Editing Khmer Rouge (section)

== Legacy ==
Cambodia has been described as the black sheep of South East Asia because [[extremism]] is condoned in a country which is characterized by very weak economic growth and extensive poverty.<ref name="Karllson & Schoenhals 2008" />{{rp|99}} Both demographically and economically, Cambodia has gradually recovered from the rule of the Khmer Rouge regime, but the psychological scars affect many Cambodian families and they also affect many [[émigré]] Cambodian communities. It is noteworthy that Cambodia has a very young population, and by 2003, three-quarters of Cambodians were too young to remember the Khmer Rouge era. Nonetheless, their generation is affected by the traumas of the past.<ref>{{cite web|last=Dombrowski|first=Katja|title=Dealing with the past|date=15 May 2013|url=http://www.dandc.eu/en/article/initiatives-help-young-cambodians-come-terms-trauma-dictatorial-khmer-rouge-regime|publisher=D+C Development and Cooperation|access-date=7 August 2013|archive-date=5 September 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140905193226/http://www.dandc.eu/en/article/initiatives-help-young-cambodians-come-terms-trauma-dictatorial-khmer-rouge-regime|url-status=live}}</ref> Members of this younger generation may know about the Khmer Rouge only through word of mouth from their parents and elders. In part, young Cambodians lack knowledge about the Khmer Rouge because the Cambodian government does not require educators to teach Cambodian children about the Khmer Rouge's atrocities in Cambodian schools;<ref>Kinetz, Erika.[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/07/AR2007050701870.html?hpid=topnews In Cambodia, a Clash Over History of the Khmer Rouge"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170810172018/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/07/AR2007050701870.html?hpid=topnews |date=10 August 2017 }}, ''Washington Post'', 8 May 2007.</ref> however, [[Ministry of Education (Cambodia)|Cambodia's Education Ministry]] started to teach Khmer Rouge history in high schools beginning in 2009.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.phnompenhpost.com/search/node/index%20php%20200805151854%20Post%20Life%20Schools%20face%20up%20to%20KR%20history|title=Search|work=Phnom Penh Post|access-date=10 August 2017|archive-date=21 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181121024605/https://www.phnompenhpost.com/search/node/index%20php%20200805151854%20Post%20Life%20Schools%20face%20up%20to%20KR%20history|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8350313.stm|publisher=[[BBC News]]|title=Textbook sheds light on Khmer Rouge era|date=10 November 2009|access-date=7 May 2010|first=Guy|last=De Launey|archive-date=10 February 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110210122824/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8350313.stm|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia ===
[[File:Kang Kek Iew (Kaing Guek Eav or Duch) before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia - 20090720.jpg|thumb|[[Kang Kek Iew]] before the [[Cambodian Genocide Tribunal]] on 20 July 2009]]
The [[Khmer Rouge Tribunal|Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia]] (ECCC) was established as a Cambodian court with international participation and assistance to bring to trial senior leaders and those most responsible for crimes committed during the Khmer Rouge regime.<ref name="Cambodia 2012">{{Cite web|date=7 December 2020|title=ECCC Homepage|url=https://www.eccc.gov.kh/en|access-date=26 December 2019|archive-date=4 June 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230604222122/https://www.eccc.gov.kh/en|url-status=live}}</ref> As of 2020, there are three open cases.<ref name="Cambodia 2012" /> ECCC's efforts for outreach toward both national and international audience include public trial hearings, study tours, video screenings, school lectures and video archives on the web site.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.eccc.gov.kh/sites/default/files/Outreach%20statestics%20as%20of%20September%202017.pdf|title=Outreach Statistics 2017 ECCC|date=30 September 2017|publisher=Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia|access-date=21 October 2018|archive-date=21 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181021232441/https://www.eccc.gov.kh/sites/default/files/Outreach%20statestics%20as%20of%20September%202017.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>

