Children and the Savage Utopia of Khmer Rouge

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Lambs in the Slaughter House

Children and the Savage Utopia of Khmer Rouge

Yanzhou CHEN1

Abstract

Cambodia is a beautiful land with world famous ruins of amazing temples built from 8

– 15th century. However, beyond those peaceful Khmer Bayon Smiles buried in the

jungle for hundreds of years, the country suffered from one of the cruelest holocaust in

the past century. Among all the victims and survivors of Khmer Rouge, children were

like lambs subject to the cruelty of willful slaughters. Children as young as 5 years old

were put into labor camp and forced to engage in heavy labors, such as cropping,

dam-building, fruit-picking and so on. Some of them were enlisted to join the killings

and conflicts. And numerous children were executed with minor cause or without

cause.

This paper is to shed some light on the tragic sufferings of children who lived through

Khmer Rouge Regime. Also, it is to be emphasized that children’s extreme

vulnerability in humanitarian crisis like holocaust, war, conflicts etc., should be given

more attention when we design and develop the international legal framework and

instrument to prevent future tragedies.

I. An Overview of Cambodian History pre-Khmer Rouge

The modern Cambodia, formally known as the Kingdom of Cambodia or

1 Yanzhou Chen, LLM in International Legal Studies, New York University School of Law, Class of 2014.

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Kampuchea, has been a country suffering from conflicts, wars, colonization, genocide，

and social disorder over the past 500 years.

With the prosperous but long lost Angkorean civilization dating back to the 8th

century, the old Angkor Empire used to be one of the largest and most striving

countries in the Southeast Asia during 12th century2. The ancient empire was centered in

Angkor, which had enormous political and cultural radiation over its neighbors,

especially the ancient Thailand and Vietnam. However, at the end of Angkorean

civilization, due to conflicts with and sacking by Siamese3, as well as ecological failure,

the Angkor empire abandoned its capital city Angkor to move south, and finally settled

down in Phnom Penh4. Meanwhile, Khmer kings started to lose their power, the Khmer

leadership descended to be under more control from its rival in Bangkok or Hue.5 After

several rise and fall, the military of Khmer broke down around 16th century.6

After French naval warships landed in Saigon and set up their beachhead in 1958,

it soon made Cambodia, which was then under Vietnamese authority, as its

“protectorate” in 18637. Like all colonists, French men tried to build and rule the land in

a somehow constructive but more exploitative manner. During the French protectorate

2 Evans, Damian, Christophe Potter, Roland Fletcher, Scott Hensley, Ian Tapley, Anthony Milne, and Michael Barbetti. “A Comprehensive Archaeological Map of the World’s Largest Preindustrial Settlement Complex at Angkor, Cambodia.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104, no. 36 (September 4, 2007): 14277–82. doi:10.1073/pnas.0702525104. 3 An ancient dynasty of now Thai, see also: “Thailand.” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, May 26, 2014. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thailand&oldid=610273762. 4 Chandler, David P. The Land and People of Cambodia. Harpercollins Childrens Books, 1991. 77. 5 Tully, John. A Short History of Cambodia: From Empire to Survival. Crows Nest, N.S.W: Allen & Unwin, 2006. 56, 69. 6 Id. 7 Id. 80-‐103

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period, there were rebellion groups and anti-French movement in the local communities.

By 1920s, the Cambodia nationalism started to spread around the nation from Phnom

Penh. However, at that time, the enemies in Cambodian’s eyes were more of

Vietnamese instead of French8.

In 1945, during World War II, Japan lunched a coup de force against France. By

throwing French soldiers and civilians in to cruel concentration camps, Japanese

directed King Sihanouk to declared a “puppet independence” of Cambodia9.

When Japanese retreated after losing the wars, the Cambodia royal leader

Sihanouk found himself in a challenging situation: he had to gain a firm foothold in

domestic power, while keeping Cambodia’s sovereignty in the “uncertain world of Cold

War”. Actually, the large tractor of the country was at the hand of the pro-Communists

Khmer People’s Liberation Army (KPLA) and their Viet Mihn allies10.

In September 1955, the election for the National Assembly was held. In the election,

King Sihanouk set up the political tone favoring Sangkum11, a political movement,

construed itself as “Buddhist Socialism”12. Sangkum soon took the cabinet by an

absolute majority vote over Democrats. And this Sangkum elite included the later

usurper Lon Nol, as well as three key figures who secretly resigned after several years

8 Id. 9 Id. 110 10 Id. 124 11 Formally known as “People’s Socialist Community”, an organization set up by King Sihanouk, describing itself as a “political movement”. It remained in control of Cambodia from 1955 to 1970. See also: “Sangkum.” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, May 27, 2014. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sangkum&oldid=604102762. 12 Kiernan, Ben. How Pol Pot Came to Power: Colonialism, Nationalism, and Communism in Cambodia, 1930-‐1975. Yale University Press, 2004. 65.

