinces
April 5 - 11, 2010

Since the fall of the Democratic Kampuchea regime in January 1979, the efforts in teaching the history of this regime to Cambodian people, especially the young generation, has been made in many ways, including teaching at schools as political propaganda to gain international community supports and telling stories by parents to their children. By these means, the teaching of history is thought not to be enough and persistent. 28 years later, a new textbook, "A History of Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1979)" was published for the first time in 2007. This textbook was written by Kamboly Dy, a Cambodian researcher working at the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) with the financial support from National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and Open Society Institute (OSI). Mr. Dy took over three years to make the publication of this textbook possible. This textbook was reviewed by the International scholars including several Holocaust experts and Government of Cambodia Reviewing Committee and finally approved to be the supplementary material to the teaching of DK regime in secondary schools (grade 9-12) and university's foundation year throughout Cambodia. By now, a total of 300,000 copies of DK history textbooks -- hugely funded by German Embassy in Phnom Penh -- were distributed freely to students across the country.

In 2009, with the collaboration of the Ministry of Education, DC-Cam produced a Teacher's Guidebook (co-author by Dr. Chea Phalla and Mr. Chris Dearing) for teachers to teach the DK history textbook. The guidebook is designed especially for history teachers and on the purpose that teachers are able to teach DK history textbook objectively and pedagogically. In addition, the student workbook is being finalized before going to the printing shop so that it will help students understand the textbook comprehensively. Canada funded the publication of the teacher guidebook.

From June 29 to July 7, 2009, DC-Cam with the support from Belgium, Sida (Sweden), USAID, OSI, Denmark, Norway and others including the Ministry of Education held a workshop to train 24 national teachers from the Ministry of Education and 15 DC-Cam staff members on the methodology to teach the DK history and other related topics such as genocides and mass atrocities in other countries and international law. International and national scholars were invited to participate and assist this workshop. In late 2009, DC-Cam with 39 national trainers conducted the second national training workshop by which 180 provincial teachers received this training successfully.


As a result of the second training, an enhancing capacity opening workshop will be held for three days in Siem Reap province. All provincial teachers will participate in this workshop to receive more comprehensive information and knowledge before further transferring the teaching skill of DK history to 3,000 commune teachers (1,627 history teachers; 1,373 citizen morality and Khmer literature teachers). The first actual commune teacher training will be conducted on April 5-11 in four provincial training centers including Kampot, Preah Sihanouk, Stung Treng and Kratie. Local teachers from Kampot, Kep, Preah Sihanouk, Koh Kong, Kratie, Mondul Kiri, Ratanak Kiri, Preah Vihear and Stung Treng provinces will participate in this training.

The following information highlights only the programs for the opening workshop in Siem Reap Province.


Opening Ceremony for Local Teacher Training
Siem Reap: 27-29 March 2010

March 28, 2010

Opening Ceremony at Mondial Hotel


8:00-8:30 Attendance Registration
8:30-10:00 Arrival of H.E. Chumteav Tun Sa-im

Under Secretary of State of Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport
National Anthem of the Kingdom of Cambodia
Welcome speech by Vanthan Peoudara, DC-Cam's Deputy Director
Speech by H.E. Chumteav Tun Sa-im

Certificate conferring ceremony for 180 provincial teachers

H.E. Chumteav Tun Sa-im
Departure of H.E. Chumteav Tun Sa-im

10:00-10:15 Tea break

10:15-11:15 Research methodology

Mr. Youk Chhang, DC-Cam's Director
Purpose of the teaching of A History of Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1979)
Documentation at the archives of DC-Cam
Historical documentation (primary and secondary sources)

11:15-12:15 Discussing dialogue on "Breaking the Silence"

12:15-1:30 Lunch


1:30-3:00 Methodology in teaching of A History of Democratic Kampuchea

Mr. Christopher Dearing, Co-author of the teacher guidebook

Mr. Kok-Thay Eng, DC-Cam's Deputy Director

Review on Guidebook for Teacher and Student Workbook
Presentation of model lesson

3:00-3:15 Tea break

3:15-5:00 Information of group division and assignment

Kampot (Kampot plus Kep)

Preah Sihanouk (Preah Sihanouk plus Koh Kong)

Kratie (Kratie plus Mondul Kiri)

Stung Treng (Stung Treng plus Preah Vihear and Ratanak Kiri)

Mr. Pheng Pong-Rasy

Group for each province
Review on expectation of national, provincial and local teachers: Role and duty
Discussion on group division
Discussion on cultural temple visit

First Round of Local Teacher Training: Kampot, Kratie, Preah Sihanouk and Stung Treng Provinces Local Teacher Training Program From 5 to 11 April 2010.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT

Vanthan Poeudara tel: 012 846 526

Pheng Pong-Rasy tel: 016 212 888



The Textbook

http://dccam.org/Publication/Monographs/Part1-1.pdf

http://dccam.org/Projects/Genocide/Part2-1.pdf



The Guidebook

http://dccam.org/Projects/Genocide/pdf/DC-Cam_Teacher_Guidebook_Eng_Nov_23.pdf

Shame keeps Cambodian village mum on Pol Pot

By Terry McCoy
FOR THE PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, March 14, 2010

KAMPONG THOM PROVINCE, Cambodia -- The most striking thing about the village
is that there's nothing striking about it.

