Regime’s History Should Not Just Come From Tribunal: Researcher

Dy Khamboly, author of "A History of Democratic Kampuchea" and Huy Vannak, a Public Affairs Officers at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, discuss the importance of youth participation in the Khmer Rouge trial process. (Photo: Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer)

Thursday, 22 December 2011
Say Mony, VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh

“Khmer Rouge history cannot be determined by the trials of the Khmer Rouge leaders. The youth must learn from numerous other documents, especially living documents like their parents or grandparents, so that they understand clearly what really happened under the Democratic Kampuchea regime.”

The Khmer Rouge trial currently under way at the UN-backed court should not be the only source of information Cambodians have, especially the youth, a researcher said Monday.

Dy Khamboly, who authored a book on the regime for the Documentation Center of Cambodia, told “Hello VOA” that Cambodian youth must understand the history of the regime to avoid confusion or misinformation; however, that history should come from multiple sources.

“Khmer Rouge history cannot be determined by the trials of the Khmer Rouge leaders,” he said. “The youth must learn from numerous other documents, especially living documents like their parents or grandparents, so that they understand clearly what really happened under the Democratic Kampuchea regime.”

History Hard to Teach in Former Strongholds: Researcher

Dy Khamboly, left, a staff member at the Documentation Center of Cambodia, helps a student read his book (Photo: AP)

Wednesday, 06 July 2011
Men Kimseng, VOA Khmer | Washington, DC

"A History of Democratic Kampuchea" in Anlong Veng, in Oddar Meanchey province. “Subsequently, these younger generations would act as a bridge for their parents, who were mainly the victims, and some of whom were perpetrators, to reconcile.”

Cambodia has made some efforts to better teach the younger generation about the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge, but a history book author says it’s hard to teach in areas where many parents were former soldiers of the regime.

Schools across the country have begun instruction using “A History of Democratic Kampuchea,” but the book’s author, Dy Khamboly, told “Hello VOA” on Monday it was not taking off in all areas, especially in the northwest.

“What we want is to help Cambodia’s younger generations understand what really took place during Democratic Kampuchea,” he said, referring to the Khmer Rouge by its official name. “Subsequently, these younger generations would act as a bridge for their parents, who were mainly the victims, and some of whom were perpetrators, to reconcile.”

Cambodian Schools Reopen History's Wounds

A girl sits in a history class at the local high school in Kampong Trach, Cambodia (Photo: VOA photo - A. Belford)

High schools in Cambodia have begun rolling out the first textbook dealing with the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime. It's part of an effort to teach a dark past long left out of the classroom.

Aubrey Belford, VOA
Kampong Trach, Cambodia 19 April 2010

Between 1975 and 1979, as many as two million Cambodians were murdered, starved, or worked to death as the ultra-communist Khmer Rouge tried to build a rural utopia. Many older Cambodians are haunted by vivid memories of this time.

But for the young who make up most of the population, learning this history has been hard to do - schools have up to now just not taught it.

A high school in the southern town of Kampong Trach is at the front of efforts to teach - for the first time - the history of the Khmer Rouge. The school is using a new textbook called "A History of Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1979)".

History teacher Bin Cheat says his students only know a little about the Khmer Rouge from their parents, many of whom suffered under the regime.

Bin Cheat says students have been enthusiastic about the new classes.

As a boy, he was stuffed in a sack and nearly beaten to death by Khmer Rouge soldiers simply for letting air out of a car tire. He says it is important students learn about the Khmer Rouge era - and stories like his own - before it is all forgotten.

The new textbook book was put together by the Documentation Center of Cambodia, a non-profit group tasked with recording the years of mass killing under the Khmer Rouge.

The center's director, Youk Chhang, says older history books simply ignored the Khmer Rouge era, with the exception of a brief mention in one book.

"They learned from '45 through '75 and they jumped to 1990, they jumped that period," he said. "After a long public debate they had a photograph of Pol Pot and exactly two lines in Khmer saying that Pol Pot is responsible for the death of 3.3 million Cambodian people. That's it."

Youk Chhang says it took 13 years from the new book's conception in 1996 to get it into schools. Distribution began late last year and the plan is to have one million books in schools and 3,200 teachers trained to use it by the end of this year.

He says getting the book approved was hindered by the fact that most former Khmer Rouge went unpunished and are now found at all levels of Cambodian society and politics.

"In the classroom I can assure you that at least 30 percent are the children of former Khmer Rouge, another 70 percent are the children of the victims," he said. "Among these three thousand teachers I can assure you almost 25 to 30 percent are former Khmer Rouge themselves. This is a broken society, it is a fragile society, so I think you have to live for the future, commit for the future, teach for the future."

At the school, 17-year-old Ny Pagnavuth says he never knew much about the Khmer Rouge. He says he was shocked to learn that when the Khmer Rouge took power, they emptied out the capital Phnom Penh at gun point and sent millions of people, including the old and sick, to toil in the countryside.

The story of that forced march has long been taught around the world as a brutal prelude to the Khmer Rouge's terror. Now, Cambodian students can finally learn the full story of their country.

