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PP RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM RUEHNH
DE RUEHPF #0058/01 0230948
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 230948Z JAN 09
FM AMEMBASSY PHNOM PENH
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RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA PRIORITY 2360
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RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 2360
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PHNOM PENH 000058 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/MLS, DRL, S/WCI 
USAID FOR ASIA BUREAU 
USUN FOR M. SIMONOFF 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV KJUS ABUD EAID PHUM PREL CB
SUBJECT: KHMER ROUGE TRIBUNAL: RESULTS OF PUBLIC PERCEPTION 
SURVEY 
 
¶1.  (SBU) SUMMARY:  A September 2008 survey of 1,000 adult 
Cambodians indicates that there is a general lack of 
knowledge about the Khmer Rouge Tribunal (KRT) among the 
Cambodian population, with 39 percent of surveyed respondents 
stating they had no knowledge of the KRT, and 46 percent 
stating they had limited knowledge.  Among respondents who 
had at least some knowledge of the court, 30 percent stated 
that they want the court to speed up the trials.  Two-thirds 
of these same knowledgeable respondents said they believed 
the court was neutral; however, 23 percent stated they 
believed the court was corrupt.  Overall, respondents who had 
lived under the Khmer Rouge regime were more likely to have 
knowledge of the court.  The survey was conducted by the 
University of California, Berkeley Human Rights Center's 
Initiative for Vulnerable Populations with funding from the 
Open Society Institute, Open Society Justice Initiative, and 
the German Development Service. END SUMMARY. 
 
Lack of Knowledge About the KRT 
------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (U) The Human Rights Center of the University of 
California, Berkeley released January 21 the findings of a 
September 2008 survey showing that 39 percent of survey 
respondents had no knowledge of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal 
(KRT), or Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia 
(ECCC) as it is officially known.  Forty-six percent of 
respondents said they had limited knowledge of the court. 
Respondents who did not live under the Khmer Rouge regime 
were more likely to report that they had no knowledge of the 
ECCC -- 50 percent of those who did not live under the Khmer 
Rouge reported no knowledge, compared to 34 percent of those 
who did live under the regime.  More than two-thirds of 
respondents (69 percent) reported that they had lived under 
the Khmer Rouge regime.  Of respondents who had heard about 
the ECCC during the past month before the survey, main 
sources of information regarding the ECCC were: radio (80 
percent), television (44 percent), family or friends (15 
percent), and newspapers (11 percent).  Three percent of 
respondents heard about the ECCC from posters or booklets, 
three percent from NGOs, and two percent from commune 
councilors. 
 
Perception That KRT Is Moving Slowly 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶3.  (U) Respondents who had at least some knowledge of the 
court (61 percent of those surveyed) were given the 
opportunity to make one recommendation regarding the ECCC. 
The recommendation of almost one third of respondents was 
that the ECCC speed up the trials -- approximately 34 percent 
of respondents who lived under the Khmer Rouge and 22 percent 
of respondents who did not live under the Khmer Rouge 
responded with this recommendation.  Approximately 22 percent 
of all respondents recommended that the trial be fair and 
independent.  Other recommendations elicited lower response 
rates:  about 11 percent recommended the ECCC punish those 
who committed atrocities during the regime; about eight 
percent recommended the court find justice; nearly four 
percent recommended the court establish the truth; and, less 
than two percent recommended the court forgive the regime's 
top leaders.  Approximately 24 percent either did not have 
recommendations, provided other recommendations, or responded 
that they "don't know." 
 
Survivors Better Understand the ECCC 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶4. (U) According to the survey, respondents who lived under 
the Khmer Rouge were more likely to provide correct responses 
to detailed questions about the ECCC than respondents who did 
not live under the Khmer Rouge regime.  One question was 
whether the ECCC was an international, national, or mixed 
system court with Cambodians and international judges and 
 
PHNOM PENH 00000058  002 OF 003 
 
 
staff -- 55 percent of respondents who lived under the Khmer 
Rouge provided the correct answer (mixed system) compared to 
49 percent of those who did not live under the regime.  Other 
questions were regarding the number and names of those 
awaiting trials. 
 
