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ROUNDTABLE: Cambodia: Issues of Memory, Justice and Reconciliation - Sponsored by the Committee on Teaching About Asia
Organizer and Chair: Namji Steinemann, East-West Center
Discussants: Youk Chhang, Documentation Center-Cambodia; Alex Hinton, Rutgers University; Peter Kiang, University of Massachusetts, Boston; Gwen R. Johnson, Scarsdale High School
Countries the world over have issues from recent past that remain unresolved. Cambodia is no exception. As a post-conflict and post-genocidal country, Cambodia continues to search for reconciliation and just solutions for its turbulent past during the Khmer Rouge era. To bring closure to its recent history – and perhaps justice for those who died and suffered – Cambodia is gearing itself up for the much awaited Tribunal, known officially as the “Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.” At the same time, given that the Tribunal will try only a small handful of top-ranking former Khmer Rouge leaders for the atrocities committed during its brutal rule between 1975 and 1979, while thousands of lower-level Khmer Rouge cadres continue to live alongside their former victims, what will the trial mean for the Cambodian population? Youk Chhang and his researchers at the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) have been gathering evidence and documenting the history of the Khmer Rouge period, which saw an estimated 1.7 million die as a result of starvation, overwork, disease, and executions. In fact, much of the evidence that will be presented during the Tribunal will only be available because of DC-Cam’s work. This roundtable will bring together Youk Chhang along with collegiate- and precollegiate educators to engage the audience in discussing ways to address issues of history, memory, justice, and reconciliation with the Khmer Rouge Tribunal being a lens through which to look at the Cambodian experience.