Share Your Khmer Rouge Experience: Author

Dy Khamboly, author of "History of Democratic Kampuchea". (Photo: DC-Cam)

Dy Kamboly, whose “History of Democratic Kampuchea” is being distributed in Cambodia to help teach about the regime, told “Hello VOA” that digging into the past can be painful, but it can also be helpful.

Poch Reasey, VOA
Washington, DC Wednesday, 14 April 2010

This is being done in a way that avoids “negative impact on society,” he said.

Parents should share with their children their experiences under the Khmer Rouge, which can help heal old wounds and move the country forward, the author of a groundbreaking history book said Monday.

Dy Kamboly, whose “History of Democratic Kampuchea” is being distributed in Cambodia to help teach about the regime, told “Hello VOA” that digging into the past can be painful, but it can also be helpful.

Saturday, April 17, will mark the 35th anniversary of the fall of Phnom Penh to the Khmer Rouge guerrillas, who immediately emptied the cities and began Year Zero, a communist experiment that led to the deaths of up to 2 million people.

Cambodians are still reticent to discuss their experiences with their children, and many still live among those who followed the Khmer Rouge.

But authors like Dy Kamboly and others at the Documentation Center of Cambodia encourage speaking out, claiming that sharing can be helpful, even among victims and former perpetrators.

“In order to avoid negative consequences of bringing up the painful past, the Documentation Center, in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, has come up with a plan to teach more than 3,200 teachers around Cambodia how to teach the history of Democratic Kampuchea,” he said.

This is being done in a way that avoids “negative impact on society,” he said.

Books, But Difficulties Teaching Khmer Rouge Era

By Soeung Sophat, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
26 March 2010

Khmer Rouge history is a sensitive subject in Cambodia, though the ongoing Khmer Rouge trials and recent inclusion of more comprehensive teaching materials in the national secondary curriculum have helped.

But while it took many years to get a textbook into the nation’s classrooms, the authors say the real challenges have just begun.

Dy Khamboly, a senior researcher with the Documentation Center of Cambodia, is the author of “A History of Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1979),” a book published in 2007 and slated for use in a national genocide education project.

In an interview with VOA Khmer, he said for the project to be effective requires more than good textbooks and a carefully planned curriculum.

“I hope that the teachers as well as the students, their surviving parents, or any survivor from the Khmer Rouge era will all participate” in the educational process, he said recently. “Genocide education about Democratic Kampuchea cannot be achieved by any one person or institution, but requires everyone’s participation: the government, civil society, teachers, students, as well as parents who are survivors of the Khmer Rouge regime.”

The Khmer Rouge trial process has gone on for years now, but comprehensive teaching and discussion of the regime’s history have remained socially and politically sensitive.

Only recently has the government, with the help of the Documentation Center, been open to the idea of more comprehensive genocide education.

The Documentation Center has embarked on a long-term genocide education project that involves writing, publishing, teacher training, teaching and evaluation.

The project aims to publish another 700,000 textbooks for an anticipated 1 million 9th- to 12th-grade students. It is also nearing the completion of its training phase with the opening of the last phase to take place in Siem Reap on March 27.

A total 230 new trainers will instruct 1,627 teachers nationwide to use a teacher and student books for “A History of Democratic Kampuchea,” which was published jointly by the Ministry of Education and the Documentation Center.

Chea Phala, a Cambodian-American in Lowell, Massachusetts, is the co-author of the guide. She told VOA Khmer the book was carefully reviewed because methodology is crucial in teaching about genocide.

“It is a very tough subject, and we have to be very sensitive when we teach and when we deal with students and their families,” she said. “So we tried to think of ways to introduce the subject without traumatizing our audience, our students, and we did it in a manner that would build interest in students in learning about the subject and give them a safe place for discussion and opportunities to discuss different topics and different issues regarding the genocide.”

Dy Khamboly said the emotional sensitivity of the subject can be problematic for teachers. ​

“Because some teachers are themselves survivors, it is possible that they might take what they are teaching personally, instead of teaching it professionally,” he said. “Therefore, this training will help teachers teach in a scientific, professional way, and not from personal emotions.”

Despite the difficulties, Chea Phala said it is not only the students who are learning, but also the teachers, most of whom were born after the Khmer Rouge, as well as the parents and other survivors who lack a holistic view of what was happening to them.

And it is especially timely now that the tribunal is underway, prompting families and society to discuss about the subject more willingly and openly.

Dy Khamboly agreed, noting that the project will serve a long-term social goal. Cambodians must learn from their past to rebuild their nation and create a better future, he said.

“Our objectives are that students understand and can think critically about the events that occurred during the Khmer Rouge period and use this [knowledge] as a foundation in their daily lives, in rebuilding the country, in preventing the reoccurrence of genocide, and in helping their parents reconcile,” he said. “So the idea of retribution and revenge will not exist in the minds of the younger generations of Cambodians.”

Learning to Teach About the Khmer Rouge

By Men Kimseng, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
29 June 2009

Education officials this week are learning how to teach more history about the Khmer Rouge regime, as a course from the Documentation Center of Cambodia gets underway.

