David de Sola
Huffington Post
The Cambodian people have done remarkably well at coming to terms with their dark past. However, failure to address and seek justice for what happened has never allowed that scar on the national psyche to truly heal. While the Cambodian government does encourage tourists to go visit sites related to the Khmer Rouge period, remembrance and reconciliation are not fully possible until justice is served to the surviving members of the regime.
Germany, Rwanda, and the former Balkan states had to deal with the consequences of genocides they inflicted on themselves and others. There is also a long track record of holding leaders and foot soldiers responsible for genocide and crimes against humanity. The Mossad tracked down Adolf Eichmann in Argentina and brought him to Israel to face justice. Slobodan Milosevic died in custody while on trial in The Hague. Saddam Hussein was tried, convicted and executed by the Iraqi government.
But there were no Nuremberg Trials or International Military Tribunal or war crimes trials in The Hague for the people of Cambodia to seek justice from the Khmer Rouge in the years immediately after their fall from power, and for several decades after. Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot died under house arrest in 1998 and was never held accountable during his lifetime. Cambodia never had the opportunity to publicly and legally come to terms with the horrors of its past until now.
Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, was the commandant of the notorious Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh. Reuters described him as the Khmer Rouge's chief torturer, and he is the first senior official of the Pol Pot regime to stand trial before a joint Cambodian-U.N. tribunal. Preliminary procedural hearings are happening now in Phnom Penh, but the trial itself won't begin until March.
To understand the magnitude of what happened, the Cambodian Genocide Program at Yale University estimates that there are 19,000 mass grave sites throughout the country.
I traveled to Cambodia in August of 2007 and spent one of my days in Phnom Penh visiting Tuol Sleng and the Killing Fields site at Choeung Ek a few miles outside the city. During the course of the day, I tried and failed to understand the type of political psychosis that would drive a regime to wipe out as much as one fifth of its own population through torture, execution, starvation, or disease during a period of four years.
Tuol Sleng, also known as S-21, was a Khmer Rouge secret prison. It had previously served as a high school, before it became the site of unspeakable horrors of the Khmer Rouge's rule. According to the Phnom Penh Post, out of the 17,000 people who went in while the prison was in operation between 1975 and 1979, only seven came out alive.
To get an idea of what happened at S-21 during Duch's watch, one of the best sources is Cambodian artist Vann Nath, who convinced the Khmer Rouge to keep him alive by using his artistic skills for the regime. My tour guide at the museum told me the Khmer Rouge wanted Vann to make statues and paintings to create a cult of personality of Pol Pot, similar to Kim Il Sung in North Korea. A few of the busts he sculpted of the Khmer Rouge leader are still on display at Tuol Sleng, but after the war, he began painting some of the horrible things he witnessed.
Inside one of the former classrooms is an exhibit of tools used by the Khmer Rouge during torture and interrogation sessions. Among them is a waterboarding rack, which Vann Nath painted in use based on his eyewitness experience.
One of the main buildings on the compound is three stories high. I noticed that there was wire installed in a grid pattern along the open balconies overlooking the courtyard. I asked my guide, who lost family members during the Khmer Rouge period, what the purpose of the wire was. She told me the Khmer Rouge put it up to prevent people from throwing themselves off the balconies and trying to commit suicide before going to interrogation.
Located a few miles away is Choeung Ek, one of the most infamous Killing Fields sites in the country and the place where many Tuol Sleng prisoners were sent for execution. More than 8,000 bodies have been found in mass graves, but as many as 17,000 were killed here. The horrific centerpiece is the Buddhist stupa with thousands of human skulls preserved in a glass case, looking outside to constantly bear witness at the horrors that took place here.
While Duch is the first to go to trial and face charges of genocide, torture, and homicide, there are four other senior officials from the Pol Pot regime who are still alive and will also go on trial. Thirty years have passed since the Khmer Rouge fled into the jungle, but the wheels of justice have been turning slowly and may have finally caught up with some of the people responsible for this horrific chapter of the twentieth century.
Germany, Rwanda, and the former Balkan states had to deal with the consequences of genocides they inflicted on themselves and others. There is also a long track record of holding leaders and foot soldiers responsible for genocide and crimes against humanity. The Mossad tracked down Adolf Eichmann in Argentina and brought him to Israel to face justice. Slobodan Milosevic died in custody while on trial in The Hague. Saddam Hussein was tried, convicted and executed by the Iraqi government.
But there were no Nuremberg Trials or International Military Tribunal or war crimes trials in The Hague for the people of Cambodia to seek justice from the Khmer Rouge in the years immediately after their fall from power, and for several decades after. Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot died under house arrest in 1998 and was never held accountable during his lifetime. Cambodia never had the opportunity to publicly and legally come to terms with the horrors of its past until now.
Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, was the commandant of the notorious Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh. Reuters described him as the Khmer Rouge's chief torturer, and he is the first senior official of the Pol Pot regime to stand trial before a joint Cambodian-U.N. tribunal. Preliminary procedural hearings are happening now in Phnom Penh, but the trial itself won't begin until March.
To understand the magnitude of what happened, the Cambodian Genocide Program at Yale University estimates that there are 19,000 mass grave sites throughout the country.
I traveled to Cambodia in August of 2007 and spent one of my days in Phnom Penh visiting Tuol Sleng and the Killing Fields site at Choeung Ek a few miles outside the city. During the course of the day, I tried and failed to understand the type of political psychosis that would drive a regime to wipe out as much as one fifth of its own population through torture, execution, starvation, or disease during a period of four years.
Tuol Sleng, also known as S-21, was a Khmer Rouge secret prison. It had previously served as a high school, before it became the site of unspeakable horrors of the Khmer Rouge's rule. According to the Phnom Penh Post, out of the 17,000 people who went in while the prison was in operation between 1975 and 1979, only seven came out alive.
To get an idea of what happened at S-21 during Duch's watch, one of the best sources is Cambodian artist Vann Nath, who convinced the Khmer Rouge to keep him alive by using his artistic skills for the regime. My tour guide at the museum told me the Khmer Rouge wanted Vann to make statues and paintings to create a cult of personality of Pol Pot, similar to Kim Il Sung in North Korea. A few of the busts he sculpted of the Khmer Rouge leader are still on display at Tuol Sleng, but after the war, he began painting some of the horrible things he witnessed.
Inside one of the former classrooms is an exhibit of tools used by the Khmer Rouge during torture and interrogation sessions. Among them is a waterboarding rack, which Vann Nath painted in use based on his eyewitness experience.
One of the main buildings on the compound is three stories high. I noticed that there was wire installed in a grid pattern along the open balconies overlooking the courtyard. I asked my guide, who lost family members during the Khmer Rouge period, what the purpose of the wire was. She told me the Khmer Rouge put it up to prevent people from throwing themselves off the balconies and trying to commit suicide before going to interrogation.
Located a few miles away is Choeung Ek, one of the most infamous Killing Fields sites in the country and the place where many Tuol Sleng prisoners were sent for execution. More than 8,000 bodies have been found in mass graves, but as many as 17,000 were killed here. The horrific centerpiece is the Buddhist stupa with thousands of human skulls preserved in a glass case, looking outside to constantly bear witness at the horrors that took place here.
While Duch is the first to go to trial and face charges of genocide, torture, and homicide, there are four other senior officials from the Pol Pot regime who are still alive and will also go on trial. Thirty years have passed since the Khmer Rouge fled into the jungle, but the wheels of justice have been turning slowly and may have finally caught up with some of the people responsible for this horrific chapter of the twentieth century.
No comments:
Post a Comment