In post-conflict politics, the practice of forgiveness is marked by a serious dilemma. For its proponents, forgiveness is the panacea for entrenched anger and resentment: negative emotions that left unchecked inspire revenge, hamper reconciliation and jeopardise peace. However, forgiveness can also provoke anger and resentment by heaping hurt upon hurt and injustice, perceived or otherwise, upon injustice. How, then, can victims and survivors of serious harms be afforded the opportunity to overcome the negative emotions in ways that do not provoke new grievances or renewed resentments?
Many post-conflict societies use truth commissions as outlets for victims to tell their stories and overcome their negative emotions. Yet, this is not the only solution to the forgiveness dilemma. An alternative approach, which takes the nature of the negative emotions themselves into account, is victim participation in human rights trials. This is what took place in Case 001 at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC).
ECCC trial case 001
In the late 1970s, the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia systematically murdered at least 1.7 million people and subjected countless others to various forms of torture. The first case heard before the ECCC was that of Kiang Guek Eav, alias Duch, head of the S-21 prison camp.
It is estimated that 17,000 individuals, including young children and babies, were imprisoned and killed at S-21 and its associated execution site. More than 30 years later, this would become the setting at which forgiveness became a notable theme of Duch’s trial.
Please click here to read the full “The Forgiveness Dilemma: Emotions and Justice at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal” article by Griffith University Asia Institute and School of Government and International Relations Professor, Renee Jeffery.
