scholarly journals Fragments in the Archive: The Khmer Rouge Years

Plaridel ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Annette Hamilton
Keyword(s):  
Khmer Rouge ◽  
The United States ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Phnom Penh ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Film Maker ◽  
Popular Films ◽  
The North ◽  
French Colonial ◽  
Khmer Rouge Regime

Cambodia’s cinema history is strange and surprising. Popular films from France and the United States circulated through the Kingdom during the French colonial period. The 1950s and 60s saw extensive local production with the enthusiastic support of King Norodom Sihanouk, himself a passionate film-maker, but the Khmer Rouge regime (1975-1979) destroyed most of the existing material, including hundreds of feature films, raw footage and countless other ephemeral documents. In 2006, after representations by film-maker Rithy Panh and others, the Bophana Audio-Visual Research Centre was established in Phnom Penh to comb the world for every fragment of film and audio material relating to Cambodia’s history in order to reproduce it in an accessible digitized form. The archival preservation and duplication has continued apace. However the ethical use of these materials presents challenges. Contemporary documentary makers and digital enthusiasts frequently use fragmentary footage to support their political or historical interpretations without attribution or context. This paper discusses a propaganda film featuring the former King Norodom Sihanouk and his wife Monique shot in1973 in collaboration with the Communist Chinese, the North Vietnamese and the Khmer Rouge. Short scenes and extracts from this film circulate online and appear in many documentaries. The “archive effect” of this footage raises questions about the source and circulation of archival images with significant historical and political consequences.

Will There Be a Trial for the Khmer Rouge?

2000 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 67-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Chandler
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Khmer Rouge ◽  
The United States ◽  
Truth Commission ◽  
Government Control ◽  
Phnom Penh ◽  
The Past ◽  
International Participation ◽  
Khmer Rouge Regime

The scale of what happened under the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979 is difficult to deal with (over one million Cambodians lost their lives), but efforts are now underway to bring at least some of the surviving leaders of the regime to justice. This essay explores the reasons for delay of the trials, citing:The absence of international precedents prior to the 1990s;The show trial of two Khmer Rouge leaders in 1979; andThe obstacles to a trial arising from geopolitical considerations in the 1980s (in which some powers now calling for a trial, including the United States, were effectively allied with the Khmer Rouge against the Vietnamese-imposed regime in Phnom Penh).In the 1990s, following the Paris Peace Accords and the brief UN protectorate over Cambodia, demands for a trial came from overseas and from Cambodian human rights groups. The Cambodian regime considered the show trials of 1979 sufficient, however, and in 1998 Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen urged his compatriots to “dig a hole and bury the past.” Eager to regain foreign support for his regime after several brutal incidents in which political opponents were killed, Hun Sen has more recently agreed to limited international participation in a trial. A procedure targeting a few Khmer Rouge leaders seems likely in 2000, but Cambodian government control of the proceedings means that nothing like a truth commission or a wide-ranging inquiry will result.

THE EXTRAORDINARY CHAMBERS IN THE COURTS OF CAMBODIA AND THE PROGRESS OF THE ‘KHMER ROUGE TRIALS’

2008 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 373-389
Author(s):  
Nina H.B. Jørgensen
Keyword(s):  
Vietnam War ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Khmer Rouge ◽  
The United States ◽  
Phnom Penh ◽  
Power And Control ◽  
The World ◽  
Asian Nation ◽  
And Control ◽  
Modern Era

AbstractThe world has witnessed many atrocities since the followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, better known as the Khmer Rouge, marched into Phnom Penh on 17 April 1975 and unleashed a regime of terror of more than three and a half years on the Cambodian people in which an estimated quarter of the population perished. However, the fate that befell this small South-East Asian nation continues to grip and challenge the imagination. Perhaps it is the notion of the State turning on its own people on such an unprecedented scale that is so difficult to fathom. Perhaps it is the tranquil, smiling populace, forging a space in the modern era against the proud backdrop of the ancient Angkorian temples that makes such a dark recent history so improbable. Or perhaps it is the scales of justice, finally weighing in, more than thirty years after the crimes in defiance of donor countries' ‘tribunal fatigue’, that have refocused the world's attention.The Khmer Rouge takeover had been preceded by a struggle for power which saw Prince Norodom Sihanouk, who had abdicated and governed Cambodia since independence in 1953, overthrown by Prime Minister Lon Nol and Prince Sisowath Sirik Matak on 17 March 1970. The new government was allied to the United States in the Vietnam War, fuelling Khmer Rouge resentment as well as that of Sihanouk who aligned himself with the communists. The Khmer Rouge gradually consolidated its power and control of territory, and when the time was seen to be ripe to institute the planned nationwide ‘agrarian dictatorship’, it easily overpowered the weak and corrupt Lon Nol government.

scholarly journals The observation of birds as informative tools to develop citizen science: Contributions of a 10-year record in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fidel González-Quiñones ◽  
Luis Roberto Granados ◽  
José Manuel Jurado Ruiz ◽  
Javier Tarango ◽  
Juan D. Machin-Mastromatteo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Citizen Science ◽  
Professional Education ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
The United States ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Service Research ◽  
United States Geological Survey ◽  
The North ◽  
Urban Characteristics

