Walking slowly out of the first room of building A of Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, the former S-21 Security Center of Khmer Rouge regime, Chea Ron, who had travelled a long way from Pailin province, looked upset as she told her friend, “My brother disappeared here.”
Chea Ron was one of the over 300 participants—men, women, and young people—who departed at 10 p.m. the night before on buses from Pailin in a study tour organised by the Public Affairs Section of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC).
Chea Ron, currently more than 50 years old, has been separated from her brother since 1973 when they both joined Khmer Rouge movement. Ron’s brother, Chea Tuon, 13 years old then, joined up as a soldier, and Ron herself, 11 at the time, was sent to work in the medical production unit. It was the last time Ron ever saw her brother.
After the Khmer Rouge victory in April 1975, Ron was sent to collect spoils from the fighting and heard from her cousin who was also a KR soldier that her brother had been sent to fight in the Phnom Penh battles. Later on, word spread that someone saw Chea Tuon swimming across the Mekong River when he tried to desert the military. His fate after that was unknown.
Chea Ron has long believed that her brother was arrested and detained in Tuol Sleng prison, but she had had no chance to come and look for a trace of him. The visit on 16 November was the first time that Ron managed to come to Tuol Sleng. “I have longed to visit Tuol Sleng because I believe that my brother vanished here. I wanted to search for his photo.” Ron scanned through hundreds of photos displayed in building B, hoping to spot her brother’s face; unfortunately, she could not remember what her brother looked like.
“Even if my brother were alive today, I would not be able to recognise him because we have been separated for so long. But I think he is dead, because we have not seen him return to our home village in Kampong Thom,” Ron said with tears in her eyes. “My parents were waiting for him, and now my father passed away and left my mother alone, but my brother has still not returned.”
The study tour that Chea Ron attended is part of a nationwide outreach programme organised by the Public Affairs Section (PAS) of the ECCC. The evening before their departure to Phnom Penh, participants watched documentary films screened by Bophana Visual Center in cooperation with PAS. The films helped them understand the history of the Khmer Rouge regime and the ECCC’s mandate to prosecute senior leaders of Democratic Kampuchea and those alleged to be most responsible for serious crimes committed between 1975 and 1979.
The tour stopped at Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in the morning before continuing on to the ECCC where participants sat inside the courtroom and listened to briefings from ECCC officials from the Pre-Trial Chamber, Office of Co-Prosecutors, and Public Affairs Section.
Mr. Reach Sambath, Chief of Public Affairs Section, presented a slideshow explaining the ECCC grounds and the courtroom layout to participants. They then listened to officials discuss the importance of having the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, the role of the co-prosecutors, and the possibility for victims’ participation in the proceedings before the ECCC.
This was the first ECCC Study Tour for residents of Pailin, the last KR stronghold, integrated with the Royal Government of Cambodia in 1996. For the majority of the participants, this was their first trip to Phnom Penh. This study tour helped improve understanding about what happened during Democratic Kampuchea, especially among the young people that made up almost half of the group.
Chea Srei Am, 16, said that she had learned a lot from this trip; she saw the evidence of atrocities in Tuol Sleng. “When I saw those photos and torturing tools at Tuol Sleng this morning, I felt terrified. I’m glad I didn’t experience that regime. I believe that only education will help the next generation like me not to do anything as bad as Khmer Rouge did,” added Srei Am, now in the 8th grade.
The study tour for Pailin residents was organised in response to requests by officials and the people of Pailin during a public forum in the province earlier this year in September. In the public forum, officials from the ECCC opened a dialogue with officials, civil servants and citizens, most of whom were former Khmer Rouge soldiers or supporters.
Commenting on this KRT Study Tour, Mr. Reach Sambath, expressed his happiness at seeing former Khmer Rouge members try to gain a deeper understanding of KR history, and to understand what really happened in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979.
“I hope this Study Tour helps them understand the history of their own country better so that they can help to prevent the regime reoccurring,” said Mr. Reach. “I also hope that the participants will bring what they saw and learned from this trip back home and share the information that the tribunal is bringing justice for the Cambodian people and for victims, both living and dead.”