Upon reading about Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and Choeung Ek and learning about their histories and current status a tourism site, it perplexes me why the Cambodian government would do such a thing. I understand the concept to embrace one’s past through the good, the bad and the ugly, but how would encouraging people to visit and put these places on public display forge the future from the past? I believe Schlund-Vials makes a great argument by stating “…while Choeung Ek and Tuol Sleng memorialize Khmer Rouge atrocities, they do so at the expense of victims, who remain fragmented, incomplete, and anonymous” (Schlund-Vials, 2012, p. 49).
Through this course we have talked about the different atrocities different groups of people experienced as a result of the Vietnam War-some directly others non-directly. The heart felt loss and heart ache as millions of people die and suffer from war. And then to complicate matters, there’s the matter of respecting one's culture and practice. In this instance, many Cambodians practice cremating their dead. However the government decisions to maintain these “historical sites” for research conflicts with the views of many Cambodians. Yet how is this ok? I do not understand the justification that instead of putting innocent victims’ bodies to rest, they would rather study and “conduct research” on facilities, mass casualty grave sites, prisons and torture chambers.
What do you think Cambodia’s motivates are? Do you really think it’s a learning movement for Cambodia to remember and embrace’s its past?
---OR---
Is Cambodia using its history as a learning/training ground, for another war? Interrogation and imprisonment tactics? What’s useful and what’s not? I mean why else would you not let the past be laid to rest but rather continue to study on it?
Image: Killing Tree which executioners beat children at Choeung Ek <--- How do you study this?
Reference:
Schlund-Vials, C. J. (2012). War, Genocide, and Justice: Cambodian American Memory Work. University of Minnesota Press.
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