The Phnom Penh Post

My second piece for Granta.com about the tribunal was recently posted online. You can read it here. It discusses the scope of culpability for Khmer Rouge atrocities and includes an interview I conducted with former S-21 guard Him Huy (pictured at left) before I left Cambodia.

The recent lecture at Rutgers was a great experience and the students had a number of interesting questions. Hopefully some of them will be posting comments to the blog before long. The Newark campus' Division of Global Affairs seems to be a hub of much probing discussion related to human rights, genocide and the Cambodian case in particular. 

For those of you in the New Jersey area, I will be giving a lecture at Rutgers University, Newark on Thursday about the Khmer Rouge tribunal. The event is part of a speaker series hosted by the university's Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights. You can find information about the talk here.

I believe most of the students who will be attending are enrolled in a seminar that examines the role of perpetrators in genocidal violence. Part of their course involves studying Comrade Duch. I will be interested to hear their thoughts and questions and will post any interesting insights that come out of the lecture. 

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.

After nearly a year and a half in Cambodia, the time has come for me to return to the U.S. While I certainly plan to come back to Cambodia in the future, it most likely won't be before the trial of Comrade Duch has wrapped up. Luckily, a talented journalist at the Post has offered to help me maintain the blog.

Robbie Corey-Boulet received an M.S. in journalism from Columbia University and wrote for publications in India and Seattle before coming to the Phnom Penh Post. A strange coincidence: We actually worked together at The Brown Daily Herald in college, where he served as Editor-in-Chief several years after I held the same position.

While I will continue to blog about tribunal issues from afar, there is no replacement for having someone on the ground who can tell us what is really happening. I'm sure Robbie will do a wonderful job and am so happy he has signed on for this project!

I'm having some trouble with the paper's website right now, but as soon as the problem is resolved, I will post about Thursday's proceedings. Scholar Craig Etcheson was finally allowed to resume his testimony in the afternoon.

In the meantime, check out this piece in the Post about the court's latest warning to controversial defense lawyer Jacques Verges.

A great article appeared recently in the LA Times about the capture and trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, who I have mentioned several times in relation to "Comrade Duch." Read it here.

A commenter suggested a few days ago that Duch might also have some traits in common with Franz Stangl, commandant of the Treblinka extermination camp. I do not know much about him, but will definitely read Gitta Sereny's Into that Darkness, in which she probes Stangl's influences and motivations, as soon as I can get my hands on a copy.

* Judges at the tribunal's Pre-Trial Chamber have decided that Khieu Samphan's request for release from provisional detention is inadmissible.

* Sources close to the court have said six more potential defendants have been identified at the tribunal. But some court observers worry government interference may prevent the additional prosecutions from moving forward.

* Tribunal officials have finally finished drafting detention rules at the ECCC. 聽聽

&

The court has received the amicus briefs on Joint Criminal Enterprise judges had requested, but I haven't had a chance to read all of them because I was working on this piece about the upcoming U.S. election. However, I will finish going through them soon and post my thoughts.

 

A piece I wrote about the tribunal and my trip to Anlong Veng was just published on Granta.com.

 

There are some incredibly striking works on display as part of Meta House's "Art of Survival" exhibition. I can hardly believe that I've been to the gallery several times for screenings recently and haven't stopped to look at the works on display. An article in the current issue of Newsweek examines the ongoing group exhibition, which swelled to include a total of 40 artists this month. Each had a chance to reflect on the Khmer Rouge and, as the article describes, their creations vary significantly depending on age. Older artists generally crafted more literal depictions of the period, while the works of younger contributors reveal a society that has barely begun to confront its dark history. Oeur Sokuntevy, 25, admits in the article that her generation rarely discusses the Khmer Rouge period: "It's sad, but it's in the past." Her piece, "I am too young to understand these words," shows a girl talking on her cell phone next to a phrase reproduced from Pol Pot's "Little Red Book."