AbstractThis article analyses historical data from observations made to birds in breeding, throughout two routes with urban characteristics and during a consecutive period of 10 years (2009-2018), following a precise methodology designed by the North American Breeding Bird Survey. The analyzed routes are officially registered in the Mexican Commission for Biodiversity’s Knowledge and Use, the United States Geological Survey Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, and the Canadian Wildlife Service Research Centre. The observations were made by citizens without formal professional education; hence the results may be considered within the framework of citizen science. Their contributions provided important data for decision-making regarding environmental issues, since the presence of birds is considered one of the main indicators on health conditions of an ecosystem. Data analysis identified two basic conditions: (i) a reduction of the 23% in the number of species found, as many of them disappeared during counting; and (ii) the significant increase in population of other species, three of pigeons among them. Apart from the study of bird behavior in the routes with urban characteristics, the article acknowledges the lack of connection and use of the information produced from monitoring for decision-making and education regarding environmental issues. Therefore, we consider crucial to create scientific observatories, both available to experts in the field and to the general population, as the ultimate purpose would be the production of citizen science.

Rithy Panh

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chairat Polmuk
Keyword(s):  
Documentary Film ◽  
Khmer Rouge ◽  
Refugee Camp ◽  
Traumatic Experience ◽  
General Context ◽  
Phnom Penh ◽  
Resource Center ◽  
Khmer Rouge Regime ◽  
New Generation ◽  
Asian Cinema

Rithy Panh (b. 1964) is an internationally and critically acclaimed Cambodian filmmaker and screenwriter. A survivor of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime (1975–1979), Panh spent a year at a refugee camp in Thailand and another ten years in France, where he attended the prestigious Institut des Hautes Études Cinématographiques (Institute for advanced cinematographic studies). Panh’s first documentary film Site 2 (1989) documents lives of his compatriots at the refugee camp at a Cambodian-Thai border area; it also marks the filmmaker’s return to Cambodia to confront the country’s past violence and its continuing impact on the present. The cinema of Rithy Panh is thus well known for its thematic emphasis on the traumatic experience of genocide, displacement, and exploitation. His fiction films such as Rice People (1994) and One Evening After the War (1998), as well as documentaries such as The Land of the Wandering Souls (2000) and People of Angkor (2003), showcase Pan’s sustained meditations on socioeconomic struggles in post-genocide Cambodia. During the past decades, Panh’s documentary practices and experimental aesthetics have rekindled critical attention to the complex relations between film and memory, visual representation and ethics, and media testimony and justice. His 2003 documentary film S–21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine, in which Khmer Rouge survivors reenact their memories at the notorious Tuol Sleng prison center (known by its code name S–21), has sparked scholarly debates regarding the method of reenactment in relation to trauma. The use of hand-carved clay figurines in his 2013 film The Missing Picture demonstrates another inventive feature of Panh’s documentary aesthetics. The film won Cannes’ Un Certain Regard award and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Panh’s transnational trajectory sheds light on the general context of postcolonial Southeast Asian cinema as well as the particular situation of the contemporary Cambodian film industry. In 2006, Panh co-founded the Bophana Audiovisual Resource Center in Phnom Penh, an archive of records from the Khmer Rouge period and beyond and a training center for a new generation of Cambodian filmmakers. The Bophana Center is named after Hout Bophana, a woman who was executed under the Pol Pot regime and who inspired Panh’s 1996 film Bophana: A Cambodian Tragedy. Panh has recently expanded his cinematic practices, serving as a co-producer of the Netflix adaptation of Loung Ung’s memoir about the Cambodian genocide, First They Killed My Father (dir. Angelina Jolie, 2017). Panh also curated the multimedia installation Exile, which accompanied his 2017 film by the same name, and directed a stage production, Bangsokol: A Requiem for Cambodia (2018).

scholarly journals Hidden Identities in Contemporary Cambodian Photography

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Suzie Kim
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Khmer Rouge ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Third Generation ◽  
Community Groups ◽  
Phnom Penh ◽  
Ordinary Objects ◽  
Khmer Rouge Regime

Abstract This article examines the works of three photographers, Kim Hak (b. 1981), Khvay Samnang (b. 1982), and Neak Sophal (b. 1989), all born in the post-Khmer Rouge era and all established relatively early in their careers. These third-generation Cambodian photographers construct portraitures that steer away from identity to address the larger issues of individuals and local communities in present-day Cambodia, which still lives in the shadow of the trauma of the Khmer Rouge. Kim's photography avoids a direct representation of people who suffered through the Khmer Rouge regime and instead presents small, ordinary objects that were kept secretly in their household; Khvay documents the hardship of local communities in Phnom Penh and their questioned identity by portraying masked faces; Neak questions the hardship of the youth, women, and townspeople through the erasure of face in her series of photographs depicting various community groups in Cambodia. This subtle avoidance of portraying individuals in a direct, straightforward way signifies a multi-faceted interpretation of the traumatic past, its resilience, and the newly added social problems of contemporary Cambodia, which struggles in the aftermath of the genocide and more recent economic growth.

