Searching for the Truth Issues 13
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Searching for the truth. Magazine of Documentation Center of Cambodia Table of Contents Number 13, January 2001 Pol Pot Letter : For Memory and Justice ............................1 DOCUMENTATION Confession of Pann Sim ..........................................4 Genocide Sites in Battambang Province ..................7 Renakse Records ......................................................9 Temporary Statutes of the Communist Youth .......10 Comrade Pin’s File .................................................15 Khmer Rouge Law .................................................18 Ethnic Cham Under DK .........................................19 HISTORY Voices from S-21....................................................24 Victims and Perpetrators ........................................27 Quantifying Crimes Against Humanity .................30 LEGAL A Sampling of Documentary Evidence .................34 PUBLIC DEBATE Revenge in the Pol Pot Period .............................38 Amnesty .................................................................43 The Khmer Rouge Justice ......................................46 FAMILY TRACING Diary ......................................................................55 Copyright © SPECIAL ISSUE Documentation Center of Cambodia Draft Law on the Establishment of Extra-Ordinary 50 All rights reserved. Chambers .............................................................57 Licensed by the Ministry of Information of 50 the Royal Government of Cambodia, 50 Prakas No.0291 P.M99 50 August 2, 1999. 100 Photographs by the Documentation Center of 100 Ta Mok Cambodia and Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. 100 100 The English translation edited by 100 Wynne Cougill Proofread by Youk Chhang and Julio A. Jeldres. 100 Contributors: Rasy Pheng Pong, Osman Ysa, David Chandler, Meng Try Ea, Craig Etcheson, Steve Heder, Alex Hinton, Jan van der Grinten, Bora Touch. Staff Writers: Kalyan Sann, Sophal Ly, Sophearith Chuong. Black Assistant Editor-in-chief: Sokhym Em. First Deputy Editor-in-chief: Kosal Phat. Second Deputy Editor-in- Yellow chief: Sorya Sim. Editor-in-chief: Youk Chhang. Graphic Designer: Sopheak Sim. Distributor: Sopheak Try. Magenta Cyan Searching for the truth Letter Number 13, January 2001 Letter: FOR MEMORY AND JUSTICE The Documentation Center of Cambodia Through this process, the Documentation Center, in (DC-Cam) has two main objectives. The first cooperation with its international partners, has objective is to record and preserve the history of the assembled extensive bibliographic, biographic, Khmer Rouge regime for future generations. The photographic and geographic databases of second objective is to gather legal evidence and information related to Khmer Rouge abuses. This other materials in support of those who seek provides legal scholars and investigatorsas well as accountability for the crimes of the Khmer Rouge. researchers and historians with valuable tools to These two objectives - memory and justice - would understand precisely who did what to whom, when, serve to build a foundation for the rule of law and where and how, and sometimes, even why. This also genuine national reconciliation. Also, an on-going allows Cambodians to know their own history, and research project attempts to analyze the primary to come to terms with it. In February 1999 the UN materials collected through these various means, to Group of Experts found prima facie culpability understand how they fit into the overall historical against the Khmer Rouge leadership for war crimes, context of the Khmer Rouge period. genocide and other crimes against humanity. Their Between 1995 and 2000, the Documentation assessment was based principally on their Center of Cambodia catalogued approximately examination of Documentation Center holdings. 155,000 pages of primary Khmer Rouge documents The Documentation Center also expects to be called and more than 6,000 photographs. This tremendous upon as the principal source of evidentiary materials effort barely scratched the surface of the for any Khmer Rouge tribunal that may be Documentation Center’s holdings. The bulk of the established. Prosecutors and defense counsel Documentation Center’s archives have not yet been involved in the cases of Khmer Rouge military chief catalogued, including nearly 30,000 more Mok and Tuol Sleng (S-21) Prison chief Duch have 50 photographs and more than 400,000 additional already requested substantial assistance from the 50 pages of documents. The Documentation Center is Documentation Center. 