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in office and joined the early Khmer Rouge in the Cambodian subtropical jungle.

King Sihanouk tried hard to maintain himself griping of powers and to strike a

balance between either domestic or external distinguishing political opinions, requests

and groups. In order to achieve so, his side swung from time to time. But he tended to

have more empathy for the communists. Though Sihanouk insisted the neutrality of

Cambodia during Cold War, since 1953, he actively welcomed the economic

development packages offered by PR China. He paid several visits to PRC, Soviet, as

well as France to seek help. On the other side, when the Khmer Rouge started to cut

some figure, Sihanouk scolded Lon Nol for not effectively controlled those guerillas.

With growing opposition from the cabinet member, probably with U.S.’s push to

some extent, in 1970, Sihanouk was removed by the majority vote of the cabinet in a

National Assembly session called by his cousin Prince Sirik Matak and the Prime

Minister Lon Nol. The overturn of sky happened while Sihanouk was paying diplomat

visits to Communism countries13.

The Lon Nol Republic was doomed. It soon blamed Vietnamese for the prior riots.

Massive Vietnamese in Cambodia were detained, tortured and slaughtered. But it was

also a fragile regime relying on the economic and military aid of U.S. In April 1970, U.S.

invaded eastern Cambodia, which, according to then President Nixon, was “to protect

our men who are in Vietnam” and to gain success in the Vietnam battlefield.

13 Supra note 10, 148-‐151

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However, when U.S. left the Vietnam War, the Lon Nol regime was unwillingly

and inevitably dragged into it14. Aside from the tangled warfare between Vietnam

Communists, Khmer Rouge and Lon Nol regime, when US and Vietnam finally signed

Paris Peace Accords in 197315, U.S. turned his aerial firepower on Cambodia. After U.S.

stopped its bombarding in this disastrous land, the conflicts turned to a pure civil war,

where neither Khmer Rouge nor the Phnom Penh Cabinet could absolutely overpower

another16.

In 1975, Khmer Rouge half-starved soldiers finally managed to edge closer and

closer to the Phnom Penh. In a last helpless struggle, Republicans collapsed. On April 17,

1975, Lon Nol soldiers abandoned their weapons and military uniform, as Khmer Rouge

guerillas marched into the city.

Sadly, instead of a stable peace, it was the start of Cambodian’s greatest agony in

the modern history. Millions of Cambodia were slaughtered and deprived the very

basic human rights, among whom, children suffered most and lost their childhood at an

age too early for them to bear the catastrophic bitterness and pain.

II. Children in Khmer Rouge Savage Utopia

For most Khmer capital city dwellers, the day when Khmer Rouge soldiers finally

14 Id. 162 15 “Paris Peace Accords Signed — History.com This Day in History — 1/27/1973.” History.com. Accessed May 27, 2014. http://www.history.com/this-‐day-‐in-‐history/paris-‐peace-‐accords-‐signed. 16 Supra note 14, 168

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broke into Phnom Penh was a day since which most of them never came back to their

homes. The Khmer Rouge soldiers in black uniform, warning in serious face that the U.S.

bombs were coming down soon, gave every family few hours to do a brief packing, and

then evacuated the whole city into villages17. Under a campaign of “cleaning the cities”,

Khmer Rouge set and achieved its goals to: evacuate people from all towns, abolish

markets and Lon Nol currencies, defrock Buddhist monks and force them to join the rice

growing work with other city dwellers, establish communal eating, and expel entire

Vietnamese minority population18.

The highest leader of Angkar19, known as Pol Pot, showed a severe hatred of city

people. Inspired by Maoism20, categorizing city people as enemies, he displaced these

