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Roughly 1.7 million people died in Cambodia from untreated disease, starvation, and execution during the Khmer Rouge reign of less than four years in the late 1970s. The regime’s brutality has come to be symbolized by the multitude of black-and-white mug shots of prisoners taken at the notorious Tuol Sleng prison, where thousands of “enemies of the state” were tortured before being sent to the Killing Fields. In Archiving the Unspeakable , Michelle Caswell traces the social life of these photographic records through the lens of archival studies and elucidates how, paradoxically, they have become agents of silence and witnessing, human rights and injustice as they are deployed at various moments in time and space. From their creation as Khmer Rouge administrative records to their transformation beginning in 1979 into museum displays, archival collections, and databases, the mug shots are key components in an ongoing drama of unimaginable human suffering. Winner, Waldo Gifford Leland Award, Society of American Archivists Longlist, ICAS Book Prize, International Convention of Asia Scholars

This paper argues that archives play a significant role in fostering three elements essential to Cambodia’s recovery: accountability, truth, and memory. First, archives have an enduring power to hold the regime accountable because they were the catalyst for an international human rights tribunal, as shown by the relentless activism of the archives’ director, international efforts to preserve Khmer Rouge records, and the correlation between indictments and documentary evidence. Secondly, this paper posits that archives make a significant contribution to the establishment of truth because they have epistemological validity over the testimony of survivors, as seen repeatedly throughout the tribunal. Finally, this paper argues that the archives are succeeding in constructing memory of the Khmer Rouge era because it is forcing Cambodia to deal with its uncomfortable past by giving voice to survivors, creating textbooks, and conducting outreach. This paper is rooted in the field of archival studies within the discipline of library and information science, but draws on history, Cambodian studies, and legal studies. Employing transcripts of the ongoing tribunal, NGO reports, and newsletters as primary sources, the paper argues that while archives have been successful in holding the Khmer Rouge accountable, establishing truth, and creating memory, only a tribunal can administer justice.

Using Cambodia as a case study, this article explores a circumstance under which it is not only defensible, but preferable for nongovernmental archives to claim custody of records documenting state-sponsored human rights abuses. The author posits that trust rather than inalienability is a more useful ethical lens through which to view custody disputes and argues that nongovernmental archives are often more trustworthy stewards of records documenting human rights abuses in societies still undergoing transitional justice. Finally, this paper concludes by both expanding provenance as it applies to records of human rights abuses to include survivors of abuse as key stakeholders and shifting the conceptual relationship between archives and survivors of human rights abuses from one of custodianship to one of stewardship.

The geographical and historical analysis of mass violence, such as genocide, has been limited by incomplete data sets. Accordingly, geographers and other social scientists have in recent years attempted to synthesize disparate sources of information in order to provide more robust analyses of the patterns and trends of mass violence. In this article we explore the limitations and opportunities of a unique data set associated with the Cambodian genocide (1975-1979). Specifically, we detail the development of a database using information from a security-center (S-21) associated with the Cambodian genocide (1975-1979). Our intent is to highlight both the challenges and benefits of data analysis in the context of genocide, thus contributing both to the epistemological issues associated with the rigorous analysis of inchoate data sources and also to our concrete knowledge of atrocities associated with Cambodia.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore the importance of classification structures to efforts at holding perpetrators of human rights abuses accountable using one archival repository in Cambodia as a case study.Design methodology approach - The primary methodology of this paper is a textual analysis of the Documentation Center of Cambodia's classification scheme, as well as a conceptual analysis using the theoretical framework originally posited by Bowker and Star and further developed by Harris and Duff. These analyses were supplemented by interviews with key participants.Findings - The Documentation Center of Cambodia's classification of Khmer Rouge records by ethnic identity has had a major impact on charging former officials of the regime with genocide in the ongoing human rights tribunal.Social implications - As this exploration of the DC-Cam database shows, archival description can be used as a tool to promote accountability in societies coming to terms with difficult histories.Originality value - This paper expands and revises Harris and Duff's definition of liberatory description to include Spivak's concept of strategic essentialism, arguing that archivists' classification choices have important ethical and legal consequences.

Describes how the Khmer Rouge documented the genocide they committed against their fellow Cambodians, with particular emphasis on the records created, used, and stored at the Tuol Sleng Incarceration Centre in Cambodia. Discusses the bureaucracy the Khmer Rouge created that supported their documentation activities and suggests some reasons why they documented their activities so extensively. Describes the disposition of their records and the uses to which they are now being put. Looks at the importance of the Tuol Sleng archives to the Cambodian people's and international community's pursuit of justice. (Original abstract - amended)

Sitting in the courtroom where the Cambodian government and the U.N. had successfully tried Khmer Rouge leaders Noun Chea, Khieu Samphan, and “Brother Duch,” I had to give the man I had criticized for decades his due. With the help of the Cambodian military and USAID, DC-Cam assembled just under 1,000 Cambodian government and military officials, international diplomats, human rights and international law experts, and students in the Khmer Rouge tribunal’s abandoned courtroom at a military base on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. Because the so-called “international community” had failed Cambodia, DC-Cam established its own de facto truth commission. Cambodia’s King Norodom Sihamoni, left, and Queen Mother Norodom Monineath pray on a chariot as some of the ashes of late former King Norodom Sihanouk are carried to the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, February 7, 2013.

Smith-Hefner reviews \"Voices from S-21: Terror and History in Pol Pot's Secret Prison\" by David Chandler.