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Searching for the truth. Magazine of the Documentation Center of Cambodia Table of Contents Special English Edition, July 2003 Editorial: Conviction Lacking for KR Trial Pact ........1 Letter from Youk Chhang: Overview of Documentary Materials at the DC-Cam ........................................2 DOCUMENTATION The Security System of Special Zone’s M-13 ...........3 The Evil Legacy of the French Colony ...................10 Comrade Pauk to Pol Pot ........................................11 Knowing the Truth Brings about Catharsis ............12 HISTORY China and the Cambodian Conflict, 1970-1975 ......14 The Khmer Rouge Division 703 ............................32 Would Go to Hell Together .........................................34 Duch’s Mother: Family Fears for the Tuol Sleng (S-21) Prison Chief ...............................................36 LEGAL Rethinking the Geneva Conventions .......................38 Hans Corell PUBLIC DEBATE Copyright © Perfection Is the Enemy of Justice ........................40 My Reflections on the Issue of the KR Tribunal ....43 Documentation Center of Cambodia 50 Dutch Statement on the KR Trials ..........................45 50 All rights reserved. Swedish Statement on KR Tribunal ........................45 50 Licensed by the Ministry of Information of Remarks by H.E. Sok An and H.E. Hans Corell .....46 50 the Royal Government of Cambodia, The Collective Victims of Genocide in Cambodia ..49 100 Prakas No.0291 P.M99 100 August 2, 1999. 100 FAMILY TRACING 100 The Deprivation of Rights ......................................55 Photographs by the Documentation Center of 100 Punish Them as Severely as They Did to Us ..........58 Cambodia and Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. 100 Do Not Make Justice Simple....................................60 Contributors: Sok An, Hans Corell, Kalyan Sann, John D. Ciorciari, Sophearith Chuong, Keo Kanitha Kim, Rasy Pheng Pong, Lim Srey Phalla, Sok Sunday, Quiang Zhai, Anthony Dworkin, Gregory H. Stanton, Gotaro Ogawa. Staff Writers: Black Sophal Ly, Sayana Ser, Kalyan Sann. Assistant English Editor-in-chief: Kok-Thay Eng. English Editor-in-chief: Yellow Bunsou Sour. Editor-in-chief and Publisher: Youk Chhang. Graphic Designer: Sopheak Sim. Distributor: Bunthann Meas. Magenta Cyan Searching for the truth Editorial Special English Edition, July 2003 Editorial: CONVICTION LACKING FOR KHMER ROUGE TRIAL PACT The national election campaigns are under way On 16 July 2003, the Royal Government of and the voters and I expect and demand that this year's Cambodia submitted a letter signed by Prime Minister elections proceed in a more democratic manner. Yet while Hun Sen to the National Assembly, urging legislators to many citizens, experts and diplomats are calm about the expedite ratification of the UN-RGC draft agreement pre-election campaigning, they are now questioning for the Khmer Rouge tribunal. And on 18 July 2003, whether the fate of the proposed Khmer Rouge tribunal Assembly President Prince Norodom Ranariddh said hangs in the balance, subject to the outcome of the July that the draft would soon be approved. Action speaks 27th parliamentary election. louder than words. But no action has been achieved. Time may be running out. Khieu Ponnary, the first Such statements are promising. It is important wife of Pol Pot, died on 1 July 2003, at the age of 83, in that representatives of the National Assembly choose to Pailin, a former Khmer Rouge stronghold in northwestern endorse the proposed tribunal. Yet, Khmer Rouge victims Cambodia, and it seems likely that important information are justified in their concerns that these are just words died with her. Will the passage of time, unwilling leaders, and not promises. They are asking legitimate questions and political maneuverings rob us of our justice and of their leaders: When will the draft agreement be passed dignity? by the Cambodian legislature? Is the current government Interested states, including Japan and Nordic of Cambodia willing to bring KR leaders to trial? Will countries, have continued to support and push the tribunal the future government of Cambodia be willing to bring forward. Further, on 6 June 2003, U.S. State Department KR leaders to trial? And they deserve answers. And the spokesman Richard Boucher welcomed the signing of members of the parliament must do their job. an agreement between the RGC and the UN, saying “the Does the Royal Government of Cambodia really establishment of a credible tribunal within Cambodia is mean business? If it is all words, then will the end of the 50 a key step towards eliminating the climate of impunity elections mean the end of progress toward a tribunal? If 50 in the country”, although concerns about the tribunal's they really want justice, why hasn't National Assembly impartiality, adherence to due process, and susceptibility acted sooner? 