After claiming to feel great remorse for his part in Khmer Rouge atrocities, Duch, head of Tuol Sleng where 16,000 men, women and children were sent to their deaths, surprised the court in his trial on 27 November 2009 with a plea for his freedom. His Cambodian lawyer, Kar Savuth, stunned the tribunal further by issuing the trial's first call for an acquittal of his client even after his French lawyer denied seeking such a verdict.<ref>{{cite news|title=Surprise plea in Khmer Rouge trial|publisher=Associated Press, via The Raleigh [[News & Observer]]|last1=Cheang|first1=Sopheng|last2=Hunt|first2=Luke|date=28 November 2009}}</ref> On 26 July 2010, he was convicted and sentenced to thirty years imprisonment. [[Theary Seng]] responded: "We hoped this tribunal would strike hard at impunity, but if you can kill 14,000 people and serve only 19 years&nbsp;– 11 hours per life taken&nbsp;– what is that? It's a joke", voicing concerns about political interference.<ref name="Petty">{{cite news|title=Senior Khmer Rouge Cadre Jailed for Mass Murder, Torture|first1=Martin|last1=Petty|author2=Prak Chan Thul<!-- Did not use first2=, etc., because not sure what order Prak Chan Thul's name goes in. -->|date=26 July 2010|publisher=Reuters|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cambodia-rouge-idUSTRE66P0EH20100726|access-date=2 August 2015|archive-date=4 February 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160204011305/http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cambodia-rouge-idUSTRE66P0EH20100726|url-status=live}}</ref> In February 2012, Duch's sentence was increased to life imprisonment following appeals by both the prosecution and defence. In dismissing the defence's appeal, Judge [[Kong Srim]] stated that "Duch's crimes were "undoubtedly among the worst in recorded human history" and deserved "the highest penalty available".<ref>{{cite news|last1=Leng|first1=Maly|last2=Yun|first2=Yun|url=http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/life-02032012152231.html/|title=Duch Appeal Rejected, Gets Life|publisher=[[Radio Free Asia]]|date=3 February 2012|access-date=26 April 2012|archive-date=29 June 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140629140542/http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/life-02032012152231.html/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Public trial hearings in Phnom Penh are open to the people of Cambodia over the age of 18 including foreigners.<ref name="eccc.gov.kh">{{cite web|title=Who can attend the trials?|publisher=Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia|url=http://www.eccc.gov.kh/en/faq/who-can-attend-trials|access-date=21 April 2012|archive-date=31 May 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120531003259/http://www.eccc.gov.kh/en/faq/who-can-attend-trials|url-status=live}}</ref> In order to assist people's will to participate in the public hearings, the court provides free bus transportation for groups of Cambodians who want to visit the court.<ref name="eccc.gov.kh" /> Since the commencement of Case 001 trial in 2009 through the end of 2011, 53,287 people participated in the public hearings.<ref name="Cambodia 2012" /> ECCC also has hosted Study Tour Program to help villagers in rural areas understand the history of the Khmer Rouge regime. The court provides free transport for them to come to visit the court and meet with court officials to learn about its work, in addition to visits to the genocide museum and the killing fields.<ref>Di Certo, Bridget (5 January 2012). [http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/KRTalk/krt-visits-top-100000-mark.html "KRT visits top 100,000 mark"]. ''[[Phnom Penh Post]]''. Phnom Penh. Retrieved 21 April 2012.</ref> ECCC also has visited villages to provide video screenings and school lectures to promote their understanding of the trial proceedings.<ref name="Cambodia 2012" /> Furthermore, trials and transcripts are partially available with English translation on the ECCC's website.<ref>{{cite web|title=Video Archive|publisher=Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia|url=http://www.eccc.gov.kh/en/video/archive|access-date=21 April 2012|archive-date=18 April 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120418085032/http://www.eccc.gov.kh/en/video/archive|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Museums ===
[[File:Skulls from the killing fields.jpg|thumb|Skulls displayed in the memorial tower]]
The Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide is a former high school building, which was transformed into a torture, interrogation and execution center between 1976 and 1979.<ref name="killingfieldsmuseum.com">{{cite web|title="S-21 and Choeng Ek Killing Fields: Facing death," The Killing Fields Museum – Learn from Cambodia|url=http://www.killingfieldsmuseum.com/s21-victims.html|access-date=21 April 2012|archive-date=15 March 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120315212401/http://www.killingfieldsmuseum.com/s21-victims.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The Khmer Rouge called the center S-21.<ref name="killingfieldsmuseum.com" /> Of the estimated 15,000 to 30,000 prisoners,<ref>{{cite web|title=Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocidal Crimes|publisher=International Center for Transitional Justice|url=http://memoryandjustice.org/site/tuol-sleng-museum-of-genocidal-crimes/|access-date=21 April 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120209081233/http://memoryandjustice.org/site/tuol-sleng-museum-of-genocidal-crimes/|archive-date=9 February 2012}}</ref> only seven prisoners survived.<ref name="killingfieldsmuseum.com" /> The Khmer Rouge photographed the vast majority of the inmates and left a photographic archive, which enables visitors to see almost 6,000 S-21 portraits on the walls.<ref name="killingfieldsmuseum.com" /> Visitors can also learn how the inmates were tortured from the equipment and facilities exhibited in the buildings.

