By Andrew Buncombe, Asia Correspondent
The Independent (UK)
For all the evidence of the horrors of the Khmer Rouge regime, children in Cambodia know remarkably little about this dark episode in their country's history when at least 1.7 million people died. While the international success of the film, The Killing Fields, draws tourists to places such as Tuol Sleng prison to see the remains of those tortured to death, in schools virtually nothing is taught.
That is set to change with the publication of a new textbook aimed at the country's teachers and designed to fill in many of the blanks about the period.
Written by a researcher investigating the regime's atrocities, the book, A History of Democratic Kampuchea, will not generally be available in the classroom but 3,000 free copies will be given to libraries, students and teachers. More will be printed when funds become available.
"Nothing can compensate for the Cambodian people's sufferings during the Khmer Rouge," the author, Khamboly Dy, who works for the Phnom Penh-based Documentation Centre of Cambodia, told the Associated Press. "[But] learning about the regime's history is the best compensation for them." To date, most books about the Maoist regime and its leader, the late Pol Pot, have been written by foreigners and very few have been translated into Khmer.
Some of the regime's history featured in a school textbook that appeared in 2002 before being withdrawn as it caused a political row between the Prime Minister, Hun Sen, and his former ally, Prince Norodom Ranariddh. The book had mentioned the victory of Hun Sen's party in the 1998 national election but failed to mention Prince Ranariddh's defeat of Hun Sen in the 1993 polls.
The publication of the new book comes as Cambodia prepares to confront, at least partially, some aspects of its past. In recent weeks, Cambodian and international judges have agreed the underlying rules they will use for a special tribunal, with a $56m (£29m) budget, to try surviving members of the regime. While that may represent progress, it is unclear which surviving members of the regime will be brought to trial. Some former regime members serve in senior positions in the current government.
Some of that tension between the present and the past can be seen in the failure of the authorities to endorse formally the textbook for the classroom. Sorn Samnang, the president of the government-run Royal Academy, who was on a committee that scrutinised Khamboly Dy's book, said it would act as a core reference for writing future history books but would not be used in a general classroom. Without elaborating, he said that while the book contained useful information, it could still affect the many people still alive who were involved with the regime.
Robert Petit, who is one of the prosecutors, said that lawyers would send prosecution files to investigative judges within weeks. The hearings are expected to start at the end of the year.
Among those likely to be charged are Khang Khek Ieu, better known as Comrade Duch, and the man who ran Tuol Sleng; Nuon Chea, the former Brother Number Two and second in command to Pol Pot; Ieng Sary, the former foreign minister; and Khieu Samphan, the president of the Khmer Rouge government.
Terror under the Khmer Rouge
That is set to change with the publication of a new textbook aimed at the country's teachers and designed to fill in many of the blanks about the period.
Written by a researcher investigating the regime's atrocities, the book, A History of Democratic Kampuchea, will not generally be available in the classroom but 3,000 free copies will be given to libraries, students and teachers. More will be printed when funds become available.
"Nothing can compensate for the Cambodian people's sufferings during the Khmer Rouge," the author, Khamboly Dy, who works for the Phnom Penh-based Documentation Centre of Cambodia, told the Associated Press. "[But] learning about the regime's history is the best compensation for them." To date, most books about the Maoist regime and its leader, the late Pol Pot, have been written by foreigners and very few have been translated into Khmer.
Some of the regime's history featured in a school textbook that appeared in 2002 before being withdrawn as it caused a political row between the Prime Minister, Hun Sen, and his former ally, Prince Norodom Ranariddh. The book had mentioned the victory of Hun Sen's party in the 1998 national election but failed to mention Prince Ranariddh's defeat of Hun Sen in the 1993 polls.
The publication of the new book comes as Cambodia prepares to confront, at least partially, some aspects of its past. In recent weeks, Cambodian and international judges have agreed the underlying rules they will use for a special tribunal, with a $56m (£29m) budget, to try surviving members of the regime. While that may represent progress, it is unclear which surviving members of the regime will be brought to trial. Some former regime members serve in senior positions in the current government.
Some of that tension between the present and the past can be seen in the failure of the authorities to endorse formally the textbook for the classroom. Sorn Samnang, the president of the government-run Royal Academy, who was on a committee that scrutinised Khamboly Dy's book, said it would act as a core reference for writing future history books but would not be used in a general classroom. Without elaborating, he said that while the book contained useful information, it could still affect the many people still alive who were involved with the regime.
Robert Petit, who is one of the prosecutors, said that lawyers would send prosecution files to investigative judges within weeks. The hearings are expected to start at the end of the year.
Among those likely to be charged are Khang Khek Ieu, better known as Comrade Duch, and the man who ran Tuol Sleng; Nuon Chea, the former Brother Number Two and second in command to Pol Pot; Ieng Sary, the former foreign minister; and Khieu Samphan, the president of the Khmer Rouge government.
Terror under the Khmer Rouge
- Between 1975 and 1979, between 1.7 million and 2.3 million from a population of seven million were killed.
- Anyone showing the slightest links to the previous government or opposition to the new regime was exterminated. Possessing a pair of glasses could result in death.
- Prisoners at extermination camps were beaten to death and their bodies thrown into mass graves. The regime rarely chose to waste a bullet.
- The best known of the Killing Fields is Cheung Ek
- The Khmer Rouge was ousted in 1979 by invading Vietnamese forces but operated as a rebel movement - recognised as Cambodia's government by Thailand, China and the US - in the west. Its most famous leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998. By the following year, the group's leaders had surrendered and the organisation had in effect ceased to exist.
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