Rare Khmer Rouge Prison Photos Donated to Archives

In this photo taken on Aug. 20, 2012, Director of Documentation Center of Cambodia, Chhang Youk arranges photos, a part of about a thousand of newly-discovered photo collection of detainees at the former Khmer Rouge main prison S-21, in his office in Phnom Penh.

A pile of mugshots provided to the Documentation Center of Cambodia by an anonymous collector. (Credit: DC-Cam)

August 22, 2012
Nash Jenkin, VOA

The unidentified woman [who gave the photos] never looked at them ... she was afraid she would find a picture of her father

More than 1,000 photographs of inmates facing certain death four decades ago in a notorious Khmer Rouge torture center have been presented to an official Cambodian archive.

The 1,426 photos were donated anonymously this month to the Documentation Center of Cambodia. They stunned archivists with rich details of prisoners held at the Tuol Sleng prison during the 1975-1979 rule of the extremist group.

Documentation center chief Chhang Youk tells VOA (Khmer Service) the back of each passport-size photo contains information on each prisoner, with much of it written by the prisoners themselves.

The Red Heart of Dam Pheng - DC-Cam

https://www.box.com/s/60829ee4fdc8542b1b6e

New KRouge Prison Photos Offer Hope of Closure

09 August 2012
AFP

The discovery of more than 1,200 photographs of former prisoners at a notorious Khmer Rouge torture jail has raised hopes that more Cambodians could learn their relatives' fate, researchers said Thursday.

The collection of passport-sized images contains previously unseen portraits of inmates held at S-21 prison in Phnom Penh, said Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia (DC-CAM), which researches atrocities committed by the hardline communist regime in the late 1970s.

"We believe this is new data that can help survivors locate lost relatives," Youk Chhang told Agence France Presse at his office, describing the batch of pictures as an "extremely important" find.

Only a handful of the 15,000 inmates survived S-21, also known as Tuol Sleng, now a genocide museum where hundreds of black-and-white photos of people awaiting certain death are on display.

Unlike the pictures that are already known, most of the newly discovered head shots contain handwritten information on the back, such as the person's name and details of their arrest.

The Killing of Cambodia: Geography, Genocide and the Unmaking of Space

Prof. James A. Tyner
KENT STATE UNIVERSITY
Published by the Documentation Center of Cambodia
Translated into the Khmer language by Y Manoka, Keo Ratanatepy, Kouy Bun Rong, Veng Visal
2012

Between 1975 and 1978, the Khmer Rouge carried out genocide in Cambodia unparalleled in modern history. Approximately 2 million died – almost one quarter of the population. Taking an explicitly geographical approach, this book argues whether the Khmer Rouge's activities not only led to genocide, but also terracide – the erasure of space. In the Cambodia of 1975, the landscape would reveal vestiges of an indigenous pre-colonial Khmer society, a French colonialism and American intervention. The Khmer Rouge, however, were not content with retaining the past inscriptions of previous modes of production and spatial practices. Instead, they attempted to erase time and space to create their own utopian vision of a communal society. The Khmer Rouge's erasing and reshaping of space was thus part of a consistent sacrifice of Cambodia and its people – a brutal justification for the killing of a country and the birth of a new place, Democratic Kampuchea. While focusing on Cambodia, the book provides a clearer geographic understanding to genocide in general and insights into the importance of spatial factors in geopolitical conflict.

DC-Cam Translation:

http://www.d.dccam.org/Publication/Translations/Translations.htm

Hearing of Evidence in Case 002 | February 6, 2012

Hearing of Evidence in Case 002 | February 6, 2012 - Part 1 from Cambodia Tribunal Monitor on Vimeo.

Hearing of Evidence in Case 002 | February 6, 2012 - Part 2 from Cambodia Tribunal Monitor on Vimeo.

Hearing of Evidence in Case 002 | February 6, 2012 - Part 3 from Cambodia Tribunal Monitor on Vimeo.

DC-Cam queries rebuffed

Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, gestures while giving a tour of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum to a US delegation in November 2010. (Will Baxter/Phnom Penh Post)

Tuesday, 07 February 2012
Kristin Lynch
The Phnom Penh Post

Despite repeated attempts by Brother No 2 Nuon Chea’s defence law­yers to prove the Khmer Rouge tribunal may be relying on biased documents from the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, lawyers were rebuffed by the Trial Chamber at nearly every turn yesterday, creating a delicate legal dance that seemed to end only in futility for the defence.

“I’ll now conclude my part of the questioning, because there are too many questions I want to ask that I can’t because of your concerns,” Nuon Chea’s co-defence lawyer Jasper Pauw quipped to the Trial Chamber, after more than three hours of questioning DC-CAM director Youk Chhang, who he referred to as “the most important gatekeeper of all evidence”.

