Forensic Science for Cambodian Justice

Klinkner, Melanie

doi:10.1093/ijtj/ijn015

Cited by 10 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 1 publication

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…North American legal cases have illustrated the frailty of eye-witness testimony many times, and many confessions have been later proven to be false. There are other issues related to inconsistent memory with those that have been traumatized as well (31). Scientific excavation and proper enumeration of individuals could address that issue.…”

Section: Invited Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As outlined above, the current state of death investigation in Cambodia is limited to police looking at remains and determining what happened, largely based on their observations and witness statements and/or confessions, and this only when a death is actually brought to their attention. Others have noted that by including forensic pathological and anthropological analyses of both the graves and the already exhumed remains as an integral part of the ECCC trials, a very important role in capacity building for the future is addressed (31).…”

Section: Invited Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Forensic Legacy of the Khmer Rouge: The Cambodian Genocide

Gruspier¹,

Pollanen

2017

Academic Forensic Pathology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The people of Cambodia were subjected to widespread forced migration and labor, disease, starvation, torture, murder, and indeed, genocide over a period of four years during the control of the country by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. While the country awaits some form of justice from the hybrid tribunal hearing cases against a few of the perpetrators of these crimes, it has undertaken to memorialize the dead in visible monuments in order that the people remember and never allow it to happen again. This paper outlines the few forensic investigations which have been undertaken on the remains of the deceased from this period in Cambodia's history. The current status of the legal proceedings and the current death investigation system in Cambodia are also presented. There is a wealth of objective forensic information that can be gathered from analyzing the remains that have been disturbed and placed in monuments (stupas), and also in the undisturbed graves across the country. This information cannot only assist in any legal proceedings, but can aide in training medicolegal experts in Cambodia for the future good of the country and its rule of law.

show abstract

Section: Invited Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Invited Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forensic Legacy of the Khmer Rouge: The Cambodian Genocide

Gruspier¹,

Pollanen

2017

Academic Forensic Pathology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…42 In 2002 a preliminary investigation for a forensic study project on skulls from Choeung Ek carried out in collaboration between the Coalition of International Justice and DCCam reported that the skulls demonstrated 'bluntforce trauma, sharpforce trauma and gunshot wounds'. 43 Although originally designed for public exhibition at Tuol Sleng, in deference to sensitivity about exhibiting remains, the skulls and pedestals are currently housed in a separate room at Tuol Sleng. According to the exhibit notes, 'Spaces have been left between slats so that air can reach the skulls, thus allowing the spirits to come and go as they wish'.…”

Section: Forensic Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Elusive Justice and the Khmer Rouge Tribunal written by this author and Tom Fawthrop; and as recently as 2014 in Michelle Caswell's Archiving the Unspeakable: Silence, Memory, and the Photographic Record in Cambodia and on UNESCO's web site for Memory of the World. 1Powerful remainsHuman Remains and Violence 1/2 (2015),[36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55]…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Powerful remains: the continuing presence of victims of the Khmer Rouge regime in today‘s Cambodia

Jarvis¹

2015

Human Remains and Violence: An Interdisciplinary Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Khmer Rouge forbade the conduct of any funeral rites at the time of the death of the estimated two million people who perished during their rule (1975–79). Since then, however, memorials have been erected and commemorative ceremonies performed, both public and private, especially at former execution sites, known widely as the killing fields. The physical remains themselves, as well as images of skulls and the haunting photographs of prisoners destined for execution, have come to serve as iconic representations of that tragic period in Cambodian history and have been deployed in contested interpretations of the regime and its overthrow.

show abstract

“… 10. On unresolved disappearances and irregular mass graves as disruptive of communal wellbeing, see McAllister (2017), Klinkner (2008), Navarro García et al (2007), and Stornaiuolo et al (2007). …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The reemergence of the disappeared, the role of remains and the forensic gaze

Collins

2020

Memory Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This essay examines what happens when the disappeared, reappear. Using examples from various Latin American contexts, Northern Ireland and Spain, the text contrasts the divergent truth regimes, truth claims and sources of knowing that arise. Following Gatti, it discusses the various catastrophes – of language and of meaning – that may persist even when a forcibly disappeared person is discovered alive. The piece considers, in turn, how disappearances are administered, how they end, and the failure of restitution of remains or identity to fully dissipate radical uncertainty. Controversies arising from the paradoxical bestowing of enhanced visibility on the absent disappeared, and the victim hierarchies this creates, are discussed. So too is the question of the positionality of the forensic expert, and the credence given to forensic expertise. I argue that any mission to turn the disappeared back into still living persons, or safely deceased bodies, is in a certain sense doomed to fail.

show abstract

Forensic Science for Cambodian Justice

Cited by 10 publications

References 1 publication

Forensic Legacy of the Khmer Rouge: The Cambodian Genocide

Forensic Legacy of the Khmer Rouge: The Cambodian Genocide

Powerful remains: the continuing presence of victims of the Khmer Rouge regime in today‘s Cambodia

The reemergence of the disappeared, the role of remains and the forensic gaze

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About