The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission is irrelevant in Cambodia
samlot chit
The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission is irrelevant in Cambodia
Sam Rainsy suggested that Cambodia should follow the model of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to bring an end to the cycle of revenge in Cambodia and that future democratic contestation would proceed without vindictiveness.
The TRC was created to cover serious violation of international human rights laws committed by the Apartheid regime in South Africa which established a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed from 1948 until the early 1990s.
Apartheid was characterised by a political culture which ensured that South Africa was dominated politically, socially, and economically by the nation’s minority white population. According to this system of social stratification, white citizens had the highest status, followed by Asians (mostly Indians for whom Mahatma Gandhi started his political struggle of civil disobedience to seek racial equality) and then black Africans. From 1984 to 1990, approximately 10,000 Africans were killed by the Apartheid security forces.
The lessons from the TRC has been learnt by many post-conflict societies around the world, notably post-genocide countries where mass atrocities were committed against civilian populations by large number of perpetrators.
In this circumstance, it was impossible to find justice for individual victims and prosecute every single perpetrators, without risking social fracture. The TRC was then created to seek the truth and forgive the crimes.
In the discussion leading to the establishment of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), which I took part, the TRC model was considered. The Cambodian genocide committed by Pol Pot and his followers befits the TRC but the ECCC was eventually chosen.
Cambodia today is far from the society ruled by the Apartheid regime, lacks instances of mass atrocities, mass human rights violations or extreme racial segregation. In fact since 1998, Cambodia has grown at a rapid pace in all fields, leading to heightened level of peace, security, happiness and freedom.
Inequality remains and problems exist but the country is on track to meet the UN sustainable development goals.
The only racial discrimination instances which occurred were instigated by Sam Rainsy himself and his political parties, in particular against Vietnamese ethnic group, which the ECCC considered as the victims of genocide under Democratic Kampuchea.
Sam Rainsy’s racial rhetoric contributed to the killing of many Vietnamese in the 1990s and 2000s at the hands of the Khmer Rouge guerillas or the mobs.
History of animosity between Cambodia and Vietnam exists and it is not difficult to incubate deeper racial hatred between the two peoples.
It is possible that future pogrom in Cambodia could occur if racist politics continues, while learning from the Armenian death march, the Holocaust, the Killing Fields, the Rwandan genocide, the massacre of Bosnian Muslims, and Darfur, the international community remains silent on Sam Rainsy’s blatant racism.