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All pieces were art-directed and designed by YoukChhang, and published by DC-Cam, unless otiierwisespecified.

Spreads from Search ing for tbe Truth magazine.Designers: Youk Chbang, Sophcak Sim.Above: Issue no. 55, July 2004. A room at the SiemReap Genocide Memorial.

Opposite: Issue no. 54, June Z004. Photograph of anunidentified prisoner of S-21, the Khmer Rougefacility also known as Tuol Sleng, where thousands ofCambodians were tortured and murdered. Many ofthe prisoners at S-21 were themselves IiR cadres whowere arrested, brutally interrogated, and executed.This photograph was printed in the hopes of findingthe man's relatives.

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,«>**'«•". A CAMBODIAN DESIGNER ATTEMPTS TO MAKEPEACE WITH THE PAST BY ARCHIVINGTHE HORRORS OE THE KHMER ROUGE YEARS.

By Edward Lovett

nciliationIn the late 1970s, Youk Chhang was living,as all Cambodians were, in the KhmerRouge's idea of Maoist agrarian Utopia. Inreality, his home was a slave labor camp rid-dled with famine and disease, ruled by anoppressive regime that was simultaneouslyparanoid, brutal, and inept. The prisoners inthe camp were forced to work the fields allday, every day. They were also criticallyunderfed, and they risked their lives to gath-er more food, often for loved ones.

One day, Youk Chhang's sister was accusedof stealing riee. "The Khmer Rouge wantedproof," Chhang has recalled in an interviewwith the Phnom Penh Post, "so they cut heropen with a knife to see if the rice was in herstomach." She died.

This is just one story among millions, andit's impossible to muster a response thatcould hope to grapple with this singular hor-ror. Youk Chhang understands this, but healso knows that silence is an ignoble cop-outin the face of past calamity.

Chhang is now director ofthe Documen-tation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam), a non-governmental Cambodian organization that

archives the history of the Khmer Rougeyears. Since the victims cannot speak forthemselves, Chhang has sought to unearth(often literally) and document a history thatwould otherwise remain unktiown.

In overseeing the design and production ofDC-Cam's publications, Chhang is also agraphic designer. But the content he presentsis categorically different ftom that of mostdesigners. Chhang contends with thedifficult, sometimes banal, and often heart-breaking question of how to present infor-mation about genocide. His life and work aretetnindcrs that design can be profoundlymoving and redemptive.

Chhang was 14 when the Khtner Rougetook power in 1975, renaming Cambodia asDemocratic Kampuchea. After the KR fell in1979, Chhang came to the U.S., where hebecame a community outreach representativefor a crime prevention program affiliatedwith the Dallas police. He studied politicalscience at the University of Dallas, and even-tually returned to his homeland in 1992 as anelectoral officer for the United NationsTransitional Authority in Cambodia. Chhang

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Two books published byDC-Cam.

Left side: Cover ofTbeLady in Black, a translationofVoiccsfrom S-2i, a bookby David Chandler aboutthe S-zt prison and thebroader moral andphilosophicalimplications oftheCambodiangcnocide.The photograph shows aKhmer Rouge membernamed Hong Kun. Afterher arrest in October1976, she was torturedand executed.TranslatorBo uso u Sour.

Right side: Cover ofOiikoiibab, a book by YsaOsman about thegenoeide of Muslimsfrom the Cham ethnicgroup. (The title is theArabic word for "justice"used in the Quran.) Thephotograph shows ayoung Cham Muslimboy currently livingin Cambodia.Photographer: YoukChhang.

decided to use his education and experienceto help his native country. His inclination todocument the KR atrocities was strengthenedby the doubt that foreignets showed when hetold them stories of life during the KhmerRouge era; they were skeptical even when hetold them how his sister was killed. "Peoplecould not believe it," he said in the Post inter-view. "It made me angry, because this type ofthing happened to all of us. I wanted peopleto accept the truth, but it was very difficult.I had to do research so people could seethe facts."

Since its founding in January 1995,DC-Cam, based in the capital city of PhnomPenh, has produced the facts. The organiza-tion was started as the Cambodian base ofYale University's Cambodian GenocideProgram, which received funding from theU.S. State Department in 1994. By now, every-one knows that something horrific occurrednot so long ago in Cambodia: The phrases" Khmer Rouge" and "killing fields" havebecome part ofthe lexicon of 20th-centurymalevolence. DC-Cam's core mission is to dothe laborious and painful work necessary to

detail what these phrases stand for, toaccount for what actually happened.