¶5. (SBU) The published survey report speculates that 
knowledge about the ECCC might be higher among Khmer Rouge 
survivors because survivors might be more interested in the 
court.  Poloff tapped respected court observers for their 
opinions.  Youk Chhang, Director of the Documentation Center 
of Cambodia (DC-Cam), added that the matter of the court is 
personal to Khmer Rouge victims.  Cambodia Defenders Project 
Director Sok Sam Oeun speculated that Khmer Rouge survivors 
know more about the court for similar reasons, stating that 
those who lived under the regime suffered and remember the 
suffering they experienced under the regime.  They therefore 
pay more attention to relevant information than those who did 
not live under the regime.  Youk Chhang also commented that 
he felt the difference in knowledge level had something to do 
with the fact that those who lived under the Khmer Rouge 
regime are older than Cambodians who did not live under the 
regime.  He stated that, "Young people don't know about 
history because they are simply young" and are generally more 
interested in shopping and movies.  However, he did add his 
belief that Cambodian young people know more about genocide 
history than in other places in the world because they live 
with it through their parents every day. 
 
Survey Sample 
------------- 
 
¶6.  (U) According to the survey publication, the study's 
1,000 respondents were randomly selected from the RGC 
Ministry of Planning's National Institute of Statistics 
Cambodia General Population Census village database.  All 
respondents were 18 years of age or older.  Researchers 
randomly selected 125 out of 1,621 communes using random 
sampling proportionate to population size, and included at 
least one commune from each province.  Next, two villages 
were randomly selected from each commune; then, within each 
village four households were randomly selected, and then one 
member from each household.  Fifty percent of respondents 
were female; average age was 39.8, and 56.9 percent of the 
respondents were age 36 or older.  Questions about ethnicity 
and religion show that 94.5 percent of respondents were 
Khmer, 2.1 percent were Cham, 1.0 percent were Vietnamese, 
0.4 percent were Chinese, and 2.0 percent were other; 94.5 
percent were Buddhist, 2.1 percent were Muslim, 1.0 percent 
Catholic, and 0.4 percent other religions consistent with 
demographic trends in Cambodia. 
 
Outreach Programs 
----------------- 
 
¶7.  (SBU) The ECCC public affairs office has developed 
booklets, posters, stickers, a website, and a newsletter to 
assist in its outreach and media relations.  Two Cambodian 
NGOs are known for their outreach work regarding the KRT. 
The DC-Cam Living Documents project brings Cambodians from 
all over the country to the ECCC and other relevant sites in 
Phnom Penh to educate the public about the Khmer Rouge era 
and the court.  The project is currently partly funded by DRL 
(USD 110,000 from April 2008 to June 2009), and also receives 
funding from the Government of Norway.  Other DC-Cam outreach 
and education activities are funded by the Open Society 
Institute, and the Governments of New Zealand, Germany, 
Belgium, and Denmark while the organization also receives 
endowment-based funding from USAID for its operations.  The 
Center for Social Development (CSD) has conducted a series of 
public forums on the court.  Many of the public forums have 
been filmed by Mekong Films, which produced a series of films 
about the court which have aired on Cambodian national 
television.  The CSD project was funded by the German 
 
PHNOM PENH 00000058  003 OF 003 
 
 
Development Service and Diakonia from Sweden.  The Mekong 
Films project was in coordination with the East-West Center, 
the University of California, Berkeley, and the ECCC, and 
received funding from the UK.  The survey publication also 
notes that the Cambodian NGO ADHOC provides information on 
the KRT at the district level to officials and ordinary 
civilians.  Also, the Khmer Institute of Democracy has a 
program to train citizen advisors who inform community 
members about the court. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶8.  (SBU) While future funding for NGOs to conduct ECCC 
outreach activities such as public forums and tours of the 
ECCC may be well spent, the University of California, 
Berkeley survey indicates that standard media outlets such as 
radio, television and newspapers have so far provided more 
Cambodians with knowledge of the ECCC.  What media cannot 
provide for Cambodians is a sense of participation or greater 
buy-in of the process through opportunities to ask questions 
and discuss personal accounts.  This level of buy-in among 
more Cambodian citizens could help the court overcome 
negative perceptions.  We were reminded by one court observer 
that successful public outreach to date has been able to 
address the court's factual presentation of the case ("who 
did what") but has not fully addressed the truth and 
reconciliation aspects of the Khmer Rouge era ("why did they 
do it and how can victims come to grips with their past?"). 
Despite ongoing allegations of kickbacks paid by Cambodian 
court staff, a small set (three percent) of all respondents 
thought the ECCC was corrupt, compared to nearly 26 percent 
who judged that "normal" Cambodian courts were untrustworthy. 
 Post will provide a copy of the survey to the Desk. 
RODLEY