In a one-week course that began this weekend, 24 officials from the Ministry of Education will hear from genocide experts and receive training from a new manual designed specifically for teaching about the regime.

Cambodian students have until recently learned very little about the traumatic period in their country’s history, and studies indicate they sometimes learn little from their parents about it.

“Our teaching [on the Khmer Rouge regime] is unique compared to teaching on this genocidal topic in other countries 40 years ago or in the last century,” Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center, told VOA Khmer. “Our teaching is to teach Cambodian victims to become educators, and we don’t narrowly concentrate on our country.”

Among the trainers are David Chandler, professor of history from Monash University and a well-regarded historian on Cambodia, Ros Chantraboth, a Cambodian historian, George Chigas, associate director of Yale University’s Cambodia Genocide Program, and Dy Kham Boly, the author of “A History of Democratic Kampuchea.”

“In this teacher’s manual we organize the teaching chapter by chapter,” Dy Kham Boly said. “Students are asked to read survivors’ accounts and later role play.”

Tuon Sa Im, secretary of state of the Ministry of Education, said that the 24 officials trained next week will then transfer their knowledge to history teachers at Cambodia’s junior high and high schools. The ministry hopes to finish training teachers by 2010.

Cambodia Looks to Educate Youth About Painful Past

By Robert Carmichael

PHNOM PENH, Jun 12 (Newsmekong/IPS) - Walking through the former S21 security prison here, one cannot help but be struck by the hundreds of black-and-white photographs of former prisoners who were brought here, tortured, and then executed.

Around 20,000 people - men, women and children - are believed to have been murdered here. As many as two million died under the rule of the genocidal Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1979.

Students at Cambodia’s schools have not learned much more than that - until now, the course work describing the four years of Khmer Rouge rule consisted of literally a few paragraphs.

Chea Vandeth, a final year student in Phnom Penh, says less than one lesson was devoted to the Khmer Rouge era in his entire schooling. Although he lives only three kilometres from S21, he has never visited it.

"My friends and I learned very little about the Khmer Rouge history at school, and what we did learn wasn’t very clear," he says. "But I would like to have learned a lot more if possible."

Vandeth says most of what he knows about the Khmer Rouge regime he learned by talking to his parents or by listening to radio broadcasts of the Khmer Rouge war crimes tribunal, which is currently taking place on the city’s outskirts. The man in the dock is Comrade Duch, who used to run S21.

Later this year, that lack of coverage will change. Cambodia’s ministry of education is restructuring the syllabus dealing with the history of the Khmer Rouge.

Together with the country’s leading genocide research organisation - the Documentation Centre of Cambodia (DC-Cam) - education officials have created a comprehensive study programme that involves the use of the first textbook in the country about the Khmer Rouge. It is called ‘A History of Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1979)’.

The glossy 70-page book, launched in May, contains photographs and maps, survivor testimony and background on key people and events within Khmer Rouge history. It also explains how the Khmer Rouge rose to power, and how the group then ran Cambodia.

Ton Sa Im, undersecretary of state at the education ministry, whose job it is to coordinate this addition to the curriculum, says it is vital that high school children learn what happened. Some doubt that the terrible events - starvation, disease, state-sanctioned murders that killed two million people - ever happened.

"When we talk one-on-one with students, some believe that the genocide happened, but others are still sceptical," she says. "Although I must say that the Khmer Rouge tribunal at the international court is getting the attention of many students who are starting to believe that these things happened."

By the time the new academic year starts in October, around 3,000 teachers will have been trained in the new syllabus. But what of the fact that any teacher who is older than about 40 will likely have vivid and terrible memories of surviving the genocide? Does that bring certain risks?

Youk Chhang, the director of DC-Cam, had first-hand experience of that recently. In April, DC-Cam brought 400 students and their teachers to Phnom Penh. The group visited the Khmer Rouge tribunal, and later watched a film about victims and perpetrators of the genocide.

Afterwards, the students discussed whether reconciliation for such crimes was possible and then voted on it. They voted broadly for reconciliation, at which point one of their teachers stood up and asked Youk Chhang for permission to speak to the students.

"He said to them: ‘Look, all of you - you don’t know how much I suffered. I lost my father, I lost my brother, my sister. They were starved to death, they tortured me. You don’t know how I feel. And now you want me to forgive them?’ " Youk Chhang recalls.

The students were shocked.

"The whole room was silent - nobody talked. This is their own teacher," says Youk Chhang, adding that the incident illustrates why DC-Cam brought in psychiatrists and experts in genocide studies to help compile the teachers aid book in "a scientific way."

Ton Sa Im, herself a former teacher, understands the issue better than most: Her entire family - both parents and all seven siblings - died during the Khmer Rouge period. But she says the risks associated with teaching the syllabus are completely outweighed by the risks of not teaching it in the first place.

"The research in this book is so detailed that it can enable students to understand the reason why such a genocidal killing occurred, and can remember that atrocity, so they understand that this chapter of history should never be repeated," she says.

