NGO Interventions in the Post-conflict Memoryscape. The Effect of Competing ‘Mnemonic Role Attributions’ on Reconciliation in Cambodia

Remembering and silencing complexity in post-genocide memorialisation: Cambodia’s Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

“…The ideal-typical counterpart to the demonised Khmer Rouge perpetrator is the innocent victim, which became politically important in the 1990s in the context of Prime Minister Hun Sen's 'Win Win Policy.' One of the most prevalent ways of remembering the past is in terms of universal victimhood, in which almost everyone who lived under Democratic Kampuchea can be seen as victims, including people who were low-level cadres of the Khmer Rouge (Williams, 2018b(Williams, , 2019. Culpability is attributed purely to the leaders in the highest echelons of power while all others are perceived to have been coerced to participate.…”

“…In Cambodia, the totalitarian nature of the Khmer Rouge regime created complex political actors, too, as many Khmer Rouge cadres themselves were also victimised, falling prey to the internal purges of the regime and rendering themselves more likely to be targeted for arrest and execution. Since the fall of Democratic Kampuchea, as the Khmer Rouge regime was called, the role of former cadres has been represented in distinct ways in the Cambodian memoryscape (Williams, 2019). Two 'mnemonic role attributions' are particularly influential: First, the 'generalised demonisation mnemonic' entails a clear attribution of guilt that demonises the Khmer Rouge as the group which wreaked this immense cruelty; second, the 'universal victimhood mnemonic' allows anyone except the absolute highest leaders to claim some form of victimhood regarding the totalitarian rule of the Khmer Rouge (Williams, 2018b(Williams, , 2019.…”

“…In Cambodia, the totalitarian nature of the Khmer Rouge regime created complex political actors, too, as many Khmer Rouge cadres themselves were also victimised, falling prey to the internal purges of the regime and rendering themselves more likely to be targeted for arrest and execution. Since the fall of Democratic Kampuchea, as the Khmer Rouge regime was called, the role of former cadres has been represented in distinct ways in the Cambodian memoryscape (Williams, 2019). Two ‘mnemonic role attributions’ are particularly influential: First, the ‘generalised demonisation mnemonic’ entails a clear attribution of guilt that demonises the Khmer Rouge as the group which wreaked this immense cruelty; second, the ‘universal victimhood mnemonic’ allows anyone except the absolute highest leaders to claim some form of victimhood regarding the totalitarian rule of the Khmer Rouge (Williams, 2018b, 2019).…”

Resilience in Post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia: Systemic Dimensions and the Limited Contributions of Transitional Justice

“…Relatedly, the narrow approach to responsibility for violence has allowed almost all low-and mid-level cadres to claim victimhood under the Khmer Rouge (Williams, 2018a(Williams, , 2019. This was exemplified by a male interviewee from Kampong Cham province who said: 'I cannot hate them since they just followed the orders; even the commune chief in Pol Pot regime also got killed.…”

Memory construction of former Khmer Rouge cadres: resistance to dominant discourses of genocide in Cambodia

“…Christoph Sperfeldt (2012), for example, studies the significant role of civil society in facilitating and enriching the judicial transitional justice processes in Cambodia, such as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia (ECCC). Some scholars have researched the influence of civil society initiatives on reconciliation of the past and facilitation of narrative construction (Manning 2015, Williams 2019.…”