Chhorn Sok kneels down, incense in hand, to pray to the souls of the dead at Choeung Ek, the Khmer Rouge's notorious "Killing Field" just outside the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh.
Today, prosecutors will begin investigating surviving leaders of the brutal regime, and Chhorn Sok hopes his actions will help bring to justice those responsible for the genocide.
"Please can your souls help the court officials to have success in finding your killers so that you all can rest in peace," the 49-year-old says as he prays in front of a 17-story stupa filled with the skulls of the victims.
PHOTO: AFP
Seventeen Cambodian and 10 UN-appointed foreign jurists were sworn in on July 3, marking the beginning of a long-awaited tribunal that should see some former Khmer Rouge leaders tried by the middle of next year.
Up to 2 million people were executed or died of starvation and overwork between 1975 and 1979, when Pol Pot's genocidal Khmer Rouge attempted to impose an agrarian utopia, forcing millions into the countryside.
Pol Pot died in 1998. Surviving members of the regime -- including his top deputy Nuon Chea, former head of state Khieu Samphan and ex-foreign minister Ieng Sary -- are in their 70s and 80s, prompting fears that they too could die before facing justice.
"I am glad to hear that surviving Khmer Rouge leaders will be brought to trial soon. I have hope now. We have been waiting for this to start for so long," said Chhorn Sok, who works as a cleaner at Choeung Ek, where an estimated 9,000 people were executed by the ultra-Maoist regime.
"I have been living with pain," he said, gently dusting the skulls.
"My happiness and future would have been better, but now I am a disabled person," he said.
Chhorn Sok says that he lost his right hand after an encounter with Khmer Rouge soldiers in 1973. Ten of his close relatives were also killed during the regime's three-and-a-half year reign.
"We want to know the reasons for the killings and want justice to be rendered for the deaths and victims of the regime. This will compensate my pain and others' pain," he said.
Today, two prosecutors, one Cambodian and one foreign, will begin their investigations and will decide which former senior members of the regime should face trial.
Many believed the trials would never take place. Prime Minister Hun Sen, once a low-ranking Khmer Rouge member, was reluctant to commit resources to the tribunal and the government was blamed for trying to derail the proceedings.
But after six years of stumbling negotiations between the government and the UN, hopes are high in a country where the effects of Pol Pot's reign of torture, murder and starvation are felt every day.
"Finally they have responded to the wishes of the victims, and the victims realize that even though 27 years have passed, hope has materialized," said Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which has compiled evidence of atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge.
So far only two former regime leaders, Ta Mok and Kaing Khek Iev, known as Duch, have been jailed on genocide charges. Other former members including Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan and Ieng Sary live freely in Cambodia.
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