The commodification of death: Working of the genocide museum and the killing fields in the reconciliation process in Cambodia

Abstract

     This research article focused on the reconciliation process after the great genocide in Cambodia during 1975–1979 when at least two million people were killed. The article’s questions are first, how has Cambodia selected the types of post-conflict management? And secondly, as the museum and killing fields are parts of the nation’s collective memory, how have both these places addressed and applied themselves to the reconciliation process? The author uses many sources such as books, journals, articles, and documentaries involved mainly about the Cambodian reconciliation. The result found that, although Cambodia has been in a transitional state for a long time, the problems were a limitation in the number of prosecutions, a refusal to participate in truth-seeking, and the victims’ ignorance of reparations. Cambodia commemorates the tragedy of the genocide through the museum and the killing fields; this paper, however, will show that both of these memorials have treated those who died in the genocide as commodities. This commoditization can be seen in the government’s role after the genocide, the fact that the meaning of the deaths became subordinate to the role of tourism, the licensing a foreign corporation to manage the tourism, and the preparation of other genocide sites for expanded tourism. These actions have converted the discussion and remembrance of the deaths as a means of seeking justice.