There's nothing that belies the heavy history straddling this community of roughly 300 families set along the serpentine River Sen.

This farming village named Prek Sbov is the birthplace of Pol Pot, the dictator who ruled Cambodia in the 1970s and contributed to the deaths of perhaps 2 million Cambodians, or about one in five people at the time.

He lived here the first six years of his life, before moving to Phnom Penh and then to Paris, Vietnam and China. He returned to orchestrate a mass, egalitarian killing of his people between 1976 and 1979.

Up and down these dirt roads, anyone old enough to know this truth isn't telling. The history and shame that Pol Pot came from their community is too great, villagers in roughly 20 interviews said. The past is their secret: The children don't know; new villagers don't know. It's a village purposely ignorant of its own notoriety.

Then on Feb. 4, one of the last hints of the past disappeared when Pol Pot's younger brother, Saloth Nhep, 84, died. Some villagers breathed quiet relief.

"We were hoping for his death," said Ak Ourn, 72. "We were waiting for his death."

Now, an almost systematic erasing of the past is nearly complete. The village chief, area monks, respected elders and common villagers agree the name Pol Pot eventually will hold no relation to Prek Sbov, a community that doesn't yet have electricity.

View Larger Map"All the memories will run out," said Kit Choen, the village chief. "No one will remember."

It's the Khmer way.

Here, Pol Pot, the fourth of six children, is Saloth Sar -- his birth name, which means "white" in Khmer, given for his pale complexion. Pol Pot was his revolutionary name.

This community offers contrast to the birthplaces of other such infamous leaders: A statue of Stalin looms over his birthplace in Gori, Georgia. Mao's hometown is a tourist attraction. In Braunau am Inn, Austria, a plaque outside Hitler's birthplace reads: "For peace, freedom and democracy, never again fascism, millions of dead warn."
The few with remaining memories of Saloth Sar here describe an affable and precocious boy wearing white. These memories are hardest to rationalize, villagers said. How could little Sar become Pol Pot?

Another question villagers face: Why Prek Sbov? In an overwhelmingly rural nation, 783 villages exist in Kampong Thom province alone. Few possess distinguishing factors. Each village melts into the next.

"We're embarrassed," said Mom Pot, 74, her head shaven and teeth black. "We're ashamed. He came from here."

Others express dismay that while Pol Pot controlled Cambodia, he neglected Prek Sbov. The village was one of the 12 killing fields in Kampong Thom, according to the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which documents crimes from the Khmer Rouge era. Two of Pol Pot's nephews from here were killed.

To this humiliation, most say, there seemed simple recourse: Forget. Even Pol Pot's dozens of extended relatives here say they don't think about the past and haven't experienced discrimination.

When the Vietnamese overthrew the Khmer Rouge in 1979 after four years of agrarian slavery, Prek Sbov was awash in new villagers. No one told them Pol Pot came from the village.

"I don't want to know," said Suin Sokun, 48. "I don't know why I don't want to know."


Ask children if they recognize the name Pol Pot or Saloth Sar or the Khmer Rouge and unknowing eyes answer the question.

In Cambodia, Prek Sbov's relative anonymity embodies this culture, scholars say. Historically, Khmer have selective memories.

There aren't any Khmer-produced chronicles before World War II. Even the Angkor Empire and its decline was forgotten during France's colonization. Anything perceived as shameful people quickly erase.

"Pol Pot was Khmer Rouge," said Youk Chhaang, director of the documentation center. "There is no other word for it that can modify or clean it. It is black forever. No one wants to associate with that. They forget out of fear of being associated with the darkness. A selective memory will help them be restored. It becomes a denial of fact and history."

Among the simplicity of life in Prek Sbov, denial seems as natural as the river's flow. The day's work, tending to cattle or fishing, continues as it has for generations.

Still, for some, the four years this lifestyle was halted remain vivid. Mom Pot said she can't forget the murder of her husband and son. "I have to remember," she said. "I will remember until I die. But I'm alone because I know this history. I'm alone because I live longer."