The [[Choeung Ek]] [[Killing Fields]] are located about 15 kilometers outside of [[Phnom Penh]].<ref name="memoryandjustice.org">{{cite web|title=Choeung Ek, Center of Genocide Crimes|publisher=International Center for Transitional Justice|url=http://memoryandjustice.org/site/choeung-ek-center-of-genocide-crimes/|access-date=22 April 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120528091634/http://memoryandjustice.org/site/choeung-ek-center-of-genocide-crimes|archive-date=28 May 2012}}</ref> Most of the prisoners who were held captive at [[Security Prison 21|S-21]] were taken to the fields to be executed and deposited in one of the approximately 129 [[Mass grave|mass graves]].<ref name="memoryandjustice.org" /> It is estimated that the graves contain the remains of over 20,000 victims.<ref name="memoryandjustice.org" /> After the discovery of the site in 1979, the Vietnamese transformed the site into a memorial and stored skulls and bones in an open-walled wooden memorial pavilion.<ref name="memoryandjustice.org" /> Eventually, these remains were showcased in the memorial's centerpiece [[stupa]], or [[Buddhist]] shrine.<ref name="memoryandjustice.org" />

=== Publications ===
The Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam), an independent research institute, published ''[[A History of Democratic Kampuchea (1975–1979)|A History of Democratic Kampuchea 1975–1979]]'',<ref name="DDCam History" /> the nation's first textbook on the history of the Khmer Rouge.<ref name="dccam.org">{{cite web|title=Providing Genocide Education|publisher=Documentation Center of Cambodia|url=http://www.dccam.org/#/theorganization/worktodate|access-date=22 April 2012|archive-date=12 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191212034404/http://www.dccam.org/#/theorganization/worktodate|url-status=live}}</ref> The 74-page textbook was approved by the government as a supplementary text in 2007.<ref name="mediakh.net">Khateya. [http://mediakh.net/khmer-news/trials-tribulations-and-textbooks-govt-dc-cam-review-kr-teaching/ "Trials, tribulations and textbooks: Govt, DC-Cam review KR teaching"]. ''Khmer Media''. 21 January 2009. Retrieved 23 April 2013. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140327221143/http://mediakh.net/khmer-news/trials-tribulations-and-textbooks-govt-dc-cam-review-kr-teaching/|date=27 March 2014}}.</ref> The textbook is aiming at standardising and improving the information students receive about the Khmer Rouge years because the government-issued social studies textbook devotes eight or nine pages to the period.<ref name="mediakh.net" /> The publication was a part of their [[genocide education]] project that includes leading the design of a national genocide studies curriculum with the Ministry of Education, training thousands of teachers and 1,700 high schools on how to teach about genocide and working with universities across Cambodia.<ref name="dccam.org" />

