Khmer Rouge-Era Rape Cases Remain Taboo, and Justice Elusive

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Thousands of women were raped during the Khmer Rouge regime, but none have seen justice and discussing the issue remains sensitive in Cambodia’s conservative society.

 

PHNOM PENH — 

One evening in 1975, soon after the Khmer Rouge forces had taken control of Cambodia, some of the cadres came to Taing Kim’s village in Kompong Chhnang Province’s Boribo district.

 

They inspected each household and Taing Kim and her husband, who had been a soldier of the defeated Khmer Republic forces of General Lon Nol, were taken to a nearby rice field. Taing Kim, then 23 years old, realized a terrible fate awaited them.

 

Her husband, to whom she had been married for five years, was bludgeoned to death in front of her. The cadres raped Taing Kim and then planned to kill her. Afterward, when the soldiers were busy murdering another villager, she was given a chance to escape by a Khmer Rouge cadre who pitied her.

 

Taing Kim, now 61, recalled the traumatic violence in a recent interview with VOA Khmer and explained that she managed to hide in a large village pond for three days before she could escape.

 

“I dream about those soldiers every night. They chase me, I am really scared. They catch me and shoot. I feel a huge flame come over me until I wake and realize it’s just a dream,” she said.

 

Though she was lucky to survive the Khmer Rouge’s three-year reign of terror, which left 1.7 million Cambodians dead, she is among the thousands of women who were victims of sexual violence. Many of them have had to suffer their trauma in silence and shame, as Cambodia’s conservative society offers little sympathy or understanding for rape victims.

 

Kasumi Nakagawa, a Japanese professor of Gender Studies at Pannasastra University in Phnom Penh, said, “Cambodian culture blames women who were victimized by criticizing them as if they provoked the crime. Therefore, any woman who is abused or assaulted commonly finds it extremely difficult to disclose the crime.”

 

An example of how such attitudes still prevail occurred just last week, when a Cambodian TV anchor of Hang Meas television network appeared to blame female rape and murder victims for encouraging their attackers. The remarks raised the ire of women’s activists.

 

Speaking about Khmer Rouge-era rape

The Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam), an institute tasked with documenting of and public education about the Khmer Rouge regime has recorded more than 190 rape survivors from the era.

 

Taing Kim was one of them and came forward with her story in 2003 when she became one of the first women to speak publicly about her experience, which was also covered in a 2005 television documentary. In 2007, when the UN Tribunal for Khmer Rouge crimes was still determining its legal scope, she filed a criminal complaint that was later rejected.

 

Khmer Rouge survivors have generally had little chance of finding justice against individual perpetrators, as the tribunal’s jurisdiction has been limited to only a handful of senior leaders and “most responsible” perpetrators who have already been imprisoned.

 

Taing Kim said she felt disappointed with the court proceedings. “I have come to the court, however, I did not have a chance to give a testimony. Maybe they think my case is really common,” she said.

 

“I am really tired of going to the court since my health is not well, and I have to spend a lot of money for transportation and food. Even the prisoners have a better life than me, they have food and medical treatment.”

 

Many ordinary Khmer Rouge veterans also continue to live, unpunished, in the countryside, sometimes nearby their victims. Taing Kim said she knows many former cadres who live near her home in Kompong Chhnang Province.

 

Youk Chhang, executive director of the DC-Cam, said Taing Kim’s early public testimony had paved the way for other victims to speak out and file a complaint with the UN Tribunal.

 

“She inspires many women in Cambodia, those who suffered under the Khmer Rouge regime or later, to bring their burden stories to the world,” he said, before adding, however, that the culture of silence around rape and the lack of justice for victims meant “double suffering.”

 

Recent rape victims suffer too

Taing Kim’s suffering further worsened when her second husband, who she married in the 1980s and had three children with, heard about her rape. He and her family in-law began to blame her for the rape, and her husband later divorced her and left her with the children.

 

Taing Kim turned to Buddhism and became a nun to seek to relief from the trauma and pain of her life. She continues to speak about her experience and this month she visited South Africa to present her story at Genocide Studies Centres in Cape Town and Johannesburg.

 

Kasumi Nakagawa, the professor, said Taing Kim’s experience in publicly discussing her experience laid bare the problems for rape survivors. “She showed to the Cambodian people, or to the world, that it is difficult for a (rape) survivor to openly seek justice,” she said.

 

“The fact that she decided to become a nun also demonstrated that she found that it is impossible to find peace of mind if she stays in a lay society. By becoming a nun, she gave up her choice to seek for justice, but rather stay safe and in peace in a religious world.”

 

Criminal justice and social acceptance often also remains elusive for recent Cambodian rape victims, who face not only conservative attitudes, but also a corrupt and incompetent judiciary and law enforcement.

 

Local human rights group Licadho studied 762 reported rape cases from 2012 to 2014 and found that a third of the victims avoided any pursuit of justice or compensation, while half of them settled out of court by accepting compensation money from the perpetrators.

 

Prosecuting rape in forced marriage

While the tribunal determined that rape falls outside of its jurisdiction as it was not perpetrated as a Khmer Rouge policy, Case 02/02 did include rape in forced marriage in its indictment. Last year, the court heard the first evidence of such alleged crimes.

 

Neth Pheaktra, the court’s spokesman, said some 664 victims of forced marriage and rape have filed an accepted complaint in Case 002/02.

 

He said that even though the court is unable to punish individual perpetrators of rape in forced marriage, other organizations are considering memorial events to foster public discussion and acknowledgment of the suffering of these rape victims.

 

“For the victims of forced marriage and rape, there are many plans to help,” he said. “One of those is a plan prepared by an NGO, Kdei Karuna, with a memorial ceremony. It includes a re-marriage ceremony for the victims as a group in a traditional Khmer wedding style, including other art performances.”

 

Youk Chhang said it remains difficult and painful for Khmer Rouge rape victims and other who suffered under the regime to accept the court’s proceedings.

 

“The truth in the court is different from the truth in history,” he said. “There are many crimes that Khmer Rouge has done. The judge has to decide which one is the most serious, how beneficial it is (to prosecute), how long will it take, how much financially it will costs. The judge cannot prosecute all of the crimes.”

 

source https://www.voacambodia.com/a/khmer-rouge-era-rape-cases-remain-taboo-and-justice-elusive/4005415.html

 

 

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