Bat Kloun

Bat Kloun, or disappearing body in Khmer, Cambodia’s native language, was a term used to refer to victims of the Khmer Rouge. Rather than explicitly acknowledging that these victims were dead, they were described more mysteriously as disappearing. This says something interesting about Khmer culture and the residual impact of the horrendous history of violence this country has endured.

Particularly because I’m documenting challenges facing the justice system, I’ve encountered many people who are fearful of ‘criticizing’ the government. In Cambodia, ‘criticism’ can boil down to simply acknowledging challenges facing the Ministry of Justice. To admit that there are problems can be put one at risk of punishment by the government, especially if it is done on the record to a foreigner with a camera. It’s definitely challenging because I recognize that their fear is real and I would never want to do anything to put them in harms way. But at the same time, it’s hard to ‘document’ when you can’t get real answers on camera.

As an American who has been Bush-bashing since my early teens, I have a hard time reckoning this fear of the government. But the fear is in context of a recent history, in which bodies really did disappear for even the slightest offences. During the Khmer Rouge era, comrades would frequently be considered allies one day and traitors the next. The uncertainty of what actions could put you at risk for elimination forced people into a deaf/mute lifestyle as a mode of survival against this mysterious killing machine.

Although to a much lesser extent, this still happens today. Recently a representative of a legal NGO spoke out in the national news about a legal conflict with the government. Shortly thereafter, the NGO lost it’s funding and was forced to shut down. By opening criticizing the government, this NGO sacrificed its working relationship with them. In order for many NGOs to maintain public access in Cambodia, they must maintain a positive relationship with the government. Therefore, blatant NGO opposition to the government’s policies can be limited.

The government maintains this relationship of fear by frequently prosecuting its critics. In Cambodia, defamation, slander or misinformation is considered a criminal offence. Whereas in the States you would be sued for such an offense, in Cambodia you are looking at fines and jail time. This limits political opposition in the sense that the ruling party, the Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP), can legally force it’s opponents out of power by bringing them to court. One of the most high profile instances of this prosecution is in the case of Mu Sochua , one of the more prominent leaders of Cambodia's leading political opposition, the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP). Sochua is currently facing jail time in a legal battle with the Cambodia’s Prime Minister, Hun Sen, for critical comments made in the press.

At the civilian level, these kind of erratic legal consequences are also carried out. It is not uncommon for someone to be arrested on hearsay with little or no evidence to substantiate the charges. I recently did a video interview with a 65-year old man who spent 9 months in pre-trial detention on attempted murder charges filed by his neighbor. The neighbors had recently had a petty argument….

As a newcomer to this country, I’m not sure what exactly this all means. I’ll refrain from making blanket statements about this culture. But I think it’s fair to say that a weak system of objective and reasonable punishment seems to appear throughout Cambodia’s history in the 20th and 21st centuries. The result is a society whose free speech may be hushed for fear of retribution.