50 to political influence remain. The upcoming elections (July 27, 2003) serve as 50 At the signing ceremony of the Agreement between a reminder of the importance of the role of humanity, 100 the UN and the RGC Concerning the Prosecution under especially Cambodia's commitment to securing justice 100 Cambodian Law of Crimes Committed During the Period for the victims of Cambodia. Whether through the 100 of Democratic Kampuchea, held at Chaktomuk Theatre successful trials of Khmer Rouge leaders or through 100 on 6 June 2003, their excellencies Sok An, on behalf of other means, we will never cease to hope that the victims 100 the Cambodian government, and Hans Corell, on behalf will one day be able to rest in peace. 100 of the UN, reaffirmed their commitment to securing Bunsou Sour justice for the victims of the Khmer Rouge. Again this Editor-in-Chief Black is a promising step. Searching for the truth (English) Yellow Magenta Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) 1 Cyan Special English Edition, July 2003 Searching for the truth Letter Letter from Youk Chhang: OVERVIEW OF DOCUMENTARY MATERIALS AT THE DOCUMENTATION CENTER OF CAMBODIA Since its founding in 1995, DC-Cam has been active The mapping reports prepared by the Director and in collecting documents relevant to the history of the staff of DC-Cam are an important form of potential Democratic Kampuchea (DK) era. To date, DC-Cam has secondary evidence produced in the post-DK period. The amassed well over 600,000 pages of documentation from mapping reports were prepared with the advice and the DK era, petitions and interview transcripts taken from assistance of technical experts and the application of global survivors of the regime, and a variety of other potential positioning system technology. They have been accumulated evidence. DC-Cam by no means possesses a monopoly on through extensive field research, involving both physical documentation relevant to the crimes of Communist Party exploration and hundreds of interviews. The mapping of Kampuchea (CPK) leaders, but it is the largest existing reports now detail the locations and characteristics of over repository of such materials. The Tuol Sleng Archives 19,440 mass burial pits throughout Cambodia. They also (TSL) represent a second major repository of potential include information about countless skeletal remains and evidence. They are documents once housed at the infamous over 167 prisons or detention facilities apparently dating Tuol Sleng Prison in Phnom Penh, also known as "Office from the DK era, many of which contain the remnants of S-21," which served as the central office for the CPK torture devices. security organization, the Santebal. The personal archives In Combination with photographs and transcripts of certain leading journalists and scholars-containing from interviews with witnesses, the mapping reports interview transcripts from meetings with CPK officials, highlight the abundant physical evidence of the crimes of victims, and survivors-are also a valuable source of potential the CPK. To maximize their utility, expert forensic testimony evidentiary information. will be required, establishing the age of the human remains The available documentary materials that may be and the likely manner of death. By analyzing the age of used against CPK leaders can be divided broadly into two materials and substances found at particular prisons, mass major categories. The first includes materials produced graves, and torture sites, forensic experts may also be able during the Khmer Rouge era. DK cadres and officials to link them to the DK period. DC-Cam is currently engaged authored most of the documents dating from the 1975-79 in a forensic analysis project with a team of experts, and period, but confessions of CPK prisoners and documents preliminary forensic analyses are expected to be completed 50 from foreign countries are also available. The second major by the end of 2003. 50 category of documentary evidence includes materials Collectively, the various types of documentation 50 produced after the fall of the DK regime in 1979. These described above can play an invaluable role in proving the 50 are primarily petitions and interview transcripts from crimes of CPK leaders. In all categories, "smoking gun" 100 survivors of the DK period, but they also include mapping documents are comparatively rare. The shrouded nature 100 reports describing extant physical evidence. Additional of the Khmer Rouge regime, as well as the number and 100 materials undoubtedly exist, and it is the continuing complexity of their offenses, requires that documents be challenge of DC-Cam and historical and legal investigators used in concert to prove