She explains that the period in question will appear not just in history lessons, but will be worked into the Khmer literature and social philosophy classes in school. This way, students can better understand how the Khmer Rouge era fits into the different social and cultural aspects of the country’s past.

Chhang says teaching the youth what happened fits well with DC-Cam’s remit. Much of the information contained in the textbook has come from his organisation’s research into the country’s brutal past. He sees DC-Cam’s role as finding out what happened, and then passing on that knowledge.

He points out a brief poem in the introduction to the textbook that makes clear that learning about the past can help to heal a traumatised nation. " ‘Transform the blood river/Into a river of reconciliation/A river of responsibility’."

The analogy is simple, he says: So many people died under the Khmer Rouge that the river - a potent symbol for this agricultural society - became a river of blood.

"Imagining that the river became blood - it’s something that is so hopeless, so despairing," he says. "So we want to transform that history [so] that that we can reconcile [and] live in a peaceful way."

Khmer Rouge trials will not bring justice

April 15, 2009
By Chak Sopheap
Guest Commentary
UPI Asia Online

Niigata, Japan — It is not surprising that many foreigners know the details of the Khmer Rouge regime, which ruled Cambodia from 1975-1979, while the young generation of Cambodians may not even know that this inhuman regime ever existed. Cambodian schoolchildren are taught almost nothing about this dark period of their country’s history. Even 30 years after the Khmer Rouge committed its atrocities against the Cambodian people the subject is still sensitive among political groups.

Fortunately, “A History of Democratic Kampuchea,” written by Cambodian author Khamboly Dy and published in 2007, helps to fill in the gap and educate the nation about the murderous regime. The Education Ministry has approved the book as a "core reference" for history classes, but not as part of the core curriculum.

Still, the scope of the textbook is limited and it is controversial in its naming of only certain individuals involved in the regime, its characterization of the massive movement against the Khmer Rouge, and its unclear interpretation of a long-standing political debate in Cambodia over whether Vietnam “liberated” or “invaded” the country when it ousted the Khmer Rouge. Therefore, the young generation is still skeptical about the truth concerning the Khmer Rouge.

When the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, popularly known as the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, was established, many Cambodians hoped it would bring justice, truth and reconciliation for the victims and survivors of the regime. This new hybrid, national-international tribunal was expected to accomplish three things:

• First, it should bring justice to those who died and help those who survived to release their suffering.
• Second, it should strengthen the rule of law by judging and punishing the criminals in fair and open trials. It should be a model marking the end of impunity and the beginning of law enforcement in Cambodia, and serve as a deterrent to all who contemplate such inhuman behavior in Cambodia or in the world.
• Third, it should educate the people of Cambodia and raise awareness about this darkest chapter in the country's history, especially among the young generation. Ultimately, this would lead to the reconstruction of the society as a whole.

However, it is questionable whether these expectations will be met. The claim that the Khmer Rouge Tribunal will benefit Cambodians could turn out to be merely a myth – such a tribunal may not be the best option for national reconciliation.

For one thing, the scope of the tribunal is limited to senior regime leaders who planned its actions or gave orders, as well as those most responsible for committing serious crimes. The foreign countries that supported the Khmer Rouge, or acted as the main catalyst for the emergence of this cruel regime, will not be brought to court. The tribunal’s regulations indicate clearly that only individuals who committed crimes will be tried. This court is not mandated to sentence countries or organizations.

Therefore, only local leaders and a few high-level leaders that were directly involved in the genocide will be sentenced, while many others will go unpunished. It is doubtful if justice and the rule of law will prevail.

Those who support the tribunal may say it is better than nothing, that it is better to accept justice in a narrow sense than to have none at all. But real justice would only be achieved if all who are accused are treated fairly by the court. If the trial procedures do not reveal the root cause of the problem, it is unacceptable.

It is also unclear to what extent these trials can serve as a model for an independent court system in Cambodia, as corruption and nepotism are so widespread, even within this court. Moreover, it is unlikely that the whole truth about the Khmer Rouge regime will emerge through the proceedings of the tribunal. If this tribunal is to be the final page in the Khmer Rouge history, it will be unjust and misleading for future generations.

There are better alternatives to this court setup if justice and national reconciliation are the goals. The funds allocated for the court, which have already exceeded the original budget, should have been used for restorative justice – a healing process – rather than this imperfect retributive justice.

For Cambodian society, real reconciliation will be found only when trust returns between individuals; when they can smile at and trust each other again. Thus, a national dialogue or truth commission should be set up so that people, especially the victims, can fully participate to address their suffering and their needs.
--
(Chak Sopheap is a graduate student of peace studies at the International University of Japan. She runs a blog, www.sopheapfocus.com, in which she shares her impressions of both Japan and her homeland, Cambodia. She was previously advocacy officer of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights.)

Documentation Center Outlines 2009 Efforts

By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
10 September 2008

In an effort to continue national reconciliation, the Documentation Center of Cambodia is planning two projects in 2009: the establishment of a research center in Phnom Penh and continued efforts to teach students more about the history of the Khmer Rouge.

