ABC Radio Australia
A report released in Cambodia this week, said 85 per cent of Cambodians have little or no knowledge of the UN-backed special court, currently putting former Khmer Rouge leaders on trial.
The survey conducted by the University of California's Human Rights Centre said only 46-percent of respondents said they had "a little" knowledge about the court commonly known as the Khmer Rouge Tribunal.
Presenter: Sen Lam
Speaker: Professor Eric Stover, the report's author and director of the Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley
STOVER: I think it's the way you look at that figure. Actually you can look at it another way and that is to say that 61 per cent have a little knowledge or moderate to high levels of knowledge. What that tell us is and the reason we ask people to grade it .. do they have none, a little moderate or high, is it tells us about how much they may know about the court, so we can go to the court, the local organisation, and tell them here are ways you can improve your outreach efforts, so more people can become educated.
LAM: So, where your respondents from a broad, cross section of Cambodian society?
STOVER: Yes, they were. They were 1,000 and it was a random sample survey, meaning the standard age was about 39-40 years old. Now there are many vast number of the population are under 29, not aware necessarily of the Khmer Rouge years, but have learned about them from their family. So we believe that it's a representative sample across the nation.
LAM: So was there any difference for instance between the respondents from the countryside and the urban respondents or did you not look at that?
STOVER: No, we didn't. We could, we can go and look at the data. But what was very interesting to us in particular was the fact that a majority, not only of those who lived under the Khmer Rouge period, but who are not, felt that they were a victim and they very much wanted accountability for the crimes and were interested in learning more about the court and even a number of 98 per cent actually said they watched the trials on television. This is very good news for the tribunal and for those organisations working to support it. But that figure of 85 per cent not having a lot of knowledge, means we have to really work harder now. We have to have more programmes, international donors need to step forward and help fund these projects, so more and more people will follow the trial, understand what's happening in the trials and make it their own court.
LAM: Indeed, just recently, the tribunal issued a media release and called upon Cambodians to be more active and to be part of the tribunal's hearings. Is the government doing anything to encourage this?
STOVER: Well, that's a problem. The government is not. This is not coming from our survey. We know for example that there is a lot of distrust in the national justice system and one of our recommendations is that those allegations of corruption and bribery and so on in the system needs to be cleaned up. You don't want that reflecting on the international tribunal in its work. But we are hopeful that most people believe these are going to be fair trials. And the question is there just needs to be greater outreach to the population, so they have higher knowledge of what's happening.
The survey conducted by the University of California's Human Rights Centre said only 46-percent of respondents said they had "a little" knowledge about the court commonly known as the Khmer Rouge Tribunal.
Presenter: Sen Lam
Speaker: Professor Eric Stover, the report's author and director of the Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley
STOVER: I think it's the way you look at that figure. Actually you can look at it another way and that is to say that 61 per cent have a little knowledge or moderate to high levels of knowledge. What that tell us is and the reason we ask people to grade it .. do they have none, a little moderate or high, is it tells us about how much they may know about the court, so we can go to the court, the local organisation, and tell them here are ways you can improve your outreach efforts, so more people can become educated.
LAM: So, where your respondents from a broad, cross section of Cambodian society?
STOVER: Yes, they were. They were 1,000 and it was a random sample survey, meaning the standard age was about 39-40 years old. Now there are many vast number of the population are under 29, not aware necessarily of the Khmer Rouge years, but have learned about them from their family. So we believe that it's a representative sample across the nation.
LAM: So was there any difference for instance between the respondents from the countryside and the urban respondents or did you not look at that?
STOVER: No, we didn't. We could, we can go and look at the data. But what was very interesting to us in particular was the fact that a majority, not only of those who lived under the Khmer Rouge period, but who are not, felt that they were a victim and they very much wanted accountability for the crimes and were interested in learning more about the court and even a number of 98 per cent actually said they watched the trials on television. This is very good news for the tribunal and for those organisations working to support it. But that figure of 85 per cent not having a lot of knowledge, means we have to really work harder now. We have to have more programmes, international donors need to step forward and help fund these projects, so more and more people will follow the trial, understand what's happening in the trials and make it their own court.
LAM: Indeed, just recently, the tribunal issued a media release and called upon Cambodians to be more active and to be part of the tribunal's hearings. Is the government doing anything to encourage this?
STOVER: Well, that's a problem. The government is not. This is not coming from our survey. We know for example that there is a lot of distrust in the national justice system and one of our recommendations is that those allegations of corruption and bribery and so on in the system needs to be cleaned up. You don't want that reflecting on the international tribunal in its work. But we are hopeful that most people believe these are going to be fair trials. And the question is there just needs to be greater outreach to the population, so they have higher knowledge of what's happening.
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