Phnom Penh city captures into villages, broke up their families, grouped individuals by

age, and forced them to work in labor camps. Asides from forced serfdom, massive

violence, arbitrary killings happened every day in labor camp, “campers” were accused

without solid or even any evidence of being Vietnamese, Chinese, pro-Americans,

pro-former-governments or so. The Angkar assigned supervisors of the labor camps

17 Id. Also Kiernan, Ben. The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-‐79, Third Edition. 3 edition. New Haven Conn.: Yale University Press, 2008. 39-‐44. 18 Id. 55 19 Angkar means “organization” in Khmer language, a name Khmer Rouge leadership called themselves. Pol Pot declared Angkar as the highest authority of Cambodia, and saw itself as independent from Vietnam and PRC communists. See also: Frings, K. Viviane. “Rewriting Cambodian History to ‘Adapt’ It to a New Political Context: The Kampuchean People’s Revolutionary Party’s Historiography (1979-‐1991).” Modern Asian Studies 31, no. 4 (October 1, 1997): 807–46. 20 Ben Kiernan, "External and Indigenous Sources of Khmer Rouge Ideology," in The Third Indochina War: Conflict between China, Vietnam and Cambodia, 1972-‐79. Edited by Odd Arne Westad and Sophie Quinn-‐Judge. London, Routledge, 2006, pp.187-‐206.

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broad authority of adjudication, punishment and execution 21 . Numerous alleged

oppositions, educated intellectuals, un-communists were put into the notorious Tel

Prison, coded as S-2122 by the Angkar and slaughters alike.

About 1.7 million people lost their lives (21% of the country's population) under

the Pol Pot’s genocide ruling23.

In August 1979, Pol Pot and his “comrade”, Ieng Sary, were convicted for

systematic killings and massacre of small children in the People’s Revolutionary

Tribunal in Phnom Penh.24

A. Children in the Khmer Rouge Labor Camp

As Khmer Rouge broke each family down, divided all the people into groups by

age. “City children” followed their parents trekking into the countryside, when they

arrived, those children were either tricked or forced to separate from their parents. 25

Angkar drew a line of age 5 to put children into labor camp26. Children older than 5

were grouped to work on some “minor” farm work, such as cattle watch or fixing rice

21“Crimes of War – Cambodia.” Accessed May 27, 2014. http://www.crimesofwar.org/a-‐z-‐guide/cambodia/. “KR Years: The Work Camps.” Accessed May 27, 2014. http://www.edwebproject.org/sideshow/khmeryears/camps.html. See also: “Cambodia Under the Khmer Rouge.” Accessed May 27, 2014. http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/cambodia0.htm. 22 S-‐21 is code for the Khmer Rouge killing machine Tuol Sleng Prison. See: “Tuol Sleng | Photos from Pol Pot’s Secret Prison | History.” Accessed May 27, 2014. http://www.tuolsleng.com/history.php. See also: Locard, Henri. “State Violence in Democratic Kampuchea (1975–1979) and Retribution (1979–2004).” European Review of History: Revue Europeenne d'histoire 12, no. 1 (2005): 121–43. doi:10.1080/13507480500047811. 23 A summary number provided by Yale Cambodia Genocide Program, see: “Cambodian Genocide Program | Yale University.” Accessed May 27, 2014. http://www.yale.edu/cgp/. 24 Nike, Howard J. De, John Quigley, and Kenneth J. Robinson. Genocide in Cambodia: Documents from the Trial of Pol Pot and Ieng Sary. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011. 523-‐536. 25 Pran, Dith, and Kim DePaul. Children of Cambodia’s Killing Fields: Memoirs by Survivors. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1999. Introduction, 26 Id. 112

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paddies dam27. Even though compared with adults’ work, such assignments could be

minor, but for children, who were taken good care of by their family, went to school,

and rarely did any farm work, they were harsh. A victim named Youkimny Chan28, was

put into the labor camp at the age of 14. He was forced to work “from sunrise to sunset”

for 14 to 15 hours a day. He and other children built their own hut with bamboo in a

clearing of the jungle. And after a whole day work, they would get little food from the

camp and remained starving till the other day to go back to the field. A similar story

was told by another child camper named Roeun Sam,29 whose work was cow watch

when she was 14 years old.

Fate for those less than 5 years old was a more complex issue. According to a

victim named Sarah P. Tun30 from Phnom Penh, she was only 4 years old when Khmer

Rouge seized the city. She walked barefoot with her family for two weeks to Khmer

Rouge’s countryside. After they arrived the destination, half people started with them

from Phnom Penh were gone. Those gone were starved to death, died for illness, sent to

another village or killed half way by the solemn Khmer Rouge soldiers in black. The

victim was a little girl at that time, her parents were separated, and her mother took her

youngest baby brother to another camp different from her father’s. Her older brother

was sent to a child labor camp. She and her 3-year-old sister ended up in an orphanage

27 Id. 77 28 Id. 24 29 Id. 73 30 Id. 85

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for two years.

Those children were exposed in severe living conditions, they might need to sleep

on rice hay31 or in the wildness surrounded by wild beasts, snakes and insects32; they

were given little food so they suffer from hunger and malnutrition. Many didn't survive

the starvation33. There was a hopeless lack of medical treatments in the labor camp.