"The teaching of history and the building of this center is a chapter for Cambodia to walk away from hell and walk away from the killing fields, and to step forward toward national reconciliation," said Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center.

A team for Columbia University, in New York, will work with Education Ministry officials to build the research center and prepare teaching programs and texts for more than 3,000 teachers.

The new curriculum will be based on the book "A History of Democratic Kampuchea," written by Documentation Center researcher Khamboly Dy.

The research center will be the largest of its kind in Asia.

New Textbook Details Khmer Rouge Horrors

Monday, June 18, 2007
By KER MUNTHIT
The Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- Cambodia offers plenty of Khmer Rouge "killing fields" attractions. There is a grisly genocide museum complete with torture instruments and former mass graves that draw camera-toting tourists.

But for the country's school children, the Khmer Rouge remain off the curriculum, leaving students virtually clueless about how the now-defunct communist group became a killing machine in late 1970s.

Now that knowledge gap may at least be partially filled through the newly released "A History of Democratic Kampuchea," a textbook about the Khmer Rouge's 1975-79 rule by Khamboly Dy, a Cambodian genocide researcher.

It's a start in Cambodia's painful journey to seek healing, said Khamboly Dy, a 26-year-old staffer at the Documentation Center of Cambodia, an independent group collecting evidence of the Khmer Rouge atrocities.

"Nothing can compensate for the Cambodian people's sufferings during the Khmer Rouge," he said, adding that learning about the regime's history "is the best compensation for them."

The book comes at the right time, as Cambodia may finally put surviving Khmer Rouge leaders before an internationally-backed tribunal for genocide and crimes against humanity, Khamboly Dy said.

Still, the 100-page textbook isn't slated for general classroom use. Khamboly Dy said 3,000 copies in the Cambodian language will be given to libraries, students and teachers for free, and more will be printed once additional funds can be raised.

David Chandler, an American scholar and author of several books on Cambodia, says a straightforward account is long overdue since the government "seems unwilling to produce such a text, or at least does not share a sense of urgency about exposing this period of he past."

Some ex-Khmer Rouge continue to hold senior positions in the regime.

Most books about the Khmer Rouge era, when some 1.7 million perished through hunger, disease and executions, have to date been either written by foreigners or overseas Cambodians. Very few of these have been translated into the Cambodian language, and none are cheaply available.

Khmer Rouge history was briefly featured in a high school social study textbook in 2002 before the entire book was yanked off the curriculum because it provoked political tension between Prime Minister Hun Sen and his former ally, Prince Norodom Ranariddh.

The book had only highlighted the victory of Hun Sen's ruling party in the 1998 national election and failed to mention Ranariddh's defeat of Hun Sen in the 1993 polls. Despite his party's defeat then, Hun Sen maneuvered to become a co-prime minister along with Ranariddh before toppling him to grab full power through a coup in 1997.

As a result of Ranariddh-Hun Sen rivalry, the entire modern history of Cambodia from the French colonial period to the present was expunged from schools, Khamboly Dy said.

In the new book, Khamboly Dy said he had to carefully select words to explain certain past events, including the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge by Vietnamese troops.

For Hun Sen's camp, the Vietnamese were not invaders, but to his opponents they always were.

So Khamboly Dy wrote the Vietnamese "fought their way into Cambodia" alongside Cambodian resistance forces including Hun Sen. "This is the fact. Whether they invaded or liberated (Cambodia) is only political interpretation," he said.

Before defecting, the prime minister earlier served as a military commander with the Khmer Rouge while ex-King Norodom Sihanouk forged an alliance with them against the U.S.-backed government of the early 1970s.

Researchers say there is no evidence linking Hun Sen and Sihanouk to the Khmer Rouge atrocities despite their past alliance with the now-defunct communist movement, making it unlikely for either of them to be indicted by the U.N.-backed genocide tribunal. Sihanouk himself was under house arrest, and many of his royal family members perished during the Khmer Rouge period.

The government has endorsed the book only as core reference material for writing future history textbooks, but not for use in general education, said Sorn Samnang, president of the government-run Royal Academy, who sat on a committee which scrutinized Khamboly Dy's book.

Although it contained useful information, he said the book could affect the many still living people involved with the Khmer Rouge mentioned in the work. He did not elaborate.

Such an attitude only "suggests that any excuse, however shameless, will be seized upon if it helps the Cambodian authorities avoid raking over the past," said Philip Short, who wrote "Pol Pot: The History of a Nightmare," a political biography of the late Khmer Rouge leader.

He said the book is an accurate and objective account of a very complex period, and therefore "deserves to be not merely an approved textbook for Cambodian schools, but a compulsory text, which all Cambodian schoolchildren should be required to study."

Chey Vann Virak, an 11th grade student in Phnom Penh, said his history teacher would randomly mention "a little bit" about the killings under the Khmer Rouge.

At home, the 17-year-old said his parents occasionally recalled for him and his three siblings the sufferings they went through and say, "All of you are just lucky to have been born and grown up in this era."