During Youk Chhang’s last day on the stand, Pauw attempted to raise concerns about the impartiality of DC-Cam’s records, which he said were a core part of the case against his client.

The other 'Killing Fields' trial continues

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- Defense lawyers continued to attack the Document Center of Cambodia, claiming its archival material presented to the U.N.-sanctioned genocide tribunal is biased.

Four former senior Khmer Rouge leaders remain on trial for their part in the brief but brutal Khmer Rouge government of 1970s.

The Document Center was started in 1995 as a field office for Yale University's Cambodian Genocide Program with U.S. State Department funding. In 1997 it became an independent non-government organization with funding from several countries, including the United States, Australia, Japan and Canada.

The trial of the four Khmer Rouge leaders continues after the tribunal, the Supreme Court Chamber of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, turned down the appeal of another Khmer Rouge member, Duch.

Tribunal helps Cambodia confront its history

The high level of public participation in the trials is healthy for social healing, analysts say [EPA]

Activists use attention around Khmer Rouge tribunal to further a national debate seen as crucial to social healing.

03 Feb 2012

Mujib Mashal

Al Jazeera

"Writing about this bleak period of history for a new generation may run the risk of re-opening old wounds for the survivors (sic!)" - DC-Cam KR history book

Despite questions and controversy surrounding the United Nations-backed tribunal, the recent trials of Khmer Rouge leaders have launched a robust public debate about the atrocities of the 1970s that analysts deem crucial to Cambodia’s reconciliation.

The Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) on Friday imposed a life sentence on Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, the prison chief who oversaw the deaths of an estimated 15,000 people at Phenom Penh's notorious S-21 prison, the centre of the Khmer Rouge security apparatus, in the late 1970s.

The ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot who died in 1998, were responsible for the deaths of nearly one quarter of Cambodia's population through starvation, overwork, torture and execution.

Head of Research Center Addresses Tribunal Over Documentation

Youk Chhang

Wednesday, 01 February 2012
Kong Sothanairth, VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh

Chhang Youk is scheduled to appear before the Trial Chamber on Thursday.

The head of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which has provided hundreds of thousands of documents to the Khmer Rouge tribunal, addressed the court on Wednesday to vouch for the accuracy of the research.

Defense attorneys for three jailed regime leaders have challenged the authenticity of documents from the well-established organization, which has collected documentation on Khmer Rouge atrocities for nearly 15 years.

DC-Cam defends methods

Thursday, 26 January 2012
Mary Kozlovski
The Phnom Penh Post

During a third straight day of questioning at the Khmer Rouge tribunal yesterday, a representative of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia again deflected suggestions by defence teams that the organisation’s research was biased against the defendants in Case 002.

Under questioning from Michael Karnavas, co-defence counsel for former Khmer Rouge foreign affairs minister Ieng Sary, DC-Cam deputy director Vanthan Dara Poeu said the organisation did not conduct analysis of the documents it compiled, nor did it keep “files” on the accused.

“As for the authentication of the document[s], we did not conduct any analysis on such document[s],” he said.

The witness later said DC-Cam had conducted some analysis of the documents’ “reliability”, before clarifying that he meant their “authenticity” was being assessed.

Case 002 Evidentiary Hearing | January 23, 2012

Case 002 Evidentiary Hearing | January 23, 2012 - Part 1 from Cambodia Tribunal Monitor on Vimeo.

Case 002 Evidentiary Hearing | January 23, 2012 - Part 2 from Cambodia Tribunal Monitor on Vimeo.

Case 002 Evidentiary Hearing | January 23, 2012 - Part 3 from Cambodia Tribunal Monitor on Vimeo.

Case 002 Evidentiary Hearing | January 23, 2012 - Part 4 from Cambodia Tribunal Monitor on Vimeo.

Tribunal Hears Testimony From Major Research Center

Youk Chhang, right, director of the Cambodian Documentation Center (DC-Cam) watches on a tribunal's staff, center, putting small packs of microfilm into a box at DC-Cam office of the capital Phnom Penh. (Photo: AP)

Monday, 23 January 2012
Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh

"Nearly half a million documents have been handed over to the courts."

The Khmer Rouge tribunal on Monday heard testimony from an official of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, who said the hundreds of thousands of documents submitted to the UN-backed court have been carefully scrutinized for authenticity.

Vann Than Peou Dara, deputy director of the center, was summoned after defense attorneys for Khmer Rouge leaders on trial expressed doubt over the documentation.

Documents are carefully examined and verified by their sources before they are admitted to the court, he told the court.

