Mullapudi discusses delayed justice [in Cambodia]

Uma Mullapudi ’10 discussed delayed justice following the Cambodian genocide during the Chase Peace Prize panel on Monday afternoon. (Samantha Oh / The Dartmouth Staff)

Tuesday, May 3, 2011
By Felicia Schwartz, The Dartmouth Staff

In the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge genocide, the pursuit of justice has been hindered by various political and social concerns — including a desire to achieve national unity — among Cambodian and United Nations leaders, according to Uma Mullapudi ’10, winner of the 2010 Chase Peace Prize. Mullapudi spoke about her thesis, “Thirty Years Later: Delayed Justice and the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, 1991-2004,” with Rutgers University professor Alex Hinton and Dartmouth history and Native American studies professor Benjamin Madley in a panel honoring Mullapudi’s prize-winning submission on Monday.

Mullapudi’s research questioned why justice was continuously delayed for victims of the Cambodian genocide, she said.

“Why did people who suffered so much have to wait approximately 30 years for justice to begin?” Mullapudi asked.

Cambodian and UN leaders found it necessary to balance pursuing justice with achieving national reconciliation, which they believed would ensure human rights, maintain national sovereignty and create peace and stability, according to Mullapudi.

“At different times, the domestic political climate caused Cambodian and UN leaders to prioritize these other factors over justice,” she said.

Mullapudi began her presentation with a quote from Chum Mey, one of only 12 survivors of the Tuol Sleng prison, where the Khmer Rouge imprisoned approximately 14,000 people. Mey wanted to stay alive to give evidence of the atrocities, and he believed there was no reason to survive if he could not help punish the Khmer Rouge perpetrators, Mullapudi said.

Mullapudi’s research examined domestic political factors including interactions between two political parties — the socialist Cambodia People’s Party and the royalist National United Front for an Independent, Neutral, Peaceful and Cooperative Cambodia. She also examined the interplay between Cambodian and UN leadership and how those interactions contributed to the delay of justice.

The Khmer Rouge was a Maoist faction whose main goal was to create an agrarian society and re-educate all people who were “tainted” by capitalism and western ideologies, Mullapudi said in a “mini Cambodia lesson” to give audience members background of the country’s conflict.

To achieve the political goals of the Khmer Rouge, some citizens were evacuated from cities and sent to the countryside to work on communes, while others were sent to jails like Tuol Sleng, Mullapudi said. In both the communes and prisons, living conditions were terrible and torture was common, she said.

Mullapudi also discussed how the Khmer Rouge influenced Cambodia’s 1994-1998 coalition government although it was no longer a legitimate political party.

Disagreements between the UN and Cambodian government officials regarding corruption and who should be tried delayed the creation of a tribunal to prosecute senior Khmer Rouge party members, Mullapudi said.

After Mullupudi’s presentation, the two other panelists discussed broader issues related to the Khmer Rouge tribunal.

Hinton, the Director of the Center for the Study of Genocide, Conflict Resolution and Human Rights at Rutgers and a specialist on Cambodia and the larger theoretical issues of genocide, showed pages from a guidebook distributed in the Cambodian countryside. The book taught Cambodians about the Khmer Rouge tribunal and encouraged them to become civil parties, or complainants in the trial, in order to seek closure, Hinton said.

The guidebook illustrates that the tribunal seeks to expose Cambodian citizens to Western ideas of justice, Hinton said.

Madley posed a number of questions regarding the ramifications of the compromise in creating a hybrid tribunal that consists of both Cambodian legal advocates and International Criminal Court judges.

Madley praised Mullapudi’s thesis for contributing to the current scholarship regarding genocide in Cambodia and the limitations of the Khmer Rouge tribunal.

“Uma’s thesis now helps us to understand their origins as a series of long, hard-fought negotiations between the Cambodian government and the United Nations,” Madley said.

Doug Haynes, Mullapudi’s thesis adviser and a history professor at the College, moderated the panel, which took place in the Haldeman Center.

The Chase Peace Prize is awarded annually by the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding to the best senior thesis relating to war and peace. The $1,500 prize also allows the winner to return to campus to present on a panel along with experts in the topic’s appropriate field of study.