That is all he knows about the Khmer Rouge.

"A History of Democratic Kampuchea" in Khmer available for free download

The Khmer version of "A History of Democratic Kampuchea" (Provoatesastr Kampuchea Procheathipatay) is made available for free download by DC-Cam. To download the two parts of the book, please right-click the 2 links below and save them to your computer. Alternatively, you can read the book online by simply clicking of the links below. Please note that Adobe Acrobat Reader is required.

Click here for Part 1

Click here for Part 2

Heng Samrin: "We were not involved in the Khmer Rouge regime" -sic!-

Tuesday, May 8, 2007
In Cambodia, a Clash Over History of the Khmer Rouge

By Erika Kinetz
Special to The Washington Post

Click here for a link to download a copy of "A History of DK"

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, May 7 -- In a country where half the students who enter grammar school never finish, Cheak Socheata, 18, is among the most privileged of her generation: She made it to college.

But even Cheak, a first-year medical student at Phnom Penh's University of Health Sciences, has learned next to nothing in school about the Khmer Rouge, who in a little less than four years in power executed, tortured and starved to death an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians, about a quarter of the population.

"I just heard from my parents that there was mass killing," Cheak said. "It's hard to believe." Her high school history teacher told her the basics -- the Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 -- and advised her to read about the rest on her own, she recalled.

Nearly three decades after the Khmer Rouge were overthrown, a battle over history is underway in Cambodia. On one side are forces eager to reckon with the past, both in school and at a special court set up to try the surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge. Many teachers, students and activist groups say more should be taught about the Khmer Rouge years, which is virtually absent from school curriculums now.

Blunting these demands is a government whose top leaders were once associated with the now-defunct communist movement and who seem loath to cede control over such a politically sensitive chapter of Cambodian history.

"Suppose that ever since 1945, Germany had been ruled by former Nazis," said Philip Short, author of "Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare," a biography of the Khmer Rouge leader published in 2004. "Would the history of the Nazi regime be taught honestly in Germany today? This is now Cambodia's problem."

A new high school textbook about the era, the first written by a Cambodian, was recently published by the Documentation Center of Cambodia, an independent institute in Phnom Penh that specializes in Khmer Rouge history. In "A History of Democratic Kampuchea," author Khamboly Dy, 26, spells out in 11 detailed chapters the rise, reign and fall of the Khmer Rouge, who called themselves the Communist Party of Kampuchea and the country, Democratic Kampuchea.

A Cambodian government review panel deemed the book unsuitable for use in the regular curriculum. Instead, the panel said the book could be used as supplementary reference material and as a basis for the Ministry of Education to write its own textbook.

"It's a start. The door is open," said Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center, which has been pushing to get a textbook into classrooms since 1999.

Short said Khamboly's text is hard to fault on substantive historical grounds. "It deserves to be not merely an approved textbook for Cambodian schools but a compulsory text, which all Cambodian schoolchildren should be required to study," he said.

Its sidelining reflects the failure of the country's current leaders to move beyond their Khmer Rouge past, he said. Prime Minister Hun Sen, National Assembly President Heng Samrin and Senate President Chea Sim were all middle-ranking Khmer Rouge officials, he said.

The three men left Cambodia for Vietnam in the late 1970s and returned with Vietnamese army forces that overthrew Pol Pot in 1979. Today, their political legitimacy rests in part on their credentials as men who helped free Cambodia from the Khmer Rouge tyranny.

Heng Samrin said it was unfair to implicate him and other top officials of the ruling Cambodian People's Party in the crimes of the Khmer Rouge.

In an interview with a Cambodian journalist, he maintained that the term "Khmer Rouge" refers only to people who joined the National United Front of Kampuchea, which in the first half of the 1970s fought the U.S.-backed Lon Nol government but later betrayed the revolution and killed innocent people.

He and his colleagues only fought to liberate Cambodia from Lon Nol and his imperialist henchmen, he said. "We were not involved in the Khmer Rouge regime," he said, adding that he had been only a "simple soldier."

Khamboly said that picking his way through politically charged points was the most difficult aspect of writing the book, which was printed with $10,000 from the Soros Foundation's Open Society Institute and the National Endowment for Democracy. By citing sources, focusing on survivor stories and seeking neutral language, Khamboly said, he hoped to avoid political tussles.

It wasn't enough. The committee that reviewed the text criticized it for giving too much attention to the years after 1979, when Cambodian factions fought a long civil war, and for tracing the roots of the Khmer Rouge back to the struggle against French colonization and to Ho Chi Minh's Indochinese Communist Party.

Committee members also said naming individuals associated with the Khmer Rouge government was "unnecessary" and a threat to their safety.

History "should be kept for at least 60 years before starting to discuss it," said committee member Sorn Samnang, president of the Royal Academy of Cambodia, a graduate school, according to the minutes of a Dec. 14 meeting of the review panel.

There is a long-standing political debate in Cambodia over whether Vietnam liberated or invaded the country when it ousted the Khmer Rouge.

Khamboly's book uses neither term, saying only that Vietnamese forces "fought their way into Cambodia."

