Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Learning Lessons From the Khmer Rouge [-The lesson is NEVER allow a group of KR judge another group of KR!!!]

By Irwin Loy

PHNOM PENH, Mar 28, 2012 (IPS) - For four years, Wan Preung toiled in the fields under the Khmer Rouge, unable to speak his mind. But after the regime fell in 1979, there was still one sensitive subject the teacher could seldom broach with his students: the Khmer Rouge.

"It was difficult to teach the students about the Khmer Rouge, because we didn’t know this story clearly," Preung says. "We didn’t have much information in our books."

When students asked, Preung would tell them about his own experiences living under a regime responsible for the deaths of an estimated one-quarter of the population. But for years, Cambodian history textbooks contained only a brief mention of the Khmer Rouge. The country’s political future was still uncertain in the aftermath of the regime, and the facts of the Khmer Rouge rule were obscured by the politics of the era.

"We couldn’t talk much," Preung says. "It was so political, so we didn’t want to say much about it." Khmer Rouge was the name given to followers of the Communist Party, that was held responsible for mass killing of perceived opponents during its rule 1975-1979.


But more than three decades after the Khmer Rouge collapsed, the mood is changing.

In 2009, Cambodia approved its first ever textbook on Khmer Rouge history. It’s now a part of the school curriculum. Before instructors can teach their students about the past, however, Cambodia’s history teachers must learn it themselves.

In classrooms throughout the country, teachers like Wan Preung are going back to school to learn the facts of the Khmer Rouge years.

Vanthan Peoudara is deputy director of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, which is holding the training sessions. "The history hasn’t yet widely reached the young generation," he says. "Many do not have a full understanding of the history. So this is a good time to teach, to share the knowledge with them in order to prevent this from ever happening again."

Initially, the Khmer Rouge had targeted intellectuals and the educated in a bid to create its version of an agrarian society. Teachers were among the classes of people who were rounded up and executed. Now, it is the country’s teachers who have the responsibility of spreading the lessons of the Khmer Rouge years to a generation that never had to live under the regime.

"Teachers, as well as engineers, intellectuals, were killed by the Khmer Rouge," Peoudara says. "It is a good time for us to train them to equip them with the knowledge of the teaching of the history."

So far, more than 3,000 teachers have undergone the training. The intensive sessions start by introducing basic material - who were the Khmer Rouge, how they came to power, and about the leader, Pol Pot. Further sessions touch on victims’ experiences, the policies of the regime, and teaching strategies for Khmer Rouge history.

The teachers also learn about the current efforts to bring former senior leaders in the regime to justice.

After years of impunity, a joint Cambodian and United Nations war crimes tribunal, known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), is putting former Khmer Rouge figures on trial. In 2010, the regime’s chief jailer, Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, was convicted of committing crimes against humanity and eventually sentenced to life in prison.

The court is now in the early stages of a trial against three former Khmer Rouge leaders: former head of state Khieu Samphan, its chief ideologue, Nuon Chea, and its one-time foreign affairs minister, Ieng Sary.

Yet the court itself has been marred by controversy. Questions over funding and accusations of political interference have dogged the tribunal since its inception.

The latest controversy erupted this month, when a key judge in the court’s investigative branch quit, citing "serious irregularities and dysfunctional situations" within the tribunal, stemming from the government’s long-standing opposition to trials against additional Khmer Rouge suspects. The situation has deteriorated to the point that some critics are urging the UN to consider pulling out of the tribunal altogether.

With the recent troubles continuing to simmer within the court, the efforts to leave a lasting positive legacy outside its walls are becoming increasingly vital.

For 54-year-old Tang Khim, such a legacy includes proper recognition of what she and her country endured under the Khmer Rouge. During a recent teacher training session, Khim explained that she was raped by a Khmer Rouge soldier.

In the past, she says, she grew frustrated with people who openly doubted her when she described what life was like during the regime. Khim hopes her country’s new generation of teachers will ensure that today’s students acknowledge the truth.

"I only know that if I tell my story, the teachers will know what happened during the Pol Pot times," Khim says. "I don't know what the teachers will do with this. But if they want to meet me, if they want me to tell my story and ask me questions, then I will tell them."

Teacher Sa Rom wants to be a part of that process. He says he often talks to his students about his own experiences living under the Khmer Rouge.

"I tell them about how difficult it was for everyone," he says. "They have a lot of questions to ask me. Why did they control the country like that?"