Many children got malnutrition, infected by malaria or other disease, but there were

rare medicine for them. For those who were lucky to be sent to a hospital with very

basic facilities and insufficient personnel but crowded with patients, they seldom got

effective treatment34.

Those children were also rigidly disciplined and punished for disobedience. The

camp supervisor managed the children’s camp in a military way35. The most usual

threat was “if you disobey, Angkar will kill your family.” But there were still many cases

where children was cut off from food, tortured, or even executed for intolerable reasons

in Angkar’s value, such as: absence from work because of illness, eating fruit or catching

wild animals in the State’s land; or escaping from children’s camp to see their parents36,

and many more37.

There were less sexual violations in the Khmer Rouge child labor reported, a

31 Id. 78 32 Id. 105 33 Id. 95. An example of adults and children suffering from starvations and malnutrition, nearly all of the victims’ stories in the book mentioned hunger in the labor camp. 34 Id. 103 35 Id. 74 36 Id 171 37 Id. 147

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reason might be that Khmer Rouge held an ascetic attitude towards sex, so they put

male and female in different camps and forbids intimate contacts between different

genders38. However, that does not mean there was no sexual assault in child’s labor

camp. Roeun Sam, who was 18 when Khmer Rouge was turned over, believed that her

best friend who was about the same age with her was humiliated, tortured and raped

one night by the camp watchers. Though she never saw her best friend again after that

night, but those perpetrators later threw at her face the blooded outfit and underwear of

the victimized girl39.

Colossal horror clouded up in the labor camp, where children were away from

their parents, unattended, insecure and coerced to work in hunger and fear. What’s

more of a nightmare was that they witnessed people got tortured and executed, they

saw dead bodies out of starvation, illness or massive killing. Those killed could be some

strangers40, someone who had helped them before in the labor camp, their close friends,

their relatives, or sometimes even their parents41.

Though this author hasn’t found a psychological study specific to those children in

Khmer Rouge labor camp, it is not hard to imagine how traumatic it could be when

children as young as 10s were put in a lonely, coercive, hostile and helpless

environment, where they lost their freedom and undertook forced labor too heavy for

38 Supra note 20. 39 Supra note 38, 80. 40 Id. 27. 41 Id. 43

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them. Many of the survivors called their time in Khmer Rouge labor camp a “darkness”

or “nightmare”. As a victim Hamson C. Taing puts it: “Even though seventeen years

have gone by, what happened to me seems very fresh because some nights I still have

dreams about the violence and the punishment [Khmer Rouge conducted].”42

A more savage and offensive way Khmer Rouge used was to brainwash those

children, teaching them to hate their parents and love the Angkar, because it was Angkar

who raised them rather than their parents. Such propaganda was delivered by teaching

nursery rhyme or children folks43. Angkar’s labor camps and nursery schools also

constrained children to accept their values and theory. They asked youth to assess each

other under the “Communists” values, and those who were found incompliance must

confess and admit their faults. Otherwise, stubborn kids would be punished, kicked out

of school, and isolated by his or her peers44.

B. Khmer Rouge Child Soldiers

The Khmer Rouge had a long history of recruiting children45. According to both

foreign doctor46 with the Khmer Rouge and Phnom Penh witnesses47, when Khmer

Rouge soldiers entered Phnom Penh in the Khmer new year of 1975, many of them

42 Id, 177. Reference can be made to a psychological study on Uganda displaced children in armed conflicts based on a local context. It found the children who were displaced and affected by armed conflicts and displacement suffer from some unhealthy group mental conditions, 43 Supra note 25 44 Supra note 42, 124. Story of Hong A. Chork. 45 See Drumbl, Mark A. Reimagining Child Soldiers in International Law and Policy. Oxford University Press, 2012. 5, 30. See also: . Global Report on Child Soldiers. Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, 2011. http://www.refworld.org/docid/4988060bc.html. 46 Supra note 5. 47 Supra note 44. 83.

