The Fluctuating Visibility of Everyday Violence in Khmer Rouge Era Cambodia

Abstract

This Article explores how the atrocities committed in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge period (1975-1979) have been narrated over time and how, through such narration, slow and attritive “everyday” forms of atrocity violence have been alternately rendered visible or invisible. It does so by looking at how Khmer Rouge era atrocities have been framed, while focusing on identifying what forms of violence and killing have been branded, legally and socially, as “atrocity crimes” and what forms of violence have been obscured, backgrounded or otherwise deemphasized. In doing so, the Article assesses the relationship between international, national, and local understandings of this complex history, expressing concern that dominant narratives developed by national and international elites may be influencing or even displacing localized notions of violence, atrocity, and justice. The Article concludes by calling for efforts to actively foreground everyday as well as spectacular manifestations of atrocity violence and experiences thereof.

Keywords: Atrocity, International Criminal Law, International Criminal Justice, Transitional Justice, Cambodia, Khmer Rouge, ECCC, Memory, Visibility, Violence