Cambodia learns lessons of its bloody history

Aubrey Belford, Kampong Trach, Cambodia
The Australian March 13, 2010

SCHOOLTEACHER Bin Cheat has already had his lesson on the Khmer Rouge.

As a six-year-old, he saw Pol Pot's army roll into his village in Cambodia's scrappy southern countryside. Fascinated by the rare sight of a car, he trundled up to a tyre as the men stood distracted, unscrewed the cap and let out a hiss of air. Moments later he was dragged and bound, set, like many others, for death by bludgeoning.

"They tied my arms behind my back and stuffed me in a sack. I'm lucky that one of the neighbourhood women begged with them for so long that they let me go," Bin Cheat says with a laugh.

Many older Cambodians remember the brutality of the Khmer Rouge. Up to two million people were killed through executions, starvation and forced labour as the ultra-communist regime attempted to create an agrarian utopia, while erasing the history and memory of a people.

For younger generations of children, that forgetting has continued, with the four years of the Khmer Rouge regime left off the school curriculum.

Only now, after years of debate, are teachers like Bin Cheat tentatively beginning to explain Cambodia's full history. The process is delicate and painful, as former Khmer Rouge are spread throughout society, from Prime Minister Hun Sen downwards.

Key to that process is a new textbook for high school students, A History of Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1979), produced by the Documentation Centre of Cambodia (DC-CAM), a non-profit organisation given the task of recording the history of the genocide.

Other books teach the history up until the Khmer Rouge's rise in 1975 and then fall silent, only to pick up the thread long after the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge in a Vietnamese invasion, explains DC-CAM director Youk Chhang.

The one concession granted over the years was a single photo of a seated Pol Pot, accompanied by a brief description of his regime and its genocide.

"I believe in prosecution to reach full forgiveness. But at the same time, for the future, to move beyond the Khmer Rouge, one way to prevent (such things from recurring) is to teach the children," Youk Chhang says.

Conceived in 1996, the idea for the book received only limited in-principle support from the government in 2004 and began being taught in a small number of schools at the end of last year. The plan is to have a million Khmer-language editions of the books in schools by the end of the year, being taught by 3200 teachers.

Re-engaging with the issue is proving a challenge. Of the country's 14 million people, only five million were alive during Khmer Rouge rule. The government of Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge cadre who defected to Vietnam and rose to the country's leadership after the regime's 1979 fall, has been at best a reluctant participant in efforts to bring former regime leaders to justice. "The Khmer Rouge aren't just in the government, trust me. They are in the opposition, the NGOs, the private sector, everywhere," he says.

"In the classroom I can assure you that at least 30 per cent are the children of former Khmer Rouge, another 70 per cent are the children of the victims.

"Among these 3000 teachers I can assure you almost 25 to 30 per cent are former Khmer Rouge themselves.

"This is a broken society, it is a fragile society, so I think you have to live for the future, commit for the future, teach for the future."

At Bin Cheat's school in Kampong Trach near the southern border with Vietnam, amid a landscape of red earth and lonely palm trees and sheer hills, the Khmer Rouge's shadow stretches longer than in most places.

Throughout the 1990s, Khmer Rouge rebels fighting the government in Phnom Penh lingered in the nearby hills, periodically sweeping down to abduct officials, including local teachers, and holding them for ransoms of rice, food and fuel. Those who were not ransomed were killed.

The students here respond blankly to questions of this recent history.

Ny Pagnavuth, 17, says he heard stories of the Khmer Rouge when he was growing up, including vague tales of an uncle and aunt killed. But he knew little of how the Khmer Rouge came to power or why they did what they did, and was shocked to hear the broader story in class.

"I was surprised and I felt it was strange. Why did the regime empty out Phnom Penh? Cities are where industry and the economy grows," he says.

Cambodia puts the cremation site of Pol Pot on 'historic' tourist trail

Government criticised over plan to profit from country's genocidal past
By Andrew Buncombe, Asia Correspondent



Thursday, 11 March 2010
AFP

Photo: A Khmer Rouge fighter lights a hastily built pyre of mattresses, car tyres and old chairs beneath the coffin of his former leader, Pol Pot, in 1998.



The place where the body of Pol Pot, the former Khmer Rouge leader, was unceremoniously burned in a pile of rubbish is set to be the latest location from Cambodia's dark recent history to be transformed into a tourist spot.



In a controversial move that underlines the increasing allure of the country's genocidal history and the importance of tourists to Cambodia's coffers, the government has decided to "preserve and develop" Anlong Veng. The jungle town in the far north of the country was the last stronghold of the rebel movement responsible for the deaths of up to 2 million people. In a statement, the authorities in Phnom Penh said the town will be transformed into a "historic tourism site for national and international guests to visit and understand the last political leadership of the genocidal regime".