scholarly journals Pod rękę z Pol Potem. Komunistyczna Partia Robotników wobec Czerwonych Khmerów 1975–1981

2019 ◽  
pp. 133-149
Author(s):  
Michał Gęsiarz
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Khmer Rouge ◽  
Phnom Penh ◽  
Positive View ◽  
Khmer Rouge Regime ◽  
Maoist Movement ◽  
Democratic Kampuchea

The aim of this article is to examine relations between the Norwegian Workers’ Communist Party and Pol Pot’s Democratic Kampuchea between 1975 and 1981. The Norwegian Maoist movement held a deeply positive view of the Khmer Rouge regime, which resulted in its sending a delegation to Phnom Penh in September 1978. In the article I will analyze how they interpreted the regime, focusing on delegates’ memoirs and debates after the fall of the Khmer Rouge government.

Longing for Home: The Impact of COVID-19 on Cambodian Evangelical Life

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 281-297
Author(s):  
Briana Wong
Keyword(s):  
Spiritual Leadership ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
The United States ◽  
Church Leaders ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Phnom Penh ◽  
Mass Displacement ◽  
Interpersonal Connectedness ◽  
Indigenous Religions ◽  
The Impact

In Cambodia, the government's response to the COVID-19 crisis intersected with religious practice this year, as April played host both to the Christian Holy Week and the Cambodian New Year holiday, rooted in Cambodian Buddhism and indigenous religions. Typically, the Cambodian New Year celebration involves the near-complete shutting down of Phnom Penh, allowing for residents of the capital city to spend the New Year with their families in the countryside. Many Christians stay with their parents or other relatives, who remain primarily Theravada Buddhist, in the rural provinces throughout Holy Week, missing Easter Sunday services to participate in New Year's festivities at their ancestral homes. In light of the government's precautionary cancellation of the all-encompassing festivities surrounding the Cambodian New Year this spring, Christians who have previously spent Easter Sunday addressing controversial questions of interreligious interaction notably focused this year, through online broadcasting, on the resurrection of Jesus. In the United States, the near elimination of in-person gatherings has blurred the boundaries between the ministry roles of recognised church leaders and lay Christians, often women, who have long been leading unofficial services and devotionals over the phone and internet. In this article, I argue that the COVID-19 crisis, with its concomitant mass displacement of church communities from the physical to the technological realm, has impacted transnational Cambodian evangelicalism by establishing greater liturgical alignment between churches in Cambodia and in the diaspora, democratising spiritual leadership and increasing opportunities for interpersonal connectedness within the Cambodian evangelical community worldwide.

Mafias on the Move

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federico Varese
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
Organized Crime ◽  
The United States ◽  
The West ◽  
Market Expansion ◽  
The North ◽  
Economic Transformations ◽  
At Will

Organized crime is spreading like a global virus as mobs take advantage of open borders to establish local franchises at will. That at least is the fear, inspired by stories of Russian mobsters in New York, Chinese triads in London, and Italian mafias throughout the West. As this book explains, the truth is more complicated. The author has spent years researching mafia groups in Italy, Russia, the United States, and China, and argues that mafiosi often find themselves abroad against their will, rather than through a strategic plan to colonize new territories. Once there, they do not always succeed in establishing themselves. The book spells out the conditions that lead to their long-term success, namely sudden market expansion that is neither exploited by local rivals nor blocked by authorities. Ultimately the inability of the state to govern economic transformations gives mafias their opportunity. In a series of matched comparisons, the book charts the attempts of the Calabrese 'Ndrangheta to move to the north of Italy, and shows how the Sicilian mafia expanded to early twentieth-century New York, but failed around the same time to find a niche in Argentina. The book explains why the Russian mafia failed to penetrate Rome but succeeded in Hungary. A pioneering chapter on China examines the challenges that triads from Taiwan and Hong Kong find in branching out to the mainland. This book is both a compelling read and a sober assessment of the risks posed by globalization and immigration for the spread of mafias.

Die Konstruktion von Natur – Central Park neu besichtigt | The Construction of Nature – Central Park Revisited

2005 ◽  
Vol 156 (8) ◽  
pp. 288-296
Author(s):  
Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Hudson River ◽  
The United States ◽  
Central Park ◽  
Housing Developments ◽  
Hudson River School ◽  
The North ◽  
Man And Nature ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Relationship

In the first half of the 19th century scientific philosophers in the United States, such as Emerson and Thoreau, began to pursue the relationship between man and nature. Painters from the Hudson River School discovered the rural spaces to the north of New York and began to celebrate the American landscape in their paintings. In many places at this time garden societies were founded, which generated widespread support for the creation of park enclosures While the first such were cemeteries with the character of parks, housing developments on the peripheries of towns were later set in generous park landscapes. However, the centres of the growing American cities also need green spaces and the so-called «park movement»reached a first high point with New York's Central Park. It was not only an experimental field for modern urban elements, but even today is a force of social cohesion.

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