• Cambodian filmmaker Rithy Panh speaks of the duty to remember. In his words, one must know their past to be able to put it behind. There can be no escaping the amnesia and suffering unless the status of victims is recognized. Source: International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights, 2012

1 of 3

• Presentation of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), a tribunal charged with prosecuting the leaders of the Khmer rouge. Source: ECCC, 2010

• 

  Ieng Sary was condemned to death in absentia in 1979. This conviction, however, was not recognized by the international community. He was indicted by the ECCC for war crimes and crimes against humanity only in 2007. He died in 2013 before his trial came to an end. Source: ECCC

• Survivor of the genocide in Cambodia, he believes that the ECCC’s authority is limited and that too few people have been prosecuted. Source: Montreal Life Stories

• Exhibition United against genocide: Understand, question, prevent
• Français

Exhibition United against genocide: Understand, question, prevent

menu

• Seeking justice after a genocide
• Justice and the Armenian Genocide
• Justice and the Cambodian Genocide
• Justice and the Holocaust
• Justice and the Genocide in Rwanda
• Canada's contribution

Justice and the Cambodian Genocide : fighting silence

Cambodia has suffered from “national amnesia” since 1979. Prime Minister Hun Sen, in power since 1985, has strongly urged Cambodians to bury the past. A generalized silence about the genocide committed by the Khmer rouge has therefore reigned for three decades.

Initiatives by civil society organizations have seen the situation begin to change in 2009. A desire to teach about the genocide and to reconcile Cambodians has since appeared in school curricula.

At the same time, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) began the work of prosecuting criminals in 2007. Despite the scope and nature of the crimes, only five of those responsible were prosecuted, and only one was punished: Duch, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2012.

Textbook before 2009

Verbatim extract from a Cambodian textbook on the subject of the Khmer rouge crimes, dating from before 2009

“Between April 25 and April 27, 1975, the Khmer rouge leaders convened a special congress to draw up a new constitution and to rename the country Democratic Kampuchea. A new government, led by Pol Pot, was installed, following which Cambodians were slaughtered.”

• 

  1 of 2

• 

•