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looked as young as at their 10s. Those child soldiers wore black outfits as their adult

comrades, they also played an active role to warn the city, pressed the city dwellers to

evacuate. They shot those leg-draggers with immediate decisions and over-aged

cold-blood.48

Without exception, Khmer Rouge child soldiers were taught to hate their parents,

hate those oppositions who would take away Angkar’s victory. Soldiers as young as six

year old were trained to heartlessly execute “enemies” and even butcher their parents.49

The final judgment of Pol Pot and Ieng Sary rendered by People’s Revolutionary

Tribunal decided Pol Pot and Ieng Sary “[morally poisoned] the youth, transforming them

into cruel thugs devoid of all human feelings”50. The paragraph on child enlistment reads51:

“Pol Pot and Ieng Sary sought to use children under fifteen years of age as spies in the

‘people’s communes’ and to enlist them in army units or mobile shock brigades. They

considered children at that age to be pure, and loyal to them. They trained children to

make killers of them and to use them in aggressive warfare against neighboring

countries, and in campaigns of repression against the people of Kampuchea. A document of

the conference o the party’s northern zone on July 15, 1977 read: ‘even children can be key

personnel. Only in this way can we build the party, because the children will grow up in

the movement’.”

48 Id. 49 Supra note 46. 69 50 Supra note 24. 536. 51 Id. The proof document mentioned in the paragraph was called Document 2.5.26.

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Causes for children to get enlisted in Khmer Rouge army still requires further

detailed and empirical study, but the general reasons were abduction and objective

compulsion to make a living.

Some of them were abducted. Sayon, a former Khmer Rouge child soldier, was

enlisted at the age of six. The Khmer Rouge abducted him with another 30-40 kids. They

got military training and were armed with M-16 or AK-47.52

Another example was Arn Chorn Pond, who was abducted at about 11 or 12, in

January 1979 in Battamabang province. He said in the news report: “They armed us. If

we hadn’t carried the weapons, we should have been shot.” 53

Khmer Rouge also used girl soldiers. As reported by the Cambodian League for

the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights, in 1995 the Dey Ath defectors’ center in

Phnom Penh received a young woman who was one of 300-500 girls under 15. These

girls were given military training. The woman was an orphanage and was taken and

raised up by Khmer Rouge since 1979. She started her military training at the age of 5.

Like other girls with her in the Khmer Rouge military, they were armed at 14 and took

the role of active soldiers. They would be stationed at the frontline in all military actions,

so they bore all the casualties. These girls were forced to stay with the military, and

would be punished or even killed for disobedience and escape.54

52“ Lost Child: Sayon’s Journey :: Home.” Accessed May 10, 2014. http://lostchildthefilm.org/. lhttp://www.voacambodia.com/content/a-‐40-‐2009-‐09-‐28-‐voa4-‐90171232/1354614.html. 54 Briefing Paper: Child Soldiers in Cambodia Briefing Paper. Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights, June 1998. 3. http://www.licadho-‐cambodia.org/reports.php?perm=19.

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In fact, both the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) and Khmer Rouge

recruited and exploited child soldiers. The Khmer Rouge’s child recruitment lasted even

till 1998 during the demobilization, rehabilitation, and re-integration process, almost 20

years after it was thrown away55. During those post-civil war years, Khmer Rouge

guerillas kept destroying and launching attacks in some remote areas and remote

countryside; there were conflicts between RCAF and Khmer Rouge. It's found that

children were used as spies for armed forces and laying mines in Kompong Speau

province.56

During the later years, Khmer Rouge continued its practice to force children join

the military by depriving them their food and supplies.57 Some joined out of economic

motivation to earn a living58. They tended to use those children as ammunition carrier

and general laborers. But also a reported boy soldier Chhouk Ra told that he joined the

Khmer Rouge troops at 15 or possibly even younger, he had participated in raids and

shot and killed opposing troops.59

According to the statistic cited by Deng, in a survey on global child soldiers, it

was stated that: “based on a UNICEF study by interviewing 199 former child soldiers in

55 Id. for a general picture about the Khmer Rouge and Royal Army’s children recruitment. See also: Global Report on Child Soldiers. Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, 2011. 99 http://www.refworld.org/docid/4988060bc.html. Also, the RCAF were reported to have recruited children in the late 1990s. The Report of UN CRC Committee had expressed concerns on RCAF’s recruitment of children aged 8 to 10. Initial Report of Cambodia to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, UN Doc. CRC/C/11/Add. 16, 24 June 1998 56 “Information provided by UNICEF to the Asia Pacific Conference on the Use of Children as soldiers, Kathmandu, May 2000.” Cited in the footnote 20 of William, Deng. MOFA: A Survey of Programs on the Reintegration of Former Child Soldiers. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, March 30, 2001. http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/human/child/survey/index.html. 57 Global Report on Child Soldiers in Note 45. 58 Id. citing “Information provided by Human Rights Watch, 1999” 59 Supra note 54, 3. Citing “Phnom Penh Post”.