The organization's 45 full-time Cambo-dian employees gather materials and histo-ries in many forms—KR records and photo-graphs, survivor accounts, interviews withformer KR cadres—^that document the yearsofthe regime's existence. They find, map,and exhume mass graves all over the country(last count, as of December: 19,541). Theyorganize these data geographically, chrono-logically, and thematically. This accurate,thorough hody of information ensures thatCambodia's history will not be lost. And sincethe United Nations and the Cambodian gov-ernment recently agreed, after long and con-tentious negotiations, to hold a tribunal toprosecute surviving Khmer Rouge leaders fotgenocide and crimes against humanity, theDC-Cam material will be the evidence usedby both prosecution and defense. If the tri-bunal is derailed, the work of DC-Cam will atleast be able to serve as what Chhang calls a"surrogate truth commission."

The organization disseminates its findingsin various forms: print publications, photog-

raphy exhibitions, films, and radio program-ming. The printed output is particularlyrobust and is the most visible face of DC-Cam. A magazine, Searchingfor the Truth, is

published monthly in Khmer and distrib-uted at little or no cost throughout the coun-try. (There is a quarterly edition in English.)The magazine is a forum for research aboutthe Khmer Rouge regime and presents legalissues related to prosecuting the survivingKR leaders. DC-Cam also releases booksabout different aspects ofthe KR history—one recent project examined the persecutionof a certain group within Cambodia'sMuslim minority—and publishes Khmertranslations of genocide-related texts such asThe Diary of Anne Frank.

Youk Chhang designs ali of this—in addi-tion to writing, editing, managing the staff,talking to the press, and raising money. Hedesigns with several key principles in mind.DC-Cam's publications must convey credibil-ity and political neutrality, and they mustcommunicate a respect for the dead andtheir survivors.

The resulting esthetic is understated and

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Covers oi Searching for theTruth.

Left: Issue no. 56, August2004. Contemporaryphotograph of NounHong, a former S-21prison guard who joinedthe Khmer Rouge in 1972.Photographer: HengSinith.Center: Issue no. S4. June2004. Photograph of aprisoner named Kim Bol.Right: Issue no. ss, July2004. Photo shows agroup from the SvayRieng provincecommemorating theannual Day of Hatred(May 20}, a day devoted torememhering the crimesofthe Khmer Rouge.

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reverent. Chhang uses a niinhnal color selec-tion of black, white, gray, and red. The pre-dominant black—reminiscent of the clothesthat were the national uniform during theKR years—conveys a mournful tone as wellas a seriousness of purpose. The red alludes

DC-Cam's publicationsmust convey credibilityand political neutrality, andthey must communicate arespect for the dead andtheir survivors.

to the blood spilled by the KR and the bloodties that unite the Cambodian people; it alsohints at the red-checked krama, a scarf wornby many KR leaders and cadres. The overallcolor palette underscores the frequent use ofthe KR's own black-and-white photographsof its victims, one example of the regime'sobsessive self-documentation.

The design may be allusive, but it alsolooks good: simple, modern, elegant, on parwith the standards of a scholarly production.In Cambodia, this is an anomaly. Due in large

part to the decimation of the professionalclasses by the KR (who reviled them as "bour-geois capitalists"), Cambodian design andprint production are generally dismal, whichmakes the high quality of DC-Cam's publica-tions all the more necessary and effective.Even so, Chhang insists he designs DC-Cam'spublications "from the heart without think-ing about the look. It is an expression fromthe heart."

The immense importance of Chhang'swork to Cambodia's future—by way of itspast—makes it politically volatile.Cambodia's contemporary culture is one ofviolence and impunity, and Chhang's life isconstantly in danger. Because of this, there isno sign outside the large white house inPhnom Penh where the center is housed.

When I visited DC-Cam last year, Chhangmet me with a smile and a firm handshake.He thinks and moves with the alacrity of onewho is gifted and purposeful. Cambodiansare terrific and prodigious smilers. Chhang isno exception, but when he's not smiling, hisface betrays a touch of sorrow and the weightof his task. Neither the Cambodian govern-

ment nor the United Nations had set up aformal entity to do what Chhang is doing,and it's far from certain that the KhmerRouge holocaust would have been docu-mented otherwise.

Cambodia's prime minister, Hun Sen, hassuggested that the nation should "dig a holeand bury the past." Maybe so. This would besimpler, easier, and arguably less threateningto its stability. After all, no one wants to seethe country start to fall apart again.

Yet most survivors ofthe Khmer Rougeyears want resolution, justice, and healing.They want to know why some Khmers killedtwo million of their brothers and sisters. Thequestion is unanswerable, but Youk Chhangis defying the silence with an accounting ofjust what happened.

When I came across the Bertolt Brecht quo-tation, "Pity the land in need of heroes," Ithought of Chhang. For Cambodia and forthose of us abroad who are charmed by anddevoted to the country, he is nothing short ofa miracle. O

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