"We use facts," Khamboly said. "Whether they invaded or liberated the country is an interpretation."

But in Cambodia, as in other post-conflict states, there are few facts that belong to everybody. In a Sept. 19 letter to Hun Sen, the premier, his education adviser, Sean Borat, generally praised the book but took issue with Khamboly's failure to characterize the Vietnamese action as a liberation.

He also objected to the book's characterization of Cambodians who returned with the Vietnamese in 1979 as "Khmer Rouge defectors." That phrase, Sean Borat wrote, must be deleted because "the Cambodian People's Party did not originate from Khmer Rouge soldiers but from a massive movement that emerged to oppose the brutal regime led by Pol Pot."

The offending phrase was removed from the final version of the book.

Young Cambodians haven't been formally taught much about the Khmer Rouge in school since propaganda texts of the 1980s, when Cambodia was ruled by the communist government that the Vietnamese installed. Those books depicted the Khmer Rouge with such graphic ferocity that some children grew up thinking they were actual monsters.

These books were taken out of use in 1991, when U.N.-brokered peace talks ended more than a decade of civil war and led to elections.

In 2002, a 12th-grade history textbook touching on the Pol Pot years was introduced but quickly recalled after controversy arose over the book's omission of the 1993 electoral victory of the royalist Funcinpec party. A new version of the text has yet to appear. Ministry of Education officials say they plan to publish a new book in 2009; they blame the delay on lack of funds.

In the meantime, Cambodia's youth are "a lost generation," said Chea Vannath, former president of the Center for Social Development, a local rights group. In the absence of a shared national story about the Khmer Rouge, a thousand conversations, fractured by politics, rumor, myth and the varieties of human experience are being passed down to a sometimes skeptical younger generation.

"When a kid doesn't eat all the rice on the plate, his mother tells him, 'If you were in the Pol Pot regime, you would die because you don't have enough food,' " said Nou Va, 27, a program officer at the Khmer Institute for Democracy, a nonprofit group that recently produced a documentary film about the generation gap. "The kid says, 'Oh, she's just saying that to blame us. I don't believe it.' "

The battle for history is also being waged at a former military headquarters on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, where a special tribunal set up by the United Nations and the Cambodian government is struggling to bring to justice those leaders of the Khmer Rouge who survive. (Pol Pot died in 1998.)

Efforts to establish the court go back a decade. Despite recent signs of progress toward convening trials, many observers have concluded that the Cambodian government is not ready for a truly independent inquiry into this chapter of the nation's past.

"Were Hun Sen and his colleagues to permit an honest appraisal of the past, it would be the best proof that they have finally broken with that past and moved out from under the shadow of their Khmer Rouge origins," Short said. "Unfortunately, all the signs continue to point in the opposite direction."

Cheak, the medical student, has a more immediate concern. It's about Khamboly's new book. "Where," she asked, "can I get a copy?"

Learning Lessons from the Past

By Ann Ward, VOA
Washington
25 April 2007

Watch Cambodia Holocaust report / Real broadband (fast Internet Access)
Watch Cambodia Holocaust report / Real dialup (slow Internet Access)

The atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia during the late 1970s represent one of the worst human tragedies of the 20th century. Through execution, starvation and forced labor, this genocide left nearly two million Cambodians dead.

Today, the Documentation Center of Cambodia, or DC-Cam, is working to document the many crimes and atrocities committed during the Khmer Rouge's reign. Recently, two young staff members of the Center were in Washington, D.C. for internships at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to learn how to better document Cambodia's tragic past. For producer Ana Ward, VOA's Jim Bertel has their story.

Ser Sayana and Dy Khamboly are both in their twenties, too young to remember the horrors and suffering under the Khmer Rouge. The two writers work for the Documentation Center of Cambodia, a non-profit organization that collects documents and testimonies related to Khmer Rouge's atrocities. Dy is the author of a high school textbook on the Khmer Rouge.

"The Documentation Center of Cambodia aims to achieve two objectives: justice and we would like to preserve the memory of the Khmer Rouge (atrocities) for younger generations,” says Dy. “So, this way we preserve the memory of the Khmer Rouge, the history of the Khmer Rouge so that people will learn and remember and not repeat that mistake again in the future."

According to a study done by the Documentation Center, 65 percent of the population that survived that period still has traumatic memories related to the genocide nearly three decades after the fall of the Khmer Rouge.

Dy Khamboly

Dy says his country's road to recovery has been very slow. "After the Khmer Rouge regime, Cambodia almost came down to nothing (as) a country. It was in complete poverty and almost all the infrastructure was (destroyed) by the regime. So after the first national elections in 1993 up to now, Cambodia (has become) a democratic country, we have more freedom than before. We still have some problems, but I personally think it's getting better now in Cambodia."

During the researchers' time at the Holocaust Museum, they learned about conservation, preserving artifacts and keeping an archive. The two hope this will enable them to start a genocide museum in Cambodia. Ser believes the museum will help her country recover from its past.