Defense attorneys subsequently said their doubts would not be allayed by the deputy, and they called for the appearance of the head of the center, Chhang Youk.

Prosecution defends documents at court

Wednesday, 18 January 2012
Mary Kozlovski
The Phnom Penh Post

Prosecutors at the Khmer Rouge tribunal yesterday refuted suggestions of bias levelled by defence teams at the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, which has provided thousands of documents used by parties at the court.

International deputy co-prosecutor William Smith said in court that simply because one of DC-Cam’s goals was to “search for the truth” during the Democratic Kampuchea period, that did not mean that the organisation was “biased”.

“The question of admissibility relates to the documents but not to the organisation itself,” he said.

Smith said that a DC-Cam representative who had worked at the organisation for 15 years had been called to provide further information about the documents.

Tribunal Prosecutors Won’t Summon Authors of Documents

Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, holds some paper documents on the Khmer Rouge regime from Lund University, Sweden at his office of the capital Phnom Penh. (Photo: AP)

Tuesday, 17 January 2012
Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh

“The position of the office of the co-prosecutors is that summoning the authors is not necessary.”

Tribunal prosecutors said Tuesday they did not see a need to summon authors of documents on the Khmer Rouge, as the UN-backed court continued with hearings to determine who will testify in the trial of three jailed regime leaders.

This comes a day after defense attorneys say they want to summon the head of a leading genocide research organization before the court.

“The position of the office of the co-prosecutors is that summoning the authors is not necessary,” deputy prosecutors William Smit and Chan Dara Reaksmey told the court.

Defense Questions Validity of Documentation at Tribunal

Youk Chhang, head of the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-CAM), in Tuol Sleng school, a former Khmer Rouge interrogation center turned into a museum, where many of the documents he is researching still are stored. (Photo: Courtesy of John Vink/ Magnum Photos)

Monday, 16 January 2012
Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh

Chhang Youk, head of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, “must appear before this court.”

Defense attorneys for jailed Khmer Rouge leaders told the tribunal Monday they want the head of a leading research organization to testify over the authenticity of hundreds of thousands of documents that comprise much of the evidence at the UN-backed court.

Chhang Youk, head of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, “must appear before this court,” said the lawyer for Nuon Chea, who alongside two other leaders of the Khmer Rouge is facing charges of atrocity crimes including genocide.

Without Chhang Youk’s testimony, the lawyer, Jasper Pauw, said, some 500,000 documents the center provided for trials “cannot be considered as authentic and reliable and must therefore be called inadmissible.”

Documenting Tragedy Reconciles Past [-USAID propaganda when the US remains silent in the current KR Tribunal charade???]

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton thanked Youk Chhang for a tour of the Tuol Sleng Museum. “Your telling of its history as well as the tragic accounts of the victims who suffered there were deeply moving,” she said. (credit: U.S. Embassy Phnom Penh)

Im Chaem, left, sits beside Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, at Preah Vihear Temple on top of the Dangrek Mountain along the Cambodian-Thai border. Chaem, now 67, was a former chief of a district where many lives were lost to execution, starvation, and exhaustion during the regime of the Khmer Rouge. (credit: DC-Cam)

 [KI-Media Note: Im Chaem was also one of the accused in Case 004 for her alleged crimes under the KR regime]

January/February 2012
Roy Fenn | DEMOCRACY, HUMAN RIGHTS & GOVERNANCE
Source: USAID

In Cambodia, a USAID-funded research institute is dedicated to analyzing and preserving evidence decades after the Khmer Rouge-led genocide.

Reflecting on the past isn’t always easy, but sometimes it is the only way to move forward. That is the belief of Youk Chhang, a survivor of Cambodia’s “killing fields,” who now directs the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam), an independent Cambodian research institute in the country’s capital city dedicated to analyzing and preserving evidence of the past.

Millions of Cambodians were tortured and killed during the Khmer Rouge-led genocide from 1975 to 1979. The determination of the Khmer Rouge to completely remake Cambodia into a classless, agrarian society led to the slaughter of the educated and professional classes and the destruction of much of the nation’s infrastructure. The devastation of this period has hindered the pace and progress of development for more than 30 years and will affect the country for generations.

Leading Researcher Calls on UN to Investigate Tribunal Judges’ Office

CIJs: You Bunleng (L) and Siegfried Blunk (R)

Wednesday, 12 October 2011
Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh

“Judge Blunk’s resignation has only added fuel to conspiracy theories and conjecture regarding corruption within the [Office of the Co-Investigating Judges].”

The head of the Documentation Center of Cambodia on Wednesday called for the UN to take “decisive action” to investigate the office of investigating judges at the Khmer Rouge tribunal, following the abrupt resignation of its international judge on Monday.

