We can forgive but we must never forget
Stiftelsen Arkivet har undertegnet en intensjonsavtale (Memorandum of Understanding) med Det Kambodsjanske Dokumentasjonssenter (DC-Cam). DC-Cam får æren av å være viktigste årsak til at det nå finner sted et rettsoppgjør etter Røde Khmer Regimet som kostet livet til omlag 1.7 millioner Kambodsjanere for 30 år siden. DC-Cam har i løpet av de siste ti årene samlet inn over 200 000 dokumenter og gjort mer enn 6000 intervjuer av tidligere overgripere og ofre fra Pol Pots brutale regime. Dette materialet brukes som bevis i det pågående tribunalet ECCC.
Intensjonsavtalen med senteret sikrer Stiftelsen Arkivet tilgang til dette unike materialet for våre forskningsprosjekt. Vi samarbeider om utviklingen av felles forskningsprosjekt med senteret og Universitetet i Agder. Senterets direktør Youk Chhang kommer på besøk til Stiftelsen Arkivet etter sommerferien for å diskutere samarbeidet videre.
I tillegg til dokumentasjons of forskningsarbeidet driver DC-Cam en utstrakt formidlingsaktivitet knyttet til bokutgivelser og filmproduksjon for å sikre historisk refleksjon som grunnlag for læring. Stiftelsen Arkivet er også invitert til å bidra faglig i utviklingen av det som skal bli Sør-Øst Asias største senter for folkemordsstudier og historisk læring. Det er mange likhetspunkt mellom Stiftelsen Arkivet og DC-Cam som forener oss om en felles vilje til å lære av historien og hindre at menneskeforakten får vinne frem i nye former i fremtiden.
Stiftelsen Arkivets PhD stipendiat og forskningskoordinator, Kjetil Grødum, har tilbrakt omlag 4 måneder ved senteret som ledd i hans doktorgradsarbeid.
Her kan du lese Grødums artikel som nylig ble publisert i "Searching for the truth" - met magasin fra Documentation Center of Cambodia.
A study recently published in Norway shows that 65% of Norwegian students do not know who
Pol Pot was. This has engaged a lively debate in Norway expressing great concerns. Many commentators interpret this as a sign of general historical illiteracy.
Perhaps the opposite of historical illiteracy could be described as historical consciousness?
A Norwegian student was interviewed by a national newspaper about this saying: "To not
remember names taken out of their context does not mean that we do not know the history. What is important is to be able to draw the lines to our present day society to understand about the causes and effects." From the discussions in Norway about the lack of historical knowledge about who Pol Pot was, it is tempting to ask, "Why is it important that students in Cambodia and in Norway know about Pol Pot? What meaning and value do historical knowledge and historical consciousnesses really have?" Part of the answer may be found if we turn our focus to the tribunal in Cambodia and the search for truth and justice about the regime led by
the man 65% of the Norwegian students have never heard about.
Pol Pot died on the 15th of April, 1998 in Anlong Veng, a dusty district on the border with
Thailand. This was the last stronghold of the Khmer Rouge until the resistance movement was finally dissolved in 1998. Pol Pot never had to face justice for the estimated 1.7 million people that lost their lives during his rule between 1975 and 1979.
So far, five of the most senior Khmer Rogue officials have been arrested and are waiting for their
trials to start at the ECCC tribunal. They are all old men now, and many suffer from ill health.
When I speak to young Cambodians, many tell me that they are not interested in knowing about what happened. A teacher from one of Phnom Penh's elementary schools told me that her
pupils don't believe her when she tells them about the genocide and the suffering during the Khmer Rouge years. Her school is located just a few blocks from Toul Sleng Genocide Museum, the location of the former S-21 prison where thousands of men, women and children where questioned and tortured before being sent away for execution at a nearby rice field.
In Norway, the government sends thousands of school children on guided tours to Poland and
Germany to visit the former death camps established by the German Nazi regime during World War II. The questions of why it is important for school children in Cambodia and Norway to learn about the conflicts of the past could partly be answered by saying that it is important for the formation of historical consciousness. But what does this really mean in two such different societies like Cambodia and Norway? One thing that has become clear to me after talking to victims of the Khmer Rouge regime is that for many of them, the most important thing is that
the truth is revealed and that the next generation believes their stories. "Never Again" has become a slogan for different attempts to make sure that the tragedies of the past will not repeat themselves. Not by forgetting, but by constantly reminding ourselves of the lessons learned from past conflicts and making them relevant to our present day society, can we act and react in
time so we don't have to relive history. In political planning documents for the Norwegian elementary schools, historical consciousness is described as the capability to reflect about your
own life from the perspectives of histories of the past. This is about gaining a perspective on your
own life through consciousness of how all humans are a part of histories with a past, present and
future. This is something more than just learning historical facts. By facing stories of past sufferings, triumphs and mistakes, we have the potential to become aware of our responsibility to influence the direction of history. By relating past, present and future, so that the past becomes part of how we shape our understanding of the present, we are able to orient our selves towards a better future. Museums and history-based learning centres have an important role to play in preserving and maintaining histories and communicating them to the next generation. In this regard, they play a role in constructing historical consciousness by fulfilling our collective responsibility to keep memories alive when the witnesses are not longer among us. Perhaps
this is also a moral responsibility; a commitment to remember the stories of past sufferings, and to learn from them. In Cambodia, the witnesses to the Khmer Rouge regime are on the frontline of the ongoing fight to ensure that the next generations learn the truth about what their parents and grandparents went through and that the stories of those lost will never be forgotten.
I had the privilege to travel with a group of 40 commune village and commune chiefs on a tour
arrange by DC-Cam to witness the pre-trial hearing of Nuon Chea, also known as "Brother Number Two." All of the people I spoke with felt a heavy responsibility to ensure that their stories would never be forgotten. Their hope for the tribunal was that their grandchildren now will finally believe them when they tell the stories of what they went through.
The tribunal holds the potential to serve as an instrument for ensuring that the stories from
Cambodia's brutal past are read as facts and that they are recognised and remembered; so school children may finally learn about their country's conflicted past and that they will believe what they hear. The tribunal will secure a foundation of truth that could unite the stories of the suffering related to the brutal past, providing them with a plot; a history with a clear beginning, mid point and ending, that can be told to the next generations as a whole. Perhaps this is part of the answer to the question about the meaning and value of historical knowledge and historical consciousness; to learn from the past to prevent it from repeating itself in new forms. Historical knowledge and historical consciousness, both in Cambodia and Norway, becomes valuable as the collective commitment of "Never Again".
____________________________
Kjetil Grødum is currently living in Phnom Penh and
is the research coordinator for Stiftelsen Arkivet -
The Center for Historical Reflection and Peace
Building in Norway.