Ser Sayan

"Through my experience at the center I think that a lot of people have not really healed. It may not show on their (faces), but inside there's still a lot more that needs to be healed," she says.

At the Holocaust Museum Ser and Dy studied displays on Nazi-occupied Europe and contemporary genocides, like the crisis in Darfur.

Bridget Zilkicis is a Project Director with the Holocaust Museum and mentored the two young writers. "The Cambodian project is at a different stage of course than the Holocaust Museum. They're just getting started, but a lot of the issues that they have, are similar to the ones we struggle with on a day-to-day basis and how do you tell these horrible stories in a way that engages people rather then turns them away? In the end we have the same goal essentially, it is to take a traumatic history and make it part of a process of learning not to do that again."

To that end, Ser and Dy plan to introduce the study of comparative genocide to college students in Cambodia, comparing their country's own horrors with the genocides in Rwanda, Darfur and the Holocaust. They believe this will help young people to learn from the past and see that these atrocities never happen again.

Expert praises new book on Khmer Rouge

April 22, 2007
By KER MUNTHIT
Associated Press Writer

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — The first history book written by a Cambodian about the Khmer Rouge is a step toward educating the nation about the murderous regime, a leading genocide expert said Sunday.

"Cambodians are at last beginning to investigate and record their country's past," said Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, an independent group documenting the Khmer Rouge crimes.

Unlike Khamboly Dy's "A History of Democratic Kampuchea," to be released Wednesday, Youk Chhang said previous books about Cambodian history have been written almost exclusively by foreigners. Cambodia was named Democratic Kampuchea during the 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge rule that led to the deaths of some 1.7 million people.

Cambodian schools currently teach little about the Khmer Rouge, largely because the subject is sensitive among political groups and high-profile individuals once associated with the now-defunct communist movement.

The book, written for high school teachers and students, will also be available to the public for free, Youk Chhang said. No Cambodian historian had previously written about the Khmer Rouge because of fears of reprisal, he said.

The education ministry in January approved the book as a "core reference" material for history textbooks but not as part of the core curriculum, Youk Chhang said.

"A History of Democratic Kampuchea," Youk Chhang said, "is a major step showing that Cambodians are capable of telling their own history" despite the limited status imposed on the book by the government.

"By taking responsibility for teaching Cambodians through books such as this, the country can go forward and ensure that the seeds of genocide never again take root in our country," he said.

Cambodia and the United Nations have created a tribunal aimed at prosecuting the few surviving Khmer Rouge leaders for crimes against humanity. The tribunal, led by Cambodian and international judges, was expected to begin this year.

Cambodian-penned Khmer Rouge genocide history book to be unveiled [by DC-Cam]

Khamboly Dy, a book writer of 'A History of Democratic Kampuchea', makes a final check on his book at the printing house, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Sunday, April 22, 2007. A history book written for the first time by a Cambodian author about the murderous Khmer Rouge regime will soon be available for the country's high school students, a leading genocide researcher said Sunday. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Khamboly Dy, a book writer of 'A History of Democratic Kampuchea', makes a final check on his book at the printing house, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Sunday, April 22, 2007. A history book written for the first time by a Cambodian author about the murderous Khmer Rouge regime will soon be available for the country's high school students, a leading genocide researcher said Sunday. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Sunday, April 22, 2007
The Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: The first history book written by a Cambodian author about the Khmer Rouge will soon be available in the country, in a step toward educating Cambodian youths about the murderous regime, a leading genocide researcher said Sunday.

Khamboly Dy's "A History of Democratic Kampuchea," will be released on April 25 said Youk Chhang, director of Documentation Center of Cambodia, an independent group documenting the Khmer Rouge crimes. Cambodia was named Democratic Kampuchea during the 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge rule.

"Cambodians are at last beginning to investigate and record their country's past," he said, adding that books about Cambodian history have been written almost exclusively by foreigners.

During its four-year rule, the Khmer Rouge implemented radical policies that led to the death of some 1.7 million people from starvation, disease, overwork and execution.

Cambodian schools currently teach very little about the Khmer Rouge, mainly because the subject is so sensitive among Cambodian political groups and high-profile individuals who used to be associated with the now-defunct communist movement.

No Cambodian history scholar has previously written about the Khmer Rouge period because of fears of reprisal, Youk Chhang said.

The education ministry in January approved the book's release as a "core reference" material writing history textbooks, but not as a history textbook for general education, Youk Chhang said.

Despite the limited status imposed by the government, Youk Chhang said the book "is a major step showing that Cambodians are capable of telling their own history."

By taking responsibility for teaching Cambodians through books such as this, the country can go forward and ensure that the seeds of genocide never again take root in our country," he said.

The Khmer Rouge was driven from power by a Vietnamese invasion in 1979 and finally collapsed eight years ago. None of its leaders, however, has ever been brought to trial.

Cambodia and the United Nations have jointly created a tribunal aimed prosecuting surviving Khmer Rouge leaders for genocide and crimes against humanity. The trials, expected to convene this year, have been delayed by disputes over local bar association fees foreign lawyers have been ordered to pay.