The Documentation Center is a major researcher of Khmer Rouge atrocities, providing thousands of documents that have made the tribunal possible.

Chhang Youk, director of the center, said the resignation of German judge Siegfried Blunk—who cited government statements against further indictments as his reason for quitting—required the UN to “restore the reputation” of the court.

The "entire" OCIJ must be investigated: Youk Chhang

The entire OCIJ must be investigated

Youk Chhang

Documentation Center of Cambodia

As an institution which promotes justice and memory for victims of the Khmer Rouge, the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) has a strong interest in ensuring the legitimacy and success of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). While DC-Cam is not affiliated with the ECCC in any formal way, the Center was integral to the creation of the Court and has provided it with over 500,000 pages of documents along with various films, maps, photographs and interviews as a recognized “in-kind” donor. DC-Cam also continues to assist the ECCC through the provision of its research and expertise.

For months, various commentators and civil society institutions have alleged corruption and political interference at the ECCC. These allegations have been focused on the ECCC Office of the Co-Investigating Judges (OCIJ). Recently, International Co-Investigating Judge Siegfried Blunk resigned, citing the appearance of political interference by the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) as his motivation. Judge Blunk’s resignation has only added fuel to conspiracy theories and conjecture regarding corruption within the OCIJ. The time for speculation and debate however, has now long passed and there is a pressing need for the United Nations (UN) to act decisively.

The legitimacy of the entire ECCC has already been compromised by widespread perceptions of corruption within the OCIJ. Simply replacing Judge Blunk will do nothing to restore confidence in the ECCC. The only way to salvage the reputation of the Court and demonstrate that the international community is serious about combating corruption, impunity and injustice is through an immediate, impartial, transparent and thorough investigation of the entire OCIJ, followed by appropriate remedial action.

If no investigation takes place, every entity connected to the ECCC, including the UN itself, will be complicit with the RGC in compromising the last opportunity to provide some measure of justice for victims of the Khmer Rouge, whose suffering has already been either ignored or politically manipulated for over 30 years.

End.

Independently Searching for the Truth since 1997.

MEMORY & JUSTICE

“...a society cannot know itself if it does not have an accurate memory of its own history.”

Youk Chhang, Director

Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam)

66 Sihanouk Blvd.,

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

t: +855 23 21 18 75

f: +855 23 21 03 58

h: +855 12 90 55 95

e: dccam@online.com.kh

www.dccam.org

www.cambodiatribunal.org

www.cambodiasri.org

Tuol Sleng daughters reconcile the past

Huy Senghul (left) and Norng Chen Kimty stand in front of a photo of Norng Chen Kimty’s father Norng Chanphal, seen on the left in the background photo. Photo by: John Anthony

Wednesday, 14 September 2011
John Anthony
The Phnom Penh Post

Huy Senghul and Norng Chen Kimty’s fathers were tormentor and victim, respectively, at the Khmer Rouge’s infamous Tuol Sleng interrogation facility, but the two now work together, at times sharing a desk, to document the crimes of the genocidal regime.

Their fathers, former Tuol Sleng executioner Him Huy and child survivor Norng Chanphal, have since quite remarkably reconciled, and the children now work as researchers at the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, a key source of written evidence for the Khmer Rouge Tribunal.

Both daughters share a common goal: to search for the truth about those slain during the three years, eight months and 20 days that the Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia.

"The DC-Cam circus spins around" - Op-Ed by Anonymous

13 September 2011
Op-Ed by Anonymous

The circus is spinning at DC-CAM: after sitting down Him Huy, one of the brutal KR guards at S-21, with Tuol Sleng survivors at a reconciliation dinner, Chhang Youk, DC-CAM director, now issues a decree on the reconciliation between the children of the victims and children of the executioners. On 13 September 2011, DC-CAM organized a Pchum Ben meeting between Norng Chen Kimty, the daughter of former S-21 child survivor, and Huy Senghul, the daughter of S-21 prison guard.

By allowing DC-CAM to take these unbearable actions and by supporting it, the United States, through its massive funding for DC-CAM, is playing a very dangerous game indeed!

Norng Chen Kimty, the daughter of S-21 child survivor, and Huy Senghul, the daughter of S-21 prison guard, are seen praying together at a Pchum Ben event organized by DC-CAM on 13 Sept 2011 (Photo: DC-CAM)

Huy Senghul and Norng Chen Kimty seen leaving the event together (Photo: DC-CAM)

Who could be their fathers?

Him Huy, one of the KR torturer in S-21 (Photo: Seth Mydans, IHT)

Brothers Norng Channy and Norng Chanphal were child-survivors of S-21