Programs & Events
U.S. Ambassador Meets with Cham ECCC Complainants
Phnom Penh
October 25, 2007
U.S. Ambassador Joseph A. Mussomeli met with nearly 280 hakim and mei-toun (male and female Muslim religious teachers) from mosques across Cambodia at his residence as part of an outreach program organized by the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) for Cham Muslim victims of Khmer Rouge atrocities. In his remarks, the Ambassador commented on the hardships endured by the Cham under the Khmer Rouge regime, and he also spoke about recent developments with the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC).
After meeting with Ambassador Mussomeli, the participants traveled to the offices of the ECCC to file victim's complaints. The ECCC allows individual victims of the Khmer Rouge regime to seek to join criminal complaints with the prosecutor or join an ongoing case as a Civil Party. The DC-Cam program participants filed 160 complaints, with more expected to come. Each participant also pledged to bring 5 copies of the complaint form home and to encourage neighbors to file as well.
Ambassador Mussomeli stated, "The judges of the ECCC should be applauded for creating a Victims Unit, which will assist those who file a complaint or join a civil party application. And the Documentation Center of Cambodia should also be applauded for providing assistance to the Cham victims in this effort. With the filing of these cases, the Cham are re-claiming a part of their identity so clearly linked to Cambodia’s history for hundreds of years. Though the Khmer Rouge leadership tried mightily to 'smash' your religion and traditions, you endured and are flourishing once again in a more open, tolerant Cambodia."
U.S. support for documenting Khmer Rouge atrocities began in early 1995 with a $500,000 grant to Yale University for the establishment of the Cambodian Genocide Program (CGP), which in turn established DC-Cam. Since that time, the U.S. government has provided nearly $7 million in funding for the work of both the CGP and DC-Cam. Much of the evidence that will be presented during the upcoming Khmer Rouge Tribunal will only be available because of the work of these two institutions.
DC-Cam serves as a permanent resource to provide the public with a better understanding of the Khmer Rouge regime, and to Cambodians or others who may wish to pursue legal redress for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity which may have been perpetrated under the Democratic Kampuchea from 1975-79. DC-Cam catalogues public documents; interviews former Khmer Rouge functionaries; maps mass graves; produces the magazine "Searching for the Truth"; maintains a library, audio-visual studios, printing house and exhibition hall; manages a training institute; and provides psycho-social assistance to those victims who suffered torture under the Khmer Rouge regime through the Victims of Torture Project.
