Never Again (except when inconvenient or hard)

“Out of our memory of the Holocaust we must forge an unshakable oath with all civilized people that never again will the world fail to act in time to prevent this terrible crime of genocide. We must harness the outrage of our own memories to stamp out oppression wherever it exists. We must understand that human rights and human dignity are indivisible.” – Jimmy Carter

Today I went to S21,  former security prison camp under Pol Pot turned memorial museum. The one time high school was converted into a prison camp soon after the new regime took power and forcibly moved city dwellers in Phnom Penh to rural areas to work the fields.  The stories of genocide, mass murder, torture that unfolded from 1975 to 1979 in Cambodia are horrific.  This tragic period of Cambodian history will continually resurface throughout my summer here. For those remiss on the details, I promise to post another entry soon with background and some initial impressions. But, for now, back to the day touring the prison camp.

The five buildings of S21 have changed very little since S21 was closed down (as the regime fell in 79). It  housed between 1500-2000 prisoners at any one time and an estimated 17,000+ people lost their lives in its walls. It was both detention center and torture headquarters for the Khmer Rouge. Many original pieces are on display in the various rooms including beds and instruments of torture. It is, to say the least, a chilling experience–wandering through the halls and rooms of the large complex, imagining the people who lived and died in its walls.

That being said, I was fairly disappointed with the museum as a whole. In fact, other than physically existing, a few original items and a couple of displays with explanations, it’s not much of a museum. Visitors are left to hazard guesses as to what rooms, buildings and floors were used for and to imagine the scenarios of the various instruments and the few blurry (and bloody) photographs.

I spent nearly 13 months roaming around the world learning and investigating reconciliation, justice and post-conflict healing (Thank you, Thomas J. Watson). During a year that took me to 15 countries and over 50 cities, I lived a thousand lifetimes: marching for peace with Buddhist monks in Ladkah, interviewing genocide victims in Bugesera, hearing the stories of torture victims in Santiago, witnessing historic elections in Capetown, and dialoguing on reconciliation in Ballycastle.  And, what started out as a year of academic investigation on nonviolence and reconciliation, became an attempt to understand the depth and limits of forgiveness. I discovered that the people and places who seemed to be most healed from the trauma of their country’s past, were those who had both had the opportunity (perhaps on many occasions) to share their story and those who felt that justice had been served (those responsible have been thoroughly punished and a new, better life for the victims).

Having only been in Cambodia a short time, I’m not prepared to say how the average Cambodian feels about opportunities to share their stories or feel that justice has been served (I have my suspicions though). If this museum is any indication, however, the opportunities for story-telling have either not happened or the institutions aren’t in place for sharing the victims’ stories with a wider audience (maybe even young Cambodians). Museums and commemorative parks, in my opinion, are a critical medium for displaying, remembering and learning about the history and struggles of a people.

The most successful example I’ve seen is the Genocide Memorial Centre in Kigali, Rwanda. The museum provides a well-documented account of pre and post genocide Rwanda in three different languages (English, French and Kinyarwanda).  Their website also has many of the exhibits and has individual stories from survivors who have elected to participate.  It was moving, heartbreaking and incredibly informative all at the same time. Other successful examples I’ve seen include the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, the Holocaust Museum in DC and Villa Grimaldi outside of Santiago.

At the end of the Genocide Memorial Museum in Kigali, they offer a comparison of similar events from around the world. At the beginning of this exhibit Jimmy Carter’s famous Never Again quote is painted in large letters on the wall. It serves as an eerie background to the pictures from around the world that occurred before and after his famous words. Never Again seems to be a false promise. It has happened again and again. It is happening now.

Unfortunately, the events that led to the horrific scenes in Cambodia, Rwanda, South Africa, Chile (…Argentina, China, USSR, Bosnia, Yugoslavia, Sudan, etc…) are not that different from one another.  In the case of genocide3, torture and mass murder having a physical space to act as a repository  of stories is a way to give people a voice and allow the world to hear it.  More opportunities to learn about these tragic events means the better our chances for a true Never Again. The more we, as a people who share this planet, learn about one another, the more we will see our similarities instead of our differences. When the stories stop becoming their stories and instead become our stories, we can look forward to a future of Never Again. At least…that is my sincerest hope.