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All Pieces Were Art-Directed and Designed by Youk Chhang, and Published by DC-Cam, Unless Otiierwise Specified. Spreads From kuf All pieces were art-directed and designed by Youk Opposite: Issue no. 54, June Z004. Photograph of an Chhang, and published by DC-Cam, unless otiierwise unidentified prisoner of S-21, the Khmer Rouge specified. facility also known as Tuol Sleng, where thousands of Cambodians were tortured and murdered. Many of Spreads from Search ing for tbe Truth magazine. the prisoners at S-21 were themselves IiR cadres who Designers: Youk Chbang, Sophcak Sim. were arrested, brutally interrogated, and executed. Above: Issue no. 55, July 2004. A room at the Siem This photograph was printed in the hopes of finding Reap Genocide Memorial. the man's relatives. i ,«>**'«•". A CAMBODIAN DESIGNER ATTEMPTS TO MAKE PEACE WITH THE PAST BY ARCHIVING THE HORRORS OE THE KHMER ROUGE YEARS. By Edward Lovett nciliation In the late 1970s, Youk Chhang was living, archives the history of the Khmer Rouge as all Cambodians were, in the Khmer years. Since the victims cannot speak for Rouge's idea of Maoist agrarian Utopia. In themselves, Chhang has sought to unearth reality, his home was a slave labor camp rid- (often literally) and document a history that dled with famine and disease, ruled by an would otherwise remain unktiown. oppressive regime that was simultaneously In overseeing the design and production of paranoid, brutal, and inept. The prisoners in DC-Cam's publications, Chhang is also a the camp were forced to work the fields all graphic designer. But the content he presents day, every day. They were also critically is categorically different ftom that of most underfed, and they risked their lives to gath- designers. Chhang contends with the er more food, often for loved ones. difficult, sometimes banal, and often heart- One day, Youk Chhang's sister was accused breaking question of how to present infor- of stealing riee. "The Khmer Rouge wanted mation about genocide. His life and work are proof," Chhang has recalled in an interview tetnindcrs that design can be profoundly with the Phnom Penh Post, "so they cut her moving and redemptive. open with a knife to see if the rice was in her Chhang was 14 when the Khtner Rouge stomach." She died. took power in 1975, renaming Cambodia as This is just one story among millions, and Democratic Kampuchea. After the KR fell in it's impossible to muster a response that 1979, Chhang came to the U.S., where he could hope to grapple with this singular hor- became a community outreach representative ror. Youk Chhang understands this, but he for a crime prevention program affiliated also knows that silence is an ignoble cop-out with the Dallas police. He studied political in the face of past calamity. science at the University of Dallas, and even- Chhang is now director ofthe Documen- tually returned to his homeland in 1992 as an tation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam), a non- electoral officer for the United Nations governmental Cambodian organization that Transitional Authority in Cambodia. Chhang print JAN/IKB 2005 81 Two books published by DC-Cam. Left side: Cover ofTbe Right side: Cover of Lady in Black, a translation Oiikoiibab, a book by Ysa AH ofVoiccsfrom S-2i, a book Osman about the by David Chandler about genoeide of Muslims the S-zt prison and the from the Cham ethnic broader moral and group. (The title is the philosophical Arabic word for "justice" implications ofthe used in the Quran.) The Cambodiangcnocide. photograph shows a The photograph shows a young Cham Muslim Khmer Rouge member boy currently living named Hong Kun. After in Cambodia. her arrest in October Photographer: Youk 1976, she was tortured Chhang. and executed.Translator Bo uso u Sour. decided to use his education and experience detail what these phrases stand for, to raphy exhibitions, films, and radio program- to help his native country. His inclination to account for what actually happened. ming. The printed output is particularly document the KR atrocities was strengthened The organization's 45 full-time Cambo- robust and is the most visible face of DC- by the doubt that foreignets showed when he dian employees gather materials and histo- Cam. A magazine, Searchingfor the Truth, is told them stories of life during the Khmer ries in many forms—KR records and photo- published monthly in Khmer and distrib- Rouge era; they were skeptical even when he graphs, survivor accounts, interviews with uted at little or no cost throughout the coun- told them how his sister was killed. "People former KR cadres—^that document the years try. (There is a quarterly edition in English.) could not believe it," he said in the Post inter- ofthe regime's existence. They find, map, The magazine is a forum for research about view. "It made me angry, because this type of and exhume mass graves all over