Skulls with blindfolds in a mass grave at Choeung Ek, Cambodia.
BY ANNA RIGGENBACH, ’08
PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE DOCUMENTATION
CENTER OF CAMBODIA
S
uch heartbreak and injustice are what many Cambodians experienced during the genocide in their country from 1975 to 1979, when two million people — 25 to 30 percent of the population — died under the Khmer Rouge regime.
The Khmer Rouge sought to construct a new order in Cambodia. Part of that effort involved manipulating the educational system to present the nation’s “history” in terms favorable to its cause. Dr. James Tyner, a professor in Kent State’s Department of Geography, is aware of three extant textbooks written by the Khmer Rouge for use in its new school system. One is a math textbook, and the other two are geography texts — one about physical geography and one on political geography. His work in acquiring the texts and having them translated is part of his research with the Cambodian Justice Project.
Dr. John West, Kent State vice president for research, provided funding for the Cambodian Justice Project. The translations will be a follow-up to Tyner’s book The Killing of Cambodia: Geography, Genocide and the Unmaking of Space, which was published in 2008. Gaining the textbooks and translations is just the beginning of the project for Tyner. He says he would also like to interview survivors from the genocide to get a better sense of how they might have used the texts.
"These textbooks are one more piece of evidence to bring those responsible to justice," Tyner says.
"The textbooks were used to justify ongoing atrocities and killings."
T
yner originally learned about the Cambodian textbooks through the Documentation Center of Cambodia, the primary archive for documents related to genocide in Cambodia. The site includes transcripts, interviews and photos. The center granted Tyner access to the books, and he found a genocide survivor in Boston to translate them.
Tyner says having a genocide survivor translate the
textbooks is important because the Khmer Rouge used language permeated with propaganda, slogans and jargon, which may not make sense to someone who had not experienced the events firsthand. Tyner needed someone familiar with and able to read past the propaganda.
Workers constructing a dam in Democratic Kampuchea, Cambodia.
Tools used for torture and murder at Tuol Sleng.
"It is remarkable that millions of people were suffering and dying, and the Khmer Rouge was producing these textbooks," Tyner says.
Tyner was captivated by Cambodia after his first trip in 2001 and has returned five times. During his initial visit, it was common to see demolished buildings and streets in disrepair, he says. In 2005, when he revisited Cambodia, the development on the surface was outstanding. The country seemed to be moving forward, but he wondered about the people.
"What is being remembered and learned from the genocide?" he asks. The younger generation doesn’t fully understand what happened, and some citizens are even denying that it took place. Tyner also wonders how the genocide is being taught in the schools there today.
One of the classes Tyner has taught at Kent State looks at control and regulation of space to discipline people — a tactic often seen in genocide and war. Looking at the space manipulation and Cambodia together was a convergence of interests for Tyner.
"It is remarkable to see how the society has responded in the aftermath of decades of genocide," he says.
Through work on the Cambodian Justice Project, Tyner would like to link Kent State scholars with Cambodian individuals and serve as a liaison to open doors to facilitate research in Cambodia.
Tyner also hopes that translating the Khmer Rouge textbooks will help him and other researchers better understand what the group was trying to accomplish.
"It is important to see the practices that led to the genocide and better understand their motivations to see similar processes around the world,” he says. “No one has been brought to justice yet in this genocide."
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