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three provinces of Northwest Cambodia (Battambang, Siem Reap and Oddar

Meanchey)”, 35% of child soldiers functioned as cook or cleaners; 21% acted as guards,

6% as porters, 16% were combatant, 16% were body guards and only 5% were spies. It

was claimed that 57% of them had been exposed in battles60.

III. An Analysis under Existing International Legal Mechanism

First of all, Khmer Rouge has gravely violated the international humanitarian law,

international criminal law and international human rights law. As the ECCC Supreme

Court Chamber decided in Case 001 that the notorious Khmer Rogue chairman Duch is

guilty of crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of

1949.61 Although the final justice to the victims yet waits to be seen in the ongoing trials

in Phnom Penh, prosecuting those key Khmer Rouge perpetrators with one foot in the

grave. However, the children’s rights violation and child soldier issue is not of much

gravity of the ECCC work. On the other side, it can be seen that the final indictment in

Case 001 and ongoing charges and hearings in Case 002 are looking at such issues as a

whole, and children’s rights violations are included in the general rights violations. In

addition, victims are granted to take an active part in the trial. It was reported that a

witness, who used to be a child labor camper testified in the trials.62 However, it can

60 Supra note 56. 61 Case 001 Appeal Judgment, 3 February 2012, ECCC File/Dossier N.001/18-‐07-‐2007-‐ECCC/SC 62 Ciorciari, John D., and Anne Heindel. Law, Meaning, and Violence : Hybrid Justice : The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. Ann Arbor, MI, USA: University of Michigan Press, 2014.

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still be argued that more weight and special considerations should be given when

looking at the victims who were in their youth during the Khmer Rouge, because

children are usually with extreme vulnerability in holocaust or genocide situations.

This argument can be further supported, if we analyze the issue of children’s

rights violation by Khmer Rouge under current international laws, especially the

Convention on the Rights of the Child. Reading the convention text on the face, Khmer

Rouge had certainly seriously violated many clauses in the Convention on the Rights of

the Child, such as Art.663, Art. 864, Art. 9.165, Art. 14.166, Art. 1667, etc. As contemporary

researches with a focus on children further our understanding on how to better address

and protect children’s rights in conflicts or social chaos, it’s without doubt that Khmer

http://site.ebrary.com/lib/alltitles/docDetail.action?docID=10841667. 63 Convention on the Rights of the Child, 20 November 1989, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1577, p. 3, available at: https://treaties.un.org/pages/viewdetails.aspx?src=treaty&mtdsg_no=iv-‐11&chapter=4&lang=en-‐title=UNTC-‐publisher=,

citing: “Article 6 1. States Parties recognize that every child has the inherent right to life. 2. States Parties shall ensure to the maximum extent possible the survival and development of the child.”

64 Id., citing: “Article 8 1. States Parties undertake to respect the right of the child to preserve his or her identity, including nationality, name and family relations as recognized by law without unlawful interference. 2. Where a child is illegally deprived of some or all of the elements of his or her identity, States Parties shall provide appropriate assistance and protection, with a view to re-‐establishing speedily his or her identity.”

65 Id., citing: “Article 9 1. States Parties shall ensure that a child shall not be separated from his or her parents against their will, except when competent authorities subject to judicial review determine, in accordance with applicable law and procedures, that such separation is necessary for the best interests of the child. Such determination may be necessary in a particular case such as one involving abuse or neglect of the child by the parents, or one where the parents are living separately and a decision must be made as to the child's place of residence.”

66 Id., citing: “Article 14.1 1. States Parties shall respect the right of the child to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.”

67 Id., citing: “Article 16 1. No child shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her privacy, family, or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his or her honour and reputation. 2. The child has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.”

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Rouge had severely deprived the fundamental rights of Cambodian children who went

through that painful historical corner.

IV. Development on Protection of Children’s Rights and Immerging Challenges

A. Cambodia’s Signing of CRC Optional Protocol on the Involvement of

Children in Armed Conflict

Although modern Cambodia had a history of recruiting children in the military,

huge progress has been made in the process of demobilization and the issue to

demobilization children has been given weight.

