Biographic28,822
Bibliographic93,161
Record No
លេខឯកសារ
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VPA-BM0004 | |
Name
ឈ្មោះ
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Khuonh Khuon
ខួញ ឃួន
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Gender
ភេទ
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Male
ភេទ: ប្រុស
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Nationality
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Khmer
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Ethnicity
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Khmer
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Birth Place
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Ta Lei, Kok Ro Miet, Thma Puok, Banteay Meanchey
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Occupation
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Farmer
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Mode Participation
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Complainant
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Request Protective Measures
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No;
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Prefer form of Reparation
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dam and road
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Main Crime Location
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In 1977, the Khmer Rouge evacuated people out of Leu Village, Pel Biet Commune, Thma Puo District. In Thma Puok cooperative, people ate collectively and received one ladle of rice soup. My parents were forced to work without relief, transplanting rice seedlings. In June 1978, my family was selected from sixty families of new people to be transported by cart to Thma Puok cooperative. At dusk, they counted the number of people in each family, to determine whether all members of every family were present. As a result, they found out that two people – my father and our neighbor – were missing. Shortly afterward, they ordered their security police to take my father and other uncle (neighbor) to plow the paddy fields in Kumro Village, Kumro Commune, one kilometer from Thma Puok. During that time, my father did not visit us because he had swollen disease. Only the neighbor was able to visit. When he arrived, my mother asked him about my father. He said that my father could not come because his legs were swollen. A short while later, I heard him tell my mother to look after the children as he was preparing to leave. Then he escaped. But the Khmer Rouge chased him immediately. [I] did not know what happened after that. Then they started loading people onto the carts and heading for the high school. They guarded people along the way all the time. When all the carts were about to leave, they shouted that two more carts were needed for two additional families. Then one woman said they could not leave, because her husband had not yet arrived. They allowed the mother and aunt to stay there. An hour later, when they drove the cart back. I clearly saw that they came to wash the blood off their bodies, sticks, Srange sticks, [a kind of tree], swords, snor chakk trei [ a kind of fishing tool], and axes. “Take two other families, but no need to take the mother,� they shouted. “Go to sleep at the dining hall,� Cheat shouted. The following morning, we returned home and dared not talk to one another. From that moment on, they decreased our ration until my two sisters died from starvation. I cut Antriengkhet, [a kind of tree] to make fertilizer. I do not recall their names; I was only eight years old (I recall my father’s name.) |
Others Crime
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Additional information collected on March 25, 2009:
Lost relatives executed by the Khmer Rouge:
In the rainy season of 1978, the Khmer Rouge executed my aunt, Nguon, at Thma Puok High School in Kumrou Village, Kumrou Commune, Tma Puok District, Banteay Meanchey Province. Village security police (unknown names) ordered [my aunt] to do dry farming at Krom, but [I] do not know exactly where. I was not fully aware of the incident, but I knew that my aunt had stolen Angkar’s property because she did not have enough food to eat. The chief of Kumrou cooperative was Kok (male). During that time, the Khmer Rouge evacuated my aunt from Taly Village, Kok Rormiet Commune, Thma Puok District, Banteay Meanchey Province to serve in a mobile work brigade located in Kumrou Village, Kumrou Commune, Thma Puok District, Banteay Meanchey Province
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Date Completion of Form
កាលបរិច្ឆេទនៃការបំពេញបែបបទ
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20080203 | |
Petitioner
អ្នកដាក់ញ្ញាត់
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No; | |
Copyright: | © DC-CAM | |
រក្សាសិទ្ធិដោយ: | © មជ្ឈមណ្ឌលឯកសារកម្ពុជា |
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Date
1970 to 197515,209
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1995 to 20001,254
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This website was funded in part by a grant (Documentation and Democracy) from the United States Department of State. The opinions, findings and conclusions stated herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the United States Department of State and the United States Agency for International Development.
Concept by Ean Panharith and Youk Chhang
© 2023 Documentation Center of Cambodia
The Prevention and Punishment of the Crimes of Genocide
By Youk Chhang
The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide stands alongside the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as one of the key pillars of international human rights law, and for this Human Rights Day in 2022, I want to highlight the critical importance of the responsibility to prevent atrocity crimes, which includes genocide. When atrocity crimes occur, there is an immediate need to stop these atrocious acts, followed by the equally urgent tasks of documenting, investigating, and ultimately prosecuting the perpetrators. However, from 1948 to today, we have not given enough attention to true prevention.
Atrocity crimes do not occur in a vacuum. There is a long chain of events and conditions that precede atrocity crimes. Isolation, segregation, and discrimination frequently, if not always, precede the rationalization of atrocity crimes against a group of people. And before people are discriminated against, they must be dehumanized. The process of dehumanization depends upon rationalizing hatred and distrust, and these processes are precipitated by misinformation, fueled by uninformed biases, stereotypes, and exploitative actors. They are also frequently dependent upon the disintegration, corruption, or lack of development of critical institutions, in particular institutions dedicated to dialogue and education. It is here that we must dedicate our greatest attention.
Since 1948, we have made great strides toward taking actions that interrupt, mitigate, and to a very limited extent, punish the chief perpetrators of atrocity crimes; however, these actions are not preventative but reactive in nature. No atrocities crime trial has ever prevented the next genocide, and no sanctions or punishment can bring back the dead or undo the trauma that extends across multiple generations. Indeed, the trauma of atrocity crimes in the distant past are often the forgotten seeds for the next wave of violence and inhumanity of the future.
If we are to truly adopt strategies that are effective, far reaching, and decisive in preventing atrocity crimes, then our priorities must be re-oriented to the opposite end of the spectrum, where the seeds of the next genocide are cultivated. Our responsibility in complying with foundational human rights documents should be measured not solely by our success at responding, investigating, and prosecuting atrocity crimes, but by our efforts in supporting institutions, initiatives, and actions that have a positive influence in preventing all forms of inhumanity. The most effective strategy at preventing the next genocide is centered on actions and policies that interrupt and reduce the risk of escalation at the earliest stages of inhumanity.
Cambodia recently removed human rights days from public calendars. I think we should reconsider this collective decision. Cambodia has achieved extraordinary success in its genocide education programme, which is the essence of atrocity crimes prevention. And so, to capitalize on this success and Cambodia’s regional and even global leadership in this area, we should hold an annual dialogue on the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. As the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) closes its doors, there is no better time than now to preserve Cambodia’s leadership and momentum in realizing the core objectives of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
The Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) is proud of the support it has given to the ECCC’s work, which was fundamental to giving victims an opportunity to participate in the justice process and realize some sense of closure from the Khmer Rouge genocide. DC-Cam is also eager to support an annual conference on the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. As we commemorate this Human Rights Day, we would be mindful to recognize our fundamental human rights documents are not only universal commitments, but also standards for evaluating the kind of world we are leaving for the next generation.
—————
Youk Chhang is Executive Director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia. The Center dedicating to Justice, Memory, and Healing for survivors of the Khmer Rouge genocide.
Photo above: Children at Angkor Wat, 1979. After the collapse of the Khmer Rouge regime on 7 January 1979, hundreds of thousands of children were left orphaned. From 1975 to 1979, the Khmer Rouge led Cambodia into tragedy causing the deaths of over 2 million people. Although two millions were killed, five millions more survived to tell their story. The perpetrators of these crimes also survived. Photo: Documentation Center of Cambodia Archives.
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