the country the Khmer Rouge regime and presents legal thing happened to all of us. I wanted people (last count, as of December: 19,541). They issues related to prosecuting the surviving to accept the truth, but it was very difficult. organize these data geographically, chrono- KR leaders. DC-Cam also releases books I had to do research so people could see logically, and thematically. This accurate, about different aspects ofthe KR history— the facts." thorough hody of information ensures that one recent project examined the persecution Since its founding in January 1995, Cambodia's history will not be lost. And since of a certain group within Cambodia's DC-Cam, based in the capital city of Phnom the United Nations and the Cambodian gov- Muslim minority—and publishes Khmer Penh, has produced the facts. The organiza- ernment recently agreed, after long and con- translations of genocide-related texts such as tion was started as the Cambodian base of tentious negotiations, to hold a tribunal to The Diary of Anne Frank. prosecute surviving Khmer Rouge leaders fot Yale University's Cambodian Genocide Youk Chhang designs ali of this—in addi- genocide and crimes against humanity, the Program, which received funding from the tion to writing, editing, managing the staff, DC-Cam material will be the evidence used U.S. State Department in 1994. By now, every- talking to the press, and raising money. He by both prosecution and defense. If the tri- one knows that something horrific occurred designs with several key principles in mind. bunal is derailed, the work of DC-Cam will at not so long ago in Cambodia: The phrases DC-Cam's publications must convey credibil- least be able to serve as what Chhang calls a " Khmer Rouge" and "killing fields" have ity and political neutrality, and they must "surrogate truth commission." become part ofthe lexicon of 20th-century communicate a respect for the dead and malevolence. DC-Cam's core mission is to do The organization disseminates its findings their survivors. the laborious and painful work necessary to in various forms: print publications, photog- The resulting esthetic is understated and 8z print JAN/FEB 2005 :*?•-. Covers oi Searching for the Truth. Left: Issue no. 56, August 2004. Contemporary photograph of Noun Hong, a former S-21 4 prison guard who joined !*»« the Khmer Rouge in 1972. Photographer: Heng Sinith. Center: Issue no. S4. June 2004. Photograph of a prisoner named Kim Bol. Right: Issue no. ss, July 2004. Photo shows a I group from the Svay Rieng province commemorating the annual Day of Hatred (May 20}, a day devoted to rememhering the crimes ofthe Khmer Rouge. reverent. Chhang uses a niinhnal color selec- part to the decimation of the professional ment nor the United Nations had set up a tion of black, white, gray, and red. The pre- classes by the KR (who reviled them as "bour- formal entity to do what Chhang is doing, dominant black—reminiscent of the clothes geois capitalists"), Cambodian design and and it's far from certain that the Khmer that were the national uniform during the print production are generally dismal, which Rouge holocaust would have been docu- KR years—conveys a mournful tone as well makes the high quality of DC-Cam's publica- mented otherwise. as a seriousness of purpose. The red alludes tions all the more necessary and effective. Cambodia's prime minister, Hun Sen, has Even so, Chhang insists he designs DC-Cam's suggested that the nation should "dig a hole DC-Cam's publications publications "from the heart without think- and bury the past." Maybe so. This would be must convey credibility ing about the look. It is an expression from simpler, easier, and arguably less threatening and political neutrality, and the heart." to its stability. After all, no one wants to see they must communicate a The immense importance of Chhang's the country start to fall apart again. respect for the dead and work to Cambodia's future—by way of its Yet most survivors ofthe Khmer Rouge their survivors. past—makes it politically volatile. years want resolution, justice, and healing. Cambodia's contemporary culture is one of They want to know why some Khmers killed to the blood spilled by the KR and the blood violence and impunity, and Chhang's life is two million of their brothers and sisters. The ties that unite the Cambodian people; it also constantly in danger. Because of this, there is question is unanswerable, but Youk Chhang hints at the red-checked krama, a scarf worn no sign outside the large white house in is defying the silence with an accounting of by many KR leaders and cadres. The overall Phnom Penh where the center is housed. just what happened. color palette underscores the frequent use of When I visited DC-Cam last year, Chhang When I came across the Bertolt Brecht quo- the KR's own black-and-white photographs met me with a smile and a firm handshake.
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