Genocide tribunal brings Cambodia hope of elusive reconciliation

Published on June 30, 2006

Phnom Penh – Chum Mey turns cold when he thinks of testifying against
his one-time torturers at Cambodia’s upcoming Khmer Rouge tribunal.

As one of only seven survivors of the notorious Tuol Sleng torture
camp, he knows he is likely to be called as a witness to speak out
against the leaders of the 1975-1979 regime that killed up to two
million Cambodians.

But the 76-year-old said the tribunal, whose judges will be sworn in
on Monday, may offer the only chance for Cambodia to learn all the
facts about the genocidal regime and to help the still-shattered
country heal.

"It’s time, they must not hide anything. I need them to tell the
truth. Why did they kill innocent people?" said Chum Mey.

"Otherwise, their victims will never be able to let go of the pain
they suffered," he said.

"After the trial, the pain will not go away immediately. But at least
it’s a starting point to get rid of the pain we bear and to
reconcile."

But reconciliation is a difficult goal in a country where up to one
third of the population was killed, starved or worked to death in one
of the most hideously effective genocides of the 20th century.

Most of the 17 Cambodian and 13 international judges will be sworn in
on Monday, marking a symbolic start to the tribunal that has been
delayed by years of wrangling between Cambodia and the United Nations
over its format and funding.

Prosecutors are expected to begin their work just a week later, but
trials are not likely to start until next year.

Even if Chum Mey is called to the stand, he is not likely to face the
men who actually tortured him in Tuol Sleng, a one-time high school
where 17,000 people — men, women and children — were interrogated,
tortured and then killed in a field outside Phnom Penh.

The tribunal is expected only to bring the few surviving leaders of
the Khmer Rouge to the dock.

Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot died in 1998. Only two of the roughly six
surviving leaders expected to stand trial are in custody, with the
rest living freely in Cambodia.

But most of the killing was done by ordinary Cambodians who followed
their leaders’ commands in pursuit of building an agrarian utopia —
guided by an ultra-Maoist ideology that, among other things, tried to
destroy the family unit and abolished education, religion and
currency.

Van Nath, another survivor of Tuol Sleng, said he too was prepared to
testify but he was unsure if reconciliation was possible when people
who actually performed the killings still walked the streets.

"For me, there is no reconciliation with people we once knew as
murderers," Van Nath said.

"I believe the trial is needed. But as for reconciliation, I believe
none of us has the ability to reconcile because of the gravity of what
happened," he said.

"What could ease our minds is if the people who committed these crimes
stand up to describe publicly about the reasons behind the killings,"
Van Nath said.

Van Nath survived the torture centre when his guards discovered his
talent for painting. He was then forced to do portraits of Pol Pot
until the Khmer Rouge were driven from power by Vietnamese invaders
who seized Phnom Penh in January 1979.

He is not convinced the tribunal can bring justice to a country that
was turned into a wasteland by a regime that emptied the cities and
forced the population onto vast collective farms.

"Right now, I dare not think that the tribunal can bring us justice
yet," he said.

"If it does, justice will not be found in the court’s decision. It
will be justice if the people agree with its decisions," he said.

Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia which
has been compiling evidence of Khmer Rouge atrocities, said
reconciliation is a personal matter.

"It has to start from individuals. If many individuals benefit from
the trial, then this will also have an effect at a national level," he
said.

So far, few of the remaining Khmer Rouge leaders have shown any
concern about the trials, much less about national reconciliation.

Most of them lead quiet lives around the former Khmer Rouge stronghold
of Pailin in northwestern Cambodia, refusing to give interviews and
staying out of the spotlight.

"I never think of the court," said Sor Socheat, the 55-year-old wife
of the Khmer Rouge’s former head of state Khieu Samphan.

"My husband never thinks of any work that he had done," she told AFP
by telephone, saying Khieu Samphan refused to take the call.

"At that time, he had no rights or power. He was only chairman in name
but he knew nothing. He never made any decisions," she said.

"It is up to others to form this tribunal," she added.

As for national reconciliation, she refused to talk about it.

Agence France Presse

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress