Rural Cambodians feeling validated and “unstuck”

By Anuradha Desai, Executive Director

“The participatory approach of ICfC is unique and very necessary in Cambodia.  ICfC works incessantly to help the Khmer Rouge survivors free themselves from their painful past. Through its grassroots approach and intergenerational dialogues, ICfC creates a stronger community. I won’t hesitate to call ICfC a “hidden jewel.”

I was greeted by these encouraging words from Dr. Andreas Selmeci, coordinator of Civil Peace Service of DED, the German Development Organization, setting the stage for my very short but highly productive trip to Cambodia. In early February I went to Cambodia for a week to understand the work of the Center and to see how efficacious it would be to continue the programs. After my visit to a village in Kampong Chhnang province and meetings with other NGO leaders, human rights activists, program evaluators, and our partner organization Youth for Peace, I had no doubt in my mind that now, more than ever, ICfC needs to strengthen and expand our work in Cambodia.

Thirty years after the atrocities took place the past remains ever present and painful memories haunt Cambodians tio this day. Yet Prime Minister Hun Sen’s words “to dig a hole in your backyard and bury your memories in order to move forward,” invalidate the horrific experiences of many individuals. The countryside, where 80% of the Cambodian population live and most atrocities of the Khmer Rouge era took place, is barely attended to by policy makers and even by the recently-formed, Phnom Penh-based, Khmer Rouge Tribunal. The countryside has limited or no physical evidence of the massacre. The rural population continues to struggle with past experiences and painful memories. And the children and grandchildren of Khmer Rouge survivors are growing up without learning about this history in school or even at home.

ICfC has been working in Cambodia since 2005. We pursue the work with a strong belief that in order to successfully move forward through a transitional justice process as they recover from mass atrocity, Cambodians must confront history. Working as an adviser and trainer on Historical Conciliation to Youth for Peace and other local NGOs, ICfC assesses the needs of communities, develops a bottom-up participatory approach with a focus on memory and history, and encourages them to develop forward-looking actionable goals. ICfC empowers survivors by helping to “unclog” the mental arteries of bad memories and facilitates a dialogue process to create communication about their own past with the younger generation.
During my visit in February, I was fortunate to experience first-hand how the ICfC field staff Keng Dinyn, Phan Dara, and Heng Sokong, in partnership with the staff from Trans-cultural Psychosocial Organization (TPO) have built a sense of trust and connection with villagers and formed relationships that subsequently create space for dialogue. Through the creation of space for people to recount their own suppressed trials, tribulations, and troubles, they are allowing for the validation of voices that have thus far been silenced, and for the remembrance and documentation of history that should not be forgotten or repeated.

Time and again I heard the same sentiment from the villagers who said, “It is not easy for us to talk about our past experiences because we feel great pain. However, we notice the release of tension and stress that we feel inside after talking. Thank you for asking me questions about my past.” When young students were interviewed, they acknowledged, “Before, we did not know and we did not believe that Cambodians faced the Khmer Rouge regime because our parents rarely talk about these times, however, when we saw the pictures and heard what you (ICfC staff) said, we started to believe.” A recent New York Times article reaffirms why inter-generational dialogues with an eye towards history are so important. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/world/asia/08cambo.html?_r=1&ref=asia
In fact, villagers from Takeo, a village from the Justice and History Outreach project, have made a movie with the help of film-maker Ella Pugliese and supported by DED, chronicling their experiences during the Khmer Rouge regime. This movie will be shown for the first time on May 7, 2009 to human rights activists, NGO leaders, and officials from the KRT. Bostonians will have a chance to view clips from the film and talk with the International Fellows who brought this program to the field on June 11 (Voices from the Field).

A major goal for ICfC has been to find a way to present relevant information about justice and history to interested villagers and to determine their needs in regards to these concepts. Our emphasis on outreach through empowerment and relationship-building distinguishes ICfC from other similar outreach programs. With generous support from the Open Society Institute in 2007, ICfC made conducting rural dialogues about the Khmer Rouge Tribunal (KRT) and, more broadly, justice, a top priority and designed a strategic intervention to reach different locations around Cambodia. ICfC wanted to demonstrate that while the dialogue at the political and diplomatic level is critical, the decisions need to incorporate a bottom-up approach. The Tribunal, for instance, cannot do its work effectively if it does not include the memories of all its citizens.

The Justice and History Outreach project is one of the only qualitative small-scale dialogue-based projects aimed at conducting outreach to remote parts of Cambodia about issues related to the KRT, justice, memory, history, rights, conflict, and peace. Unlike any other NGO working in Cambodia, ICfC focuses on a village empowerment approach with the goal towards self-determination where villagers dialogue and build their capacity for learning and engagement with the past and the present.

From last September to December, with a generous grant from DED, ICfC and Youth for Peace continued the Justice and History Outreach project with a museum of memory project in the rural villages of Svay Rieng, Battambang, Takeo, Kampong Speu and Kampong Chhnang provinces. Using a participatory method, villagers decided on the design, size, location, and structure of a memorial to meet their need to remember their loved ones. This also serves asa permanent reminder to prevent such a massacre from happening again. I was deeply moved to visit the Stupa built by the villagers in Teuk Chegn village in Kampong Chhnang province.The memorial project is a vital piece of Cambodia’s reconciliation. In Siem Reap last September, 250 Cambodians and 50 international youths came together at an international peace conference titled “Searching for Justice and Acting for Peace” to discuss, share and learn about the processes of peace building, reconciliation, reparations, and resistance on a local and global level in post-war countries. The students were asked to identify priorities for reparations for Cambodia. On the list were adding the Khmer Rouge period of Cambodia’s history to the school curriculum, clinics for elderly, orphans, and disabled, and memorials. Youths recognizing the importance of memorials in the reconciliation process underscores the urgency of Cambodia’s need for museums of memories for current and future generations. Memorials are a critical part of Cambodia’s reconciliation and ICfC is one of the first NGOs working on it from a participatory method.

Memorials can serve as a tool for communication for those who have a hard time communicating the past to their children. “I want a memorial to remind us of our pain and respect the victims so that when young people see the memorial they will understand.” From their visit to Tuol Sleng prison and Killing Fields, Svay Rieng survivors learned that their children are more likely to believe their stories when confronted by evidence. This lesson proved valuable when the villagers showed photographs of the memorials to village children.

The village dialogue and the Phnom Penh trip gave the survivors a chance to talk about their past together, allowing them to connect and support each other. Many broke down crying during the visit to Tuol Sleng prison and the Killing fields. Some realized for the first time that the hardships and loss during the Khmer Rouge regime was widespread - not limited to their village. Villagers in Kampong Chhnang returned home with more enthusiasm and desire to continue sharing and supporting each other, increasing village cohesion and solidarity.

Villagers said that “we want to build the memorial and put all the names of people who died because it is the best way to let young generation know clearly about Pol Pot regime.” They added that “so many young people did not believe what happened during Khmer Rouge regime. They always ask “why did Khmer people kill each other so brutally and forced each other to work without enough food?” Again, a missing piece for collective healing is understanding and validation of survivors’ experience by the young generation.

I returned from this short trip with an increased commitment and urgency to expand ICfC’s work to many more villages to help villagers feel validated and unstuck from their gruesome past. Cambodians deserve a just, productive and prosperous future and we want to support them as they move forward.

- ICfC’s International Fellow Hun Taing also contributed to this article. 

Read the related New York Times article Khmer Rouge Pain Lost on Cambodian Youth