Confronting the ghosts of Cambodia’s past
Rob Hamill, the brother of the New Zealander tortured and killed by Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge government says now the overseer of the prison where his brother died has been convicted and sentenced for crimes against humanity, he has just one unfinished task – to find out what happened to Kerry Hamill’s body.
Hamill says it is still a mystery as to what happened to his brother’s body after he was killed following two months of being tortured at the notorious Tuol Sleng prison. “There is evidence to suggest that my brother’s body was burned. If that were the case then finding the site of that scene is also part of my search.”
The man in charge of Tuol Sleng prison, Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, was found guilty in July by the Extraordinary Chamber of the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) of ordering the deaths of 21,000 people during the four-year Khmer Rouge regime from 1975-79. He has been sentenced to 35 years’ jail.
The ECCC process is a significant one for Cambodia because it is an attempt to reconcile the country with its tragic past by attempting to bring to justice some of the key perpetrators of a genocide that condemned up to 2.5 million Cambodians to death by execution, torture, starvation or slave labour.
Millions of Cambodians were also forced to flee the regime as refugees. The man most responsible, Pol Pot, died in a jungle Khmer Rouge stronghold in 1998.
Rob Hamill’s brother Kerry was taken prisoner in 1978 when the yacht he was sailing entered Cambodian waters. He was imprisoned in Tuol Sleng prison with two of his crewmates, Canadian Stuart Glass and Briton John Dewhirst, who were also killed at the jail.
Mr Hamill travelled to Cambodia in July 2009 to testify at Duch’s trial and he returned to Phnom Penh this month for the sentencing. He says he owed it to his brother’s memory to carry out three tasks: to deliver a victim impact statement at the trial in person, to make a documentary about Kerry’s fate, and lastly, to find out what happened to Kerry’s body.
“Sadly I have yet to complete the third objective.” But, he says, the film called Brother Number One, produced by Pan Pacific Films, is almost complete and scheduled for cinematic release in early 2011. “I wish to thank the Asia New Zealand Foundation for assisting with costs towards our trip to Cambodia. This kind of project simply would not happen if it were not for organisations such as this one.”
He said a visit to the Choeung Ek Killing Field and Tuol Sleng prison were two of the more sobering and moving parts of last year’s journey. His appearance at the ECCC also generated a great deal of publicity in New Zealand about the truth and reconciliation process that is underway in Cambodia.
It included a TV One News story of a visit he made to a Cambodian school to distribute the first ever textbook explaining the history of what happened in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge leadership - click here for video.
“Up until now no written history of that period existed in the school curriculum. Most of the children attending the school have relied on older siblings or parents or guardians to impart this knowledge but naturally families have avoided raising the painful topic. Inevitably most children know little about those times,” Rob Hamill said.
He hopes the documentary will “help educate New Zealanders and others around the world as to what happened to the people of Cambodia during those terrible times in the hope that through understanding how it happened we can stop it happening again. I will also continue the search for my brother”.
Information about the Brother Number One documentary is available on this website. Rob Hamill travelled to Cambodia with assistance from Asia:NZ’s media programme.