Youth for Peace,<ref name="yfp">http://www.yfpcambodia.org/ {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120629083447/http://www.yfpcambodia.org/ |date=29 June 2012 }} Youth for Peace</ref> a Cambodian [[non-governmental organization]] (NGO) that offers education in peace, leadership, conflict resolution and reconciliation to Cambodia's youth, published a book titled ''Behind the Darkness:Taking Responsibility or Acting Under Orders?'' in 2011. The book is unique in that instead of focusing on the victims as most books do, it collects the stories of former Khmer Rouge, giving insights into the functioning of the regime and approaching the question of how such a regime could take place.<ref>{{cite book|last=Khet|first=Long|editor=Youth for Peace|title=Behind the Darkness: Taking Responsibility or Acting Under Orders?|publisher=Youth for Peace|year=2011|page=i|chapter=Preface}}</ref>

=== Dialogues ===
While the tribunal contributes to the [[memorialization]] process at national level, some civil society groups promote memorialization at community level. The International Center for Conciliation (ICfC)<ref>[http://centerforconciliation.org/ "The International Center for Conciliation"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120225192846/http://centerforconciliation.org/ |date=25 February 2012 }}.</ref> began working in Cambodia in 2004 as a branch of the ICfC in [[Boston]]. ICfC launched the Justice and History Outreach project in 2007 and has worked in villages in rural Cambodia with the goal of creating mutual understanding and empathy between victims and former members of the Khmer Rouge.<ref name="ic4c.files.wordpress.com">[http://ic4c.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/2-11-eccc-report.pdf "ICfC Fosters Open Dialogue between Victims and Cadres"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140327204215/http://ic4c.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/2-11-eccc-report.pdf |date=27 March 2014 }} (PDF). The Court Report. February 2011. Retrieved 23 April 2012.</ref> Following the dialogues, villagers identify their own ways of memorialization such as collecting stories to be transmitted to the younger generations or building a memorial.<ref>Desai, Anuradha (March 2010). [http://ic4c.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/3-10-ed-cambodia-report.pdf "Through Dialogue, Healing Pain in Eastern Cambodia"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140327220839/http://ic4c.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/3-10-ed-cambodia-report.pdf |date=27 March 2014 }}. International Center for Conciliation. Field Report. Retrieved 23 April 2012.</ref> Through the process, some villagers are beginning to accept the possibility of an alternative viewpoint to the traditional notions of evil associated with anyone who worked for the Khmer Rouge regime.<ref name="ic4c.files.wordpress.com" />

=== Media coverage ===
Radio National Kampuchea<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rnk.gov.kh/index.php|title=Welcome to Radio National of Kampuchea|publisher=Radio National of Kampuchea|access-date=14 May 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120813234716/http://www.rnk.gov.kh/index.php|archive-date=13 August 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> as well as private radio stations broadcast programmes on the Khmer Rouge and trials.<ref name="Khmer Rouge Trials p. 25">''An Introduction to the Khmer Rouge Trials'', p. 25. Secretariat of the Royal Government Task Force, Office of the Council of Ministers. Revised by Public Affairs Section of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. 4th edition.</ref> ECCC has its own weekly radio program on RNK which provides an opportunity for the public to interact with court officials and deepen their understanding of cases.<ref>{{cite web|title= Weekly Radio Programme |website= Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia|url=http://www.eccc.gov.kh/en/media-center/weekly-radio|access-date=21 April 2012|archive-date=9 April 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120409032339/http://www.eccc.gov.kh/en/media-center/weekly-radio|url-status=live}}</ref>

Youth for Peace,<ref name="yfp" /> a Cambodian NGO that offers education in peace, leadership, conflict resolution and reconciliation to Cambodian's youth, has broadcast the weekly radio program, ''You Also Have a Chance'' since 2009.<ref name="Peace Activism p. 18">''10 Years of Peace Activism'', p. 18. Youth for Peace, Phnom Penh, April 2011.</ref> Aiming at preventing the passing on of hatred and violence to future generations, the program allows former Khmer Rouge to talk anonymously about their past experience.<ref name="Peace Activism p. 18" />