ICfC Projects 2006-2007
Public Forums
In 2006, the ICfC and partner organization the Center for Social Development (CSD), a Phnom Penh-based NGO, decided to co-organize three public forums aimed at inspiring public debate on issues central reconciliation in Cambodia. The discussion topics for these events were:
- What are your hopes, needs, and fears for the upcoming Khmer Rouge tribunal?
- If the tribunal does not meet all of your hopes and needs, is it possible to work within the community to get what you need? How might that happen?
- To what extent do Cambodia’s youth understand and accept the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge ("KR") years? Should they be taught about this? If so, how?
In March 2006, the ICfC and CSD held the first forum in Pailin, a city in Northwestern Cambodia that is a known center for Khmer Rouge leadership and ideas. People from all over Northwestern Cambodia were in attendance.
The most recent ICfC sponsored forum was held in Kampot and brought lower ranking, more integrated Khmer Rouge participants together with survivors and other groups. This forum focused more closely on discussing hopes and needs for the Tribunal and how these impact perceptions of reconciliation. In attendance at the forum to help field participants’ questions about the Khmer Rouge Tribunal were representatives from the KRT and former United States Ambassador for War Crimes, David Scheffer.
Youth Education, Community Development
The core idea behind the Youth Education, Community Development (YECD) Project is that some of the fears and needs expressed about the KRT can be addressed by working on issues of prejudice, identity, and sympathy. The Project consists of using ICfC guides to train young Cambodian volunteers (university students and staff of non-governmental organizations) to be facilitators of dialogue about issues related to justice and historical conciliation. These young leaders then engage in village level dialogues about the expectations of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal and the generation gap in understanding and sympathy for recent violent history. Thedialogue participants from the community include teachers, members of the pagoda committees, students, and older residents. The focus is on exercises about sympathy in terms of alternative perspectives on history and aim to draw out the simultaneous multiple identities that Cambodians hold, dealing with propaganda, victimization, nationalism, and prejudice.
We hope this project will spark discussion and new ideas of what might work to diffuse potential intra-community ethnic conflict.
Village development group with ICfC team in Battambang province.