But more than 30 years after the Khmer Rouge, he worries the opportunity to see justice delivered may be slipping away.

"I really want the court to do its work quickly," he says. "The Khmer Rouge leaders are growing older. I want to see them prosecuted while they’re still alive."

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

​​​​Why the real Khmer Rouge leader Norodom Sihanouk aka ( SDACH ​ PEAL ស្ដាចន៍ពាល) did not attend at the Khmer Rouge Court ?​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ ​​

​​

Anonymous said...

​​为什么真正的红色高棉领导人诺罗敦·西哈努克又名(SDACH PEALស្ដាចន៍ពាល)没有出席在红色高棉法庭?

Anonymous said...

Pourquoi le grand chef khmer rouge Norodom Sihanouk alias
(Sdach Peal ស្ដាចន៍ពាល) est toujours absent au Tribunal Khmer
Rouge?

Anonymous said...

Asl long as some Khmer or Cambodian still not learning that this is Hanoi ECCC and it is all about youn Hanoi amobition to put Lao and Cambodia under yuon annex and exterminate ethnic Cambodian from our homeland just look at million of illegall yuon mingrants kept influxing into Cambodian as part of Indochina Federation.

Wake up all Khmer do not be foolded and misleaded by this Hanoi ECCC under the name of seeking justice for 1.7 million Cambodian who were killed between 1975-1979.

Anonymous said...

4:47 PM,

Totally agree with your comment. Many Khmer people and some survivors of Killing Fields still don't get it, that Vietnamese master-minded leaders in Hanoi is still having the hidden agenda until today via CPP regime under the Vietnamese dog Hun Sen was illegally installed as Prime Minister of Cambodia after Hanoi masters got rid of Pen Sovan (who was the smart one opposing the Vietnamese dirty plans and trick).

They are happy with what they live today is in a fake peace. Looking some Khmer men and women in CPP are still not waking up.

Hun Sen, Heng Samrin and Chea Sim are still not waking up, but they are just dumb and uneducated and even brainwashed by either Ho Chi Minh or Hanoi masters.

We need the comments in Khmer language for Khmer readers as well.

Khmer Yeurng

Anonymous said...

Mr. Kang Kak Euv (aka Duch),

You don't need to answer any flp-flopped questions from Dumb Yuon judges and lawyers of ECCC, serving only Dumb Yuon's interests.

Duck, you are going to die anyway in the hand of Dumb Yuon killers from Hanoi who have been hiding in the current and corrupted CPP regime (Dumb Yuon regime as a second regime of Hanoi Regime).

Just drop the flip-flopped answers that you don't know, Mr. Kang Kak Euv. You need to give the good answers and give good lessons to all young Khmer generation to learn about what happened to Killing Fields. Khmer people will appreciate you so much just like Noun Chea who has been so honest and telling the truth about the Dumb Yuon/Vietnamese master minds that created the massive killing in the history because of their dirty plans to put Cambodia and Laos into Indochina, evil Vietnam country under the dream of evil Satan Ho Chi Minh or to meet the mission of Dumb Yuon Hanoi master minds.

Khmer would have save your life without the Dumb Yuon CPP regime if you told the truth.

You can help rebuild Cambodia and help save Khmer people who are the under the oppression of Dumb Yuon dog Hun Sen and his Dumb Yuon masters in Hanoi.

You will be protected by Khmer people who want the truth so stop being flip-flopped to accuse Nuon Chea (who is very honest to tell the truth without being afraid of telling the truth). It is not fair for you, Mr. Duck, to answer the flip-flipped questions coming the stinky mouths of Dumb Yuon judges of ECCC.

Today, Dumb Youn/Vietnamese leaders in Hanoi have been still controlling Cambodian via the bad CPP regime, by providing the secret and dirty tactic plans to win the fake justice for Khmer victims of Killing Fields in term of the Dumb Yuon Hanoi's interests.

Just watch out, Mr. Kang Kak Euv, the Dumb Yuon masters who control CPP puppet government of Dumb Yuon dog Hun Sen who still want to kill you or end your life anyway.

Khmer people and heroes want to get out of Dumb Yuon completely because of pressures of the International Communities, the UN, EU and other friends around the world.

Anonymous said...

Do not be stupid:
Every accesed must be judged by judge, none must be judged by non-judge.

Anonymous said...

You sounded like one 1:42 AM, just by saying "Do not be stupid"...An intelligent/educated person would not talk that way...

Hope this helps YOU not to be one!