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

Abstract

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.

THE FORENSICS EXHIBITION: Displaying Human Remains as Material Evidence of Genocide

“…Many of these early structures fell into disrepair in the 1990s, and only a few were replaced with more permanent structures (Guillou 2012, 211). Other local shrines and memorials were abandoned, with the remains gathered up and moved to municipal centers or onto sanctified grounds (Jarvis 2015, 43), or left to be haphazardly cared for by locals. This process has resulted in the ubiquitous presence of human remains in many villages and pagodas.…”

“…After the Vietnamese capture of Phnom Penh, the bodies of the prisoners killed under interrogation as the city fell, bloodstains, instruments of torture, and records and documentary evidence of what had occurred there were discovered in situ (Sion 2014, 100). The site was preserved, and Mai Lam, a Vietnamese with experience in developing museums, including the Museum of American War Crimes (now the War Remnants Museum) in Ho Chi Minh City, was tasked with developing the site into a museum which documented the crimes of the Khmer Rouge (Brown and Millington 2015; Chandler 2000; Jarvis 2015; Sion 2014; Williams 2004). The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (https://tuolsleng.gov.kh/en/) functions as both a museum and memorial, albeit with ongoing debates over the political messaging potentially present in the exhibits (Hughes 2003, 26), the potential commercialization and profiting from the victims of genocide, and the management of the bones displayed and present in the museum and in sites across Cambodia (Copeland 2011, 44).…”

“…Some remains were gathered up at the behest of the government and collected for display (Bennett 2018, 193; Guillou 2012, 213), a reflection of a government policy seeking to “commemorate and protect the physical remains of the Khmer Rouge victims” (Fleischman 2016, 122), in addition to collecting evidence of the crimes committed (Jarvis 2015, 39). This resulted in the establishment of genocide memorials and makeshift shrines in villages and towns (Jarvis 2015, 38). Many of these early structures fell into disrepair in the 1990s, and only a few were replaced with more permanent structures (Guillou 2012, 211).…”

What Is a Mass Grave? Toward an Anthropology of Human Remains Treatment in Contemporary Contexts of Mass Violence

“…Do they cease to be simply charnel pits when they become the object of devotional practices? This in fact often occurs when the areas in which massacres have taken place see the killers living alongside their victims permanently, when the locations of charnels are known to neighbors and survivors, and when sites of interment become spaces (publicly declared or otherwise) for commemorative rituals, thus becoming instituted as proper burial spaces even though they had not initially been conceived of as such by the killers, as is the case in the killing fields of Cambodia (Jarvis 2015). The study of the fate of corpses in situations of extreme violence thus allows us to ask questions that go to the very heart of what constitutes a burial.…”

Human remains, materiality and memorialisation

“…Seeking to create a communist utopia, the regime resulted in the deaths of an estimated quarter of the population through executions, disease, malnutrition and overwork. 1 Millions of others were displaced. As of 2009, over 20,000 mass graves had been located within Cambodia, many of which have remained unexhumed.…”