Under Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and Additional Protocols to

the Geneva Conventions set the minimum age to enlist children as 15, so it will be grave

violation for underage recruitment or involve children in hospitalities.68

From May to September 1999, the number of child soldiers registered under the

Cambodian demobilization program CVAP was only 262. But it turned out later there

were 15,551 ghost soldiers identified and denied benefits later, with a total of 163,346

“ghost children”69 entitled to those benefits.70 Concerns arose that only 35% of all child

soldiers were accessible to benefits, and the rest had a high risk to stay in the military,

either for living concern, or their embarrassing age to be categorized as a child or

68 Children and Armed Conflicts Working Paper No.1. Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-‐General for Children and Armed Conflicts, October 2009. 69 Ghost Soldiers are referred to those who died in the battlefield without their death registered, while the military recruit new headcounts, but put them under the names of those dead soldiers. During the civil war and post civil war conflicts in Cambodia, both the Royal Cambodian Army Force and Khmer Rouge had practice like such. 70 Supra note 57, citing “Information provided by UNICEF and the Cambodian Government representative to the Asia Pacific Conference on the Use of Children as Soldiers, Kathmandu, May 2000”

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adult.71

In 2000, the Cambodia government stressed that child soldier came into a first

priority in the demobilization program72. It was also in the same year in 2000,

Cambodia was the first Asian country to sign the CRC optional protocol on the

Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict73, pushing the bottom line for recruitment

to the age of 18. It then ratified the optional protocol in July 2004.

Currently Cambodia is neither listed in the UN Security Council’s “naming and

shaming” list for child recruitment, nor the most up to date global child soldiers report.

B. Emerging Imminent Challenges to Protection of Children’s Rights

Despite the progress Cambodia has gained in demobilization of child soldiers and

children protective legislations, the Cambodian children are still striving their lives in

poverty and disadvantages in further development.

In 2013, Cambodia ranked 119/189 in country GDP, with 20.5% of the population,

about 2.8 million, living under the national poverty line. 90% of the poor and 80% of the

whole population were rural residence.74 Ranked 138/187 in Human Development

Index (HDI) in 201375, Cambodia had 25,697 girls plus 2,884 boys76 out of primary

71 Id. Footnote 352, citing “World Vision – Cambodia Feasibility study on Child Soldiers, CEDC Program” 72 UN Press release, “CRC began consideration of an initial report of Cambodia, 24/5/00. A joint report issued by the UN and the Cambodian government in 2000 (‘Children and Employment’) states that most child soldiers in Cambodia were demobilized, and lists other current child labor problems.” 73 Supra note 57. 74 World Bank Data, see: “Cambodia Overview.” Accessed May 28, 2014. http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/cambodia/overview. 75 Human Development Report 2013: The Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World -‐ Explanatory note on 2013 HR Composite Indices -‐ Cambodia, 2013. http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/Country-‐Profiles/KHM.pdf. 76“Children out of School, Primary, Male | Data | Table.” Accessed May 28, 2014.

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schools in 2012.

a. Child Labor Abuse

There is serious child labor issue in Cambodia. According to the official data of UN,

in the reporting year of 2009, 34.5% Cambodian children aged 4-17 was in employment.

18% of the 4-17 population employment worked only and did not go to school, the rest

82% had to work and go to school at the same time.77

In 2012, it’s estimated by an ILO survey that 19.1% of all aged 5-17, 755,200

children were economically active78. Among these, four of every seven economically

active children worked unpaid for their families, 3.3% ran their own business, while

39.1% worked as employees.79 The same ILO survey found that most child laborers

worked 17-42 hours per week at a pretty low wage.80 More than 1.4% of those

economically active children suffered from injuries in the past 12 months prior to the

survey. 81

Though further study is needed to explore whether there’s linkage between the

high rate of child labor and the demobilization program in Cambodia, poverty is

generally considered to be the main contributes to child labor abuse.82 Because of the

http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.PRM.UNER.MA/countries. 77“World Development Indicators | The World Bank.” Accessed May 28, 2014. http://wdi.worldbank.org/table/2.6. 78 Cambodia Labor Force and Child Labor Survey 2012: Child Labor Report. International Labor Organization, November 27, 2013. Xi. http://www.ilo.org/ipec/Informationresources/WCMS_IPEC_PUB_24055/lang-‐-‐en/index.htm. 79 Id. xii. 80 Id. The survey estimated that 74.2% of the weekly wage earners and 7.7% of the monthly wage earners earned only CR 100,000 or less per month. 81 Id. xiii 82 Naeem, Zahid, Faiza Shaukat, and Zubair Ahmed. “Child Labor in Relation to Poverty.” International Journal of Health Sciences 5, no. 2 Suppl 1 (July 2011): 48–49.

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lack of life supplies, tuition, and family income, children had no choice but to work.

This mode works similarly as the economic cause of child soldiers, where children chose

to join the army to make a living, get food and clothes, or in some cases, gain monetary

compensation. Where the country is in peace and there is hardly any chance or need to

join a troop, children turned to get employed, because their basic physical need have to

be satisfied. The child employment can be worse in rural areas, where education is not

well facilitated, there are more children in a family, while household income stays low.

