The use of the archives of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and the Documentation Centre of Cambodia by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia

• Published in: Archives and Human Rights pp. 178 - 187
• Main Author: de Wilde d’Estmael, Vincent
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 2021
• Edition: 1
• Subjects: ECCC Trial; Khieu Samphan; Son Sen; Phnom Penh; Extraordinary Chambers; FBIS; Dk; Judicial Truth; Chhang; Youk Chhang; Khmer Rouge Leaders; Communist Party Of Kampuchea; ECCC Legal Proceeding; Khmer Rouge Cadres; Khmer Rouge Senior Leaders; Co-investigating Judges; Trial Chamber; Dk Regime; ICTR; Civil Parties; ICTY; Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum; Khmer Rouge Regime; CPK
• ISBN: 9780367150341; 036772460X; 9780367724603; 0367150344
• DOI: 10.4324/9780429054624-18

Khmer Rouge archives are conserved and available for consultation at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and in Cambodia’s Documentation Centre have played a key role in preventing the history of recent events in Cambodia from falling into oblivion. They have also been vital in providing evidence of the mass murders carried out between April 1975 and January 1979 in cases brought before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), even though three or four decades had elapsed between the end of the War and the sentences pronounced in cases 001, 002/1 and 002/2. These seemingly endless trials were remarkable for the sheer volumes of information to be processed, the number of victims (some two million) of the crimes committed and the seriousness and duration of the international crimes perpetrated. Documents from the days of the Democratic Kampuchea (DK) found in prison S-21, in Phnom Penh and elsewhere, and authenticated or corroborated by the many party cadres and victims appearing before the ECCC have been highly instrumental in clarifying the role and ideology of party officials, their chains of command and their common criminal designs. Documents include minutes of meetings, publications, telegrams and instructions from the Kampuchea Communist party, films and photos plus a huge collection of documents from S-21 (lists of prisoners, people interrogated and executed and confessions extracted under torture). The author makes it clear that no decision has yet been made on the independent authorities that will hold the ECCC’s own archives once the tribunals have fulfilled their remit. The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (“ECCC”) began their work in the summer of 2006 with the conduct of preliminary investigations by the Co-Prosecutors and the holding of discussions between the national and international judges for the adoption of the Internal Rules. The discovery of Khmer Rouge archives in Phnom Penh and elsewhere in the country after 6 January 1979 has largely contributed to not burying past history and to establishing the facts. The older the witnesses, civil parties and accused get, the harder it is for them to reconstruct past events in all their details, and in particular to situate them in time or in chronological order: the description of a significant or traumatic event is often constant, but some witnesses and civil parties may confuse months or years all the more easily because under the Khmer Rouge regime they had neither watches, calendars nor radios and thus no precise time markers.