For more than two decades hardly anyone visited Cambodia. Although the rebels who seized power in April 1975 were ousted just four years later, a civil war kept most visitors away until well into the mid-1990s. For years, splendours such as the World Heritage site of Angkor Wat were effectively out of bounds.



Yet tourism has bounced back. Last year around two million visitors visited the country and by next year the authorities hope the figure will top three million. Increasingly, as tourists have returned to Cambodia to visit such wonders as the 12th-century temple complex near the town of Siam Reap, they have also found time to fit in locations associated with the Khmer Rouge.



Chief among these have been Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh, where up to 17,000 people were tortured and sent for execution, and the killing fields themselves, located on the edge of the city at Choeung Ek. Today, tour buses pull up and hundreds of thousands of international visitors wander around the former school that was turned into a terrible prison and the quiet fields nearby, where people were clubbed to death and buried in mass graves.



Even if it wanted to, Cambodia has not been allowed to forget its past. A major legal process to try six former Khmer Rouge officials is proceeding under the oversight of the UN in a move that took more than a decade to agree.

Yet not everyone agrees that the government should be using this dark period in the country's history - when up to a third of the population was killed or else died of starvation or disease - to bring in foreign currency, however much they are needed.

Youk Chhang, who heads the well-respected genocide documentation centre, which brings together personal testimonies and documents from the Khmer Rouge era, said last night: "Using genocide to attract tourists is irresponsible. These [events] have to be preserved; they have to be documented. But if you allow this to be commercialised then you dehumanise and victimise us. For a long time we have been struggling to become something else."

The government of Hun Sen, who himself once was a Khmer Rouge official, has been planning to promote Anlong Veng for some years and has identified three dozen places at the remote hilly location it wants to bring to the attention of tourists. As recently as 1998, the village near the Dangrek mountains was the final stronghold of the last remnants of the Khmer Rouge.

Among the obvious elements of interests will be the place where the French-educated Pol Pot was cremated after he reportedly suffered a heart attack. In the final months of his life, the former leader had been under detention in his hut after a split within the remaining members of the movement.

The government believes the fenced-off area in which he was held, as well as warehouses where munitions were stored, will also attract visitors. Another spot to be promoted is the grave of Ta Mok, also known as "The Butcher" for his apparent ruthlessness, and who was the only Khmer Rouge leader not to be killed or else surrender to government forces. Captured in 1999 after the movement disintegrated, he died in 2006 while waiting to be tried at the UN tribunal.

Breaking Ground on 'Reconciliation Road'

By Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Original report from Banteay Meanchey
10 March 2010



English: http://www.voanews.com/khmer/2010-03-10-voa1.cfm
Khmer: http://www.voanews.com/khmer/2010-03-10-voa4.cfm



A leading Cambodian genocide researcher has decided to build a
"reconciliation road" in the village where as a young man he was forced to
labor under the Khmer Rouge.



Chhang Youk, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, broke ground
on the road under the hot sun Tuesday, saying the road was dedicated to the
death of his family and other victims of the Khmer Rouge here.



People in the village of Kadal, in Banteay Meanchey province's Preah Net
Preah district, saved his life and the lives of some of his family members,
Chhang Youk said Tuesday. But they would be using the road alongside the
former soldiers of the regime still living in the area.



The 200 meters of road will solve a flooding problem ahead of the rainy
season and, by benefiting both sides, will act as a symbol of
reconciliation, he said.



"We want reconciliation inside of the village, within the community, in our
district and within our province," said Chhang Youk, who was 15 years old
when the Khmer Rouge came to power and who lost 19 members of his family to
the regime.



This small, flood-prone stretch of road will cost more than $3,000 to
repair, but it is a critical part of the area's infrastructure, linking
villages to rice fields and a lake where people fish.



Vestiges of the Khmer Rouge are evident throughout Banteay Meanchey
province, which saw some of the most atrocities under the Khmer Rouge. An
estimated 5,000 people died at this commune alone, 300 of them in Kandal
village.



"Comrade Srey Pov and Comrade Soeun were killed here," said Sambod
Sovannara, a lecturer at Panhasastra University, who spoke at Tuesday's
groundbreaking. The two were killed for "immorality," for falling in love.



"I lost 24 people in my family," Sambod Sovannara said.



Hong Huy, chief of Preah Net Preah commune, said former high-ranking
soldiers of the Khmer Rouge still lived in the commune.



"We wish from this road of reconciliation that people will bury the hate
from the Khmer Rouge regime and build up solidarity within the community,"
Hong Huy said.

"RECONCILIATION ROAD" CONSTRUCTION INAUGURATION

Photos: http://www.dccam.org/Projects/Living_Doc/Photos_2010/Road_Construction_Inauguration/index.htm