Covering genocide trials. The discursive position of genocide victims in Cambodia.

In the Cambodian society victims of the Khmer Rouge regime (1975-1979) are taking up an uncommon discursive position. Anyone who has suffered from the Khmer Rouge is considered to be a victim including former Khmer Rouge members who were brutaly disadvantaged by their own party. Within this context perpetrators can also be considered victims. This discourse, although laudable at first sight, generates and disguises negative effects. In the current Cambodian political and business system former Khmer Rouge members still fill powerfull positions, maintaining an injust kleptocratic structure of corruption, a deep rich/poor divide, and the seizure of natural resources. Fitting in wider Cambodian contexts the discourse on victimhood denies the actuality of injustice that is a continuum of the Khmer Rouge era. A discourse analysis, based on the work of Laclau & Mouffe (1985), of the exhibition in former torture prison S-21 (‘Tuol sleng genocide memorial’) demonstrates this oppressive discourse.