50 devising a work plan for the next five years, during Successfully achieving our two primary 50 which we aim to complete the cataloguing of this objectives - memory and justice - will serve to help 100 backlog of materials. build a foundation for the rule of law and genuine The second objective is to gather legal national reconciliation in Cambodia. We aim to 100 evidence and other materials in support of those who pursue these objectives in several ways. First, we 100 seek accountability for the crimes of the Khmer will sustain and then accelerate our rate of 100 Rouge. In support of this objective, the cataloguing the primary materials relating to the 100 Documentation Center is constantly cataloguing Khmer Rouge regime. Second, we will expand the 100 materials gathered through various means and scope of our analysis of these primary materials, entering them into computer databases in an effort to focusing on topic areas relevant to accountability Black produce annotated indexes to the archive’s contents. and finding the truth. Third, in the coming five Yellow Magenta Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) 1 Cyan Number 13, January 2001 Searching for the truth Letter years, we will greatly expand the computer The Documentation Center staff have also been databases assembled during our first six years of cross-trained in a variety of fields, so they can back work. These goals can be accomplished only if we up each other as needed. have a stable and predictable source of core funding. The Documentation Center relies heavily on Securing such a stable source of core funding will volunteers, interns and guest researchers. Currently, permit us to engage in long-term planning and to some one hundred persons work in a volunteer better schedule our resource utilization. capacity on various projects. This provides a pool of Research talent with gradually increasing experience in Numerous historic-graphical studies have Documentation Center methodologies from which been produced under the auspices of the DC-Cam, to recruit future staff members. Meanwhile, the including monographs on the Western Zone, the Documentation Center’s volunteers produce large Northwest Zone, the Northeast Zone, the Cham quantities of output that would otherwise not be minority, women, and Buddhist monks under the accomplished. The Documentation Center also Khmer Rouge. These papers are scheduled for regularly hosts interns from universities, law firms publication by Yale University’s Southeast Asia and other institutions abroad to work on specific Studies program. Further studies in progress include projects, including people from the United States, the Eastern Zone, Southwest Zone, the Vietnamese, Australia, Britain, The Netherlands, Thailand and Chinese and Hill Tribe minority groups, and other countries. In addition, many of the world’s children. leading scholars in such areas as the Khmer Rouge, In addition, the DC-Cam has been hosting modern Cambodia and genocide studies are international research specialists on the Khmer regularlyhostedasguest scholars to pursue advanced Rouge, who are preparing a number of book-length studies in the Documentation Center archives. Finally, studies based in whole or in part on DC-Cam because of the highly technical nature of many archives. The DC-Cam hopes to expand this aspect Documentation Center activities, we occasionally of its research work in the near future. The DC-Cam retain the services of professional consultants in a has also hosted official US and Cambodian variety of disciplines such as international law, government researchers affiliated with the search for architecture, remote sensing, and so on. The US soldiers missing in action during the war. Documentation Center of Cambodia’s staff and 50 Finally, the DC-Cam has been expanding its volunteers have discovered many difficult truths 50 research activities to the international level, carrying about what happened during the Khmer Rouge 50 out primary research expeditions to countries in the regime. To communicate this information to the 50 region, and presenting research results at a variety of Cambodian people, last year the DC-Cam inaugurated 100 international, legal and scholarly conferences a publication called Searching for the Truth. 100 abroad. The Khmer-language editions of this magazine 100 The Documentation Center is staffed entirely are distributed free at the commune level throughout 100 by Cambodians. Without exception, every member the country, aiming to educate the citizenry about 100 of the Documentation Center team began as a what really happened during the “Pol Pot time,” and 100 volunteer, gradually gaining the experience and to inform the people about progress toward confidence necessary to be brought on board as paid accountability for the atrocities of that era. staff. The senior members of the management team Searching for the Truth appears monthly, with each Black thus have all worked their way up from the bottom. issues containing articles on Cambodian