The Phnom Penh Post

A recent commentary in the New York Times describes the general lack of attention the Khmer Rouge tribunal has received in the United States. I have to say that, sadly, since I returned to the U.S. in August, I have found this largely to be the case.

It is particularly inexcusable considering the role America played in decimating the country and creating circumstances that allowed the Khmer Rouge to come to power in the first place.

As Richard Bernstein writes, the lack of attention is "strange, given that tens of millions of Americans are old enough to remember when Cambodia was a preoccupying and deeply emotional issue for the United States, a tragic sideshow, as the writer William Shawcross put it, to the larger war in Indochina."

A feature that ran in Tuesday's Post.

By Robbie Corey-Boulet and May Titthara

At the age of 14, Out Moeun left her family home in Anlong Veng district, Oddar Meanchey province, to work for Khmer Rouge Central Committee member Chhit Choeun, alias Ta Mok.

The Cambodian Diaspora Victims' Participation Project will be holding workshops in Portland this weekend to show Khmer Rouge survivors how they can file testimony with the tribunal. More information can be found here. The workshops will be held Saturday and Sunday, from 9:30am to 3pm at 10301 NE Glisan St. in Portland.

I have been on the road for awhile, so this post is late in coming, but I wanted to make note of a wonderful event that was held last month in Portland, Ore.: a "Collective Sharing and Healing Forum" sponsored by the Cambodian-American Community of Oregon. It is the second event of its kind in Portland and happened to coincide with a trip to my hometown.

I have to admit, before I traveled to Cambodia I did not know much about the Cambodian community in Oregon. My mother has taught English as a Second Language in Portland for years, and she has had numerous Cambodian and Vietnamese students in her classes, but I had no idea that CACO was so vocal and well-organized.

The August forum, which was held at Portland State University and focused on the Khmer Rouge tribunal, boasted an impressive selection of speakers and discussion panels. Highlights included "Conversations with Khmer Authors" (such as activist Theary Seng and former U.S. Ambassador Sichan Siv); "Shared Suffering, Shared Resilience and the Cambodian Diaspora Victims' Participation Project," presented by Professor Leakhena Nou; and a description of the Khmer Rouge tribunal by scholar Craig Etcheson. Several participants flew from Cambodia for the event.

In recent days, scholar David Chandler has testified to Khmer Rouge stupidity, and a former S-21 gravedigger has described how he helped dispose of bodies. 

Luckily, it seems that our webmaster at the Post has been able to work out some of the kinks with the new format, and I am able to post entries again. I still need to correct formatting issues with old entries, but this will be done in the near future.

Since I last wrote, the court has continued interviewing former S-21 staffers. Recaps of these testimonies are available in the Post's recent archives and also at the Cambodia Tribunal Monitor (the latter source is a bit more extensive).

As a backdrop to all this, the atmosphere at the court itself has changed considerably in recent months. I've mentioned this before, but because the difference is so striking, I recently interviewed newly appointed Public Affairs head Reach Sambath about his office's outreach efforts. Since he took over his new role in June, hearings have gone from generally sparsely attended events (often with only a couple dozen people staying for afternoon sessions), to overflow audiences.

Sorry for the inconsistent posting and the recent lack of links and photos. The Post website is still being upgraded and we're trying to sort everything out. However, if you would like to see photos from the most recent days of testimony, you can check out the ECCC's new Flickr page: www.flickr.com/photos/krtribunal/

Former S-21 guard Him Huy finished his testimony Monday, which Comrade Duch agreed was largely accurate except for a few "minimal shortcomings." Most notably, Him claimed he saw Duch at least two times at Choeung Ek although the defendant says he only came to the Killing Fields once.

More glaring discrepancies arose between the testimonies of Him and Tuol Sleng survivor Bou Meng. Bou, who survived S-21 because of his painting skills, said that Him had beaten and tortured him. He even claimed that his torturers had jokingly asked him what kinds of sticks he wanted to be beaten with.

Him Huy gave a chilling account Thursday of executions at the Choeung Ek Killing Fields. Unlike former S-21 deputy Mam Nay, whom Comrade Duch accused of withholding information, Him was very forthcoming in his testimony.

Tuol Sleng detainees destined for the Killing Fields were generally loaded onto trucks around 8pm, under cover of darkness, Him told judges. If they asked where they were being taken, staff had been instructed by deputy chairman Comrade Hor to say they were “going to a new home.”

The ride to Choeung Ek took around 30 minutes. When they arrived, the prisoners were led to a room underneath a small house on the site. A generator was switched on to greet the arriving transports and a light shone from the house. It must have been an eerie scene.

It was a moving -- and disturbing -- day at the court as Him Huy offered detailed testimony about operations at S-21 and the Killing Fields. I will post about this tomorrow ...

Former S-21 deputy Mam Nay did indeed begin testifying today, although his much-anticipated appearance was somewhat anticlimactic. For the most part, the 76-year-old, bundled in a krama and gloves, claimed he couldn't remember much about his work under Comrade Duch.

He told judges that, despite his status as an interrogator at S-21, he did not torture prisoners. Moreover, he claimed that the detainees brought to him looked neither malnourished nor mistreated -- a comment met with disbelief by many audience members.

Mam became most passionate toward the end of the day, when explaining how he believed all of the Vietnamese brought to S-21 were somehow guilty.