[2] The country and new government chose not to participate in official truth-seeking during the transitional period and Cambodians in general showed little interest in speaking about that era.
In 2001, the Cambodian National Assembly passed a law on the establishment of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia for the Prosecution of Crimes Committed during the Period of Democratic Kampuchea.
[4] These hybrid tribunals enacted jointly by the Cambodian government and the United Nations were not expected to be a final solution, but they were a departure point.
[5] It wants the trials to be viewed as important for those remembering the past, but also for those confronting the future, especially younger generations learning Cambodian history.
This hybrid court run by both Cambodian and international judges had (and continues to have) lofty goals, and only began its proceedings nearly a decade after the 1997 UN offer of help and the official 1998 end to the Khmer Rouge.
[6] The population's increasing interest in justice for the Khmer Rouge permitted Cambodia to begin “a long-delayed conversation about its traumatic past”.
[8] Since the fall of the Khmer Rouge, it has been the international community (mostly ‘leftist academics’) that has led attempts at justice for the ruling group and its members.
[8] In the 1970s, Australian Southeast-Asian historian Ben Kiernan had already begun the process of interviewing Cambodian survivors and publishing their accounts of the Khmer Rouge occupation.
For example, maps site of execution centers and mass graves and 50000-100000 pages of official Khmer documents found in a warehouse in Phnom Penh.
In 1999, the United Nations experts published a report to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan regarding the Cambodian genocide, recommending an international tribunal to judge past Khmer Rouge crimes.
Hun Sen's proposition was supported by the UN, but was considered too dangerous for the average Cambodian as many Khmer Rouge members were still dispersed throughout society.
[12] Finally, in 2003, the Cambodian government and the UN signed an official agreement to begin a special tribunal for senior members of Khmer Rouge.
[6] However, the tribunals are problematic for several reasons: there is clear obstruction and corruption on behalf of the government, and most of all, because many low-level Khmer Rouge leaders are still in office today.
During trial, there is no remorse in their words: they describe the Cambodian population as pests to be exterminated’ and blame the dead leader of Democratic Kampuchea, Pol Pot, for their crimes.
[17][8] In 8 years, the E.C.C.C has produced only one verdict: that of Comrade Duch (really Kaing Guek Eav) who oversaw Tuol Sleng prison where 15,000+ Cambodians were tortured and executed.
[7] It is possible that Cambodians remained silent because their fear of the topic and the Buddhist/Cambodian tendency to not “confront conflict”, but also because they simply wanted to forget the past.
[7] Since Cambodians wanted to “get on with what [was] left of the rest of their lives”,[3] the prime minister chose to “dig a hole and bury the past”.
[8] Doung & Ear write that transitional justice requires a “political commitment from the succeeding regime”, as well as “time and resources with consideration of local cultures and religion, victim participation and scale of atrocity”.
Present-day Cambodia continues to face “poverty and corruption” which fueled a “sense of injustice and mistrust in the current government”, and in society.
[8] In order for Cambodia to proceed with any meaningful justice (whether restorative or retributive) it must also achieve what is called a “human rights protective culture”.
Experts suggest a “national or community-based truth-telling mechanism” or a type of “truth and healing process” (as part of a larger reparation program).
[7] The country is thus working towards educational and therapeutic measures, sites and practices of remembrance (such as the National Day of Hatred to commemorate the crimes and the victims of the Khmer Rouge regime), as well as preliminary efforts of restorative justice.