Genocide Conference in South Africa Tackles Questions of Education

Youk Chhang, a leading Cambodian genocide researcher, shows a copy of the Cambodian version of a Khmer Rouge history textbook to teachers in Takeo province.

He urged all nations suffering from the memory of genocide to take their own initiatives to include genocide studies in their curricula.

13 September 2012

Men Kimeng, VOA Khmer

WASHINGTON DC - Chhang Youk, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, is in Cape Town, South Africa, for a UN-sponsored forum on the teaching of genocide in schools. He urged all nations suffering from the memory of genocide to take their own initiatives to include genocide studies in their curricula.

“We ought to remember that we have to begin doing these things ourselves,” Chhang Youk told VOA Khmer from Cape Town. “No one can do it better, or understand the issue better than us.”

The Unesco-sponsored forum, “Why Teach About Genocide - the Example of the Holocaust,” is meant to further discussions on how to design educational programs that teach about genocide and atrocities. Cambodia is a leading country in the research of genocide and has recently begun distributing teaching materials on the subject.

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.

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.

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.

Cambodia war crimes court concludes 2011 hearings

December 19, 2011
ABC Radio Australia

The UN-backed war crimes court in Cambodia has concluded its hearings for the year against three surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge movement.

The accused deny charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in relation to the deaths of an estimated two million people during Khmer Rouge rule between 1975 and 1979.

Three weeks of testimony have to date shown that the most senior surviving leader, Nuon Chea, is prepared to engage with the court even if his continued denials of what happened sound implausible to many.

Presenter: Robert Carmichael

Speaker: Nuon Chea, former Khmer Rouge leader; Youk Chhang, head of the Documentation Center of Cambodia; Khieu Samphan, former head of state

Click here to listen to the audio program (Windows Media)

CARMICHAEL: In essence the three aging defendants are accused of devising the policies that killed one in four of Cambodia's population.

During the first three weeks of evidence hearing Nuon Chea, who was Pol Pot's deputy for more than 40 years, has proved himself to be a good talker, even if many don't believe what he says.

As the tribunal concluded this year's hearings, Nuon Chea, for instance, denied that the Khmer Rouge had a policy to extinguish Buddhism, Cambodia's predominant religion.

It should be said that position flies in the face of the evidence. History shows the Khmer Rouge forcibly disrobed all monks, executing many in the process, and destroyed countless sacred relics and texts, and desecrated pagodas.

Vietnam blame game

"Brother Number 2" Nuon Chea stands trial. (Photo by: Eccc/Pool)

Youk Chhang, DC-Cam director

Wednesday, 07 December 2011
Bridget Di Certo and Cheang Sokha
The Phnom Penh Post

Nuon Chea’s continued demonisation of Vietnam is incorrect, incomprehensible and downright “stupid”, victims and observers said yesterday after the former Khmer Rouge leader’s second straight day on the stand.

At day two of evidence hearings at the Khmer Rouge tribunal yesterday, “Brother Number 2” maintained his position that without the Khmer Rouge, Cambodia would have been swallowed by Vietnam, a country that intends to exterminate the Khmer race. He supports his theory with a frequently recited and detailed history of Vietnam's attempts to annex Cambodian territory – an intention that continues, according to him.

Documentation Centre of Cambodia director Youk Chhang said Nuon Chea’s continued denunciation of Vietnam was simply “stupid”. His determination to paint Vietnam as the villain in all Khmer Rouge affairs was “a self-styled suicide”, Youk Chhang said. “The ECCC is a court, not a forum for reconciliation.”

Plans Under Way for Genocide, Research Institute [-Another Sala Chhor-tean with all its unsavory connotations???]

A Cambodian police official, left, collects the court document at the court entrance during the break time of the U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal in Phnom Penh, Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011. The Khmer Rouge carried out its policies for the sake of the Cambodian people and to protect the country from invaders, the notorious regime's deputy chief Nuon Chea said Tuesday at a tribunal considering charges of crimes against humanity against three of its former leaders. (Photo: AP)

Tuesday, 22 November 2011
Men Kimseng, VOA Khmer | Washington, DC

“This is like burying the Khmer Rouge so as never to re-emerge.” [KI-Media Note: However, the Khmer Rouge are still ruling Cambodia currently!!!]

A Khmer Rouge research center that was once part of Yale University will have a permanent presence in Cambodia, providing academic opportunities for a range of subjects and a permanent museum dedicated to the regime’s atrocities.

The Sleuk Rith Institute will be established as a center for research including the Khmer Rouge and development policy, combining the work of the Documentation Center of Cambodia with other academics.

Chhang Youk, director of the documentation center, said the move was a transformation for the organization. “However, we will do more work adding up to a total of three separate roles.”

Sleuk Rith will include studies on genocide, conflict, human rights and national and regional development, as well as a museum.

Its design is based on concepts from the Chor-tean Sala (Holy Hall), as well as globalization, Chhang Youk said.

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 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

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: DC-Cam Lord

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Chhang Youk defending Comrade Hor 5 Hong? An eyewitness is not good enough proof?

Accusation of Hor 5 Hong as jail chief is not backed by any document (sic!)

26 July 2011
By Taing Sarada
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Soy
Click here to read the original article in Khmer

Recently, DC-Cam confirmed that it did not see any S-21 document indicating that Hor 5 Hong, the Cambodian minister of Foreign Affairs, was the Boeung Trabek jail chief during the Democratic Kampuchea regime. However, other documents indicated that Hor 5 Hong was the chief of the prisoners (i.e. a “kapo”) who wielded strong influence in the Boeung Trabek detention center during the KR regime.

Recently, Chhang Youk, the president of DC-Cam, showed that, through his research within various documents to find the responsible parties under the KR regime, he did not find any documents showing that Hor 5 Hong was an administrator of the Boeung Trabek jail during the KR regime.

Chhang Youk said that, through his research on a number of confession documents left at S-21 (Tuol Sleng jail), he only found the name of Van Piny [KI-Media note: RFA reported the name as Van Tiny, however, various published documents showed that the name was Van Piny, not Van Tiny as reported by RFA] who confessed that he was the Boeung Trabek jail chief during that period.

Chhang Youk: “The jail chief was Van Piny, it was not him [Hor 5 Hong]. In general the KR structure is very clear, such as group chiefs, there were 3 of them, a unit has 10 chiefs, a large unit has 30 chiefs. Therefore, they have groups and classes. Furthermore in this case, there is no set list with alphabetical order, there is no such thing.”

One Man's Mission to Open History of Khmer Rouge

Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia

Him Huy, fourth from left, leading group of Khmer Rouge guards at Tuol Sleng

Next week, four top leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime will be brought to trial in Cambodia for alleged crimes against humanity (known as Case 002). Journalism student Jake Schoneker reported from Cambodia ahead of the trial.

June 22, 2011

BY JAKE SCHONEKER

PBS Newshour (USA)

When my co-producer Mark Oltmanns and I set off to Phnom Penh to shoot our story on Case 002, we planned to focus on victims of the Khmer Rouge time, on those civil parties and witnesses who would be brought to testify against the four leaders during the upcoming trial. But though listening to their stories was harrowing -- a woman left without family and forced to marry a soldier, a man still imprisoned by the Khmer Rouge in hellish nightmares -- it was the story of the students, and the impact of education, that made the deepest impression on us.

A central figure in the incorporation of that Khmer Rouge education to classrooms was Youk Chhang, the director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, or DC-Cam. For over a decade, he's compiled hundreds of thousands of documents, photographs, and testimony about the Khmer Rouge -- evidence that now is playing a key role in the trials of the Khmer Rouge cadre.