However, the killing, maiming and destruction of economy by Khmer Rough and

30-year civil war take part to be blamed for the root cause of the current poverty, which

further leads to children get employed out of economic reasons. Also, during the Khmer

Rouge, the 1970s generation lost many opportunities to education. There probably is a

lack of awareness about the significance of education among that generation, who are

now parents or decision-maker of their household. However, it’s just a bold guess, more

statistics and studies are needed on how prior Cambodia conflicts and genocide impact

the children in a long-term.83

b. Sex Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation of Children

Another severe heartbreaking child right issue currently in Cambodia is the sex

83 There’s study on the parental style of those parents who went through Khmer Rouge. It’s showed that they tend to be over-‐protective, and impose more depression and stress on their children. However, as the pool for the survey was 200 students enrolled in high school, it’s hard to tell how those children off school affected by traumatized parents. See: Field, Nigel P., Chariya Om, Thida Kim, and Sin Vorn. “Parental Styles in Second Generation Effects of Genocide Stemming from the Khmer Rouge Regime in Cambodia.” Attachment & Human Development 13, no. 6 (2011): 611–28. doi:10.1080/14616734.2011.609015.

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trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of children. Cambodia is becoming a

new heaven for those western pedophiles.84 The sex trafficking and exploitation issue

rose as early as the end of 1990s85, Cambodian legislation and government have been

working hard to address this issue. There are Cambodia domestic laws prohibiting sex

trafficking and sex with children. However, the rules haven’t been enforced as

effectively as expected.

It’s also found the youth are more vulnerable in Cambodia, they are rather

obedient. Also, at least 2/3 of the victims were trafficked by their family or

acquaintance.86

There’s deep historical and social root leading to the flourish of this perverse trade.

Khmer Rouge broke down the religious belief, educational system and social fabrics

including micro-units of families. The long conflicts and wars drained this land.

Emerging land disputes, illiteracy, large portion of rural population, lack of natural

sources and less developed industry, together with the complicity of poverty made the

country to a unique situation that eagerly needs sustainable development.

84“Cambodia Fears Rise in Child Sexual Exploitation with Influx of Tourists.” Channel NewsAsia. Accessed May 29, 2014. http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/cambodia-‐fears-‐rise-‐in/1018720.html. 85 See a study on the Mekong Sex Industry: Hughes, Donna. “‘Welcome to the Rape Camp’ Sexual Exploitation and the Internet in Cambodia.” Journal of Sexual Aggression 6 (Winter 2000). http://www.cce.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hughes/rape_camp.pdf. 86 Traffick Report: Cambodia. World Vision, 2007. http://www.worldvision.com.au/Libraries/3_3_1_Human_rights_and_trafficking_PDF_reports/Trafficking_Report_Cambodia.pdf. See also: “Child Sex Trafficking: Why Cambodia?” CNN. Accessed May 29, 2014. http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/09/world/asia/cambodia-‐cfr-‐why-‐history-‐child-‐sex-‐trafficking/index.html.

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V. Conclusion

The path of Cambodia is a unique one. The long past of conflicts, killings, social

chaos, as well as the destructive ruling of Khmer Rouge led to a current Cambodia with

concerns of poverty, development and democracy.

Children are always the most innocent victims of these problems. Either during

the dark age of Khmer Rouge, or in the disastrous riddle with thousands of gapping

wounds post conflicts, generations of Cambodian children have been deprived of their

childhood, the very basic rights of children,87 opportunities of education, and life

possibilities for self-development.

One undeniable fact is that the current international norms defending children’s

rights was developed after 10 years of the end of Khmer Rouge’s rule88. Partly due to

the lack of international standards and little interference from the international

community, those poor children in Pol Pot regime went through the history too bitter to

recall.

Later UN and international efforts to help Cambodia restore democracy, develop

economy and preserve culture heritage are certainly plausible. However, due to the

long torturing path Cambodia has gone through, more attention is needed on

Cambodian children and their rights. Also, it’s desired that more emphasis to be made

87“ For definition of Children’s rights, see Convention on the Rights of the Child.” Accessed May 29, 2014. http://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx. 88 Convention on the Rights of the Children was open to sign and ratify in 1989.

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from children’s rights perspective in the ECCC’s trial work.

In addition, when we try to further our understanding on the link between the

painful history of Cambodia and its current plight, awareness on child’s rights specific

to Cambodia is also demanded to restore a world for children with a stable peace,

happiness, more possibilities in life, as well as a world free from hunger, fear and

injuries.

Children and the Savage Utopia of Khmer Rouge

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